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:

  1. Nonfiction about the country
  2. 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.

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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

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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

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Europe – 46 books

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Middle East – 4 books

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Everywhere Else – 41 books

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