Victim of Geography - Page 7

HomeInMyShoes · 06-09-2014, 02:13 PM

Nigeria was an easy country and I had already read a book from Nigeria so I removed it from this year's list (Americanah was my preliminary selection). It's all the others that are problematic.

I have ideas for Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo as well.But availability is really sparse and given my route selection process I couldn't string enough together to get me out of the region. Some of those would be used paper purchases. For this year I've pretty much given up on the region for logistic and economic reasons.

I will definitely be continuing this challenge in subsequent years to fill in even more countries. I should be at around 70 to 80 countries read by the end of the year with almost 50 new ones.

Elpida · 06-09-2014, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Thanks Elpida. Zorba the Greek has been on my radar for a long time and might be the selection from Greece, but my library doesn't have it in eBook and the cost is atrocious ($14).

$0 here on Mobileread

Zorba the Greek (mobi)

and The Last Temptation of Christ (epub)

ccowie · 06-09-2014, 03:19 PM

Wow! What an adventure. This is such a great project and I really wish you all the best completing it.

I have also spent some time in Sierra Leone, but have no literature ideas. However, I spent time in Liberia just outside of Monrovia with an Irish fellow I got to know quite well. He had a pretty good bookshelf and I remember sort of reading through a couple of books. I really don't remember them that well and the only reason I can name them is because I noted them in my journal. One was Africa and Children by J. Ninsel Warner and the other was The Black Mayflower by Prince Massala.

HomeInMyShoes · 06-10-2014, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elpida

$0 here on Mobileread

Zorba the Greek (mobi)

and The Last Temptation of Christ (epub)

Wow, karma for you. I didn't know it had passed into Canadian public domain. Very, very, very thankful.

Yolina · 06-27-2014, 05:06 PM

If you're still stuck for Ukraine, I've found out that Andrey Krukov is Ukrainian (despite being born in Leningrad...) I've only read Death and the Penguin and The Milkman in the Night but thoroughly enjoyed them - must get round to reading his other books at some point!

Oh and throwing another one in the ring - for Greece this time, although you seem to be sorted for that country - Apostolos Doxiadis Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

HomeInMyShoes · 10-10-2014, 11:55 AM

A quick update.

There's only four books left in my challenge which will have spanned 70 countries.

Some other statistics:

Countries read: 66
New Countries: 47
Total Countries I've now read: 67
Given that there are 190 +/- 8 countries I will be somewhere in the 34% - 38% range for covering the world by the end of the year. That still seems rather paltry even though I know it was quite a bit of effort to even get this far.

Next stop 50%? 100 countries? Finish some regions? So many more places to go still, but they are getting more and more difficult to find.

To finish off this year's challenge I have Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and Ukraine to go.

Dazrin · 10-10-2014, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

A quick update.

There's only four books left in my challenge which will have spanned 70 countries.

Some other statistics:

Countries read: 66
New Countries: 47
Total Countries I've now read: 67
Given that there are 190 +/- 8 countries I will be somewhere in the 34% - 38% range for covering the world by the end of the year. That still seems rather paltry even though I know it was quite a bit of effort to even get this far.

Next stop 50%? 100 countries? Finish some regions? So many more places to go still, but they are getting more and more difficult to find.

To finish off this year's challenge I have Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and Ukraine to go.

Do you have an idea about how much of the world you have covered by population? I assume you are WAY above 34-38% with both China and India on your list.

Edit: I did some of the math...it looks like you ave 9 of the 12 countries with 100M+ populations on your list, only missing Philippines, Nigeria and Bangladesh (I am surprised this one is on the list). Just those 9 puts you at 55+% of the world's population. Seems like you are doing well to me. It has been very interesting following your travels this year.

HomeInMyShoes · 10-10-2014, 01:21 PM

Lol. I had read Nigeria previously so I substituted that title earlier in the year. Philippines and Bangladesh both proved very difficult to find anything. It would be nice to cross off the top-25 population list and all of North and South America somehow.

Top-30 suspects (6): Bangladesh, Philippines, Iran, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand, Myanmar, Colombia

Pretty decent coverage at the top, but that is where it is easy. Iran should be an easy one to find and I've got one for Colombia. The others have proved pretty elusive. I don't even have anything penciled in as a possibility.

And I just had to do it. Given a population around 7.266 billion (world population clock) I have read countries counting about 80.2% of the population. Not bad. That could be one method of determine relative success. 80% is not too shabby. I'd like to see 90% of population and 50% of countries. But that's another 30 countries away.

meeera · 10-10-2014, 11:58 PM

I found the USA over-represented in my reading and was becoming a bit bored with it, so I started following the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Some great stuff there. And on my to-do list is to take a closer look at the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards lists.

