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What is your plan of attack? Do you hope to read a book from every country? If so, how long do you expect it to take?

Plan:
It would be wonderful if I could read all of the 195 countries, but it probably will not happen. If I read 2 per month, it will take me a little over 8 years. HOWEVER, I am going to try.
First, I have identified 10 countries that I have already read. Accept for 2, these are translated books. I read one for Fiji earlier this year and it is not translated. Cry, the Beloved Country is one I am currently reading. I already counted it as complete. I have 11 more scheduled.
I plan to read as many translated as I can. I am hoping for a 75%-25% split.
I am up to date on my plans thread with the 21 books, I have identified. I actually would like to do some reading today (LOL) rather than just planning so will take this up again later.

BTW, the 21 books are also on reading-the-world shelf.

Celia wrote: "Plan:
It would be wonderful if I could read all of the 195 countries, but it probably will not happen. If I read 2 per month, it will take me a little over 8 years. HOWEVER, I am going to try.
Fir..."

Nothing wrong with a long challenge. I am also hoping for mostly translated works but have found that it would be impossible to hit 100%. Some countries don't have any books available in translation and others are far out of my budget. My strategy is to take little trips to parts of the world. Right now I am in the Caribbean. (Other than BOTM with the group which I will read based on what everyone votes as the winners.)

Luís wrote: "It goes according with my next-to-read shelve by adding-year .."

I am not sure I understand what you are saying. I am sorry.

Luís wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Luís wrote: "It goes according with my next-to-read shelve by adding-year .."

I am not sure I understand what you are saying. I am sorry."

According to the books you've mentioned, I..."

Oh, I see. So you are working on your TBR in the order the books were added to the shelf. Enjoy.

Dawn Michelle and I started this challenge a couple years ago after reading the articles/blog of the woman who completed books from all 195 countries. Our criteria is that the author must have been born in that country. I also teach college-level World Literature. I believe at last count I had competed books from 52 countries.

Joy wrote: "Dawn Michelle and I started this challenge a couple years ago after reading the articles/blog of the woman who completed books from all 195 countries. Our criteria is that the author must have been..."
Welcome Joy. I looked at your list too and there is so much for me to add to my own list. Thank you.

Joy wrote: "Dawn Michelle and I started this challenge a couple years ago after reading the articles/blog of the woman who completed books from all 195 countries. Our criteria is that the author must have been..."

Hi Joy! Welcome. I am so glad that you joined us. I decided to start the group after participating in a challenge this summer that took me on a tour of European books. When I got to the Balkans I realized that absolutely everything was new to me and that was a problem. And then I started researching and found blogs too. So my personal challenge was born and I decided to start the group. So glad you are here!

Joy wrote: "Dawn Michelle and I started this challenge a couple years ago after reading the articles/blog of the woman who completed books from all 195 countries. Our criteria is that the author must have been..."

I am at 47 books read. There are a couple countries that I read a book from a long time ago that I would like to read a newer book for, but probably not until after I have read all 195. And that is my goal as well. I believe Joy and I plan on reading at least 2 a month next year if we can. I think some of the smaller counties may pose some problems, but according to the blog that we read, she found translations for everything so I think it CAN be done, one way or another.

Yes, it can, though I looked up every book she read and some of them were VERY expensive. So that doesnt work for me as we are lower income and I am on a tight budget. And I plan to read 4 or 5 world books per month -- as long as it doesnt burn me out.

Is that woman's blog still available? I would like to read it too.

Joy wrote: ""
Thank you Friend Joy!!

Celia wrote: "Joy wrote: ""
Thank you Friend Joy!!"

Celia, she has some good recommendations.

Kelly wrote: "Yes, it can, though I looked up every book she read and some of them were VERY expensive. So that doesnt work for me as we are lower income and I am on a tight budget. And I plan to read 4 or 5 wor..."

I don't plan on buying many. Since the blog came out, libraries and library outlets have really amped up their ebooks game and I have an amazing library in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh [even though I have to travel 3 hours to get there] that will be extremely helpful in helping complete this challenge. The librarians there are amazing and super helpful and once they know Joy and I are doing this, they will be jumping on board to help us [well, the librarians we know, they have many there]. Plus, there is Pitt, and Carnegie Mellon and Chatham colleges there as well that I might be able to tap into. Plus, Joy teaches World Lit and has access to book through her school as well. In this day and age, there really isn't any need to actually BUY an expensive book unless absolutely necessary. And I would be on the hunt for a different book by a different author if that was the only way to get a book. I did just that last night with the country Kenya. Sara had a great author from there but the book she had didn't have an audiobook [I have that added disadvantage as well] so I found another one by the same author that DID have an audiobook and both were available online, the kindle book by the library and the audiobook by Scribd [which I belong to because I cannot afford to buy all the audiobooks I need to read so a monthly subscription to an audiobook [and MUCH more] site is awesome].

Dawn Michelle wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Yes, it can, though I looked up every book she read and some of them were VERY expensive. So that doesnt work for me as we are lower income and I am on a tight budget. And I plan to r..."

I may look into Scribd. I belong to Audible, but as you said that doesn't help a lot. My library system is not as good as yours. I looked up every single book that I wanted from every country, and had very little luck. I dont drive either so that doesn't help me. But I don't care... I am going to keep working on it anyway. :)

You and Dawn Michelle are friends IRL, right? How cool. I don't have any bookish friends.

Yes, Kelly, Dawn and I were friends in jr. high school, lost touch for 30 years, and reconnected via Facebook about 4 years ago. It has truly been like no time passed at all. It is a rare friendship we have

Kelly, thanks for doing nominations. You've saved me from some dreadful order my OCD would have dreamed of.

