PawsforThought's Endless European Challenge

CharlasThe Europe Endless Challenge

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PawsforThought's Endless European Challenge

1PawsforThought
Editado: Jul 22, 2015, 8:33 am

Hi all!

I just stumbled across this challenge and thought it was a brilliant idea. I have never travelled around Europe in real life but doing it by way of literature is a nice substitute.

I won't be the most active participant in this group (I'll book a seat in the quiet carriage) but I'll check in now and then and make updates on my journeys.

Seeing as people seem to have slightly differing opinions on exactly which countries are in Europe I'm going to go with what I was told at school - though making adjustment for newly-formed countries.

Autonomous territories and dependencies won't have their own categories; I'll count them in with the sovereign state but make a note of the specific region. This will include areas like Greenland, Jersey and Gibraltar. The same goes for states and territories that no longer exist but have been engulfed or divided up by other nations.
The countries within the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) will have their own categories directly beneath the UK category, and any books set specifically in those areas will be filed there. Any books set more loosely in "the UK", or where the action happens across the UK or where the book is set in an autonomous territory or dependency will be filed as "the UK".
Because of this I will count the UK, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as separate countries for the counter. That makes for a total of 52 countries in Europe.




2PawsforThought
Editado: Oct 7, 2012, 4:10 pm

Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan

3PawsforThought
Editado: Mar 7, 2014, 11:22 am

Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia & Herzegovia
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Bulgaria
Croatia

4PawsforThought
Editado: mayo 14, 2014, 4:31 pm

Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson

5PawsforThought
Editado: Jul 5, 2017, 9:37 am

France
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
I Will Repay by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Maigret's Dead Man by Georges Simenon
Maigret's First Case by Georges Simenon
The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
A Very Long Engagement by Sébastien Japrisot
Georgia
Germany
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carré
Greece
Hungary

6PawsforThought
Editado: Mar 7, 2014, 11:43 am

Iceland
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Ireland
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Italy
Latvia
Liechenstein

7PawsforThought
Editado: Mar 7, 2014, 11:41 am

Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova

8PawsforThought
Editado: Jul 22, 2015, 8:07 am

Monaco
Montenegro
The Netherlands
Norway
Poland
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

9PawsforThought
Editado: Mar 7, 2014, 11:40 am

Portugal
Romania
Russia
A Life's Music by Andreï Makine (Soviet)
San Marino
Serbia

10PawsforThought
Editado: Ene 8, 2015, 3:00 pm

Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Beowulf
Ljuset by Torgny Lindgren
The Night Daddy by Maria Gripe
Simon and the Oaks by Marianne Fredriksson
Tordyveln flyger i skymningen by Maria Gripe
Ture Sventon, privatdetektiv by Åke Holmberg
Switzerland

11PawsforThought
Editado: Jul 5, 2017, 9:35 am

Turkey
Ukraine
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
The United Kingdom
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (Guernsey)
England
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie
Best Detective Stories of Agatha Christie by Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Double Sin and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
The Golden Ball and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Poirots problem by Agatha Christie
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
Smiley's People by John le Carré
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy by John le Carré
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales

12PawsforThought
Oct 7, 2012, 12:57 pm

Just adding another note in case I need it.

13VivienneR
Oct 7, 2012, 7:09 pm

Welcome to the challenge. I'm so impressed with your graphics. Bon voyage!

14cyderry
Oct 7, 2012, 7:43 pm

15thornton37814
Oct 8, 2012, 9:25 am

I added some extra locations into my challenge just for the fun of it -- things like Gibraltar and some of the islands that are under another country's dominion but have their own characteristics. I knew I was going beyond the requirements. At first I added them as "optional" countries, but I've gone back and added them. There is one that I'd wanted to do that does not have any readily available books in English speaking countries that are specific to the country. I'll probably end up settling for an essay about that one.

16PawsforThought
Oct 8, 2012, 9:51 am

->14 cyderry:. I've seen lots of people on here use that map generator, but I've got two problems with it. 1. It doesn't allow you to start with "no countries", you have to have at least one and 2. It doesn't seem to allow you to add countries as you go - you have to make a new map each time you've visited a new country.
Maybe I'm just technologically incompetent (if so, please tell me).

