Reading the World

The kind of corner I won’t be able to resist (Hay-on-Wye, Wales – town of books)
Apart from being a real life traveler, I also travel in my reading. Several years back I started Reading the World project in which I made an attempt to read at least one book from each country. But since I moved to London 3 years ago, I had been staying mostly in 19th and 20th century England (almost literally), and had not been actively pursuing new countries to add to my list.
Just a few days ago I decided to renew this endeavor and refocus the effort. I gave the project page a makeover (originally was on my book blog), listing all 193 countries from the UN countries list. Similar to the time when I did a head count for UNESCO World Heritage list, I did a head count on the countries I have read so far: 30 countries.
I’m pretty happy with that starting point, and going to continue reading the countries I have not read. At this point I’m going to make a priority to read countries that I have visited in real life, but have not read anything from, namely: Spain, Austria, Turkey, and Morocco (I also need to fill in Greece and Switzerland, but am finding these two to be difficult). I will also try to read more of European countries.
I love reading a new place, as much as I love going to a new place. I get to learn so much by reading about the culture of the place, the people, and the history. I almost cannot imagine being a traveler without being a reader. What are beautiful sights without the stories behind them?
If you’re a reader traveler like me, check out my Reading the World page (it’s also on the top navigation bar), and hope it helps you in getting good book recommendations!