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Starting with either the North Pole or South Pole, make a line to the opposite pole, reading a book from each country in between, including books set on or near each pole. Any route can be made. It is not necessary to read the books in order, but you can if you would like to further challenge yourself.

Time Limit: None
Genre: Any

Looking through all the challenges and saw this one and said what the heck. Having played this an atlus I have come up with this route most of which I can do by bicycle with the odd boat ride. Don't know how long its going to take plus have to find all the books for it. Will read then as I find them I think.

24 August 2015 to ?
12 of 25 read

Arctic - The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Alec Wilkinson
Norway - Matt Helm - The Terminators by Donald Hamilton
Finland - The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Belarus
Ukraine
Moldova
Rumania - Dark Ghost by Christine Feehan
Bulgaria
Turkey - A Colder War
Syria - Latakia by J.F. Smith
Jordan - Petra: The True And Surprising History Of The Lost City Of Stone by Patrick Auerbach
Saudi Arabia
Yemen - A Land without Jasmine by Wajdi Al-Ahdal
Djibouti
Somalia - One Hit by Jack Coughlin
Kenya - Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Tanzania - The African Queen by C.S. Forester
Mozambiqu - The Train of Salt and Sugar by Licinio de Azevedo
Swaziland - The Rattle of Seeds by Geoffrey Douglas
South Africa
Lesotho
Antartica

Tania wrote: "Looking through all the challenges and saw this one and said what the heck. Having played this an atlus I have come up with this route most of which I can do by bicycle with the odd boat ride. Do..."

That route looks pretty close to the one travel program Michael Palin did for BBC in 1992. He also wrote a book about it: Pole to Pole. I think the route was chosen because it had most countries?

I figured I had 3 real choices, through the Americas, the edge of Europe and Africa or down through Russia, China and Asia. The fourth route which I gave up trying to map was going through Alaska, the Pacific isles ending in New Zealand

The Arctic done by Alec Wilkinson

This is the story of S A Andree a Swedish man who tried to go the the Artic in a balloon in 1897, didn't make it but spent 4 months walking on the ice with 2 friends making notes on what the saw and taking photos. The book also covers other explorers of that time.

Rumania done by Christine Feehan

This book is set in the Carpathian mountains

Somalia done One Hit by Jack Coughlin
a book about terrorists and a sniper marine

Mozambique done by Licinio de Azevedo

The story of three trains traveling across Mozambique, the soldiers, rail staff and people and what they have to endure against Renamo guerrillas.

Finland - by Arto Paasilinna

Syria - by J.F. Smith

Tanzania - The African Queen by C.S. Forester

Swaziland - by Geoffrey Douglas

I really enjoyed this book as it tells the story of two boys from childhood to young men.
Martin, a product of colonial Africa, qualifies as a physician. He is intelligent and deeply sensitive - even a little tortured. He struggles with relationships and lacks self-esteem. Mandla, a Swazi, grows up in a traditional, rural homestead. He is streetwise, confident and promiscuous.
Constrained by their very different cultural backgrounds, this is their journey from boyhood to manhood. Both face tragedy. The book talks of their hopes and dreams for the future, their loves, their setbacks and successes, as they forge an unlikely, but deeply meaningful friendship, and grow in self awareness and maturity.
Told in a deceptively simple, direct narrative style, the balanced and sensitive handling of Martin’s and Mandla’s development obliges the reader to question the value of much of our received Western wisdom. Moreover, it takes us on a voyage of discovery of what we might usefully learn from another culture.

Palestine done

I really enjoyed this book. It explore the journey of a man from darkness to light.

Turkey - A Colder War

Jordan - by Patrick Auerbach

Yemen - by Wajdi Al-Ahdal

I have had to think about this book and have changed it from 3 to 4 stars. Wajdi Al Ahdal is a rogue author, his writing causing his leaving Yemen. He takes on controversial subject matters, a maverick revealing a side of Yemen and the Middle East few would touch.

This is a haunting blend of detective story and magical realism and is told from different peoples various perspectives starting with Jasmine the girl that disappears while at college. Her disappearance provides the basis for this police investigation and runs alongside and in conflict with the actions of men in Jasmine’s clan. The first chapter is from Jasmine’s viewpoint, and depicts her daily struggle with sexual harassment, stalking and threat of assault within a conservative, sexually repressed society. Each of the remaining chapters are narrated by different characters, mostly men involved to various degrees in her tribulations.

There is also so much more here than just a critique of misogyny. Other themes are tribalism, violence and torture, corruption in the police force and the university - sexual harassment by professors in exchange for grades. A thought provoking book.

Kenya - Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Open-Ended

POLE TO POLE

Started May 14, 2021
Finished October 4, 2021
10 out of 10

Longitude 60 degrees West

++1) Greenland
Narwhal on a Sunny Night Mary Pope Osborne 7-28-21

++2) Canada Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale Adam Minter 6-7-21 (clothes sorting & exporting)

++3) E Caribbean Islands The Knowledge of Good & Evil Glenn Kleier 6-7-21 (St. Maartens)

++4) Guyana Company Orders David J. Walker 10-4-21

++5) Brazil Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster): Life Lessons and Other Ravings from Dave Barry Dave Barry 5-19-21 (Rio Olympics)

++6) Bolivia The Bolivian Diary: Authorized Edition Ernesto Che Guevara 9-21-21

++7) Paraguay Soccer in South America Mike Kennedy 6-25-21

++8) Argentina Argentina Christina Leaf 8-10-21

++9) Falkland Islands Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World Nell Stevens 9-26-21

++10) Antarctica Daring Dogs: 30 True Tales of Heroic Hounds Kimberlie Hamilton 6-12-21 (Taro & Jiro stuck there & survived)