I was excited to dive into this and found the premise really fabulous. Ultimately, I found my desire to stay on this round the world voyage waned . . . an interesting, erudite dip into Comp Lit but less engaging, overall, than I had initially hoped.

I received a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review
This was a pretty interesting book. I enjoyed the books they described and actually went through and read all of the ones that I could get my hands on, following the 80-book world tour. very awesome!

This just wasn’t the book for me. I was really drawn to the cover and the description but the actual reading experience just fell flat for me.

This is a really fun premise for a book — traveling around the world through 80 examples of classic world literature. This is a grand and enjoyable world tour, introducing the reader to a diverse set of literary classics, ranging from the more well-known English and French classics of Dickens and Proust, to lesser known gems from Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and Latin America. This book will expand your literary horizons and provide you with a great aspirational lifetime reading list.

One of the things that the pandemic has taken from us is our ability to travel freely. It has kept us close to home in so many ways, leaving us to remember wistfully past journeys to other places.

But what if you could see the world … without leaving the comfort of your favorite reading nook?

That’s what David Damrosch offers with “Around the World in 80 Books.” The decorated comparative literature professor has assembled a selection of works that originated all over the globe. Some of these books are ancient classics, others are more contemporary offerings, but through each one, Damrosch takes the reader a new more steps on this Phileas Fogg-inspired journey around the world.

It’s a thoughtful work of nonfiction, one that is unafraid of its own intelligence while also never deigning to condescend to its reader. That’s not an easy balance to strike, especially when one considers the massive range of the canon Damrosch has assembled.

It’s worth noting too that you don’t actually have to have read all the books discussed within. In truth, unless you yourself are a scholar of comparative literature, the odds are pretty good that you have not – as I said, it is a vast array of wildly disparate work. But thanks to Damrosch’s insightful breakdowns, the context is clear even if you yourself have never consumed the actual text.

“Around the World in 80 Books” consists of 16 chapters consisting of discussions of five books. Each chapter focuses on a place – sometimes a city or cities, sometimes a region – and introduces the five books that Damrosch has determined will prove evocative of that place.

From our kickoff in London – featuring familiar authors like Dickens and Wodehouse and Woolf – we’re off, zigzagging our way across the world. In Paris, we spend some time with Proust. From there, Krakow and Kafka (among others). In Venice-Florence, we’re greeted by Marco Polo and Dante. From Egypt to the Congo to Israel, from Tehran to Calcutta to Beijing to Tokyo. We head to South America – Voltaire’s “Candide” is there – and on to Mexico and the Antilles before making our way to the United States, where we visit two spots; the last is New York City, but the first will ring familiar to readers in our region – Bar Harbor, a place to which Damrosch has a deep connection.

(In case you’re wondering, the Bar Harbor section’s books are as follows: “One Morning in Maine,” by Robert McCloskey; “The Country of the Pointed Firs,” by Sarah Orne Jewett; “Memoirs of Hadrian,” by Marguerite Yourcenar; “The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle,” by Hugh Lofting; and E.B. White’s “Stuart Little.”)

And that’s that – 80 books across five continents, all intended to serve as a sort of guided tour of the world through the literary works that it has produced.

“Around the World in 80 Books” doesn’t quite fall into the category of what I call “stunt nonfiction,” but it has some of those tendencies – call it stunt-adjacent, perhaps. What it does do is open up a rich and readable understanding of how place can influence the literature that springs from it, either directly or indirectly. Whether the work is composed in the place or is simply about the place, that connection between the two cannot be disentangled.

This means, among other things, that much can be discerned about a place by reading the books that spring from it. And really, that’s the whole point of “Around the World in 80 Books” – it really does give you a way in which to explore the wider world. Each book’s breakdown is engaging on its own, but it also invites the readers to find out for themselves – Damrosch has essentially given us a thoughtful and thorough introduction, one that will more than serve its purpose. But if you’d like to dig deeper, well … you’ve got the list right there in front of you.

For the record, the number of these books that I myself have read comes in at just shy of half. Considering the list, I feel OK about that number. The truth is that I probably enjoyed the sections on books I hadn’t read a little bit more – such is Damrosch’s gift for conflating the work with the place from which it originated.

(Some of my personal favorites: Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities,” “Candide” and “Stuart Little.”)

“Around the World in 80 Books” is a wonderful read for any literature lover. Fans of travel writing will likely dig it as well, though it’s far from a conventional example. Few things are more engaging than a person discussing that about which they are most passionate; for David Damrosch, that’s books. Within these pages, he takes us on a journey unlike any you’ve experienced – and it’s a trip well worth taking.

