Around the World in 80 Books

I frequently like to set up reading challenges for myself. Sometimes they're as simple as reading all of the books in a particular series or finishing one very challenging book- I'm looking at the copy of Salt: A World History that sat on my night stand and was read sporadically over 5 years and the copy of Anna Karenina that is quickly heading for the same fate. More often than not, it's about reading books that fit a certain set of criteria.

I came across this link the other day on Amazon.com promoting their summer reading challenge to go around the world in 80 books, and this totally sounds like fun. I'd love to do this in a single summer, but I think it's going to take just a little longer than that.

Here's a list of the countries I'll be using as reference. Where I've already read a book for that country, I've listed it. I'll link back to the reviews I do as I go through the challenge.

For this challenge, I'll be looking at books that are primarily set in these countries, or that might be about these countries. If the country is mentioned or briefly visited in the story that won't be enough for it to count towards the total. Some of these will be easy to do, some others will need some creativity or at least some research. Of course, I'm thinking some traditional cocktails or spirits from those areas will be in order as well. Maybe this will help me finish Anna Karenina in less than 5 years.

Afghanistan
Algeria
Arctic/Antarctic
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Barbados
Belgium
Bosnia
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Egypt
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Great Britain
Greece
Greenland
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kenya
Laos
Liberia
Mexico
Morocco
Netherlands
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Scotland
Sierra Leone
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
USA
Venezuela
Vietnam
Zimbabwe

I'll set up this post as a separate page on the blog so it'll be easier to see my progress. Which means I'll have to make progress because it'll be really obvious if I don't.