Around the World in 80 Books discussion

I realize that reading and book groups are an escape from the reality of what is happening in the world today. I also realize that this affects all members of this group at every corner of the globe, and some of us have little outlet for conversation due to isolation from our friends and families.

Use this thread to share your experiences if you choose.

I live in metro-Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. Things are definitely taking a turn for the worse here, and probably will continue to do so as we are already experiencing shortages and overload in our medical facilities and still have not been locked down state-wide. We have had over 1,200 confirmed cases and 40 deaths at this point. There are around 400 people hospitalized with the virus. Our situation is probably much worse than the data indicates since we have only done 6,000 tests in a state with over 10 billion people.

Thank you Diane - this is a kind thought.

I'm in Toronto and we have strict controls since March 17, but even stricter starting last night. Most people are following the rules, at least in our neighbourhood. Essential places are still open. The schools, libraries, day cares, community centres, etc have been closed since March 14.

Diane, I live about 2 hours away from you in Augusta. The response here, where we have a medical school(!), has been all over the place. The mayor issued an executive order shutting down all non-essential businesses starting this past Saturday, but I don't know if it's being strictly enforced. For example, I drove by 2nd and Charles and it looked like they were open! As much of a bookworm as I am, I don't think they need to be open and running the risk of touching an infected book surface. Some people are taking it seriously and some think it's an overreaction.

I live in a suburb of London, UK. The rules keep getting stricter, so currently I can go out, once a day maximum, for essential food shopping, for exercise, or medical reasons. If I go out I have to go alone & am not allowed to meet a friend to exercise together. Only people living in the same home can go out together. “Gatherings” of more than 2 people are forbidden. It’s the most isolating experience & very scary. You probably know that we Londoners are notorious for not talking to strangers - but at the moment there are so few people out that we call a greeting across the road as we pass someone, relieved to actually see another person. Food shops & chemists are open, but most others have been ordered to close. Some people have been treating it as an extended holiday, but television reports showing the army delivering equipment to hospitals & a temporary hospital being set up in Docklands (to take thousands of patients if necessary) is finally making people take more notice.

Aspasia wrote: "Diane, I live about 2 hours away from you in Augusta. The response here, where we have a medical school(!), has been all over the place. The mayor issued an executive order shutting down all non-es..."

Certain higher-ups need to be more proactive. Today the governor said he is still deciding on whether or not to reopen schools next week. Does he not see what is happening in our state. 7 more people died since my last post, too.

Also, I don't think it has been made clear as to what businesses are essential or nonessential. More guidance would be helpful. As important as I think books are, 2nd and Charles shouldn't be one of those businesses.

Trisha wrote: "I live in a suburb of London, UK. The rules keep getting stricter, so currently I can go out, once a day maximum, for essential food shopping, for exercise, or medical reasons. If I go out I have t..."

Lockdowns aren't fun, but hopefully this will slow the rate of infection and save lives. I wish we were on lockdown here. I have been in my own private lockdown for a few days since I have asthma.

I live in Wisconsin, USA. As of today, all nonessential consumer business (clothes shops, bookstores, etc) are closed.
I actually had to take my cat to the emergency vet last night (He's fine, got himself stuck on a sticky mousetrap and we just couldn't get it off by ourselves without hurting him.) and we could not go in the building with him. I had to call from the parking lot to let the vet know we were outside.

I work at two local museums and they have both been closed for two weeks now and it's been really strange not going in to work or anything. I've been doing a lot of reading. Very grateful to have so many books at home, as well as access to Netflix and video games.
Unfortunately, I was in the middle of the grad school application process, so I was only able to visit two of the schools I applied to and I will mostly be selecting my program with little campus experience.

Currently living with my parents and we have been trying to support local business as much as possible, like ordering take out food or placing orders through local shops to pick up afterwards or deliver by mail.

I live in mumbai , India . Since last week all non essential shops and establishments have been shut down . School colleges malls have been shut since 15 days.
Last Sunday , PM Modi announced a one day public curfew wherein ppl had to voluntarily stay indoors from 6 am to 9 pm. It was a huge success. He also asked the public to come near the windows n doors of their respective houses and applaud heartily for 5 minutes at exactly 5 pm to express gratitude to all the doctors, nurses, medical staff, security personal and all those who were providing safe living conditions for the ppl in these trying times. And boy, you should have heard the thunderous response of people at 5 pm! It was amazing.

India has gone into complete lockdown from 25 th March to 14 th April . Only essential commodities open. Rest all closed . People are all shut down within their homes. Hope this will help to control the spread of infection and break the cycle of the virus .
These are difficult times. But they too shall pass and I am sure we will all emerge stronger .
Meanwhile, everyone take proper precautions and stay safe.

