Read Around the World Challenge: Colombia
Last week we mentioned that we’ll be hosting a Read Around the World Challenge, expanding our current feature to make it more interactive. Lots of you submitted country nominations across various platforms (Litsy, Instagram, and here). The randomizer has selected the winners. If your country nominee didn’t make it this year, it will automatically be placed on the list for next year.
First up….
Colombia. We hope you join us this month and throughout the year as we travel to some really interesting places through reading. At the end of each month we’ll post our regular feature where you’ll be able to comment on your own reading and experiences.
What does this challenge entail? You can make it into whatever you like. The basic idea is to feel like you’ve had a chance to visit these countries through books. Be creative. If you’re on instagram or Litsy, you can post photos of the books, meals or drinks that fit the country, or other relevant images. If you’re a blogger, you can create your own feature (but please link back to us so we can see all the reviews). You can choose to read 1 book or multiple books over the course of the month. Or you can simply give recommendations but not necessarily read anything yourself.
We do recommend that you try to select books that fit the country the best. I plan to pick books that are written by an author born in that country and set in that country. For some of the harder countries (with limited English translations) I may be more flexible in my picks. I will also be trying to make either a meal or a drink that is traditionally from the selected country. I’m a good baker but pretty lousy cook so we shall see how that turns out!
So the month of May we will be traveling to Colombia. Will you be joining us in our travels this month? What recommendations do you have? What will you be reading? Below are a few links to some recommendations for Colombian literature.
The Five Best Colombian novelists
Best Colombian literature Goodreads list
Colombian Literature Britannica
jenp27
Nicole Del Sesto
The Reader's Room 
I will read another Gabriel Garcia Marquez as I have only read one before, so it will either be Love in the time of Cholera or 100 years of solitude. Hoping to hear about some more contemporary Colombian authors too though!
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I plan on reading Tales From The Town Of Widows: And Chronicles From The Land Of Men
by James Cañón. Another source for finding books is the blog A Year of Reading The World. The blogger lists multiple books written by authors of every country in existence.
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Thanks!
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I’d like to discover some new authors, but also, I’ve had Gabriel Garcia Marquez on my shelf for years (actually a physical shelf in my house), so maybe this can be the impetus for my actually picking one of them up!
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This could be the impetus I need to read 100 years of solitude…..
If anyone is looking for recommendations on what to read, here is a guest post by a blogger from Colombia: https://bookertalk.com/2015/03/17/the-view-from-here-books-from/
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Thanks for the link. I don’t think you will like 100 years of solitude but I could be wrong.
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Ah in that case I might switch to Love in the Time of Cholera
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I’m not sure I’ll join in for Colombia, but I think I might join in for Thailand in June. We’ll see!
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Ok!
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I’ve got Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Garcia Marquez ready to go next, and The Adventures of Maqroll by Mutis is a possibility, too, once I recover from Infinite Jest.
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I love Juan Gabriel Vasquez! I’ve been meaning to read the Sound of Things Falling or Reputations – this is a good prompt! On the other hand Laura Restrepo sounds amazing too …
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I liked but didn’t love reputations. I’m reading Delirium by Restrepo in Spanish so it’s taking me a long time. If I end up having a little time leftover then I’m going to try and read Sound of Things Falling.
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I must confess I am failing miserably at this new challenge however I am making up for it by attempting to read the entire Man Booker International short list before the winner is announced on the 14th June, this along with my 1001 book commitments is leaving me little time for anything else 😦
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I’m reading The Sound of Things Falling and loving it. I started with The Informers but couldn’t get into it. This one is so much better.
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I may try to get to this one too. A few others on Litsy are reading this too. Seems to be a popular pick. Glad you are liking it!
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