Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Announcing the 2020 European Reading Challenge Winner!

2020 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

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ANNOUNCING THE 2020 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE WINNER!

TO FIND THE 2020 REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO FIND THE 2020 WRAP UP POSTS, GO TO THIS PAGE

THE 2021 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE SIGN UP PAGE IS AT THIS PAGE

The European Reading Challenge started in 2012. Participants tour Europe in books by reading books set in different European countries or written by authors from different European countries.

Big thanks to all the participants who joined Grand Tour in 2020! The European Reading Challenge may have been more fun in 2020 because we didn't do much in real life traveling last year!

JET SETTER GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Each year, the Jet Setter Prize goes to the European Reading Challenge participant who reads and reviews the most books from different countries. There are a total of 50 European countries so the maximum number of books for this challenge is 50. So far, no one has come close to reading 50 books.

The 2020 Jet Setter Prize goes to repeat champion Maphead who visited 20 different European countries and reviewed the books he read. His wrap up post has links to all his reviews. He visited big countries like Russia and Germany, little countries like Switzerland, and even the tiny, independent territory of the Vatican City.

Maphead has been an enthusiastic participant over the years and has won several times, but not every time. Will someone beat him in 2021?

Honorary Mention (but no prizes) go to seven other participants who read and reviewed books from 10 or more unique countries:

The [Blank] Garden (15)

Typings (15)

Bitter Tea & Mystery (13)

Canadian Bookworm (13)

Books & Chocolate ((11)


Kitty Furious (10) (who participated in Instagram)

My own wrap-up post is here. I read books from 10 different European countries, but only reviewed a couple of them. I read many more books set in or written by European authors in 2020 than in years past, but for the 2021 European reading Challenge I am going to try to visit different countries. I need ideas for Eastern Europe and Balkan countries in particular. Any suggestions?

Congratulations to all the readers who completed the challenge! Thank you for posting wrap up posts as it makes it much easier for me to find you. There is still plenty of time to join us in 2021.

JOIN THE 2021 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE! SIGN UP HERE.

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

You do not need a blog to participate in the European Reading Challenge. You can participate on social media like Instagram, Facebook, goodreads, whatever. Use the links to your social media posts. Or participate in the comments on the Challenge pages.

Sign up HERE for the 2021 Challenge.


7 comments :

  1. Thanks Gilion for the kind words but above all for hosting this fine reading challenge! Congrats to all the above-mentioned readers for all their hard work. Looking forward to more reading in 2021!

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    1. Congratulations for winning in 2020 Mark! The books you picked were all interesting!

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  2. Amazing, 20 countries is quite an accomplishment. I would love to read and review that many in one year, but I will be happy this year if I add a country or two that I haven't visited before.

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    1. I know! 20 is a lot of travel, especially since Mark reviews all the books. I'm impressed!

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  3. Congrats to Maphead for some awesome reading (which I've enjoyed following along!) and double thanks again to Gilion for hosting this great challenge. It's been fun & as you note, pretty much the only way we got to travel last year...

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  4. Congratulations to Maphead! And thank you, Gilion, for hosting this wonderful reading challenge. I loved to take part in 2020, and I am doing it again this year:)

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  5. Thanks for hosting, this was so fun! I'm excited about my list for this year. If you're looking for Eastern European books I really loved The Eighth Life which is set in Georgia -- it's long but wonderful and a fast read. Another of my favorites from last year was Temptation by Janos Szekely, set in Hungary. I also loved The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning which starts out in Romania during WWII. It's also long but you can always start with just the first volume, The Great Fortune.

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