I Read Therefore I Am discussion

1. I'm continuing on with an Around the World Challenge where you read a book from each country - it was meant to be done in a year but I only got halfway through last year as I get distracted too easily. Here is where I have already visited:
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England (Europe): Thomas Hardy – Tess of the D’Ubervilles
France (Europe): Thierry Cohen - Still With Me
Belgium (Europe): Stefan Brijs – The Angel Maker
Germany (Europe): Frank Schatzing – Death and the Devil
Czech Republic(Europe): Franz Kafka – The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Poland (Europe): Thomas Keneally – Schindler’s Ark
Ukraine (Europe): Jonathan Safran Foer – Everything is Illuminated
Russia (Europe/Asia): Robert Chandler (ed) - Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov
Georgia (Asia): Anne-Laure Bondoux – A Time of Miracles
Turkey (Middle East): Orfan Pamuk - Snow
Greece: (Europe): Homer - The Iliad
Italy (Europe): Italo Calvino – If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller
Spain (Europe): David Bolling - Guernica
Morocco (Africa): Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya – The Storyteller of Marrakesh
Algeria (Africa): Katherine Neville – The Eight
Libya (Africa): Ibrahim Al-Koni – The Seven Veils of Seth
Niger (Africa): The Power of the Between
Nigeria (Africa): Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart
Cameroon (Africa): Dervla Murphy – Cameroon with Egbert
Congo (Africa): Tim Jeal – Stanley: Africa’s Greatest Explorer
DR Congo (Africa): Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible
Zambia (Africa): The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness – Delia Owens
Botswana (Africa): Alexander McCall Smith – The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency
South Africa (Africa):Jennifer McVeigh - The Fever Tree
Zimbabwe (Africa): Tudor Parfitt – Journey to the Vanished City
Mozambique (Africa): Mia Couto – The Sleepwalking Land
Tanzania (Africa): Ernest Hemingway – The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Kenya (Africa):John le Carre – The Constant Gardener
Ethiopia (Africa): Tahir Shah – In Search Of King Solomon’s Mines
Sudan (Africa): Leila Aboulela – Lyrics Alley
Egypt (Africa): Rosie Thomas – Iris and Ruby
Israel (Middle East): Kurt Vonnegut – Mother Night
Syria (Middle East): Rafik Schami – Damascus Nights
Iraq (Middle East): William Beckford – Vathek
Iran (Middle East): Omar Khayyam – Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Afghanistan (Middle East): Asne Seierstad – The Bookseller of Kabul
Pakistan (Middle East): Moshin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist
India (Asia): Amitav Ghosh - Sea of Poppies
Nepal (Asia): Connor Grennan - Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to bring home the Lost Children of Nepal
China (Asia): W Somerset Maugham – The Painted Veil
North Korea (Asia): Adam Johnson – The Orphan Master’s Son
South Korea (Asia): Eugenia Kim – The Calligraphers Daughter
Japan (Asia): Haruki Murakami - The Windup Bird Chronicle
Vietnam (Asia): Graham Green – The Quiet American
Cambodia (Asia) – Vaddet Ratner – In the Shadow of the Banyan
Thailand (Asia) – Paolo Bacigalupi – The Windup Girl
Malaysia (Asia): Tan Twan Eng – The Gift of Rain
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So I've been to a total of 47 different countries in sucession last year and have another 33 left to finish my circumnavigation just like Mr Fogg (After that I might fill in the gaps, haven't decided yet)

reserved just in case ;)

That's a really good way to read more world fiction - maybe next year.............

That was the plan - I found some really good books that I might not have read if I hadn't been looking for something set in a specific country. As I said, it was supposed to be a yearly challenge (from the group Around the World in Eighty Books) but I couldn't do it in one year with group reads and other stuff I wanted to read as well - so am just globetrotting at my own pace now. Off to Indonesia with HG Well's next!

Oooooh - which book is that?

The Island of Doctor Moreau (the island is apparently in the vicinity of Indonesia so it counts)

That's very impressive Laurel, I seem to have read very few foreign books but I have read some set in foreign countries so I suppose I could count those. I think The Island of Dr Moreau is the best book Wells wrote, I hope you enjoy it too.

Thanks - I've read The Time Machine and War of the Worlds and loved them both so thought I'd probably like this one

I'm sure it's lurking somewhere in my TBR mountain.

It's such an awesome way to approach it Laurel - and I bet you learn a lot from this approach too.

48. Indonesia, Asia: HG Wells - The Island of Doctor Moreau

49. Papua New Guinea, Oceania: Lloyd Jones - Mister Pip

What did you think of Mister Pip? I thought the story of what happened to the villagers was was amazing but I wasn't so impressed with the bits about Great Expectations or the teacher's backstory.

It was good and I liked the way the kids all got really into Dicken's story even though it was a totally different world from everything they knew. But I found the islander's story more compelling than Mr Watt's as well.

I'm interested in what you thought of Dr Moreau. As I mentioned before, I thought it was Wells best book but I did read it many, many years ago, long before genetic engineering, cloning etc had been discovered/developed. I found it incredibly disturbing and quite scary, more frightening because it seemed a fairly logical possibility at some point. Coming to it today, I wondered how you'd found it with all the knowledge of what may be possible now and in the future.

I thought it was very disturbing, but didn't think that what Moreau was doing was very realistic in the light of modern knowledge so it was just a creepy story as far as I was concerned (I switched off my modern sensibilities and just left it in it's own time otherwise I would have had issues with the human-centric views of even the good characters). I might take it down a star actually, I didn't enjoy it as much as War of the Worlds and The Time Machine.

Thanks Laurel, I think you're right. I don't think it's aged as well as the other two, which still seem, if not probable, certainly possible!

Yeah I didn't think it had aged as well either as I remembered Wells being quite ahead of his time but this one wasn't so much.

50. Australia : ML Stedman - The Light Between Oceans
51. New Zealand : Katherine Mansfield - Bliss and Other Stories

I decided I need to get back onto this challenge so another two down now and am off to the Cook Islands with Capt.Cook next and then I'm going to Antarctica ;

What did you think of the Katherine Mansfield - she's been on my radar for a while.

I really like her - I'd recommendThe Garden Party and Other Stories if you've not read her before (plus its on the Boxall's list.) I would have given this one 3 stars as it had some stories I loved but some I didn't like as much but she got an extra star cos they are all so beautifully written.

Thanks Laurel.