One of the things I like to do every year is make a map of the books I’ve read to see if I am reading widely across the world. For this map I just put a point at the place where the majority of the action takes place. I don’t consider whether or not the author is from there or if it is a good representation of the place. On this map, purple is fiction and green is nonfiction.
I can see at a glance that once again poor South America is ignored mostly. I really need to read more from there.
My Read Every Country Map is different. This is a multi-year project inspired by Howling Frog Books to read a book set in each country that is either:
- Nonfiction about the country
- Fiction written by a person from the country or who lived in the country for an extended period of time
Obviously I still have a long way to go. Maybe my next goal should be Mexico to finish North America and then focus on Central America.
Most of the books I read were set in the United States. I had 28 states represented in 87 books.
California and New York were really overrepresented but I guess that’s normal for any kind of entertainment.
Where else did I read?
Asia – 16 books
One of my goals this year was to read more books set in Asia and/or by Asian authors. I had 9 books set in Asia in 2016 and 4 of those were in India. I definitely added some variety this year.
Africa – 9 books
Europe – 46 books
Middle East – 4 books
Everywhere Else – 41 books
