Wednesday 4 January 2017

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. 

2 comments:

  1. Love this idea and will be watching with great interest when you get to counties I've lived in/worked in (they are all in Wales). Do you want any suggestions for Rhondda Cynon Taff, Blaenau Gwent, Vale of Glamorgan or Caerphilly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really glad you like the idea.

      I would love to see suggestions for all those places in Wales. I know I don't have that many books set in Wales at all, so very curious as to what is out there.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...