A Reading Challenge

I read a lot - although not as much this year as normal, since I've been so busy writing. In the course of my lifetime, I have read hundreds, if not thousands, of books. I realised recently that all but a very small percentage of those have been written by authors from the UK or USA.

This has not been a deliberate choice. I have read books by authors from other countries and have very much enjoyed them. It's just that most of the books that I'm exposed to, that are readily available to me, are by authors from the UK or the US. Now, that's somewhat to be expected since I live in the UK, but it means that most of the fiction I read is coming from similar cultural perspectives.

There's a whole wide world out there and I want to more about it.

So, I've set myself a challenge. I'm going to try and make sure that at least one book I read each month is by written by a writer from somewhere other than the UK or US. The books will have to be available in English as I am not fluent enough in any other language to do a book justice, so that will limit my choices somewhat.

I've already received some great recommendations from friends and followers on social media but I am actively looking for more. I'll be setting up a page to collect all of the recommendations together but in the meantime, please leave me a note in the comments. I would also love to hear from anyone who has done a similar challenge or would like to join in with this one - the more the merrier! Please do feel free to join me and to share this challenge across your own social media.

Now, at the moment, I have the final stages of prep on Ashael Rising ahead of publication, the novella that I'm working on (more on that on Monday) and a few reviews that I've committed to for the British Fantasy Society, as well as the usual blogging stuff. And I only have weeks left to go until my baby is due. Realistically, I`m unlikely to have time to start this challenge before January but I'll keep you all updated and I'll be blogging about the experience - as well as possibly reviewing the books that I read.