Read the UK Challenge: 2017 and beyond. Way, way beyond… #AroundTheUKIn144Books (@Bbrilliantbooks; @JenMedBkReviews )

Well I was looking through other blogs yesterday, as I regularly do, and spotted something that looked a bit like fun. A few hours later I am still thinking about it and now I'm pleased to announce I'm participating in #AroundTheUKIn144Books this year.

I'm going to hand over to Jen from Jen Med's Book Reviews for her to explain her wonderful madcap idea!

So. Since yesterday when I introduced the idea of the Read the UK challenge, it has taken on a personality all of its own. It seems to be a very popular idea and I guess I can understand why. It also led to some debate over definition of a county and, if you take modern definition or current county boundaries, then the list is longer. A lot longer. Like an extra 58 books.

Never ones to run from a challenge though, Abbie and I are quite happy to redefine boundaries but it does mean that the challenge will take a little longer to complete. That’s okay. We have no time scales, we just want to know if it is possible. That said, it gets awful lonely on a long trip and while one of us is ‘driving’ the other will be sleeping (fat chance with two insomniacs on board lol) so we need a little company along the way.

And we found it. Joining us on this now epic 144-book challenge is none other than Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Reads. As Rachel reads different genres to me and Abbie we stand a much greater chance of completing so we are going to tackle all 144 counties, metropolitan boroughs or whatever the heck they are called these days in the UK and NI including all of the islands. Yep. Epic challenge indeed.

Our plan is thus:

• No timescales. We read as we always intended to but we will endeavour to cross off all counties along the way. We may come looking for help i.e. book suggestions, and we’ll certainly be looking up all suggestions made so far – thanks for those.
• We will post our reviews as and when the book is read and tag all posts #AroundTheUkIn144Books. Hopefully with your support we can get it trending on Twitter too – wouldn’t that be a hoot.
• At least once a month we will try and ‘meet up’, perhaps reading a book from the same county but certainly delighting all you lovely bookish folk with a group update.
• As for the rest… we’re winging it. This has to be a fun journey and it can’t interfere with the normal running of our blogs or it just won’t work. That said, it will be great to take stock this time next year and see how many counties we have visited between us. I’ll even try and find someone to map it for us because lord knows, I’ll be no good at that.

The new list of counties we are attempting to visit is below (note we are including London as one big lump as I’m too old and tired to try and separate books into the relevant boroughs and there will be much crossover anyway):

Aberdeen City	Luton
Aberdeenshire	Medway
Angus	Merseyside
Antrim	Merthyr Tydfi
Argyll and Bute	Middlesbrough
Armagh	Midlothian
Bath and North East Somerset	Milton Keynes
Bedford	Monmouthshire
Berkshire	Moray
Blackburn with Darwen	Na h-Eileanan Siar
Blackpool	Neath Port Talbot
Blaenau Gwent	Newport
Bournemouth	Norfolk
Bridgend	North Ayrshire
Brighton and Hove	North East Lincolnshire
Bristol	North Lanarkshire
Buckinghamshire	North Lincolnshire
Caerphilly	North Somerset
Cambridgeshire	North Yorkshire
Cardiff	Northamptonshire
Carmarthenshire	Northumberland
Central Bedfordshire	Nottingham
Ceredigion	Nottinghamshire
Cheshire East	Orkney Islands
Cheshire West and Chester	Oxfordshire
City of Edinburgh	Pembrokeshire
Clackmannanshire	Perth and Kinross
Conwy	Peterborough
Cornwall	Plymouth
Cumbria	Poole
Darlington	Portsmouth
Denbighshire	Powys
Derby	Redcar and Cleveland
Derbyshire	Renfrewshire
Devon	Rhondda Cynon Taf
Dorset	Rutland
Down	Scottish Borders
Dumfries and Galloway	Shetland Islands
Dundee City	Shropshire
Durham	Somerset
East Ayrshire	South Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire	South Gloucestershire
East Lothian	South Lanarkshire
East Renfrewshire	South Yorkshire
East Riding of Yorkshire	Southampton
East Sussex	Southend-on-Sea
Essex	Staffordshire
Falkirk	Stirling
Fermanagh	Stockton-on-Tees
Fife	Stoke-on-Trent
Flintshire	Suffolk
GL: Greater London	Surrey
Glasgow City	Swansea
Gloucestershire	Swindon
Greater Manchester	Telford and Wrekin
Gwynedd	Thurrock
Halton	Torbay
Hampshire	Torfaen
Hartlepool	Tyne and Wear
Herefordshire	Tyrone
Hertfordshire	Vale of Glamorgan
Highland	Warrington
Inverclyde	Warwickshire
Isle of Anglesey	West Dunbartonshire
Isle of Wight	West Lothian
Kent	West Midlands
Kingston upon Hull	West Sussex
Lancashire	West Yorkshire
Leicester	Wiltshire
Leicestershire	Worcestershire
Lincolnshire	Wrexham
Londonderry	York

So – where can you follow us on our epic UK ‘road trip’? Well here of course. It was my daft idea – can’t abandon the team now. I’m the designated driver – just call me Jennie Sat Nav (https://jenmedsbookreviews.com/)

You can also follow Tour Director – Abbie Rutherford over on www.bloominbrilliantbooks.com and Entertainment Director – Rachel Gilbey over on http://rachelsrandomreads.blogspot.co.uk/

The adventure starts here. Wish us luck. Alternatively it you want to get on the ‘library bus’ and travel with us, let us know. The more the merrier.

Happy Reading All


JL

Thanks for that wonderful explanation Jen. I know I am definitely interested to see just how much of the UK we can cover in 2017 in fiction,

Hopefully you won't think I've gone completely insane and will enjoy watching our progress on this epic challenge.

If you do have any book recommendations for any of the counties (not London that is far too easily covered!), then I would love to hear them.