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Original poster

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:
Southeastdweller · 10/03/2013 09:10

Only read four books so far. No good reason, I need to put away this iPad and my iPhone more. Still confident I can do this.

juneybean · 08/03/2013 19:11
  1. Thursday's in the Park by Hilary Boyd
  2. George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl

Both good reads :)

MrsMaryCooper · 08/03/2013 17:51

nora I normally love Christopher Brookmyre too, I really enjoyed his last two Where the Bodies and Buried and When the Devil Drives but really Bedlam was terrible.

Get it from the library if you must, but I bought it and I feel most put out!

SnowWoman · 08/03/2013 14:27

Coming very late to this thread but my to-be-read pile badly needs reading - it is taking over my room at the moment!

Book 1 - Who moved my Cheese?, non-fiction, can?t remember who wrote it but not a great read
Book 2 - Death comes to Pemberley ? PD James
Book 3 - Vow of Silence ? Veronica Black
Book 4 - The Shape of Water ? Andrea Camillera
Book 5 - The Fairy Godmother (500 Kingdoms)? Mercedes Lackey
Book 6 - The Mystery of a Butcher?s Shop ? Gladys Mitchell
Book 7 - The Moving Toyshop ? Edmund Crispin
Book 8 - The Long Earth ? Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Book 9 - The Big Flatline ? Jeff Rubin, non-fiction, economics in a zero-growth global economy
Book 10 - The Cat Who Tailed a Thief ? Lilian Jackson Braun
Book 11 - One Good Knight (500 Kingdoms) ? Mercedes Lackey
Book 12- Fortune?s Fool (500 Kingdoms)- Mercedes Lackey
Book 13 - The Snow Queen (500 Kingdoms) - Mercedes Lackey
Book 14 - The Sleeping Beauty (500 Kingdoms) - Mercedes Lackey
Book 15 ? Grimm Fairy Tales ? Philip Pullman

I am currently dipping into The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy and Claire Tomalin's biography of Dickens. Not sure what fiction to read next there are so many good ideas on this thread :)

shrinkingnora · 08/03/2013 13:20

MrsMaryCooper - I love Christopher Brookmyre and was planning on getting Bedlam. Is it really that bad? I might have to reread 'All fun and games...' soon.

Tumbletumble - she's fab, isn't she? I'm really enjoying Howl and will read the sequel too!

MegBusset · 07/03/2013 22:42
  1. From Hell - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell.

Just finished. An absolutely amazing, horrible, compelling, thought-provoking and powerful book.

MrsMaryCooper · 07/03/2013 19:09

Finished No 22 Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre. Big disappointment. I've read all his previous novels and loved most of them, this is by far the worst thing he has written. I kept going, thinking it has to improve but it didn't.

No 23 is The Portugese Escape by Ann Bridge, which I am enjoying so far.

tumbletumble · 07/03/2013 17:37

Oh shrinkingnora Diana Wynne Jones is another of my favourite authors - enjoy!

CoteDAzur · 07/03/2013 16:36
  1. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming

it was good but not brilliant, and quite markedly misogynist which was probably normal at the time it was written. It was interesting to see that it has absolutely nothing in common with the film starring Craig Daniel, except (1) names of principal characters, and (2) type of torture endured by James Bond.

Now I'm reading Quantity Theory Of Insanity by Will Self. So far, I'm interested.

DuchessofMalfi · 07/03/2013 13:54

I listen to audio books too Shagmund. I started listening to them this year. I listened to an unabridged version of Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell a couple of weeks ago, and Animal Farm last week. I've got Nineteen Eighty Four on my i-pod atm but haven't had time this week to start listening to it :(.

Audio books are helping to keep me motivated on my hour long walk after dropping the children off at school.

mumslife · 07/03/2013 12:56

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

shrinkingnora · 07/03/2013 11:09

I am simultaneously reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings. Will probably finish both tonight so am counting them as 24 and 25.

NicknameTaken · 07/03/2013 09:14

Jane Gardam's Bilgewater was a really formative book for me growing up.

