Reading with Style discussion

Around the world: Read 10 books, set in 10 different countries, with no continent being visited more than twice.

Your goal is to "travel" to around the world by reading books from ten different countries. Travel to France, read a book by Victor Hugo. . . travel to Russia, read a book by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. . . travel to Nigeria, read a book by Chinua Achebe. . . And so on. There are two routes you can follow, one of which offers more challenge and reward.

A "Circumnavigator" must travel in one direction, east-west (or west-east). A country's east-west location will be determined by the longitude of its capital city. France = 2°20′E, Nigeria = 7°29′E, Russia = 37°36′E. Circumnavigators will receive 10 bonus points for every book completed after the first book (i.e., books 2-10). At the end of the reader's travels, he/she will receive a 100-point "Well-Traveled" bonus if all ten countries have been visited in order (with no continent visited more than twice). Finally, Circumnavigators must post their complete itinerary in the "Itinerary" folder for approval before posting for points.

A "Frequent Flier" needs no set itinerary and can travel to any country at any time. This reader will receive 10 bonus points for every book completed after the fifth book (i.e., books 6-10). At the end of the reader's travels, he/she will receive a 50-point "Sightseer" bonus if ten different countries have been visited and no continent has been visited more than twice.


A few notes:

I. A book qualifies for a country if two of the following criteria are met*:
A) Author born in said country
B) Author's nationality residency is of said country
C) Book takes place in said country

For example: Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day can be read for the UK (Ishiguro is a UK citizen & the book takes place in England) while An Artist of the Floating World qualifies for Japan (Ishiguro was born in Japan and the book takes place there).

*To qualify for Antarctica, a book only has to meet one of the criteria.

II. You cannot claim regular style points for any book you read for Around the World (nor do the Around the World tasks count as combo style points for Reading with Style's 10 and 20 point tasks).

III. For the purposes of this challenge, Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland are all one stop, the United Kingdom.

IV. Before starting on your journey, you must designate whether you are a Circumnavigator or a Frequent Flyer. Also, please include your chosen designation each time you post in the Completed Tasks thread.

V. You can complete AtW as many times as you like with one important caveat: you cannot repeat a country. Each time you begin again, you must choose whether you are a Circumnavigator or a Frequent Flyer. The above written task point & bonus structure will apply to each subsequent journey.

Many thanks to Elizabeth (Alaska) for creating this extremely helpful spreadsheet of capital cities, continents, and longitudes! Be sure to look at the tabs on the bottom to see the information sorted by different columns.