It’s interesting to compare people’s experiences in different places. Diane, it must feel even worse for you to be in lockdown when others nearby aren’t. Sharon, I’m pleased your cat is ok - but how typical of a cat to choose the worst possible time to need a vet! It’s good you can order food to collect - in theory we can order food from supermarkets, but the delay is around 3 weeks now & they don’t accept new customers. The system can’t cope. Bela, the applause must have been a great way to thank the medical teams & to unite the community. Stay safe, everyone.

In Serbia there is also 5 minute celebrations applause at 20h each evening for medical workers. Our country is in lock down, people over 65 can‚t get out and the curfew for the rest is from 17-5. I had to go across the Danube to bring food to my aunt and walk the dog. I have return at 17.01 on Monday. I‚ll be watching my phone tomorrow. Punishment is close to double of average monthly pay-check.
Our folks are stubborn so there are lot of problems. In my town some dentist work on despite having temp, subsequently having corona.

Sharon wrote: "I live in Wisconsin, USA. As of today, all nonessential consumer business (clothes shops, bookstores, etc) are closed.
I actually had to take my cat to the emergency vet last night (He's fine, got ..."

Poor kitty! Cat's have the worst timing for needing to go to the vet, don't they?

Bela wrote: "I live in mumbai , India . Since last week all non essential shops and establishments have been shut down . School colleges malls have been shut since 15 days.
Last Sunday , PM Modi announced a on..."

Your country seems to be doing a phenomenal job at controlling the outbreak. I think the celebration of gratitude for healthcare workers is awesome!

Trisha wrote: "It’s interesting to compare people’s experiences in different places. Diane, it must feel even worse for you to be in lockdown when others nearby aren’t. Sharon, I’m pleased your cat is ok - but ho..."

That is rough about the food. Another friend of mine from the UK mentioned the same thing. Hopefully, this will resolve soon. They seem to be improving the availability of delivery services here.

That's a shame about people not following the rules, Jovan.
But good for you in delivering the food.

I do it for my aunt for decade or more. Now we finally have new bridge, so on my bike I am over in a second. The dog must be walked. One time I had no time, but he was screaming like hell, so I had to return. I want my stroll you won‚t fool me!

It has defintally been very quiet, almost seems too quiet around here.

Jovan wrote: "In Serbia there is also 5 minute celebrations applause at 20h each evening for medical workers. Our country is in lock down, people over 65 can‚t get out and the curfew for the rest is from 17-5. I..."

It's so nice how you are looking out for your aunt. I hope things return to normal there, soon.

Sanne wrote: "It's really interesting to read about all the different experiences. I hope you're all healthy and stay that way :)

Trisha, it's the same with delivery services here in the Netherlands. I'm sick a..."

What an awesome thing for your library to do! Reading is the best escape.

Spie wrote: "It has defintally been very quiet, almost seems too quiet around here."

Where are you from, Spie?

Sanne wrote: "It's really interesting to read about all the different experiences. I hope you're all healthy and stay that way :)

Trisha, it's the same with delivery services here in the Netherlands. I'm sick a..."

Sanne, I hope you feel better soon, it must be very frightening to feel unwell at the moment. Your library services sound amazing, what a great way to help people. I wonder how many will discover a love of reading that will continue after this awful time is over.

My experience in Texas, USA is much the same as others in the less restrictive areas of the US and Europe, it seems. Only essential businesses are open, but essential in our city includes restaurants which can provide curb-side or drive through service. I work at a bank which is also essential but we only have the drive through open. I am working from home as are most of my team members in lending, but we have a skeleton crew in a couple of branches since people still need loans and everything can't be done remotely.

We are not on lockdown, so we can go to whatever is open whenever we want. We are restricted to gatherings of no more than 10 people. We currently have 23 confirmed cases in my city of about about 250,000 people so that's not too bad yet. I don't know when or if our schools will reopen since the governor closed schools only until April 3rd. Our local school district has not made a decision about school past that date.

Our libraries finally closed last Saturday but they still will lend out physical books. Patrons have to call the library and tell the librarian which books they want and the books will be available for curb side pickup in about an hour. While that seems nice, I think having physical books is not essential enough to justify requiring the librarians to work around each other. We have digital and audio books to borrow.

I'm physically distancing according to the guidelines and pretty much housebound anyway because of pollen allergies. The Georgia spring is gorgeous, and I'm blessed to have plenty of windows through which I watch the flirting birds, the buzzing bees and the busy squirrels. Happy spring y'all. Be safe and do what you can to support those on the front lines of this war.

