Queereaders

message 1: by Ralph Gallagher (last edited Dec 23, 2009 05:25AM) (new)

Dec 23, 2009 05:21AM

Around the World in 80 Books Challenge Rules

1. Anyone can participate in the challenge and can join in at anytime. The official start date will be January 1, 2010. The end date will be January 1, 2011.

2. The object of this challenge is to read books that take place in 80 different countries of the world, of your choosing, starting with your home country. During your journey you would have to visit countries within the following 8 regions: North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania/Australia. You are welcome to visit Antarctica during your travels, but this is not required since there are few books from here. It will be counted as both a continent and a country.

3. Books must actually take place within the country. Reading a book written by an author from a country does not count unless the book is specifically written about that particular country (example: Paul Coelho is from Brazil, but many of his books have settings in other countries). It is also not necessary that both the author and the book setting are the same.

4. Some books contain more than one location. It is not required that the entire book take place exclusively in that one country. However, a significant portion of the book must be set in the country to get credit. Also, in the case where a book takes place in more than one location, the reader may only take credit for one country (example: In the book “Eat, Pray, Love”, the author’s time is divided between Italy, India, and Indonesia. You may only choose one of those destinations).

5. There are close to 200 recognized countries in the world. However, for the sake of the challenge, you will not be held to using only independent nations. It is perfectly acceptable to using territories, constituent countries, islands, and independent states (not US). If you need some help, here is a handy website: http://worldatlas.com/nations.htm

6. Re-reads are perfectly acceptable, as are audio books.

7. All books must be at least 100 pages in length, or the equivalent.

8. Reporting: Please start a new topic with your name and whether you are a Trekker or a Frequent Flyer. You will make all updates under your own thread. Please state the region (see #2), the country, the book title, and the author during each new post. I will be posting a list of countries and their regions, as well as some book ideas to get you started.

9. There will be two different challenge tracts:

1) Trekker (more difficult)

• Assuming that you are using the modes of transportation available during Jules Verne’s’ time, you will travel in consecutive order to countries adjacent to each other or directly accessible over bodies of water. This would follow a logical trip itinerary of circumnavigation, with limited “zigzagging” between destinations.
• You may need to “travel” to a given country more than one time during your itinerary. You can go to any one country as many times as you like, but it will only count once.

2) Frequent Flyer (Easier)

• Even though you still have to start at your country of origin, you are free to travel at random around the globe with no specific route or itinerary.
• You must still visit countries in all 8 specified regions.

BONUS (optional): Countries A to Z. There are countries for every letter except X. Try to include at least one country for each letter of the alphabet during your reading journey!

The ULTIMATE BONUS (optional): Read a book from EVERY country of the world.

Have fun with this! Hopefully you will visit new and exciting places during this challenge, and even read some books you otherwise might never have read. Please feel free to share your opinions of the books you are reading.

If you are interested in participating, start a new topic with your name. This is where you will post your continuing progress.

(Thanks to Diane of TNBBC for this!)

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message 2: by Doug (new)

Dec 26, 2009 09:03AM