DID YOU KNOW: Our interlibrary loan (ILL) service connects you to a world of books. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Whatcom County Library System catalog, we will try to borrow it for you from another library. Simply fill out the form on wcls.org/can’t-find-it. We’ll do our best to track down the book and deliver it to your holds shelf.
AN ILL STORY
Scott Lambridis is a designer, an illustrator and a writer. He’s also a voracious reader. For the past decade, Lambridis has read at least 52 books a year; his record is 133. That’s impressive but wait until you hear his recent reading accomplishment.
In 2024, the South Whatcom Library patron completed a six-year odyssey to read a book from every country in the world. That’s 201 countries, including two that were formed after he started the challenge.
“I started with Europe; that’s all I thought I’d do at the start. That took a year,” he says. With Europe complete, he thought: “Why not read the world?”
The biggest challenge was finding books in translation, especially from little-known countries. WCLS’s interlibrary loan (ILL) service made it possible for Lambridis to borrow obscure books written by international authors from other libraries. “I didn’t want to buy them all, so I checked the library first. Most were not in the catalog. ‘Can’t find it’ became my best friend,” he says.
In addition to achieving his reading goal, Lambridis gained new perspectives from his year of reading around the world. “Reading fiction from beyond the U.S. allows you to hear other voices, it elevates other people and their experiences,” he says. Lambridis says the global reading experience increased his compassion for other people and strengthened his writing by helping him discover his own offbeat, irreverent and slightly (intentionally) naïve voice.
This is especially apparent in a series of 100 story panels he created in 2024 as part of a 100-day creative challenge. The single-sentence stories with hand-illustrated scenes feature a central character, SANA. Read them all at instagram.com/slambridis. In July 2026, Regal House will publish Lambridis’ novel St. Ulphia’s Dead.
Find Lambridis’ around-the-world booklist on his blog, scottlambridis.com/blog/reading-around-the-world.