Chaos Reading discussion

I've realised lately how very UK-centric my reading ususally is and although I may possibly have some sort of masochistic tendency, I've suddenly had a strange impulse to try reading at least one book from every country in the world (that may get bastardised to "partially set in" or even "vaguely connected to" if I start to struggle!)

Even how many that's going to be will be difficult in itself, as there are anything from 193 to 257 countries, depending how you count them (so the interweb tells me). I think I'll do it alphabetically, since they have to be ordered somehow, so #1 is Afghanistan (and #2 and #3 are Albania and Algeria). I've been told by loads of people that I MUST read The Kite Runner but I've also been recommended The Bookseller of Kabul more than once too. Anyone got any other suggestions for Afghanistan? Non fiction too please, if you know of any.

This is a mania that may not last, it's an enormous undertaking, but anyone that wants to join me or recommend to me, please have your say.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is much better than The Kite Runner and by the same author. I know only one non fiction Ross Kemp on Afghanistan.
Happy reading and have great discoveries.

If you want to start off easier, Kipling's novella The Man Who Would Be King is set in Afghanistan, but I'm guessing you're not ready to apply bastardization principles yet :-)

I love this idea. You may want to check out this group: Around the World in 80 Books.

I second reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. I read it in one day (I was at the beach at the time so no other commitments).

For Albania, I'd recommend `The Palace of Dreams http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79...

And `The Country Where No One Ever Dies
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65...

What a fantastic idea, Elise! I LOVE it!

If you're okay with this, I would really love to do something like this for a group activity - perhaps a group shelf with one book per country? A group activity might ensure that you don't give up before the "Z"s too :)

Perhaps we can keep this thread going as a discussion on the first 3 "A" countries - Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria - while we have a bit of a think about the logistics of doing the whole thing as a group activity?

I'm just thinking about what we'd do for a decider when more than one book is nominated for a country, and stuff like that. It'd get a bit messy if we have to vote on every country, so perhaps we could go by highest GR rating or something.

So much to think about. Awesome idea - I'm really excited :)

What I'm thinking too, is that for each letter we could post the list of countries. As people nominate books for each country, we could update the list as we go. Then we just have to figure out how to limit it to one (or two or three if you like). We can then post the whole lot as a single bookshelf, or by letter or something.

We'd have to think seriously about how to choose books for some of the more prolific countries too.

*rubbing hands together but seriously hoping Elise isn't annoyed with me for jumping on this*

Suggestions So Far

Afghanistan
The Kite Runner
The Bookseller of Kabul
A Thousand Splendid Suns

Albania
The Palace of Dreams
The Country Where No One Ever Dies

Algeria

Ruby wrote: "What I'm thinking too, is that for each letter we could post the list of countries. As people nominate books for each country, we could update the list as we go. Then we just have to figure out how..."

My God, where do you get all this energy? And is it something I can buy?

I think it's a great idea, by the way. The group I mentioned above has some good world literature links, if that's any help.

I'm happy :D

Thing is, though, I didn't intend to necessarily just read one book per country, so chances are I'll read The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Bookseller of Kabul, The Man Who Would Be King and maybe Flashman (I was recommended this series years ago and I never did anything about them - I believe the first one's set in Afghanistan, though I could be wrong.) Probably not the Ross Kemp one, though that's simply personal prejudice. But I'd like to get a serious history or social commentary that's not too dry (maybe I'll force myself to look at Ross Kemp).

If we do it as a group read, though how shall we do it, though - the normal poll and a month to read it, or just make it more open and have a thread discussing books about Afghanistan (in the first instance) that stays open as long as we like, then open one for Albania a bit later.

Since there are so many disputed states in the world, I used the Foreign and Commonwealth office's list of countries to get my first 3 (so I'm an insular Brit; shoot me!). From this, my list of countries for A is:

1. Afghanistan
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. American Samoa
5. Andorra
6. Angola
7. Anguilla
8. Antigua and Barbuda
9. Argentina
10. Armenia
11. Aruba
12. Ascension Island
13. Australia
14. Austria

Finding books from pricipalities or tiny islands with very small populations is going to be a bitch, but there are probably ways to do it. Finding the weird and wonderful stuff is what the Internet is for, after all! Strictly speaking Antarctica should be there too, but there are no permanent residents, so I'm not sure whether to include it (I suppose there are plenty of books about explorations etc. so why not?)

I think for the most prolific countries we could get even more ambitious and try regions (Not 50 books for the US states, perhaps - way too much, (though that would be interesting too, I'm sure) but perhaps to do England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales separately for the UK - slapped wrist, back to insular Britishness again). That can be sorted out later.

Whitney - I was just about to trawl that link - Thanks!

Actually the "energy" you mention is at least partly "avoidance", I think. I'm trying to distract myself from the stuff imploding around me in real life. Books are an ideal distraction right now. :)

Elise wrote: "I'm happy :D

Thing is, though, I didn't intend to necessarily just read one book per country, so chances are I'll read The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Bookseller of Kabul, The Man W..."

Yay! Elise is on board! *relief*

I wasn't thinking of doing them as group reads (that would require WAY too much "energy" on my part!), but as Group Shelves for people to trawl on their own time. Like what we've done with Children's Classics, Sci-Fi, Mieville's List etc.

I like the regions idea too.

I think it'd be ideal to do one fiction and one non-fiction per country/region, to have some sort of serious history or social commentary for each, as you say. When I was thinking about Australia as an example, I was planning to suggest an Indigenous perspective as a non-fiction for that reason.

So the question still is how not to wind up with a million books on the list...?