I haven't really tried audio, except for some children's ones with DD. It seems to require a different type of concentration. Still, I plan to start listening if my eyesight eventually gives up .

Allalonenow · 06/03/2013 22:46

OOh it's ages since I read any Jane Gardam, I've got Old Filth somewhere, I must dig it out.

Original poster
CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 06/03/2013 22:37

So I have finished Assegai by Wilbur Smith. It is set in Africa just before the outbreak of the First World War and is part of a loosely connected series about two families of white settlers. Smith writes about Africa so beautifully, his love for his homeland shines through so clearly in all of his books.

Book number nine is The Time Travellers Guide to The Middle Ages by Ian Mortimer. I have been looking forward to reading this for ages!

OP posts:
Shagmundfreud · 06/03/2013 22:37

Does anyone else do audio books?

I'm horribly addicted. I download them onto my iOS and listen on and off all day while I'm doing other stuff.

You also experience the book in a different way when it's being read to you by a really skilled reader.

I'm halfway through the audio version (unabridged) Any Human Heart by William Boyd. Loving it.

Also just finished reading Flight of The Maidens - Jane Gardam. Recommend. Jane Gardam is a genius.

Last weeks audio was The Green Mile by Stephen King, and before that a Minette Walters and both mahoosive audio books of The Killing.

tumbletumble · 06/03/2013 18:40

Finished book 7 - Separate Lives by Kathryn Flett. Not bad, but I preferred The Heart Shaped Bullet about her marriage breakdown.

Next is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

DuchessofMalfi · 06/03/2013 13:28

Marian Keyes writes from experience of it though, Dragontrainer. Maybe it's her way, of making light of it, when she's feeling well enough. I haven't read any Marian Keyes for ages, and I used to love her novels. I really need to start the Walsh family series again, from the start.

Dragontrainer · 06/03/2013 12:09

Nickname - glad to hear that you enjoyed the Patrick Leigh Fermor autobiography as I'm just about to start it!

I've added three more to my list:

Still Alice by Lisa Genova, about a middle aged woman with Alzheimer's - I cried for more than half the book, so can't really say it was a pleasurable reading experience but it was definitely worthwhile!

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes - I love the way Marian Keyes writes, but for me the light, witty way of writing didn't blend too well with the background of suicidal depression

The Fishing Fleet - Husband Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcy - really enjoyed the first third of the book, then felt it all got a bit same-y; just a more detailed regurgitation of what had been covered already.

NicknameTaken · 06/03/2013 11:47

gail, ha, thanks for the compliment! It's just because I'm home alone with my dd most evenings, so there's not much else to do!

The ones I got most sheer enjoyment from were:
The Horlogicon
Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Real Jane Austen.

shrinkingnora · 06/03/2013 11:37
  1. the midnight palace. Utter twaddle. Really disappointing as I loved The Shadow of the Wind.
  2. Not sure what yet. Have zero cash so has to be something I already own!
gailforce1 · 06/03/2013 11:30

Book 9 - The Touchstone by Edith Wharton. Beautifully written
Book 10 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Disappointed after the hype
Book 11 - The Library Book edited by Rebecca Gray. Highly recommend this collection of writings by famous authors on public libraries, their use of them and why it is important to keep them open despite the efforts of the present government to close them.

I am seriously in awe of those on their 24/25 book!
Nickname of those on your (highly impressive!) list which would you recommend?

Allalonenow · 04/03/2013 19:26

Book 12 ~ "The Bellini Madonna" by Elizabeth Lowry, I enjoyed this art history/detective story, it reminded me a lot of Michael Frayn's "Headlong" in mood. I liked the way the plot swung between different periods, and the cast list was interesting.

shrinkingnora · 04/03/2013 14:07

Tumbletumble - not yet but definitely will!

21 - Cue the Easter Bunny - Liz Evans
22 - Jamarch's Menagerie - started this one ages ago and didn't get past the first 20 pages. Made myself read on this time and really enjoyed it.

23 is The Midnight Palace - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

mumslife · 04/03/2013 13:41

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