Eurovisionathon 2022

Congratulations to Ukraine for winning the song contest!!

I believe this is my second year joining this readathon. As you can imagine, the goal is to read books from as many participating countries as possible. The little twist is that your points is calculated by how the countries fare in the contest. The first year I simply read whatever books I had handy, not knowing much about the singing competition itself. This year, a bit more experienced, I checked out the betting odds and plan my books accordingly. That said, I am as usual bad at placing bets, so while I read the books for Ukraine and UK, I didn’t quite finish the top 10.

It was a fun reading challenge, and definitely pushed me to read beyond what I normally do, and I learned much about history and cultures. Nonetheless, after a month, I am ready to take a break from all the stories about war and all the lost lives and loves.

The 24 countries I’ve read:

Armenia: Orhan’s Inheritance
Australia: Roundabout
Austria: The Making of the Sound of Music
Bulgaria: East of the West
Cyprus: The Island of Missing Trees (They didn’t make it pass semi-final but definitely one of my top reads)
Czech Republic: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Denmark: Hamlet’s Father
Estonia: The Inner Immigrant
Finland: The Year of the Hare
France: The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard
Germany: Address Unknown
Greece: Gods Behaving Badly
Iceland: Moonstone
Italy: Around the World in 80 Days
Lithuania: Thanks to My Mother
Netherlands: Dutch, I Presume
Norway: Odin’s Child
Poland: The Dollmaker of Krakow
Portugal: The Land at the End of the World
Romania: Voices of Dracula
Sweden: A Man Called Ove
Switzerland: Vinzi
Ukraine: The Holocaust by Bullets
UK: The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye

And some books I didn’t get around to this year but hopefully for next time:
Albania: The Sworn Virgin or books by Ismail Kadare
Azerbaijan: Orphan Sky, Ali and Nino
Belgium: Nowhere Boy or Tin Tin
Croatia: Girl at War
Georgia: Flight from the USSR
Luthuania: books by Ruta Sepetys
Malta: Midwife of Venice
Moldova: The Good Life Elsewhere
Montenegro: Till Kingdom Come
Serbia: Tea Obreht
Slovenia: You Do Understand
Ukraine: Land of Stone Flower