Not only for the limitations of a pandemic but also for the limitations of finances, work restrictions, languages, practicality (family), or even disabilities of any kind, this work takes us around the globe and time through the world of books by mimicking Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne. Each book and author are studied in place with many different perspectives and interesting detail. I enjoyed reading segments several times a week.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from PENGUIN GROUP/The Penguin Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Not the book I expected it to be. I was hoping for a different approach to the 80 books. I find too many passages quoted from the book that’s being talked about, too many smart words, but not enough essence said. I wish there was more in there from the author and not how others described a certain book. After reading for a while, I feel so disappointed that I’m giving up on this book (I may try reading it again in the future). It may not be a bad book, but it’s not the type I like.

A really unique and fun take on around the world in 80 days. I agree that it would’ve been nice to highlight more diverse places rather than going the easy route with multiple Parisian and British recommendations. Also, highlighting more classics by women would have been appreciated as well

Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch📚 This book is so much more than a list of great books. Damrosch takes the reader on a world tour with stops in cities that are linked to a number of great books. Rather than giving a synopsis of each book, he situates it within the place and time, giving you a feel for each book by the atmosphere he paints, and the history it’s found in. I was immediately drown in and found a whole new set of books for my TBR.

Thank you @netgalley and @penguinpress for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A great selection of books are included here, and a great concept itself. However, several of these books were included for the same place. For example, London, Paris, and New York each have 5 books listed. While I love each of those cities and appreciate that they have a significant literary value, I feel like a book called “Around the World in 80 Books” should include 80 books corresponding to 80 different cities or countries, not 30.

I am not usually a fan of Best of type books because ultimately, it’s always based on someone else’s opinion, and lord knows, I frequently don’t agree with critical reviews of books or movies. But that doesn’t mean I won’t give an anthology a valiant try because you know what, I relish the opportunity to be introduced to unexpected reads.

This was the case of this particular anthology. I could tell very early on that the author was a literary academic, such was the style of his writing and some of the books he recommended on his journey were ones I read in college - Heart of Darkness is a good example of the type. As an academic, he also leaned a lot into poetry which isn’t my personal jam. But I can honestly say that the breadth and diversity of his choices: from Dante to Georges Perec, from Orhan Pamuk to Mo Yan, and so on, really drove home to me the universality of language, literature, and just story telling in human experience. Damrosch’s choices were expected in some cases: who doesn’t love Sherlock Holmes? And very unexpected in so many ways, so in the end, there is a book for every reader in this anthology and isn’t that the point of it all?.

I loved this book I was totally drawn in from the first pages.This was a perfect read for me abook about travel book about books heaven .This is a book I will be recommending and gifting to friends.#netgalley #penguinpress

This book is such a wonderful gift for anyone who loves reading or writing—or perhaps both! It's informative, engaging, and emotional and it really reminded me of why I fell in love with books to begin with nearly 20 years ago. Damrosch's approach to writing was one that I found to be very inviting. With this type of subject, and with the breadth of facts presented in the work, it could come across as dry and difficult to read. But I found myself completely hooked from the first chapter, and I thought Damrosch struck the perfect tone in his writing.

I was captivated the whole time I was reading this and couldn't wait to discover what new facts and insights awaited me on the next page.

Loved loved loved it!!! If you’re a traveler AND a book lover, please read this. That is all I can say.

It was my pleasure to feature this title in my annal holiday gift books guide for The Globe & Mail national newspaper (Saturday Nov 20, 2021 print edition; also on AppleNews), organized thematically by giftee archetype. Feature online at related link.

I enjoyed this book. Damrosch made the exploration of countries around the world and their cultures fun, especially given the limitations he experienced with COVID-19 in crafting his narrative. It was a little dense, and I definitely connected more with the books that I had read, but if anything it just inspired me to read more. Especially in a time where travel is difficult, "traveling" through books is not a bad substitute.

I liked the idea of this book more than I liked the book, but just as with a real journey around the world, you're going to have places you like and wish you could linger in and others that a brief visit suffices. Unless you're really a determined reader, you might consider this as a reference book and first go to the country that attracts you the most. Or, approach it in a different way and go to unfamiliar places that you never dreamed you'd visit or maybe had never even heard of.
I like it as a reference book; to turn to in those odd moments when you're not sure what you want to read next.

Wow--What a fun bookish adventure around the world.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for my advanced readers cop in exchange for an honest review. I think that not everyone would like this book because of the vast amount of information but I adored the journey from book 1 to book 80.

I truly enjoyed the format of each section divided into the geography of the countries that the books are set in. I cant wait to add more of these books to my very long TBR pile.

If you are totally into reading lists and books about books, this one is perfect for those readers. Well done.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley.

I liked this book, but it got a little repetitive and in certain places I was a bit bored. It definitely gave me some new books to add to my list, though!

I never should have requested this book as it was not what I expected. This was my fault for not reading the details, not the fault is the author.

I was looking for more of an armchair travel book, to learn about new places yet this talked of books written in different places that didn't have anything to do with what I wanted.

It is probably a good book, but this was not one I read beyond the first chapter.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.