The helpdesk

It does seem like more than a little overkill to start making individual threads for each country with just five members and one day to show for this group. I thought, however, that as someone situated in the middle (well, the north end of) of the European literary landscape, I might be able to be of some little assistance if people feel they have stuff they want to ask - about geography or titles. I think I could provide some tips for a variety of tastes for most of the major countries anyway.

For now, this will be the tips and questions thread!

With the risk of my list of European countries being considered "The" list, please note:

Unlike the american states, what constitutes or doesn't constitute a "country" isn't entirely given. Same goes for where Europe actually starts or ends...

The list on my thread includes all sovereign countries on the European continent. But also a bit more.

-I chose to divide United Kingdom into England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mainly because I read a lot of books from the UK, and it felt very doable. Also because those four corners of the UK have very distinct flavours as environments.

-Faroe Islands and Greenland are both technically part of Denmark, but are self gouverning territories. (I included them since I have hunches on where to go with Greenland, but also since I realised I haven't read ANYTHING from Faroe Islands ever.) Readers of a completist disposition might want to note that including those could mean including Athos, The Azores, Jersey, Isle of Man, Åland etc. as well.

- Kosovo's souveriegnity might still be contested in parts of the world, even if I think all European countries (with the possible exception of Serbia) has acknowlegded it.

- Russia, Georgia, Azerbajdzjan and Turkey are geographically in both Asia and Europe. The bigger landmass for all these countries are in Asia. Istanbul in Turkey is famous for being the world's only (?) city situated on two continents.

- Armenia is not in Europe geographically, but is often included politically.

Thanks, GingerbreadMan, I wonder if our lists will all inevitably look different, depending on what we decide constitutes a country.

And read fast -- things can always change!

@#3 Thankfully about 90% is pretty straightforward. We'll have around 40 countries in common however we choose to count!

As for change: True indeed. The Balkan countries being the most striking exampel...

I think this will be an interesting challenge--while I regularly read British, German and Swedish authors, it will be a stretch to find and read authors from, say, Andorra or Belarus!

Do we want a list of countries with books suggested? I have a few, not all from this year, for some of the trickier places, and I'm sure all of you do too. But it might be too much trouble.

I'm fine with just the "good books from obscure" places, at least for now. If we bold the names of countries there, it's fairly easy to get and overview just from scrolling. If things get crowded there, we could split up into threads for individual countries. Or we could start threads for individual countries when we have a tip to give, on a "need to know basis" so to speak. I think I prefer that to having a lot of empty threads hanging. What do you think?

#7 I like this suggestion. Especially the part about bolding the names of countries. As a compromise, we could set up regional threads to keep the thread from getting so long while still avoiding dozens of empty hanging threads.

I think that will work. Unfortunately, I only have a few books, and none that are from very obscure places. I guess maybe The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but that book is pretty well known.

Has anyone managed to find an interactive map where it were serve like a pictorial ticker of the countries that we've read?

#10

There's this one:

http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedEurope

I am using the world66 one but http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=world is also a good one.

I was a member of the Europe Endless Challenge, but somehow doing a group clean-up must have inadvertently left. I can still update my thread here, but it won't let me rejoin unless I'm invited. Would someone please *pretty please* invite me back so I can rejoin.

Thanks cbl_tn!!

>13 varielle: I just invited you. Hope it works!

>13 varielle:, 14 I guess it worked!

Is this a private group? I thought we were open to everyone.

I thought so too. Maybe it was a bug.

Looks like I've done the same as varielle... :( Could someone invite me too, please.

Done and done!

Thank you!!!

Maybe a little information on Belgium:
There are two major language groups: Flanders in the north where people speak Dutch (appr. 60%) and Wallonia in the south, where people speak French (appr. 40%). There's also a third (very small) language-community close to Germany where people speak German. So maybe anyone who's interested in Belgian books should keep in mind he/she can choose between two completely different literary ponds.