I live in the southern part of the state of New Jersey, USA. Our governor last week ordered all to stay at home except for essential trips to get food, supplies, or medical attention. My family had already stopped going out even before that order. We're sheltering in place with our older daughter and her family who left NY before the crisis got as bad as it is now, and we're happy to have them with us. All schools and most businesses are closed. My younger daughter is a medical assistant, and is still going out to work daily; we're nervous for her, but confident her facility is taking appropriate precautions to protect the health of all staff. I'm unhappy that so many Americans still refuse to take this health crisis seriously, and that precautions differ so much from state to state.

Gerry wrote: "I live in the southern part of the state of New Jersey, USA. Our governor last week ordered all to stay at home except for essential trips to get food, supplies, or medical attention. My family had..."

Your state has been hard hit during this crisis. I hope you and your family will remain safe. It is frustrating that people don't take this seriously.

We're relatively lucky. Although NJ has been hit hard, most cases are in counties to the north, with fewer in our area. We're also lucky that our daughter and son-in-law are here with our two beloved grandchildren (ages 2 mos and 2 years), which makes staying at home much more bearable. My fear is that, because some areas of the country have not experienced a significant hit from COVID-19 yet, restrictions on movement may be lifted too soon, and this disease will continue to wreak havoc with our nation far longer than would be the case if everything shut down quickly.

I agree, Gerry, that areas that are not hard hit could lift restrictions too soon. I am in one of those areas and it seems like too many people are just now taking it seriously that they need to stay home. I think they would be ready to jump back into their formerly busy lives if a slight downturn in cases occurred. Hopefully our mayor will make good decisions about keeping restrictions in place.

Here in Rome, Italy, we've been in lockdown now for almost a full month. All non essentials retails are closed. Basically only pharmacies, hospitals, supermarkets are open to businness. Also hotels are allowed to work if they so wish. Most are closed as the city is a ghost town right now. The one where I work in, kept a skeleton crew of four, including myself, to double as guardians to the building round the clock. Therefore I'm allowed to commute back and forth ( providing written certifcation upon request by patrolling police) . You can go for food shopping but are admitted into supermarkets in restricted number at the same time, in order to keep safe distance from one another. Food is plenty, but sometimes you have to queue up awhile. Situation is surreal. Together with my collegues we try and keep it light , but we are worried, much more about the aftermath then the present. Lots are home on furlough, only partially paid. If things drag on, there wont be money for our wages... we decided to think day by day and stay healthy and positive as much as possible. We created a watsapp group with all the hotel's employees and post funny things about us and the empty hotel. We're a friendly crew, used to close living and working so we miss each other as well as being worried about future. We're all on the same boat and try and row together. We can onlyhope, and hope we will.

Here in Novi Sad, Serbia, yesterday was beautiful and sunny day so too many people were on the streets. Police had to shut down all the parks. Today the curfew is at 15h, but tomorrow should be again at 17h.
Problem should be for dog owners not able to walk the pets from 20-21h like last week. Many people have them in small flats, but government don‚t allow it any more.
Lockdown of our country is proving good, but economy would pay dearly. The question is be alive and poor or be dead?

@Alecto
Here in India , we are hearing about the sad conditions faced in Italy. Things are not looking good. But it’s heartening to hear that you are trying to face it all with a smile on your face. I know it’s very difficult to be optimistic in these dire circumstances. But these too shall pass . Keep up the positive vibes all around. That will help you get over these times.
Take care and stay safe.

Jovan wrote: "The question is be alive and poor or be dead?."

Good point.

Hey all I am from Buffalo, NY and am a Medical Technologist (work in a hospital lab). So I still have to go to work 5 evenings a week. We have not been hit as bad as NYC but we do have some cases. We are not on lockdown but as many others all nonessential businesses are closed. I miss going to the library but at least I can get digital titles. Grocery stores seem to be getting back to normal with stocking. Next week the hospital that I work for will be starting COVID testing. I have been staying close to home when I don't have to go into work to protect myself and others since I work in a hospital I know that I have probably been exposed (we have several positive pts at my hospital) even though I don't have any direct patient contact.

Stay safe everyone.

Sadly too hard. I mainly blame this on the sheer stupidity of some on the right side of the political spectrum. One survey by our Health Department showed that only 58% of the public wore masks at the grocery store.

Most of the state has cases going down, but my county has them going up. If you hear of cases going up in certain counties in the US, you can be sure those are Trump voting counties.

I'll never understand people who seem to think their liberties are being violated because they are being told to wear masks. But it's perfectly alright for blacks and women and gays to be fired because they are black, female, and homosexual.

Here in the Balkans from nearly finishing with the virus (June was pretty normal), the virus is coming back, thx to populist party and the election with their land-slide victory, some stupid football matches and Djoković who payed dearly for his innocense. People here, especially youth are as Trump, masks are for idiots. Some monkey would be trained easier to wear it then any local smartass.
This is going to be a long year.

