This week is Armchair Book Expo, and the discussion topic for today is on diversity in books. I thought this would be a perfect time to post about a personal challenge I've created for myself to read more diversely: Around the World in Books!
If you follow my Sunday Snapshots, you know that this year I spontaneously started keeping track of the nationality of the authors I read. Since I've been keeping it up, I decided: why not challenge myself to read at least one book written by someone from every country on earth? This is the masterpost for my Around the World in Books Challenge; feel free to join in if you like!
FAQs:
- How many countries are there? Seems like a straightforward question, but like most straightforward questions, the answer isn't as simple as you'd expect. The UN recognizes 193 countries. There are two countries not represented in the UN, namely Vatican City and Palestine. There are also countries not universally recognized as self-governing, for example Taiwan, which is considered part of China by the US. For this challenge, I am including Palestine and Taiwan as countries but not Vatican City, since no one is "from" Vatican City, if that makes sense. So the total number of countries in my challenge will be 195.
- Do people with multiple citizenships or books with multiple authors count for multiple countries? I want to finish this sometime before I die, so yes.
- What about someone from a place that's no longer a country or was a different country when they lived there? (E.g., countries formerly part of the Soviet Union) Hm, I'm not sure. This is getting into politically murky waters. I think for now I'll just approach that on a case-by-case basis.
- What if new countries are created or countries disappear? If that happens before I finish this challenge, I will update the list.
- What's the start date for the challenge? The start date is when I started tracking countries read: January 1st, 2017
And now for the list. 15 down, only 180 to go!
Read Countries (by number of books read):
United States of America (27)
United Kingdom (11)
Japan (6)
New Zealand (3)
Israel (2)
Canada (1)
South Africa (1)
South Korea (1)
Australia (1)
Denmark (1)
India (1)
Malaysia (1)
Palestine (1)
Belgium (1)
Taiwan (1)
Unread Countries (alphabetically):
List of countries in the world provided by the US Department of State.
A
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan
B
Bahamas, The
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burma
Burundi
C
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cabo Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the
Costa Rica
Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Curacao
Cyprus
Czechia
D
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
E
East Timor (see Timor-Leste)
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
F
Fiji
Finland
France
G
Gabon
Gambia, The
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
H
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
I
Iceland
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Italy
J
Jamaica
Jordan
K
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, North
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
L
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
M
Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
N
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway
O
Oman
P
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Q
Qatar
R
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
S
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
T
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
U
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
V
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Y
Yemen
Z
Zambia
Zimbabwe
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