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Who remembers my 2019 Travel-Themed Reading Challenge? It took quite a bit of time but I have finally completed all 24 books for the challenge and then some (I’m on track to read over 50 books this year)! Of the 24 exactly half are fiction and half are non-fiction though overall non-fictions won the year. I’ve included below my Top 5 books for travelers, based on the books read this year within the challenge.

My Top 5 for 2020, in no particular order
Factfulness - Hans Rosling
I highly recommend this book to anyone living. Anyone with an interest in the welfare of other people with whom we share the planet will appreciate its evidence-based optimism about our future. If you don’t, all the more reason to read it. I saw Hans Rosling’s Ted Talk a few years back and when I heard he wrote a book I knew I was in for a treat. When we are inundated by all the things going wrong in the world, it is reaffirming to see a book using facts and statistics to change our perspective. This is required reading for Bill Gates’ employees and he even gave free copies to all 2018 college graduates!
Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall
It is probably a good thing I didn’t read this book in High School - I never would have followed through with my Math/Science career tract. An insightful and enlightening book on global geopolitics, accessible even to the geographically challenged, that highlights the physical bounties and restraints that shape a nation - its history, its alliances and enemies, and its future.
Marching Powder - Timothy McFadden and Rusty Young
A remarkable first-hand account of the true story of Timothy McFadden, international drug trafficker, trying to make sense of the bizarre economy within Bolivia’s San Pedro “tourist prison” where inmates must buy their cell, civilians can pay to spend the night, and the purest cocaine is made on premises. Brad Pitt bought the movie rights in 2015 so read it before it comes to the big screen.
In a Sunburnt Country - Bill Bryson
At the mid-year update, this book was my biggest surprise. Witty and engaging, seeing Australia through Bill Bryson’s made me want to see it with my own. I’d only ever read one other travelogue and never got into the genre. This book changed that too.
In the Country of Last Things - Paul Auster
I am the person for whom those “most depressing books of all time” listicles are made. I don’t remember this book ever being on a list, but it should be. The only fiction work in my top 5, the reader follows a young solo traveler to a destitute dystopian city in search of one elusive thing - her lost brother. Instead she finds glimpses of beauty, love, and meaning in a world that has nothing else to offer.

Reading Topics and Their Books:

✓ A book that is set in a country you want to visit/are visiting
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe - Kapka Kassabova

✓ A book picked up on vacation
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata

✓ A book published the year you were born
In the Country of Last Things - Paul Auster [1987]

✓ A book about a country you’ve been to and miss
Jacob’s Room - Virginia Woolf

✓ A book written by an author from a country you are visiting (or want to)
Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

✓ A book read entirely on an airplane/train/car
Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years - Nelson Mandela

✓ A book recommended by someone you’ve traveled with
Factfulness - Hans Rosling

✓ A book translated from a foreign language (or in it, if you dare)
Mon Hamster Veut Aller à L’école - JP Chabot

✓ A book borrowed from a fellow traveler
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

✓ A book with a mode of transportation on the cover
Longitude: The True Story Of A Lone Genius Who Solved The Greatest Scientific Problem Of His Time - Dava Sobel

✓ A book whose main character has a career you wish you had or admire
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand [Architect]

✓ A book by an author you've never read before
Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall

✓ A book you own but have not read
The Weight of Glory - C. S. Lewis

✓ A book with a color in the title or author’s name
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin
Lethal White - Robert Galbraith

✓ Three books on a single topic or by the same author
The Global Achievement Gap - Tony Wagner 
Radical: Fighting to Put Students First - Michelle Rhee
Savage Inequalities - Jonathan Kozol

A Book set on every continent:

✓ Africa
The Last Train to Zona Verde - Paul Theroux

✓ Asia
Men Without Women - Haruki Murakami

✓ Australia
In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson

✓ Europe
Gravity’s Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon

✓ North America
A Little Life - Hanya Yanaghara

✓ Antarctica
Antarctica - Kim Stanley Robinson

✓ South America
Marching Powder - Rusty Young and Thomas McFadden

Did you read any books to fit these themes? What were your favorite books far this year? Are there topics you’d like to see covered in next year’s challenge?