The challenge for 2014 is to widen our reading horizons. To do this, we’re forming a group of readers who will, between us, attempt to read a book from nearly every country in the world.

The list of countries with suggested/potential authors has been created as a Google doc. The link will be emailed to to you if you are interested in joining. The authors listed here are meant only as a guide, especially for countries where literature in translation is difficult to find.

Instructions

1. Go to the Google document (see point 6 below) and put your name next to the country you are interested in. Doing this will help prevent duplication. You don’t have to put in the title and author of the book straight away or make all your selections the first time around.

2. The author should be from the country where she or he was born and grew up in. For example, Salman Rushdie would count as Indian, even though he is now a UK national. This is to accommodate the fact that several authors from the South emigrate to the North but continue to write about their home country. When in doubt, consult Wikipedia. Or feel free to ask Kris, Joannah or Suroor.

3. If you want to add books you have already read to the list, please do not add any you have read before 2014.

4. You can read in any language you like.

5. Books can belong to any genre: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc.

6. Accessing Google docs: If you have signed up, you will have received an email with a link to the document. To open, log into your Gmail account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can still set up a Google account with your current email. It’s really all quite straightforward. If you need help, please ask Suroor (who doesn’t have a Gmail account either!). Google docs will allow you to edit online.
Update: If you don’t have a Google account, you can access the document with the link.

7. Note to people in the Geneva area: Suroor has a collection of non-US, non-UK books and will be very happy to lend them out.

If you would like to sign up, please contact suroor_alikhan at yahoo(dot)com.