This week's Weekly Geeks asks you to tell us about your globe trotting via books. Are you a global reader? How many countries have you "visited" in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven't yet?
Use your own criteria about what you consider to be "visiting" -- whether a book is written about the country or by a native or resident of the country.
For fun, create one of these maps at this website ticking off the countries you've read books from - you might be surprised how many (or how few!) countries you've read. Include the map in your blog post if you're so inclined.
Feel free to tell us about any actual world traveling you've done in addition to your literary travels.
I'm sticking to global-trotting via the medium of books in this post, restricted to the last seven months. I don't think I can recall all the books I've read, based in different destinations, but, this year, I have been trying out a self-imposed 12 Country Challenge, where I try and read books from twelve different authors belonging to twelve different countries. I'm almost done with this; have one more book to go.
I am not including books from United States of America and United Kingdom, due to the sheer volume of them. However, am including some of the countries the books were based in.
Europe
- Denmark {Anne Holm - I Am David}
- Germany {Bernhard Schlink - Homecoming}
- Hungary {Gyorgy Dragoman - The White King}
- France {Patricia Duncker - Hallucinating Foucault}
- Spain {Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow Of The Wind}
- Czech Republic {Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter & Forgetting}
- Ireland {Sebastian Barry - The Secret Scripture}
- Ireland {Anne Enright - The Gathering}
Middle East
- Turkey {Orhan Pamuk - The White King}
Africa
Asia
- Japan {Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood}
- Japan {David Mitchell - Number9Dream}
- India {Rohinton Mistry - Such A Long Journey}
- India {Vikas Swarup - Q&A}
- India {Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children}
- Pakistan {Mohsin Hamid - Moth Smoke}
South America
As for books I'd like to read - well, some Brazilian/Argentinean literature would be nice. Also, books based in China/Hong Kong. Don't think I've read anything based in those countries, which is a pity.
How about you? Do you enjoy globe-trotting as well?
And, I have one more book for this challenge left. Any recommendations?