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50 Book Challenge in 2013. Who's with me?

991 replies

CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 05/01/2013 16:58

Tidying up after Christmas it has come to my attention that I have nearly 100(!!) paperbacks in stacks down the side of my bed waiting to be read. BlushBlush
I am going to challenge myself to try and read at least 50 of them this year. That's nearly one a week so I am going to have to really apply myself and stop faffing around and doing other things when I could be enjoying a good book.
I wondered if anyone else would like to join me? We can post what we are reading and then post when we have finished each book and what's next.
I know I would love to hear what others are reading and enjoying (or not enjoying) so I can go out and buy more books in a few months time!
My first book of the year is President Down by Terence Strong about spies and terrorists which my dad lent me about a year ago! I'm only about 20 pages in, but so far so good.

OP posts:
NicknameTaken · 15/03/2013 09:45

Yes, clunky!

WednesdayNext · 14/03/2013 22:45

Book 15 is We Can Be Heroes by Catherine Bruton. I can already see this annoying me given that a supposedly 11 year old character who doesn't know about 9/11 had just used the sentence "informed discussion is a valuable educational tool". I appreciate the sentiment, but can't help feeling the author shoehorned that into the conversation in a very awkward way!

WednesdayNext · 14/03/2013 19:44

Just finished book 14: A Clash of Kings. Ready enjoying the Game of Thrones books, but they are long and complicated stories which take some concentration, so my next book definitely needs to be something lighter.

minsmum · 13/03/2013 14:02

17 The Alchemist Paul Coelho

shrinkingnora · 13/03/2013 11:05

31 turned out to be Atonement - nearly finished. HATED the first part and had to force myself to keep reading but really like the second part so far.

32 will be Capital by John Lanchester (but DD was using it to prop up the laptop hence Atonement).

NicknameTaken · 13/03/2013 10:43

  1. Minerva, M.C. Beaton (part of the Six Sisters Regency Romances that I read in my teens. I'm gobbling them down like cream buns)

  2. The Vanishing Point, Val McDermid (works well as a satire on the whole reality tv industry. The central character has elements of Jade Goody and Katie Price. Very little overt violence, which is good because I am squeamish about this sort of thing).

  3. The Taming of Annabelle, M.C. Beaton (see 26. The author has quite a lot of fun at her very flawed heroine's expense).

Now on book 27, The Lovers of Pound Hill. Still in the early chapters, but it's reminding me a bit of J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, with more wit and style and less social conscience. It's about the inhabitants of a small village with a Cerne Abbas-like giant on the hill nearby. The author is in good form, having fun with her characters.

I'm reading a few chapters of John Lanchester's Whoops, but I haven't really got into it. I seem to be in the mood for entirely frivolous reading at the moment.

AnonymousBird · 12/03/2013 21:34

purple you are the only other person I've come across who has also read the somnambulist!!!! I enjoyed it. I am not a gothic novel person, and it isn't my best read f the last few months but it surprised me! And I now know what a SOMANMBULST is as well. Wink

PurpleStorm · 12/03/2013 21:23

Checking back in - have now finished:

Book 11 - Evonne Wareham - Never Coming Home (sort of cross between thriller and romance. So so)

Book 12 - Linda Geddes - Bumpology (looks at evidence and research about pregnancy / baby advice)

Book 13 - Vicki Petterson - Cheat the Grave (No 5 in a series about supernatural battles of light vs shadow in Las Vegas. Need to get the final book in the series now)

Book 14 - Essie Fox - The Somnambulist (OKay. Set in late Victorian England. Lots of twists and turns)

Book 15 - Rachel Caine - Firestorm (More supernatural heroics. Trying to stop Mother Earth killing all the humans this time)

Book 16 - Amanda Hocking - Switched (So so. Misfit teenage girl is really some sort of changling princess.)

