Around the World in 80 Books

Travelling hopefully…

For someone who says I don’t do challenges, I somehow seem to keep being tempted by them! This is another of the kind I like, relaxed, no strict rules, and most of all a completely open timescale.

Hosted by Sarah and Lucy at the wonderful Hard Book Habit, here’s what they say…

Here’s the deal.  You’ll need to read 80 books set or connected with the random destinations of your choice, then you blog about each book that you read en route. You can choose any books you like – this challenge is not limited to fiction – and the only catch is that you must read at least one book connected to each continent, one sea-based book, and a book that involves travel – think the Orient Express, flight, hot-air balloons, train journeys, car trips, etc… the rest is up to you.

Since I already tend to range fairly widely around the world of fiction (I think), I reckon this should be a challenge that I can mostly meet from my normal reading. So I thought it might be fun to go back to the original book that inspired the challenge and see if I can find books for each stage of Phineas Fogg’s original journey. Wikipedia not only tells me where Fogg and his faithful servant Passepartout stopped, but they provide a map!

Personally I think their route looks fairly dull, so I hope to do plenty of detours along the way. I’ll only be including books I recommend (unless I get stuck) and I’ll be adding them as I review them, so pop back occasionally to see where I’ve been. Here’s the plan…

The Main Journey

1. London  – Martin Chuzzlewit
2. Orient Express – Travels with My Aunt
3. France – The Sisters of Versailles
4. Alps – Crossed Skis
5. Venice – Titian’s Boatman
6. Brindisi – That Summer in Puglia
7. Mediterranean Sea – Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas
8. Suez – Something to Answer For
9. Egypt – Palace Walk
10. Red Sea/Arabian Sea – Lord Jim
11. Bombay – Selection Day
12. Calcutta – A Rising Man
13. Kholby – The Jewel in the Crown
14. Elephant Travel – The Elephant’s Journey
15. Allahabad – The Sign of the Four
16. Indian Ocean/ South China Sea – A Dangerous Crossing
17. Hong Kong – How to Pick Up a Maid in Statue Square
18. Shanghai – Death of a Red Heroine
19. Yokohama – Around the World in Eighty Days
20. Pacific – Moby-Dick: Or, The White Whale
21. San Francisco – The Dain Curse
22. Sioux lands – Days Without End
23. Omaha – The Swan Gondola
24. New York – Three-Martini Lunch
25. Atlantic Ocean – Treasure Island
26. Queenstown (Cobh) Ireland – Dead Wake
27. London – The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Some of these will be harder than others so a bit of creativity might be required. Suggestions very welcome, especially for the places I’ve highlighted in purple, so please get your thinking caps on! Any genre…

The Detours

That leaves 53 spots for me to randomly tour the world, so here’s where I’ve been so far…

1. The Hebrides – Coffin Road
2. Florida – Their Eyes Were Watching God
3. Iceland – Snowblind
4. Himalayas – Black Narcissus
5. Ireland – The Heather Blazing
6. Channel Islands – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
7. Australian Outback – Fear is the Rider
8. Portugal – The High Mountains of Portugal
9. Milan, Italy – The Murdered Banker
10. Havana, Cuba – A Heart So White
11. Saturn – 2001: A Space Odyssey
12. Kabul, Afghanistan – The Kite Runner
13. Vatican City – Conclave
14. Dresden, Germany – Slaughterhouse-Five
15. Scottish Highlands – Murder of a Lady
16. The French Riviera – Death on the Riviera
17. Kiev, Ukraine – The White Guard
18. North Korea – The Accusation
19. Chechnya – The Tsar of Love and Techno
20. Japan – Penance
21. Beijing, China – Braised Pork
22. Ancient Greece – House of Names
23. Bosnia and Herzegovina – Testimony
24. Moscow, Russia – Doctor Zhivago
25. Republic of the Congo – Brazzaville Beach
26. Thailand – Behind the Night Bazaar
27. Antarctic – Endurance
28. Wales – The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories
29. Spain – The Man Who Loved Dogs
30. New Zealand – The Ice Shroud
31. Gibraltar – The Rock
32. Canada – Brother
33. Jordan – Appointment with Death
34. South Africa – The Good Doctor
35. Lebanon – Pearls on a Branch
36. Colombia – The Shape of the Ruins
37. Uruguay – Springtime in a Broken Mirror
38. Ancient Rome – Imperium
39. Norway – The Katharina Code
40. South Korea – The Plotters
41. Europe – Europe: A Natural History
42. Colonial Malay – The Night Tiger
43. Istanbul, Turkey – 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
44. Papua New Guinea – Mister Pip
45.  Zululand – Nada the Lily
46.  East Germany – The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
47.  Mexico – The Pearl
48.  Nigeria – Things Fall Apart
49.  Öland, Sweden – Echoes from the Dead
50.  Sicily – The Leopard
51.  Ruritania – The Prisoner of Zenda
52.  The Arctic – Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus
53.   Romania – Sword

80 down, 0 to go!