A few years ago I read about a blogger who was an avid reader (and I cannot for the life of me remember her name) who thought it would be a fun idea to record the names of the states where the books she read were situated.
Her aim was to read a book situated in each of the states of the USA but 3 months into her quest she had to enlarge her spreadsheet – and revise her plan – because she was beginning to feel restricted in what she could read.
She said that after a while the fun and pleasure she got from reading had changed – she had to actively source books to fit in with her plan – she couldn’t just pick up a book and read it – she had to discover the location first and kept finding that lots of the books she fancied were set in a state she’d already ‘been to’ – or they were set in other countries.
Consequently she scrapped her plan to do this over 12 months and just took the novels as they came.
What do you think of this plan – would it work for you – would you be inclined or so dedicated to carry through with the idea?
Still Waters 
The idea of reading about cities or states I have visited is fun but only reading such books would limit my entertainment I think.
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You’re right Annie – if I was told only to read books about Australia even if they were good reads I’d be a bit annoyed.
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Hmm, I think that would be restrictive. A person with a plan like this would be OCD trying NOT to read about the same locale. So many good stories have the same one…
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Certainly there are ‘series’ to be considered – I imagine 90% of some are set in the same location. I think that’s what she was remarking on – not being able to follow on with the next book.
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I wouldn’t restrict my self to just those books and I wouldn’t put a time limit on the. But I would have a list of states and just tick them off as I read a book about it. Otherwise it would turn something I love into yet another job I had to do. Kinda like blogging did when I “had” to post everyday.
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Thinking about it I did wonder why she accepted such a challenge that was so full of restrictions – I suppose some of us are like that, don’t know quite what we have go ourselves into until ‘it’ has begun.
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I am in a book club that reads “international fiction” and each month a book is chosen from a different developing country. Well, some more developed than others. So far we have read books about Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, India and Chile.
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That sounds interesting – are they also written by ‘native’ authors (authors from those countries) or just have a storyline set in those places?
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All authors native to their countries except one. so far…
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I have a Kindle e-reader with several unread books on it. Too busy to read them. No, I would not want to restrict myself in any way.
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I think that’s the clue here Gigi – do we want to enjoy what we read and read when the mood hits us or feel restricted because we are unable to read what we actually want to.
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Pressure, I’ve never joined a reading group for the same reason. Now I’ve started recording the books I read and when (mainly to stop me reading the same one twice) I become a bit competitive with myself, how many had I read this time last year etc and thats bad enough, I wouldn’t want to have to read anything.
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Hello Jenny – like you I’ve been recording the titles in case of reread, not bothered by how many ‘cept to maybe achieve year goal of at least one per month. Not because I have to but because I want to. Book Clubs work for some – to me it would be like paid knitting. The joy goes and it becomes a chore lol
Enjoy Scotland!
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Sounds fun, but I’d like to mix it up with other books too.
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What an interesting question! I suppose it seemed like a good plan when she started. I don’t have specific places that I try to read about, but for a long time, I have been slowly working my way through the Nobel Prize Winners in Literature. I want to at least one each of their works and have already read more than one piece by a few. It gives me the International literature that anexactinglife mentioned in her comment above.
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Since I read almost exclusively nonfiction, it is very often about a place I have visited or will visit as a result of the read.
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I think it’s more relaxing to read what you want when you want to.
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I often seek books set in a place I’m going to visit, I wish it was easier to find titles and know this info. It really does rely on knowledgeable librarians!
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