Reddit user Backforward24 painstakingly illustrated a map of the world with the most popular (or the most critically acclaimed) novel for each country.
Quite the undertaking.
Of course, lots of people began to criticize the books chosen, because this is the Internet, of course. I think it’s a rather subjective thing. What is your favorite book? Which limb could you live without? What was first? The chicken or the egg?
Regardless, I think this idea is an interesting one and well worth taking a look. You can find the complete list of books here.
I didn’t see the Twilight series on the USA map – makes me question the validity of the whole thing! Lol.
No, no. Just no! Never.
Haha, I kind of think California is a separate country and we should have Steinbeck on our map! But yeah the Twilight series was a profanation of the English language! But I couldn’t resist the macabre joke.
Managed to read a page and a half of Twilight.
And, yes, Steinbeck would have been on California’s map.
I’m surprised you managed that much!
Cool idea. Need to see what the Aussie & NZ books are!
If you click on the link, Reddit user “backforward” (something like that) lists them in the comments.
Thanks! The NZ book is great but the Aussie book.. hmm 😉
I think from the list provided, the two books for me would have to be The Kite Runner (Afghanistan) and The Count of Monte Cristo (France) and a close one would be Anne of Green Gables (Canada)!
I love this, thanks for sharing.
My pleasure.
As someone posted on Reddit, I am satisfied with The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri), for italy. But hey… Italy has so many great writers that it could be even considered and underrating.. LOL The Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto or Boccacio’s Decameron are also masterpieces.
Very interesting! just wish I could see the other countries clearly….
If you were to click on the very last word of the article, you’d find the list of countries…
Interesting! Left out a lot of books. But then how can they fit all of them anyway.
This is absolutely awesome!
That’s pretty cool! We just had a PBS series conclude here where people voted for the most beloved novel in America (and it didn’t have to be by an American author, it just had to have an edition published in English and have some amount of popularity here), and “To Kill a Mockingbird” was named the winner. As for the most critically-acclaimed novel by an American author, “Mockingbird” is up there for me (although I’ve only managed to finish it once; we studied it in high school but I don’t remember much of it, and then I read it on my own well over a decade later), as is “The Catcher in the Rye” and “Gone with the Wind”. I’ve tried reading “The Grapes of Wrath” no fewer than three times and have never managed to finish it.
Some of the international ones I’m interested in reading are “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (Colombia) and “Things Fall Apart” (Nigeria).