European Reading Challenge 2013

Challenge Home Page

My Signup Page

The gist: The idea was to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books could be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You could participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour. (See note about the UK, below)

What counts as "Europe"? For this challenge, we used the list of 50 sovereign states that fall (at least partially) within the geographic territory of the continent of Europe and/or enjoy membership in international European organizations such as the Council of Europe. This list includes the obvious (the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy), the really huge Russia, the tiny Vatican City, and the mixed bag of Baltic, Balkan, and former Soviet states.

Note: Technically, the United Kingdom is one country that includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.  So one book from any one of these four should count as your one book for that one country. I'm not going to be a stickler about it because challenges should be about fun not about rules. However, when it comes to winning the Jet Setter prize, only one book from one of the UK countries will count.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vatican City. 

I chose the top level

Five Star (Deluxe Entourage): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries, and managed to read twelve, so I'm pleased.

Books Read:

1. Dark Dreams by Michael Genelin (Slovakia) Finished January 5
2. City of Women by David R. Gillham (Germany) Finished January 13
3. Young Turk by Moris Farhi (Turkey) Finished January 13
4. Harvest by Jim Crace (UK) Finished February 20
5. The Smell of the Night by Andrea Camilleri (Italy) Finished March 15
6. A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova (Russia) Finished March 16
7. Two Pints by Roddy Doyle (Ireland) Finished May 2
8. The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas (France) Finished May 11
9. Léon & Louise by Alex Capus (Switzerland) Finished June 2
10. The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk (Poland) Finished July 2
11. HHhH by Laurent Binet (Czech Republic) Finished July 17
12. Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller (Norway) Finished July 30