The Read Europe 2024 Challenge

Having only started on Instagram in late August, I was curious about the reading challenges I kept seeing. I liked the idea of challenging myself to read more widely and discover new authors, but because I’m a mood reader, I wasn’t sure if reading challenges would be a good fit for me. I need choice!

For years, I’ve thought about trying to read a book from every country. I love to travel! For me, reading is just another form of travel because you get to see new places through the eyes of people who have different life experiences. So reading a book by an author from every nation around the world was in the corner of my mind when I started this blog. Again, I just wasn’t sure how to fit something so seemingly structured into my rather laid-back approach to book selection. 

Then I heard about the European Reading Challenge. Now in its 11th year, the European Reading Challenge was started by Gilion C. Dumas of the Rose City Reader blog. This challenge doesn’t ask readers to commit to a certain list of books in advance. The challenge is just to read as many books as you can from the 50 countries on the list. Only one book per country counts toward the challenge. If the reader wants to, they can review the book and link the review to the Rose City Reader site. The book can take place in a country or be by an author from that country or a mix of both. This is a perfect challenge for me because it allows me to mood read to my heart’s content while reading some books on my TBR and hopefully discovering some new authors.

Are there any European authors you would recommend? Please let me know in the comments!

I will keep my list here, and as I add books on my journey I’ll link to my reviews:

Read Europe 24 List

Albania – Free – Lea Ypi

Andorra

Armenia

Austria

Azerbaijan – Stone Dreams – Akram Aylisli

Belarus

Belgium

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia – Cafe Europa Revisited – Slavenka Drakulic

Cyprus

Czech Republic 

Denmark – Babette’s Feast – Isak Dinesen

Estonia

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Hungary – The Remarkable Mrs. Anderson by Miklos Banffy

Ireland – Foster by Claire Keegan

Italy

Kazakhstan

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta – A Death in Malta by Paul Caruana Galizia

Moldova

Monaco

Montenegro

Netherlands

Norway

Poland – The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski

Portugal

Rep. Of Macedonia

Romania

Russia

San Marino

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Turkey

Ukraine

United Kingdom – The London Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein

Vatican City 

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2 responses to “The Read Europe 2024 Challenge”

  1. Gilion at Rose City Reader Avatar

    I’m glad you are doing the ERC challenge and like the way you list all fifty countries. I’m bookmarking this to come back for inspiration!

    1. Julie Avatar

      Thanks Gilion! It’s been really helpful to me. It helps me stay focussed – especially when I’m book shopping.

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