Two Personal Long-Term Goals (challenges?)
I was listening to a recent What Should I Read Next podcast and the guest was talking about how she sets a long term goal each year - something like reading all of Shakespeare, (or author of choice), etc. and how she accomplishes that by breaking it into small, bite-sized tasks. That got me thinking......
A FIVE YEAR READING GOAL / PLAN
I've long contemplated the goal of reading a book from every country in the world, but it's daunting. And would take some research. And at 195+ countries, there's no way I could finish it in a year, even if I dedicated every book to that effort, which I don't want to do. Then I came across someone who has almost completed this goal and she set herself a five year deadline. OH! Why didn't I think think of that? That's doable!!!
1st Step: create a list of countries. There are a LOT of countries, some of them teeny, tiny. It'll be interesting to see if there are books about or published by an author from St. Kitts, or Seychelles, or Cape Verde.
2nd Step: Start a list of potential books/authors from around the world that have translated works available.
3rd Step: Start reading.
I found a couple of Read the World challenges on Storygraph where they have a way to keep track of what you read as it applies to the challenge, but I'm not sure if it will carry over for several years, so I'll have to make my own tracking system. Excel to the rescue!
In case anyone else is interested, here are a couple resources I found:
This ambitious reader gave a TED talk and shared the Google map she made to track her reading from every country. On the active map, you can click the red marker and it details the book she read. SO helpful!
Here's the TED talk page with maps and links. After watching this, I'm not sure how much effort I want to put into finding something from the remotest of countries - we'll see.
A list of recommended reading for around the world. Looks like a good place to start.
**ED to add: Here's another very helpful list from a fellow 'world traveler'. Thanks to Elena at Elena Square Eyes for this comprehensive list.
THIS YEAR'S BIG READING GOAL
This goal / personal challenge won't be nearly as hard. I do enjoy a LONG book but there are a few on my TBR that I've been avoiding, partly because of their length. I want to start whittling away at that list. So this year my long book to tackle is The Count of Monte Cristo. Clocking in at over 1200 pages, I think I'll tackle this one in the summer........
So there you have it - in addition to my 13 challenges (what WAS I thinking?) I'm tossing these two into the mix. Certainly for this first year, all my international, around the world reading, will be the 'easy' countries - then I'll start looking further afield in succeeding years.
Have any of you attempted or accomplished the Read The World idea? Care to share where you find your book titles or reading suggestions?
