Another year, another reading challenge. And this year I’m getting a bit of a jump start on it and announcing the challenge early, not mid-way through January. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun finding books for last year’s challenge, and I am hoping to expand my knowledge of place and culture even further with this year’s.

For 2020 I challenge you to read a book

1) written by an author from or

2) set in

a country starting with each letter of the alphabet

Since X is the only letter without a corresponding country, this makes for a total of 25 books. However there are many cities that start with X, mostly in China, and those could easily count toward the letter X if you wanted to add in a 26th book. Four letters only have one country associated with them: Oman, Qatar, Wales, and Yemen. It will be interesting to see the variety of books we can read from these locations. Below is a list of countries for each letter. Those countries in bold are ones I plan to read about - suggestions are encouraged!

A
Afghanistan |Albania| Algeria | Andorra | Angola | Antigua and Barbuda | Argentina | Armenia |Australia| Austria | Azerbaijan

B
Bahamas | Bahrain | Bangladesh | Barbados | Belarus | Belgium | Belize | Benin | Bhutan | Bolivia | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Botswana | Brazil | Brunei | Bulgaria | Burkina Faso | Burundi

C
Cote d'Ivoire | Cabo Verde | Cambodia | Cameroon | Canada | Central African Republic | Chad | Chile | China | Columbia | Comoros | Congo | Costa Rica | Croatia | Cuba | Cyprus | Czech Republic

D
Democratic Republic of Congo | Denmark | Dijibouti | Dominica | Dominican Republic

E
Ecuador | Egypt | El Salvador | England | Equatorial Guinea | Eritrea | Estonia | Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) | Ethiopia

F

Fiji | Finland | France

G
Gabon | Gambia | Georgia | Germany | Ghana | Greece | Grenada | Guatemala | Guinea | Giuinea-Bissau | Guyana

H
Haiti | Holy See | Honduras | Hungary

I

Iceland | India | Indonesia | Iran | Iraq | Ireland | Israel | Italy

J

Jamaica | Japan | Jordan

K

Kazakhstan | Kenya | Kiribati | Kuwait | Kyrgyzstan | Kosovo

L

Laos | Latvia | Lebanon | Lesotho | Liberia | Libya | Liechtenstein | Lithuania | Luxembourg

M

Madagascar | Malawi | Malaysia | Maldives | Mali | Malta | Marshall Islands | Mauritania | Mauritius | Mexico | Micronesia | Moldova | Monaco | Mongolia | Montenegro | Morocco | Mozambique | Myanmar (formerly Burma)

N

Namibia | Nauru | Nepal | Netherlands | New Zealand | Nicaragua | Niger | Nigeria | Northern Ireland | North Korea | North Macedonia | Norway

O

Oman

P

Pakistan | Palau | Palestine State | Panama | Papua New Guinea | Paraguay | Peru | Philippines | Poland | Portugal

Q

Qatar

R

Romania | Russia | Rwanda

S

Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grendines | Samoa | San Marino | Sao Tome and Principe | Saudi Arabia | Scotland | Senegal | Serbia | Seychelles | Sierra Leone | Singapore | Slovakia | Slovenia | Solomon Islands | Somalia | South Africa | South Korea | South Sudan | Spain | Sri Lanka | Sudan | Suriname | Sweden | Switzerland | Syria

T

Tajikistan | Tanzania | Thailand | Timor-Leste | Togo | Tonga | Trinidad and Tobago | Tunisia | Turkey | Turkmenistan | Tuvalu

U

Uganda | Ukraine | United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom | United States of America | Uruguay | Uzbekistan

V

Vanuatu | Venezuela | Vietnam

W

Wales

Y

Yemen

Z

Zambia | Zimbabwe

Are you up to the challenge? Join our group on Goodreads!

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