The Trump administration has decided to stop helping the states pay for tests. This is so we will have less testing and our numbers will look better. Thanks to our administration for the head in the sand approach to dealing with a pandemic, we will soon have less idea of where the hotspots are. I can only hope people of voting age are paying attention to how little this president cares about our country's health among his other egregious policies.

Here in Scotland we're gradually reopening, but there's still a long way to go. Scotland have, sensibly, slowed the pace of reopening compared with our English neighbours, and I hope this will keep our virus numbers low. Looking at the footage coming out of London's Soho the day the reopened the bars, it's an invitation for a second wave!
What worries me now is how this will impact the economy and me and my partner's jobs. I work in educational tourism (international summer schools), and he's a pilot (possibly facing redundancy). Both of us are very much dependent on open skies and borders, and at the moment we're both very much concerned about our futures.
Time will tell - I just hope a vaccine is discovered soon, and that this virus is one that can be vaccinated again, and not a constant mutation.
I applaud the sense of Asian countries, particularly Japan and Hong Kong, both of which I've lived in before and where face masks are commonplace. When my daughter was an infant in Hong Kong, I remember clearly her getting her temperature checked before entering soft-play centres. This was in 2014, long before Co-VID! It's only just becoming normal here. I think that this just shows you how much common sense and thinking of others prevails when it comes to hygiene. You have a sniffle, wear a mask. You have a fever, stay at home. This is normal in Asia, where cities that are much more dense in terms of population, have much smaller numbers of people with the virus.

Donna wrote: "Here in Scotland we're gradually reopening, but there's still a long way to go. Scotland have, sensibly, slowed the pace of reopening compared with our English neighbours, and I hope this will keep..."

I agree with you, Donna. I wish we had the same rules here as in Scotland with a more cautious approach. You seem to be given clear rules so everyone knows what they are, while in England it’s all rumour & leaked information in a complete muddle. Like you, I was horrified to see the scenes in Soho - I haven’t seen it that busy even at the height of the tourist season. I hope you & your partner get some better news about your jobs very soon, it is such a worrying time.

Here in Malaysia, we have been through nearly two months of lockdown. We opened up all the working sector at 4 May. Places like barber and saloon are only about to open this month and schools will be starting next week.

But we open up with strict rules. Business premises have to follow social distancing rules and have to measure temperatures, record down customer's contact no. Police having spot checks as well. If even one person infected, the whole factory/business premises will have to close down so everyone is following

We been open up for two months and our cases went from hundreds daily to 2 digits and sometimes even one digits. Feels like a dream lately . I still feel like one day I will wake up and we will go back to 100+ cases daily. And we are not testing everyone, we only do targetted testing

Kirsten wrote: "Sadly too hard. I mainly blame this on the sheer stupidity of some on the right side of the political spectrum. One survey by our Health Department showed that only 58% of the public wore masks at ..."

Yeah sad to see that people are so individualistic and only cares about their freedom and their freedom trumps everything else.

We live in a community and if one person is infected, no one else is spared. We can only beat this by standing together and that means small sacrifices for the good of the whole

Here in Canada we're opening up slowly, like in Scotland. Since Canada is such a big country, each province has its own rate of opening.
I live in Toronto, which has the highest and densest population in Canada, and most people are glad we're taking it slow and steady. I don't feel weird wearing a mask in a store anymore, since they are now required indoors in all public places and on public transit.

In case you're wondering whom to thank... Read the nonfiction afterword to the historical novel "Money, Blood and Conscience" about Ethiopia's democracy revolution or its author's July 3 interview in New Europe, a news outlet for European politicians and diplomats. They reveal the hidden involvement by WHO leader Tedros Adhanom in deadly cover-ups and human rights violations when he was Ethiopian foreign minister. Apparently, Tedros' should never have been trusted.

I'm living in Denmark and we have defiantly been great at handling the crisis without too many casualties. We have used group song in the TV many times throughout lockdown to boost morale and we have respected each others space aso. (with a few exeptions with some morons, but those are all over the world, so what can you do?)

The biggest crisis i think we had was a political mistake by killing and desposing of all of our mink at our many minkfarms, because of the new british mutation that infected the animals.. Denmark had some of the best furs and profited very much on selling those furs.. And now they are gone and exposed in an irresponsible way. Many people are angry at the primeminister right now for that, us being in a lockdown because of increased positive cases and because "they are tired of covid".

So not good, but 100% much better than many other countries..
We locked down around christmas and only foodstores are open right now and we are waiting to see if the schools will open again soon.

I myself can't feel much difference because i'm having a sabbatical time and living home before starting at the university. Other than some events i had looked forward to has been cancelled and i miss hugging and seeing my friends. So i am very fortunate.