Heraclitean Fire

I used to have a cookbook for kids — still do, come to think of it — called Cooking is a Way Round the World. Hence the post title. To quote Julie:

In one of my Goodreads groups, a clever person had the idea of each of us challenging ourselves to read a book by an author from every country. Obviously, this is a big challenge, and not something that can be banged out in three minutes, or even three months (for most of us!)

This struck me as an excellent idea. I think of it as like Munroing: there may be a few nutters who race to climb all 284 peaks in the fastest possible time, but for most people it’s a lifetime target, just picking off a few a year as opportunity allows.

Until the sport’s governing body comes up with an official set of rules, I’m allowing myself any genre, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, whatever; and I’m starting with the 192 member states of the UN plus any additional pseudo-nations I think are worth adding. At the moment the target is 199*. Just racking my brains for books I’ve already read, my initial score was 34.

My current total is: 64

Details below the fold.

You can also see which countries I’ve ticked off on a map here.

‘Countries’ which are not UN member states are marked with an asterisk.

Afghanistan - Albania – Algeria – Andorra – Angola – *Antarctica - Antigua and Barbuda – Argentina – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Bahamas – Bahrain – Bangladesh – Barbados – Belarus – Belgium – Belize – Benin – Bhutan – Bolivia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Botswana – Brazil – Brunei Darussalam – Bulgaria – Burkina Faso – Burundi – Cambodia – Cameroon – Canada – Cape Verde – Central African Republic – Chad – Chile – China – Colombia – Comoros – Congo – Costa Rica – Côte d’Ivoire – Croatia – Cuba – Cyprus – Czech Republic – Democratic Republic of the Congo – Denmark – Djibouti – Dominica – Dominican Republic – Ecuador – Egypt – El Salvador – Equatorial Guinea – Eritrea – Estonia – Ethiopia – Fiji – Finland – France – Gabon – Gambia – Georgia – Germany – Ghana – Greece – *Greenland – Grenada – Guatemala – Guinea – Guinea-Bissau – Guyana – Haiti – Honduras – Hungary – Iceland – India – Indonesia – Iran – Iraq – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Jamaica – Japan – Jordan – Kazakhstan – Kenya – Kiribati – Kuwait – Kyrgyzstan – Laos – Latvia – Lebanon – Lesotho – Liberia – Libya – Liechtenstein – Lithuania – Luxembourg – Macedonia, FYRO – Madagascar – Malawi – Malaysia – Maldives – Mali – Malta – Marshall Islands – Mauritania – Mauritius – Mexico – Micronesia, Federated States of – Moldova – Monaco – Mongolia – Montenegro – Morocco – Mozambique – Myanmar – Namibia – Nauru – Nepal – Netherlands – New Zealand – Nicaragua – Niger – Nigeria – North Korea – Norway – Oman – Pakistan – Palau – *Palestine – Panama – Papua New Guinea – Paraguay – Peru – Philippines – Poland – Portugal – Qatar – Romania – Russia – Rwanda – Saint Kitts and Nevis – Saint Lucia – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Samoa – San Marino – Sao Tome and Principe – Saudi Arabia – Senegal – Serbia – Seychelles – Sierra Leone – Singapore – Slovakia – Slovenia – Solomon Islands – Somalia – South Africa – South Korea – Spain – Sri Lanka – Sudan – Suriname – Swaziland – Sweden – Switzerland – Syrian Arab Republic – Tajikistan – Tanzania – Thailand – *Tibet – Timor-Leste – Togo – Tonga – Trinidad and Tobago – Tunisia – Turkey – Turkmenistan – Tuvalu – Uganda – Ukraine – United Arab Emirates – UK [*England - *Northern Ireland - *Scotland - *Wales] – United States of America – Uruguay – Uzbekistan – Vanuatu – Venezuela – Viet Nam – Yemen – Zambia - Zimbabwe

Afghanistan
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Algeria
The Stranger, Albert Camus

Antigua and Barbuda
Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid

Argentina
Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges

Australia
Brilliant Creatures, Clive James

Azerbaijan
How Life Imitates Chess, Garry Kasparov

Bosnia and Herzegovina
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, Saša Stanišić

Canada
Being in Being : The Collected Works of a Master Haida Mythteller, Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay (trans. Robert Bringhurst)

Cape Verde
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo, Germano Almeida

Chad

Told by Starlight in Chad, Joseph Brahim Seid

Chile
House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende

China
Wild Swans, Jung Chang

Colombia
The Autumn of the Patriarch, Gabriel García Márquez

Congo
Broken Glass, Alain Mabanckou

Côte d’Ivoire
Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote, Ahmadou Kourouma

Cuba
The Motorcycle Diaries, Che Guevara

Cyprus
Echoes from the Dead Zone, Yiannis Papadakis

Czech Republic
The Trial, Franz Kafka

Dominican Republic
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz

Egypt
The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, 1940-1640 BC, trans. R.B. Parkinson

Finland
The Year of the Hare, Arto Paasilinna

France
Chéri, Colette

Germany
Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse

Greece
Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis

Guatemala
The President, Miguel Angel Asturias

Hungary
Journey By Moonlight, Antal Szerb

Iceland
Independent People, Halldór Laxness

India
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie

Iran
My Father’s Notebook, Kader Abdolah

Ireland
Ulysses, James Joyce

Italy
The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Japan
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami

Kenya
A Grain of Wheat, Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o

Kyrgyzstan
The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years, Chingiz Aitmatov

Laos
Mother’s Beloved: Stories from Laos, Outhine Bounyavong

Mozambique
We killed Mangy-Dog & other Mozambique stories, Luis Bernardo Honwana

Netherlands
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

New Zealand
The Bone People, Keri Hulme

Nigeria
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

Palestine
The Butterfly’s Burden, Mahmoud Darwish

Papua New Guinea
Maiba, Russell Soaba

Peru
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa

Poland
The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad

Portugal
The Maias, José Maria de Eça de Queiroz

Russia
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Saint Lucia
Tiepolo’s Hound, Derek Walcott

Samoa
Leaves of the Banyan Tree, Albert Wendt

Slovakia
Rivers of Babylon by Peter Pišťanek

Slovenia
The Golden Boat by Srečko Kosovel

South Africa
Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela

Spain
Don Quixote, Cervantes

Sri Lanka
Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje

Swaziland
The Wah-Wah Diaries, Richard E. Grant

Togo
An African in Greenland, Tété-Michel Kpomassie

Trinidad and Tobago
Beyond the Boundary, C.L.R. James

Uganda
Abyssinian Chronicles, Moses Isegawa

United Kingdom:

Crome Yellow, Aldous Huxley

Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996, Seamus Heaney

Whit, Iain Banks

Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas

United States of America
Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Vanuatu
Black Stone, Grace Mera Molisa

Yemen
The Hostage, Zayd Mutee‘ Dammaj

Zimbabwe
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller

*The UN states, with the UK broken down into four regions, plus Palestine, Tibet, Antarctica and Greenland.