Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

My Reading List (work in progress)

My challenge, should I choose to accept it (and I may not because I have an aversion to being told what to do - even by myself) is to read 3 books a month for the next year. These have to be grown-up books (*groan*) and be more than just mere entertainment.



The suggestions:

Classics and/or books that everyone else seems to have read except me:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (or About A Boy)
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Dune by Frank Herbert
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
A Passage to India by EM Forster
A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul




Autobiographies, Biographies and Memoirs
Bornwild by Tony Fitzjohn
Sometimes there is a Void – Memoirs of an Outsider by Zakes Mda
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
Three Cups of Tea One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson



Travel and Adventure
Extreme Rambling: Walking Israel's Separation Barrier. For Fun by Mark Thomas
Ahound the World: My travels with Oscar by Joanne Lefson


Africa: My Continent
Bundu by Chris Barnard
All the Way Home: Stories from an African Wildlife Sanctuary by Bookey Peek
Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie



Far Away Places
Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Family's Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom by Yangzom Brauen
The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad



Other Animals
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
Saving Chimpanzees by Eugene Cussons
Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo by Vanessa Woods
A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond between Two Friends and a Lion by Anthony Bourke




Award Winners
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1990)

I can relate to "work in progress" when it comes to lists. Good luck with your goals. :-)

Chelsea in FL

Far Away Places

Separated the world into the following regions based mostly on what I learned in school (and is therefore incorrect and out of date and will probably change later)

North America
Central America
Caribbean
South America

United Kingdom and Eire
Scandinavia
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Mediterranean


Near East
Middle East
Far East
Southeast Asia
ex Soviet Union

Africa
Australasia
Antarctic


North America
Greenland
Canada
USA
Mexico


Central America
Belize
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua
Panama


Caribbean (aka The West Indies)
includes:
Jamaica
Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic
Haiti
Cuba


South America
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil:
Chile: Isabel Allende
Colombia
Ecuador
Falkland Islands
French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela: Marisol



United Kingdom and Eire
England
Scotland
Wales
North Ireland
Eire
Channel Islands



Western Europe
Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
France
Iberia (Andorra, Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar)

Austria
Germany
Liechtenstein
Switzerland




Eastern Europe
Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia)
Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Czech Republic,
Hungary


Mediterranean
Italy
Greece
Cyprus
Turkey


Scandinavia
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Iceland








Near East
Bahrain
Iraq
Israel: David Grossman, Amos Oz
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Palestinian Territories
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Middle East
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Iran: Azar Nafisi, Iraj Pezeshkzad, Nahid Rachlin
Maldives
Nepal: Samrat Upadhyay
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

Far East
China (including Hong Kong & Macau)
Japan
Mongolia
North Korea
South Korea
Taiwan

South East Asia
Mainland Southeast Asia includes:
Cambodia
Laos
Burma (Myanmar)
Thailand
Vietnam Camilla Gibb, Tash Aw
Peninsular Malaysia

Maritime Southeast Asia includes:
East Malaysia
Brunei
Indonesia
Philippines
Singapore
East Timor





Soviet Union
Russia
Ukraine
Belarus
Moldova

Georgia
Armenia
Azerbaijan

Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan

Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)



Australasia
Australia
New Zealand
Oceania