I’ve been toying with the idea of reading one book by an author from every country in the world, and two nights ago, I dived into this project with The Doll by Ismail Kadare, an Albanian author.

This immediately felt wrong. I should have started with Afghanistan and worked my way through the list of 195 countries (give or take a few) alphabetically. Originally, I thought it would be interesting to skip around from continent to continent, crossing off countries as I went, but there’s just something so satisfying about an alphabetical list, so after Albania, I’ll go back to Afghanistan.

There’s actually a good reason I skipped Afghanistan: I’ve already read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. But now that I’ve officially embraced Project: Around the World in 195 Books, I want to read a book from every country in order. Why? Because it’s my damn project and that’s what I want to do!

I’m excited to be an armchair traveler with this project, discovering authors that would have otherwise never crossed my radar. When I mention this project to friends and family, they have the same concerns – That’s going to take forever! and How will you find books from obscure countries?

As to the first concern, I fully accept that this project will take five to ten years. I read about 100 books a year, but I’m not going to be sadistic and force myself to only read books for this project. I’m in a book club which accounts for 12 books a year, and I also intend to read all the cozy mysteries, love stories, and thrillers my heart desires. But if I read two books a month for this project, that’s 24 books a year, and with roughly 195 countries in the world (it changes!), this project will take 8.125 years.

Okay, that’s a long ass time.

But I have time! I’m excited for a slow, leisurely project that lets me travel the world and my muse keeps telling me to do this, so I might as well try.

As to the second concern, yes, there are some very small countries that might not have local authors with books that have been translated to English. But I’m not the first person to launch this sort of project, so I’m sure the internet can point me to some books, and if not, I’ll be creative. I’ll read blog posts by a local writer or poems or newspaper articles. I don’t have the entire project mapped out yet and that’s part of the fun.