I first discovered the Middle East Reading Challenge during this past Ramadan. For those who are unfamiliar with Ramadan, Ramadan is the holy month of fasting for Muslims. I'm only familiar with a few of the Middle Eastern countries and their cultures, but I would love to learn more. One of my reading resolutions for 2011 is to diversify my reading list. This is one of the perfect ways to do so. I originally had the intention to sign up for this challenge during Ramadan, however, things got busy and I completely forgot. Since we are a few weeks left in December, I thought I would sign up now and start the challenge in January.

The Middle East Challenge is hosted by Helen over at Helen's Book Blog. The purpose of the challenge is to read books that take place in this region and to gain a better understanding of the people and cultures of this region.

What Helen considers Middle Eastern: "The Middle East is a nebulous term with each person defining it in a different way (it's also a very Euro-centric term so please forgive me for that). However I am going to use it for lack of a better way to define the area covered by this reading challenge. So, what is the Middle East? Traditionally it included only the countries in Asia plus Egypt. Some define it as countries with Arabic as the dominant language, while others say it is all Islamic countries. For the purposes of this challenge I am going to stick with the more traditional/geographic approach including the countries around the Arabian peninsula. I struggled about what to do with Turkey and have chosen to leave it out as they currently choose to be associated more with Europe. Likewise, I am not including the "stan" countries as they are culturally, linguistically, and ethnically different (and, officially, they are in Central Asia)".