HomeInMyShoes · 10-14-2014, 10:27 AM

^Nice. Thanks for the link.

Roadside Picnic was my choice for Russia this year.

HarryT · 10-16-2014, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Lol. I had read Nigeria previously so I substituted that title earlier in the year. Philippines and Bangladesh both proved very difficult to find anything. It would be nice to cross off the top-25 population list and all of North and South America somehow.

Presumably you've looked at (for example) the "List of Bangladeshi Writers" topic in Wiki? There are a fair number listed.

HomeInMyShoes · 10-20-2014, 10:41 AM

^Yes, but thanks for the reminder. That's a usual starting point for every country for me. Then I read the biographies, see if they were born, transplanted, whatever. It might just be that I never looked at Bangladesh too hard. I had originally plotted a route through the world as you can see here, and I think Bangladesh got eliminated for being too hard a route for this year, although looking at the map again: India to Bangladesh to Sri Lanka would have worked easily. Then again, I cheated between Ukraine and Czech Republic, but I did relax the journey as I found books hard to find.

Given a limited budget I was a bit at the whim of what I could find through my library for a lot of this. I did buy a few books. Belize, Guatemala, Malaysia, but I really did try to do this on the cheap.

Now that I look I have found Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age which looks like a perfect fit. Oh well, onto the pile of fill in reads at some point it goes.

HomeInMyShoes · 12-02-2014, 03:04 PM

Now that the year is pretty much over and I'm into garbage time in my reading year, I thought I'd give an update of how far I got.

I read books from authors from 71 different countries this year. Bringing my total number of countries read up to 73 from the 25 I started with. I've researched my list of countries -- and I am using the term loosely since I haven't found much for definitive in many cases -- to 195 and bringing me up to about 37% of countries and about 83% of the world's population.

As far as regions go, I've got the following statistics:

Africa: 16/54
Eastern Africa: 7/18
Middle Africa: 1/9
Northern Africa: 6/6
Southern Africa: 1/5
Western Africa: 1/16

Americas: 18/35
Caribbean: 4/13
Central America: 5/8
North America: 2/2
South America: 7/12

Asia: 16/48
Central Asia: 3/5
Eastern Asia: 3/5
Southern Asia: 4/9
South-Eastern Asia: 4/11
Western Asia: 2/18

Europe: 21/43
Eastern Europe: 5/10
Northern Europe: 7/10
Southern Europe: 5/14
Western Europe: 4/9

Oceania: 2/15
Oceania: 2/2
Melanesia: 0/4
Micronesia: 0/5
Polynesia: 0/4

I've hung up the challenge for this year, but I've penciled in to try and hit at least another six countries next year. They are getting harder to cross off. You can check out the journey map here: Victim of Geography

Lin2412 · 12-10-2014, 05:24 AM

This is awesome! Hahaha. I finally found this challenge and all the things you guys have accomplished are extremely impressive. @Homeinmyshoes: The progress of your journey map is remarkable, truly. I can only hope to get 1/4 of your achievement. Hahaha. Good thinking on documenting them via maps. Wow!

HomeInMyShoes · 12-15-2014, 10:24 AM

^Thanks.

I can almost add one more country to the list: Cambodia which should be finished this week.

06-27-2014, 05:06 PM	#95
Yolina Wizard Posts: 1,179 Karma: 11573197 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: London, UK Device: Voyage	If you're still stuck for Ukraine, I've found out that Andrey Krukov is Ukrainian (despite being born in Leningrad...) I've only read Death and the Penguin and The Milkman in the Night but thoroughly enjoyed them - must get round to reading his other books at some point! Oh and throwing another one in the ring - for Greece this time, although you seem to be sorted for that country - Apostolos Doxiadis Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture Last edited by Yolina; 06-27-2014 at 05:15 PM.

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06-09-2014, 02:13 PM	#91
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Nigeria was an easy country and I had already read a book from Nigeria so I removed it from this year's list (Americanah was my preliminary selection). It's all the others that are problematic. I have ideas for Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo as well.But availability is really sparse and given my route selection process I couldn't string enough together to get me out of the region. Some of those would be used paper purchases. For this year I've pretty much given up on the region for logistic and economic reasons. I will definitely be continuing this challenge in subsequent years to fill in even more countries. I should be at around 70 to 80 countries read by the end of the year with almost 50 new ones.

06-09-2014, 03:19 PM	#93
ccowie Hiding with an ereader Posts: 391 Karma: 3987376 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Kitchener Ontario Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Sony PRS 950, Ipad 2, PRS 350	Wow! What an adventure. This is such a great project and I really wish you all the best completing it. I have also spent some time in Sierra Leone, but have no literature ideas. However, I spent time in Liberia just outside of Monrovia with an Irish fellow I got to know quite well. He had a pretty good bookshelf and I remember sort of reading through a couple of books. I really don't remember them that well and the only reason I can name them is because I noted them in my journal. One was Africa and Children by J. Ninsel Warner and the other was The Black Mayflower by Prince Massala.

