Monday, December 28, 2020

European Reading Challenge 2020 Wrapup

 


Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts a challenge to visit European countries by reading books set in them; this is one of the funnest challenges going as far as I'm concerned. My evidence this is true? It's the one I go the most over the top with and this year has been no different. And it was the only form of travel possible for most of this year.

The Deluxe tour is five countries. I visited a few more than that...

1.) Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. (UK)
2.) Henry James' The American. (France)
3.) Joan B. Flood's Left Unsaid. (Ireland)
4.) Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. (Spain)
5.) Arthur Schnitzler's Late Fame. (Austria)
6.) Nino Haratischvili's The Eighth Life (For Brilka). (Georgia)
7.) Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (Czech Republic)
8.) Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. (Norway)
9.) I. B. Singer's In My Father's Court. (Poland)
10.) Henrik Pontoppidan's Lucky Per. (Denmark)
11.) Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. (Russia)
12.) Anna Seghers' Transit. (Germany)
13.) Amelie Nothomb's Life Form. (Belgium)
14.) Matei Calinescu's Zacharias Lichter. (Romania)
15.) Susan Sontag's The Volcano Lover. (Italy)

My favorite countries this year were Russia, Denmark, and France.

This was my third year taking part. No surprise, I guess, that I visited the UK, France, Germany, and Italy all three years. A little more surprising was that I got to Poland and Austria each year. (Well, Austria is not that surprising. I'm a big Vienna-ophile...) The real surprise was I've been to Romania all three years. Maybe it's a sign I need to go in person? 

Thanks to Gilion for hosting! The signup for the new year is available. I need to do it!

10 comments:

  1. this sounds like a lot of fun; maybe i'll... well, we'll see what it looks like in Jan...

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    1. You should! I especially enjoy thinking about the less visited countries.

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  2. Great list of books! The first two, the ones by Woolf and James, are two of my favorites. :D

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    1. Thanks. Woolf and James are generally pretty great, and that was a particularly good Henry James, I thought.

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  3. Thanks for completing the challenge and posting your wrap up post! Although you didn't win the Jet Setter Prize, you got an Honorable Mention for visiting more than 10 countries. See the winner announcement post here: https://www.rosecityreader.com/2021/02/announcing-2020-european-reading.html

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  4. Cool list! There's more than a few of these I need to explore. Thanks for the suggestions!
    Keep up the great work! Nicely done!!

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  5. Romania is not an easy one! Well done!

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    1. I've got at least one unread Romania book around here still...

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