13 year-old Aisha Arif Esbhani from Karachi has set herself a unique challenge: to read a "novel, short story collection or memoir from every single country of the world".

She announced her plan via Facebook, on a page she set up specifically to invite book recommendations.

"I wanted to explore the writers of the African continent and the tiny islands in Asia. I wanted to explore the nations of which I had never read any books. I wanted to explore stories that had been translated into English," she said in her Facebook status, adding; "I had finished 43 countries".

Explore: Need stressed for reviving book reading culture

Inviting recommendations with open arms, Esbhani wrote; "Let's have a fun time together, I would love to see my notifications flooding because of the amount of comments and suggestions."

Her Facebook page has since been inundated with recommendations and requests, with people writing in from Greece, Australia, Sudan, Croatia and a number of other countries.

In her quest to read a book from every country, Esbhani has also made some interesting new friends. In October, she wrote, the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, reached out and recommended some Nigerian authors for her to read.

A few years ago, London-based freelance writer Ann Morgan set out on a similar crowd-sourced adventure to read one book from every country in the world. Morgan's choice for a Pakistani book was the late Jamil Ahmed's, The Wandering Falcon.

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