Global Reading Challenge

Inspired by ab_reads on Instagram, I have decided to give myself the challenge of reading one book from every country in the world!

To compile my list (below), I first hunted down a list of all the countries in the world. I found this one here, which I have used. I cannot vouch for its accuracy, because I am not a geographer, so if you see any glaring errors/oversights, please let me know in the comments below! I have then selected 52 to be getting started with (in bold), so I eventually have one for every week of a year, so a full year travelling the world (in book form)! This are purely based on where I know I have already read books from or where interests me in the world. I have tried to select at least one country from every continent, but again, let me know if I’ve missed any. I have then filled in all of the books I have already read (with the year in which I read it) and then put some suggested books for the countries I haven’t read from, based off of my goodreads to-read list and this blogpost. This is a work in progress and will be updated periodically, so please let me know if you have any suggestions!

As I am a Arabic and French to English translator, I have indicated whether I read the book in French or Arabic and which language it was translated from (if it was indeed translated). Unless otherwise indicated, I read the books in the original English.

NB: Most of the books I have chosen were written by an author from that country. Occasionally, I have chosen a book about that country, with an author from another country (indicated by an asterix).

1. Afghanistan – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. Andorra
5. Angola
6. Antigua and Barbuda
7. Argentina
8. Armenia
9. Australia – The Secret River by Kate Grenville
10. Austria
11. Azerbaijan
12. Bahamas
13. Bahrain
14. Bangladesh
15. Barbados
16. Belarus
17. Belgium
18. Belize
19. Benin
20. Bhutan
21. Bolivia
22. Bosnia and Herzegovina
23. Botswana
24. Brazil
25. Brunei
26. Bulgaria
27. Burkina Faso
28. Burundi
29. Côte d’Ivoire
30. Cabo Verde
31. Cambodia
32. Cameroon
33. Canada – Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (READ 2019 [and probably earlier when I was a child]). I reread this as an adult when the Netflix series ‘Anne with an E’ came out and was delighted to discover it was set in Canada (after I spend a month in Canada last year!)
34. Central African Republic
35. Chad
36. Chile
37. China
38. Colombia – Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (READ 2019)
39. Comoros
40. Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)
41. Costa Rica
42. Croatia
43. Cuba
44. Cyprus
45. Czechia (Czech Republic) – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Translated from Czech by Michael Henry Heim.
46. Democratic Republic of the Congo
47. Denmark
48. Djibouti
49. Dominica
50. Dominican Republic
51. Ecuador
52. Egypt – An Egyptian Childhood by Taha Hussein (READ 2015)
53. El Salvador
54. Equatorial Guinea
55. Eritrea
56. Estonia
57. Eswatini (fmr. “Swaziland”)
58. Ethiopia
59. Fiji
60. Finland
61. France – Histoire d’O [The Story of O] by Pauline Réage (READ 2015)
62. Gabon
63. Gambia
64. Georgia
65. Germany – An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján.Translated from German by Anthea Bell.
66. Ghana – Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
67. Greece
68. Grenada
69. Guatemala
70. Guinea
71. Guinea-Bissau
72. Guyana
73. Haiti
74. Holy See
75. Honduras
76. Holland
77. Hungary
78. Iceland
79. India – A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
80. Indonesia
81. Iran – Nina is Not OK by Shappi Khorsandi
82. Iraq
83. Ireland – Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín (READ 2017)
84. Israel
85. Italy
86. Jamaica
87. Japan – Convenience Store Woman: A Novel by Sayaka Murata (translated from Japaense by Ginny Tapley Takemori) (READ 2020) I read this as it is the second book club pick for the Global Reads Book Club, created by Eve Lindemuth Bodeux.
88. Jordan
89. Kazakhstan
90. Kenya – Out of Africa by Karen Blixen*
91. Kiribati
92. Kuwait
93. Kyrgyzstan
94. Laos
95. Latvia
96. Lebanon
97. Lesotho
98. Liberia
99. Libya
100. Liechtenstein
101. Lithuania
102. Luxembourg
103. Madagascar
104. Malawi
105. Malaysia
106. Maldives
107. Mali
108. Malta
109. Marshall Islands
110. Mauritania
111. Mauritius
112. Mexico
113. Micronesia
114. Moldova
115. Monaco
116. Mongolia
117. Montenegro
118. Morocco – L’Armée du Salut [The Salvation Army] by Abdellah Taïa (READ 2016). French. I chose this for a piece of coursework for my masters.
119. Mozambique
120. Myanmar (formerly Burma)
121. Namibia
122. Nauru
123. Nepal
124. Netherlands – The Happy Housewife by Heleen van Royen (READ 2014) Translated from Dutch.
125. New Zealand
126. Nicaragua
127. Niger
128. Nigeria – We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (READ 2016)
129. North Korea – Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden*
130. North Macedonia
131. Norway – The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (READ 2014, although again I’m sure I read it as a child) Translated from Norwegian.
132. Oman
133. Pakistan – I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
134. Palau
135. Palestine State
136. Panama
137. Papua New Guinea
138. Paraguay
139. Peru – Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa
140. Philippines
141. Poland
142. Portugal
143. Qatar
144. Romania
145. Russia – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Translated from Russian.
146. Rwanda – The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya
147. Saint Kitts and Nevis
148. Saint Lucia
149. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
150. Samoa
151. San Marino
152. Sao Tome and Principe
153. Saudi Arabia – Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
154. Senegal – De purs hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. French.
155. Serbia
156. Seychelles
157. Sierra Leone
158. Singapore
159. Slovakia
160. Slovenia
161. Solomon Islands
162. Somalia
163. South Africa – Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (READ 2013)
164. South Korea – Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin. Translated from Korean by Chin-young Kim
165. South Sudan
166. Spain – Yerma by Federico García Lorca (READ 2018). Translated from Spanish.
167. Sri Lanka
168. Sudan
169. Suriname
170. Sweden – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Translated from Swedish.
171. Switzerland – The Nomad by Isabelle Eberhardt. French.
172. Syria – Sahra ma’a Abi Khalil al-Qabbani [An Evening with Abu Khalil al-Qabbani] by Sa’adullah Wannous (READ 2017) Arabic. I read this for my BA dissertation.
173. Tajikistan
174. Tanzania
175. Thailand
176. Timor-Leste
177. Togo
178. Tonga
179. Trinidad and Tobago
180. Tunisia
181. Turkey – Snow by Orhan Pamuk
182. Turkmenistan
183. Tuvalu
184. Uganda
185. Ukraine
186. United Arab Emirates
187. United Kingdom – Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (READ 2012) – Being British, I have read many books from the U.K., so I thought I’d pick my favourite.
188. United States of America – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. (READ 2018) I actually wrote a study guide on this.
189. Uruguay
190. Uzbekistan
191. Vanuatu
192. Venezuela
193. Vietnam
194. Yemen
195. Zambia
196. Zimbabwe

READ: 14/52 – 27%
READ: 14/196 – 0.07%