10-10-2014, 11:55 AM	#96
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	A quick update. There's only four books left in my challenge which will have spanned 70 countries. Some other statistics: Countries read: 66 New Countries: 47 Total Countries I've now read: 67 Given that there are 190 +/- 8 countries I will be somewhere in the 34% - 38% range for covering the world by the end of the year. That still seems rather paltry even though I know it was quite a bit of effort to even get this far. Next stop 50%? 100 countries? Finish some regions? So many more places to go still, but they are getting more and more difficult to find. To finish off this year's challenge I have Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and Ukraine to go.

10-10-2014, 01:21 PM	#98
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Lol. I had read Nigeria previously so I substituted that title earlier in the year. Philippines and Bangladesh both proved very difficult to find anything. It would be nice to cross off the top-25 population list and all of North and South America somehow. Top-30 suspects (6): Bangladesh, Philippines, Iran, Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand, Myanmar, Colombia Pretty decent coverage at the top, but that is where it is easy. Iran should be an easy one to find and I've got one for Colombia. The others have proved pretty elusive. I don't even have anything penciled in as a possibility. And I just had to do it. Given a population around 7.266 billion (world population clock) I have read countries counting about 80.2% of the population. Not bad. That could be one method of determine relative success. 80% is not too shabby. I'd like to see 90% of population and 50% of countries. But that's another 30 countries away.

10-10-2014, 11:58 PM	#99
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,658 Karma: 66417824 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	I found the USA over-represented in my reading and was becoming a bit bored with it, so I started following the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Some great stuff there. And on my to-do list is to take a closer look at the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards lists.

10-14-2014, 10:27 AM	#100
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	^Nice. Thanks for the link. Roadside Picnic was my choice for Russia this year.

10-20-2014, 10:41 AM	#102
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	^Yes, but thanks for the reminder. That's a usual starting point for every country for me. Then I read the biographies, see if they were born, transplanted, whatever. It might just be that I never looked at Bangladesh too hard. I had originally plotted a route through the world as you can see here, and I think Bangladesh got eliminated for being too hard a route for this year, although looking at the map again: India to Bangladesh to Sri Lanka would have worked easily. Then again, I cheated between Ukraine and Czech Republic, but I did relax the journey as I found books hard to find. Given a limited budget I was a bit at the whim of what I could find through my library for a lot of this. I did buy a few books. Belize, Guatemala, Malaysia, but I really did try to do this on the cheap. Now that I look I have found Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age which looks like a perfect fit. Oh well, onto the pile of fill in reads at some point it goes.

12-02-2014, 03:04 PM	#103
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Now that the year is pretty much over and I'm into garbage time in my reading year, I thought I'd give an update of how far I got. I read books from authors from 71 different countries this year. Bringing my total number of countries read up to 73 from the 25 I started with. I've researched my list of countries -- and I am using the term loosely since I haven't found much for definitive in many cases -- to 195 and bringing me up to about 37% of countries and about 83% of the world's population. As far as regions go, I've got the following statistics: Africa: 16/54 Eastern Africa: 7/18 Middle Africa: 1/9 Northern Africa: 6/6 Southern Africa: 1/5 Western Africa: 1/16 Americas: 18/35 Caribbean: 4/13 Central America: 5/8 North America: 2/2 South America: 7/12 Asia: 16/48 Central Asia: 3/5 Eastern Asia: 3/5 Southern Asia: 4/9 South-Eastern Asia: 4/11 Western Asia: 2/18 Europe: 21/43 Eastern Europe: 5/10 Northern Europe: 7/10 Southern Europe: 5/14 Western Europe: 4/9 Oceania: 2/15 Oceania: 2/2 Melanesia: 0/4 Micronesia: 0/5 Polynesia: 0/4 I've hung up the challenge for this year, but I've penciled in to try and hit at least another six countries next year. They are getting harder to cross off. You can check out the journey map here: Victim of Geography

12-10-2014, 05:24 AM	#104
Lin2412 Grand Sorceress Posts: 456 Karma: 12931465 Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Florida Device: Kindle	This is awesome! Hahaha. I finally found this challenge and all the things you guys have accomplished are extremely impressive. @Homeinmyshoes: The progress of your journey map is remarkable, truly. I can only hope to get 1/4 of your achievement. Hahaha. Good thinking on documenting them via maps. Wow!

12-15-2014, 10:24 AM	#105
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	^Thanks. I can almost add one more country to the list: Cambodia which should be finished this week.

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