Joy wrote: "Yes, Kelly, Dawn and I were friends in jr. high school, lost touch for 30 years, and reconnected via Facebook about 4 years ago. It has truly been like no time passed at all. It is a rare friendshi..."

That is so cool. I am bit jealous.

Patrick wrote: "Kelly, thanks for doing nominations. You've saved me from some dreadful order my OCD would have dreamed of."

LOL. I have the OCD on this for sure. I am reading the BOTM we all vote upon, but I am also reading more each month and that is where it is messing with me because I am trying to read books of regions together. I have been in the Caribbean for a month.

Kelly wrote: "Dawn Michelle wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Yes, it can, though I looked up every book she read and some of them were VERY expensive. So that doesnt work for me as we are lower income and I am on a tight b..."

Kelly, I belong to three libraries; the one in my small hometown [that really doesn't offer a lot, but I have found some things there and the librarians are as helpful as they can be], Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh [the one I drive 3 hours to go to, but have access to their HUGE online library and catalog] and the Free Philadelphia Library [which also has a huge online library and catalog and I did everything for that one online since I live 8 hours from it]. It got me to thinking when you said your local library didn't have very much in the way of the books you were looking for and I wondered if your capital or state library would. So I looked up the criteria for the Denver Library System [since you live in CO] and found you can have a card from there and can do all the application for that online!!! Here is the link for that:

Patrick wrote: "Kelly, thanks for doing nominations. You've saved me from some dreadful order my OCD would have dreamed of."

Joy can attest to my own OCD and my love of lists and order. It is a whole entity unto itself some days. :-)

Dawn Michelle wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Dawn Michelle wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Yes, it can, though I looked up every book she read and some of them were VERY expensive. So that doesnt work for me as we are lower income and I a..."

Wow! Thanks Dawn Michelle! I will definitely apply tonight!

Kelly wrote: "Dawn Michelle wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Dawn Michelle wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Yes, it can, though I looked up every book she read and some of them were VERY expensive. So that doesnt work for me as we ar..."

You are very welcome; I hope this helps!! They may be able to direct you to other libraries within your state that also have these kind of library cards.

Dawn Michelle -- it doesn't appear they have Hoopla -- but they have Blindness on Overdrive even though my library didn't! Yay!

Luís wrote: "It goes according with my next-to-read shelve by adding-year .."

Luis -- I just finished Blindness by Jose Saramago and thought it was excellent! This was my first foray into Portuguese literature. What other books would you recommend.

Kelly wrote: "Luís wrote: "It goes according with my next-to-read shelve by adding-year .."

Luis -- I just finished Blindness by Jose Saramago and thought it was excellent! This was my first foray into Portugue..."

Kelly and Luis - I am looking for the answer too.

I don't know if I really have a plan of attack or not. Yesterday I finished The Story of the Goths (1888) by Henry Bradley (1845-1923), a short (146-page) e-book about an almost-forgotten, warlike people who lived in Italy, Germany, France and Spain during the third to eighth centuries CE. Roughly divided into the eastern Ostrogoths and the western Visigoths (from whose language--similar to German--we get our word bigot), they were really good at destroying stuff but lousy at building, so virtually nothing of them survives. A riveting history. 5 stars.

I downloaded to my smart phone, on which I have the Kindle app; the Hoopla, Overdrive, and Libby apps, which allow one to borrow electronic and audio books from libraries. Last night I used Libby to borrow a Project Gutenberg edition of Heidi (1880 or 1881) by Johanna Spyri (1827-1901), set in Switzerland. Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ appends the title of the ePub edition of the book with (Heidi #1-2) and says that it is 370 pages in length; the Libby app says it is 818 pages, but I wonder if that reflects its formatting to my smart phone screen.

At my physical local library, I borrowed two books on December 12, 2018, and two more yesterday. Those that I borrowed on December 12 are a science fiction novel, Dracula Unbound (1991) by Brian W. Aldiss (1925-2017), which is science fiction set in the far-distant future on an Earth virtually obliterated by an expanding Sun; and The Color of Her Panties (1992) by Piers Anthony (born 1934 as Piers--the Welsh form of Peter--Anthony Jacob), a fantasy set in the fictional, magical land of Xanth (pronounced Zanth), which looks like his home state of Florida.

The books I borrowed yesterday were a graphic nonfiction, Introducing Wagner: A Graphic Guide by Michael White and Kevin Scott, about the German opera composer Richard Wagner (1813-83); and The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham (1903-69), dystopian science fiction.

Jim wrote: "I don't know if I really have a plan of attack or not. Yesterday I finished The Story of the Goths (1888) by Henry Bradley (1845-1923), a short (146-page) e-book abo..."

The Story of the Goths sounds really good! And the graphic novel about Wagner really intrigues me. I don't generally read graphic novels but some of the historical ones are really good.

It's impressive reading these posts and how you all are going to approach this. For now I am sticking to myths and old stories and then see where it takes me from there.

Inkspill wrote: "It's impressive reading these posts and how you all are going to approach this. For now I am sticking to myths and old stories and then see where it takes me from there."

I love that idea and look forward to your thoughts on them as you go!

I decided I'm going to fill in the list with overlap from my 1001 books list first as I do that one, which should leave me with ~100 books I'll have to find outside it. I plan on finishing the 1001 list in ~6 years, after which I think it will only take 1 or 2 years to clear my countries list when I'm focusing on it. (at least that's the plan lol).

Amanda wrote: "I decided I'm going to fill in the list with overlap from my 1001 books list first as I do that one, which should leave me with ~100 books I'll have to find outside it. I plan on finishing the 1001..."

Sounds great!