I recently fell into the abyss that is Booktube and found out that Sophie from Portal in the Pages is doing an “Around the World” challenge this year. She is reading one book from each country in the world. I thought it was a brilliant idea and it inspired me to do the same- except with books about disasters (obviously).
Most of my disaster knowledge is US/ western-centric since that is where I've lived and worked. When I started looking through my bookshelf I was horrified by how few books I had on disasters outside the United States. Obviously, this needs to change. So, I'll be reading one book about a disaster from each country in the world.
I’ve set up some initial parameters for myself. Once I start looking for books I may add or shift some of these.
- One non-fiction book about a disaster/s from each country around the world.
- Preference given to a book written by an author who is from that country.
- Preference given to women and minority authors.
I’m limited to books that are in English which will certainly add to the challenge of finding them all. I am sure there will be a few countries I cannot find so I will have to think of alternatives. Reading online articles/ academic research about those countries? Read a book on the history of that country? I'm not sure. I’ll have to give this more thought.
I plan on spending 2018 hunting down and acquiring all of these books which I think will be more of a time and financial commitment than I currently realize. I plan to read them all throughout 2019, 2020, and (if we’re being realistic) 2021.
Others have expressed an interest in reading along or at least seeing the list of books. So, I’ve compiled them into this public spreadsheet. There are mostly blank spaces but I'll be adding books in as I find them. Please feel free to add in any book suggestions that meet the parameters!