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A Global Journey Through Literature
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Thinking ahead to my American Road trip...

1/13/2014

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Route 66 Road Sign
Whilst currently travelling through Kenya, and thinking back to my 2011 travels in writing volume 2 of my Reading the World series of books, I've also been thinking forward to future locations...

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am splitting the biggest countries in the world (Russia, China, India, Australia, Brazil, United States and Canada) up into regions; as it seems unfair to try to represent such vast and disparate countries with a single book. The questions is how to split these up in a fair way? 

I split Russia up into its official 8 Federal districts, and China into its 6 Administrative regions (plus municipalities of Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau & Shanghai). In the light of this it seemed a bit unfair to only represent the US with the 4 rough regions I had allocated out the outset - especially given its diversity and its rich literary portfolio. Of course, reading a book from each of its 50 states would be a project in itself, therefore I have opted to revise my US list based on its 9 Official Census regions (+ Hawaii and Alaska given their unique nature, both culturally and geographically). I think this is a fair way to cover my trip to the US. I will also be reviewing its giant of a northern neighbour, Canada, and am considering an established 7 region model for this. 

Whilst some may think I am merely prolonging my world travel (and there may be some truth there!), I am also trying to be fair in how I represent such huge areas that, whilst politically a single unit, encompass a vast array of different cultures, communities and literary traditions. That said, I would be delighted to hear your views on a) how I have delineated these countries and b) the books I have chosen to represent these regions. You will notice that my expansion of some regions mean there are some blanks for books to read - so PLEASE feel free to help me fill these in with relevant suggestions for books on these stopovers!

Thanks as always to my RTW followers! 
John


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Merry Christmas from Reading the World!!

12/24/2013

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OUT NOW!! "Reading the World Volume 1: A Global Journey Through Literature"

11/29/2013

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Ironically, my literary tour of the world by reading books is now a book itself!

I have now written up my travel experiences of my first year of the journey from 2009 to 2010 - which took me from England to Russia.


Because I wished to convey a real sense of travelling to and through these countries I determined to do at least some background research on each country before reading its accompanying book, as well as looking into exactly how one might travel from place to place. I have detailed these elements along with my reviews of each country’s book in the publication, and it has been fascinating to note the often convoluted means that one needs to take to travel across a simple land border due to a region’s politics (prime examples being between Israel and Palestine, and Kosovo and Serbia).

As a result, in my book you will join me not just in the written accounts by each country’s host author; but in interminable journeys in rickety buses, meandering river cruises through dense jungle, off road excursions in unofficial ‘taxis’ and numerous flights in planes of varying airworthiness...

The book is available for purchase from Amazon as a paperback or Kindle eBook. Click on links below to order!

Paperback version

Kindle eBook version


PS: Currently in Swaziland on my journey - more updates soon!



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An apology, an update and some exciting news....

7/8/2013

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Firstly let me start with an apology. Whilst I have been regularly updating my website with my travel progress (and also revamping the design and layout – you can see it at: www.readingtheworld.co.uk– let me know what you think!), I have let my blog get a bit out of date.

In fact, I got a shock when I realised my last post was back in April 2012 – I hope my followers are still out there!!

Rest assured I am still forging on with my literary expedition around the world – and loving every minute of it.

Since my last post (Libya), I have been making my way around the West of Africa, taking in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Gibraltar, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Cape Verde, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and am currently in Nigeria (courtesy of the wonderful novel ‘Purple Hibiscus’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

So you can see I have not been slacking in my travels – I just need to catch up with myself with all of these reviews for this blog!!

There is also another, exciting, reason for the lag in updating these reviews; as I have been working on volume one of "Reading the World: A Global Journey Through Literature.” This book will be published around early 2014, and details my experiences in preparing for and setting out on my travels through literature... Volume 1 will cover my journey from 2009 when I started out, through to the end of 2010. More volumes will follow...

I will update this blog with more details on this soon (as well as some of the reviews of the visits listed above), and you can also check for updates on my new FaceBook page
:http://tinyurl.com/mgs4m7d

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