Hi all, I’m wondering if anyone in this forum might be interested in participating in a reading challenge, like the reading challenges that exist in some of the other discussion groups: contemporary fiction, classics, historical fiction, mysteries, etc.

I’m proposing a World Lit Mini Challenge for 2012 with the theme: Around the World

Below is a draft of the challenge – am open to any and all suggestions from you!

Africa, the Americas, Antarctica, Asia, Australia together with Oceania, and Europe are considered to be Continents. This challenge will take you around the world to at least 5 continents. Bonus point for hitting all continents.  To complete the mini-challenge, read 6 of the 7 categories. Obviously you don’t have to read a work in English but English translation is ok for this challenge.

Land of the Midnight Sun: a work whose author lives in a country (other the U.S) with borders north of the Arctic Circle

South of the border: a work by an author in a country south of the U.S. border

Europa: read a work by a European author

Asia: read a work by an Asian author

Walkabout: read a work by an Australian author

African exploration: read a work by an African author

Tour guide: read a travel/exploration work

Is there any interest in doing this? Am open to changing/augmenting the proposed challenge!

Janet 

I like it!

Might be interested depending on how many other challenges I sign up for! 

Does the setting of the book have to match the author's continent?  (In other words the Australian author's book has to be set in Australia?)

Diane

Diane, in answer to:

Does the setting of the book have to match the author's continent?  (In other words the Australian author's book has to be set in Australia?)

I would say the answer is "no" the setting doesn't have to match the author's continent.  It really can't match the continent in the case of Antarctica, which has no one living there (but it has scientific research stations ) so any book about  Antarctica would by necessity be written by someone not from there. And there are Australian writers who've written about settings outside of Australia.

Hope this is clear.

J

Yes, I have an interest.

Mary

I am interested.

Thanks,

Valerie

This looks like fun! I'm in. :)

I'll do it. Sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

Has anyone started a book for this challenge yet?  I had crossed off Australia on my list but found a book by an Australian author that looked really good.  It's The Spare Room, by Helen Garner, and I started it this morning.

Diane

Diane, I read one book for this challenge already It was The Room by Emma Donoghue, a Canadian author (fulfilling The Land of the Midnight Sun requirement). Can you tell me a little bit about The Spare Room by Helen Garner? I will look it up but I'd like to hear what you think. I don't have an Australian book on my list of "to be reads" yet.

Thanks!

Lynne

Lynne, I finished The Spare Room and liked it--it was not a very long book, very spare writing, a lot packed into a few sentences.  It's about a woman who lets her long time friend come and stay with her while the friend undergoes experimental cancer treatment.

I would read more from this author.

Diane

I finished Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida, set in Lapland, for the "north of the Arctic circle" category.  Although I really enjoyed the location, and the story had potential, I didn't like the main character--so have to say this book was just okay overall.  It was about a woman who goes to Finland to find her biological father.

I also decided to move a Deon Meyers book from the mystery challenge to this one to fulfill the Africa category.

Diane

Thank you for this challenge. I've never done a challenge before, but would like to try this one. It will encourage me to expand my horizons in several ways.

I'm going to add an additional requirement for myself, since I'm a language teacher: I need to read my south-of-the-border book in Spanish, and my European book in German. All those years of study of both those languages, and I much too rarely read them.

Diane's comment implies that a book can't be used to fuflill two challenges simultaneously, but there's a post in the "list only" thread in which someone indicates that they're using books in more than one challenge. Is there an accepted way to deal with this, or is it personal preference, or set as part of the terms of a particular challenge? (Not that I'm in another challenge - yet! - but I'm curious.)

I just finished my Europa category book, A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark.  Set in 1950's London, it's about an editor who lives ina boarding house and what goes on in her life and the other residents.  it's very typical of her books, I really like her writing.  I've only read a couple of other books by her and it's time for me to order a few more.

Janet, the first post in this thread says the challenge consists of reading 6 books but the first post in the List thread says 5 -- which is the final number?

Elizabeth, the rules for each challenge is set by the person who coordinates it, and usually if they are going to say a book should only count once, they would be saying it should only count once within that specific challenge.  (For example, in this challenge you wouldn't use the same book for a continent and for the travelogue, for example.)  As far as from challenge to challenge, that's entirely up to the person doing the reading--my own personal rule is that I don't use a book for more than one challenge, since I keep track of them in my signature by number--if my personal challenges add up to 73, which mine do, then I'll be reading 73 books.  But, you can make any rule for yourself that you want--in fact, I think it would be fun to see how many books you could make fit more than one challenge--that would be a challenge all its own.

Diane

Hi Diane, so sorry for this confusion. I suppose I should have started a separate thread for discussion, but this thread kinda morphed into the discussion area.

In answer to your question above

Janet, the first post in this thread says the challenge consists of reading 6 books but the first post in the List thread says 5 -- which is the final number?

The final number is 5 -- i.e., read five of the 7 categories to complete the mini - challenge

 Give yourself a bonus point for hitting all continents. Your choices may be from contemporary or classic realms,  fiction or non-fiction.

Best,

Janet

Okay Janet, thanks--then I guess I'm done!

Diane

Hey there, Diane, congratulations for completing the mini-challenge!  Who knows, maybe you can parley one or two reading choices from your other challenges to go for the bonus of hitting every continent!

I feel like I've been slow to start on this mini-challenge, but I'll get there, eventually! (travelling on a slow boat, so to speak...)

cheers,

J