Around the World in 80 Books

October 1, 2012 - September 30, 2017

I'm off on a voyage of discovery as I travel around the world through the books that I read. With this challenge I hope to broaden my literary horizons and learn more about the cultures and life in other countries. I'll relive my wonderful memories of past travel destinations and prepare for future adventures. If you'd like to join me just grab your passport and a great book and we'll take off for places unknown! Bon Voyage!
My rules for this challenge are:

• I have five years to complete my journey. My start date is October 1, 2012 {but you can join this challenge any time} and my end date will beSeptember 30, 2017. I want this to be fun and not become a burden so with my current average pace of about 50 books a year this should give me lots of time to read the books for this challenge but also other books that interest me during this time.
• I'm choosing my books that take place in a particular country {since one of my primary goals is to learn about other countries} therefor it does not matter to me what country the author is from. If a book takes place in multiple countries then I will count it towards the country that it is mostly set in. 
• In addition to reading a book set in a particular country, I will also do some research on that country and will include some "Fun Facts " about the country along with each book review.
• I will release 80 books "into the wild" via BookCrossing and watch them {hopefully} travel the world. 
• I will donate 80 books to my local library.

Yes, there is a little more to my challenge than most people's but my passions are both reading and traveling so I really wanted to include a little of both into my challenge. And hey, even if I don't get to travel the world in the next five years maybe my books will!
I'll log my progress through my journey with my book reviews and periodic updates on what I've donated and sent out via BookCrossing. I'm not going to preselect any books for the challenge nor am I going to pick countries in advance. I want to be free to travel in my reading as my interests {and hopefully my REAL travels} take me. I'm also going to attempt to do this on as small of a budget as possible. I'm truly a budget traveler at heart so this journey will follow my usual style. I really can't wait to get started!
My Book List:

Travel is best when it's shared with someone so please travel with me on this journey. You don't have to follow my rules to travel with me, please just post a link to your own "Around the World in 80 Books" type reading challenge so we can encourage each other as we go and share possible books to add to our ever-growing TBR pile!
Please also save my button and post it on your own blog to share this challenge if you'd like to. Thank you!
For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.