Book 17 - Karen Thompson Walker - The Age of Miracles (Good - premise is Earth's rotation gradually getting slower & slower, seen through the eyes of pre-teen Julia)

Book 18 - Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life: Volume 1 (undemanding but entertaining graphic novel)

AnonymousBird · 12/03/2013 20:38

Agree. Room is distinctly average! But Sense of an Ending WON the Booker and that is very dreary and inconsequential.

HopeForTheBest · 12/03/2013 20:24

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This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on request of its author.

MegBusset · 12/03/2013 20:17

Finished Room, it was... OK I suppose. Surprised that it merited a Booker nomination but then the other crap book of my 12 so far (The Finkler Question) actually won the Booker that year so the judges must have been on something!

  1. From Hell - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
  2. Room - Emma Donoghue
AnonymousBird · 12/03/2013 19:34

Book 8 - The Somnambulist, Essie Fox (good)
Book 9 - Next to Love, Ellen Feldman (ok)
Book 10 - Harold Fry (great)
Book 11 - Snow Child (great most of the way through then weak last 50 pages)
Now on Book 12 - Memoirs of a Geisha..... (GREAT! so far, so interesting....)

Allalonenow · 12/03/2013 19:16

Book 13 ~ Dancing in Phoenix Park by Frankie Valentie, a very easy read, a bit too chick lit for me, with the plot driven by a series of huge coincidences, it would be a good beach read.

Book 14 ~ Small Kindnesses by Fiona Robyn, about loss, bereavement and healing, I enjoyed this! A soothing tale of recovery, told with a gentle humour.

Book 15 ~ The Agincourt Bride by Joanna Hickson, the story of Catherine de Valois from childhood to her marriage to Henry V. Quite a bit of political information, lots of social history detail, a very good read, the first of a series.

SuperScribbler · 11/03/2013 21:47

Such a doofus - book 24 was actually The Remarkable Journey of Miss Tranby Quirke!

So book 25 was On Chesil Beach.
Book 26 was The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.

Book 27: The Three Body Problem.

SuperScribbler · 11/03/2013 20:35

I finished book 23: The Incendiary's Trail, which was not the rollicking Victorian thriller I wa hoping for. I found it a bit meh.

Book 24 was On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and this I did enjoy.

Book 25 was The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman. I enjoyed, but suspect is quite controversial amongst the church.

Book 26 will be a bit of fluff I imagine: The Three Body Problem by Catherine Shaw.

MrsMaryCooper · 11/03/2013 20:03

No 23 The Portugese Escape - Ann Bridge proved to be quite dull. I didn't really take to any of the characters.

shrinkingnora · 11/03/2013 19:30

I reread them every year occassionally. I still love them. They're my comfort books. I've got a horrible throat infection and need something soothing!

MegBusset · 11/03/2013 15:58

Ah I used to love those Eddings books when I was a fantasy-obsessed teen! Do they stand the test of time?

shrinkingnora · 11/03/2013 13:19
  1. Queen of Sorcery - David Eddings
  2. Magician's Gambit - David Eddings
  3. Fen - Freya North (spent the whole book thinking what a bitch she was)
  4. Castle of Wizardry - David Eddings
  5. Enchanters' End Game - David Eddings

31 will be Capital by John Lanchester.

mumslife · 11/03/2013 12:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tumbletumble · 11/03/2013 07:13

I enjoyed Room but found the first half better than the second, sorry Meg!

Finished book 8 last night, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I loved this book - my favourite so far this year.

MegBusset · 10/03/2013 22:22

About 2/3 of the way through book 12, Room by Emma Donoghue (book club book, not normally the kind of thing I'd choose). Getting a bit bored with it tbh but will push on and get it read!

Allalonenow · 10/03/2013 20:14

Galaxymum. I loved that book too! Lovely experience!

Ps I don't know if your name reflects an interest, but I am hoping to see the comet this week, and I'm sure the Plantagenets would have come up with an indication of beneficial omen!

minsmum · 10/03/2013 20:01

Finished book 16 The Truce by Primo Levi. Another very good book.

Galaxymum · 10/03/2013 18:08

Book 9 The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman. Took me 3 weeks but wow! I loved every word. Amazing experience.