Are there any other map generators?

17PawsforThought
Oct 8, 2012, 9:54 am

->15 thornton37814: I'll definitely try and get to as many different locations as possible even within the countries; I'd love to tick off as many of the dominions and territories as possible. I just know that if I add them to the "official" challenge it'll just make me stressed out and I have enough challenges going on at the moment without adding extra difficulties to them.

18AHS-Wolfy
Oct 8, 2012, 11:03 am

@16, as long as you create an account (free, last time I checked) then you can update your map(s) as needed. I use the site for all my location based challenges on LT (this one, reading globally & 50 US States). To get over the other part of your problem, read a book that qualifies ;)

19PawsforThought
Oct 8, 2012, 4:44 pm

->18 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks for answering. I didn't know about the accounts, I'll look into that.
I'm not starting the European Challenge just yet, I'm reading non-geographically specific books at the moment but I wanted everything set up for when I get cracking. I guess I'll just have to wait and do it later.

20thornton37814
Oct 9, 2012, 8:18 am

If you read a book that fits, you could go ahead and add it, and get a little jump start on it!

21PawsforThought
Oct 9, 2012, 9:13 am

I'm in the middle of pile that has to be returned to the library ASAP so can't skip ahead. Also, I've got months of reading planned so I won't start on the EEC until much later in the year (or the new year).

I'll make the map then.

22PawsforThought
Oct 22, 2012, 6:58 pm

1 down, 50 to go!

I got my first country - feeling very proud of myself. Angela's Ashes was really great. Sad and funny at the same time and a really easy read. I thought it was going to take a long time to read but it just flew past.

23cyderry
Editado: Oct 25, 2012, 5:24 pm

I've found that if I go to the map site, change the countries, there's just one little bit of code (country abbreviation) that changes in the HTML and if I add that to my HTML in my message, the map will change. For instance, I just read Dracula, set in Romania I added RO to the code and Romania now shows as done.

FMI - Where did you get your little decals?

24PawsforThought
Oct 25, 2012, 5:30 pm

Oh, thanks, that's good to know.

Ehm, I nicked them off the internet somewhere. Just searched for "europe flags" or something similar and found a site that had them.

25PawsforThought
Editado: Oct 25, 2012, 5:35 pm

Nevermind. My head is tired.

26PawsforThought
Oct 31, 2012, 3:38 pm

Finished Jules Verne's A Journey to the Centre of the Earth yesterday and am counting that one as Iceland. While they do start off in Germany and travel through Denmark and (spoiler) end up in Italy I'd argue that Iceland is the most important country visited in the books. It is, after all, where they start their journey downwards.

I really liked the book and I wish I had read it when I was little as I think I would have really enjoyed the mix of adventure and real science (and geographical accuracy).

27PawsforThought
Feb 1, 2013, 3:58 am

My map is looking much redder now!

I recently read Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy and Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated which take place in Poland and the Ukraine respectively. So, in a short space of time I've managed to cover quite a large part of the landmass of Eastern Europe. Whoo me!

Also, I read Marianne Fredriksson's Simon and the Oaks so I've covered the homeland too.

28PawsforThought
Mar 7, 2014, 10:42 am

Oh, jeez. I really need to update this. Not that I have been reading tons of books in the past year (I wish I had but sadly not) but there are still a a few that should redden the map up a bit, along with a few titles to add to already coloured-in countries.

29PawsforThought
Mar 7, 2014, 11:11 am

I'm going to fix the list of countries up a bit. I don't like putting Guernsey under England as it's technically a dependency of the UK and not England so I'll shuffle some things around and make it more correct. In due time.

30PawsforThought
Sep 12, 2015, 6:33 am

I've updated the map and the list of countries. And added a few titles. Unfortunately for the sake of the challenge, mostly books set in England.

31PawsforThought
Feb 7, 2016, 10:21 am

My anglophile tendencies are not serving me very well here. I've added a few titles, but there's been no change to the map as they were all set in England.

32PawsforThought
Jul 5, 2017, 9:37 am

Updated with the books I read last year and the ones I've read so far this year. All of them set in England or France, which doesn't help my map at all.

33PawsforThought
Dic 9, 2020, 8:38 am

Just posting to make this non-dormant.