Revised "A" list (with Antarctica):

1. Afghanistan
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. American Samoa
5. Andorra
6. Angola
7. Anguilla
8. Antarctica
9. Antigua and Barbuda
10. Argentina
11. Armenia
12. Aruba
13. Ascension Island
14. Australia
15. Austria
Edit: 16. Azerbaijan (thanks Whitney)

azerbaijan?

Whitney wrote: "azerbaijan?"

Doh! I know it was there, so I guess that's just me not concentrating and forgetting to paste the last in when tranferring from the fco website. Thanks. I'll edit the list.

That's excellent. When everyone's happy with the list, I can put it up as a new nominations thread with instructions & stuff if you like.

In looking at Wikipedia list of countries & sovereign states, there are a couple of discrepancies:

INCLUDED IN WIKI
*Abkhazia
*Azawad
*Azerbaijan (definitely considered a country)

NOT INCLUDED IN WIKI
*American Samoa (The name of the whole group of islands as opposed to countries/states)
*Anguilla
*Antarctica
*Aruba
*Ascension Island

Does anyone have an idea of a definitive list we can agree to use for all the letters?

Ruby wrote: "I wasn't thinking of doing them as group reads (that would require WAY too much "energy" on my part!), but as Group Shelves for people to trawl on their own time. Like what we've done with Children's Classics, Sci-Fi, Mieville's List etc.

I like the regions idea too.

I think it'd be ideal to do one fiction and one non-fiction per country/region, to have some sort of serious history or social commentary for each, as you say. When I was thinking about Australia as an example, I was planning to suggest an Indigenous perspective as a non-fiction for that reason.

So the question still is how not to wind up with a million books on the list...? "

A bookshelf and a dicussion board for each bookshelf sounds ideal. Can we start the Afghanistan one soon? I'd like to get some more suggestions before I launch into my new mammoth project!

Definitely a good idea to make sure that we include history/social commentary and being inclusive of indigenous peoples as a priority.

Ruby wrote: "That's excellent. When everyone's happy with the list, I can put it up as a new nominations thread with instructions & stuff if you like.

In looking at Wikipedia list of countries & sovereign stat..."

The problem is there isn't a definitive list - I went with the definition of countries recognised by the UK when this was just my pet project, but perhaps we should go with the best one available which is the 193 members of the UN. The Vatican City is the only non-UN member which is an undisputed sovereign state, but I have to be honest, given the population of the Vatican and it's unique social "set up" etc. I'd be happy to leave that one out. So do we make the list countries as defined by UN membership?

UN "Approved" :) "A" list:

1. Afghanistan
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. Andorra
5. Angola
6. Antigua and Barbuda
7. Argentina
8. Armenia
9. Australia
10. Austria
11. Azerbaijan

Not 100% happy with the UN defintition myself, that would leave out such as Palestine and Kosovo *sigh* anyone got any better definition?

Elise wrote: "Not 100% happy with the UN defintition myself, that would leave out such as Palestine and Kosovo *sigh* anyone got any better definition?"

Well, if the goal is to be inclusive, I think you'd want to include autonomous territories and disputed regions as well. How about this site? Countries of the World

193 isn't enough??? If we go with the UN, maybe the Vatican and Palestine could be added too since both are "permanent" UN observers.

That does look like a good site, but this could become endless (Overseas Territories, Protectorates, all counties/states/territories/departements within a country) so I'd rather stick with an official list put out by an internationally recognised body (not necessarily the UN, if someone can think of a better one, it's just the one I came up with first - we could do countries recognised by the IMF or World Bank instead, perhaps - I feel a headache coming on!).

Maybe once we get to Zimbabwe we can go back and look at all the disputed territories! ;)

Whitney wrote: "Elise wrote: "Not 100% happy with the UN defintition myself, that would leave out such as Palestine and Kosovo *sigh* anyone got any better definition?"

Well, if the goal is to be inclusive, I thi..."

I really like that one, Whitney. I think it would be a fun challenge to try and locate some of the less well known ones. I don't think it would take much longer, since I was planning on putting up one thread per letter (rather than country) and letting people just go for each list! If there are 15 or 18 on the list, it probably won't make that big a difference?

Anyway, since Elise is itching to get into her challenge - Has anyone got suggestions for the Afghanistan/Albania/Algeria list?

I'll start a NEW thread for the group shelf activity.

Thanks for your patience Elise - I'll be watching your progress with interest! :)

Less than 12 hours is patience??? Besides, I have The Coral Island and Lord of the Flies to get through before I go onto the The Kite Runner et al.

Only please can we have a bookshelf per country and not all 3 together, otherwise too confusing!

I think we're kind of talking at cross-purposes a bit - oops! I've postd the "A" thread here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...
Have a look and see what you think.

I just meant I'm sorry for hijacking your thread, and thanks for tolerating my over-the-top enthusiasm with good grace :)

I haven't included the nominations from this thread, since they're your personal challenge picks, but I'm happy to do that if you like, or you can nominate them yourself. I really am extremely excited about this!

I have no clue about Albanian literature, so I'm very happy to carry them across!

Oooooooooh. :O This is briliant Elise!

Its a project of epical porportions, but just think of the richness... *tingles*

Frozenwaffle wrote: "Oooooooooh. :O This is briliant Elise!

Its a project of epical porportions, but just think of the richness... *tingles*"

Going to join in then Frozenwaffle?

Yep, I'm jumping on this wagon! But not alphabetically though, I think I'll prepare a bookshelf of my one with a list of the books I want to read for this challenge, and then I'll go through it randomly, picking which ever appeals to me more at the time ^^

Its just what I need to tackle that feeling I sometimes have, that I'm always reading more of the same, you know? This is great!

That's why I'm doing it, I do a lot of re-reading too - stuff I really love (re-reading some Terry Pratchett at the moment) but I need some new ideas.

I've set up a discussion board for the first country, Afghanistan here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...

Everyone welcome to participate.