50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

BOF - I want to read that soon! Glad it was good.

45. Kitchen by Barbara Yoshimoto. Two stories inside 150 pages but boy does it pack a punch. Brilliant.

77. The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier. Just wonderful.

tumble

I have a three volume lovely edition of War and Peace sitting on my desk. I fear it may stay there for a while.

I did read Peasants by Anton Chekhov the other day it is a short story in a collection so not sure if I can add it, what do you reckon? That's my Russian contribution.

As I have Russian blood I suppose I should join the War and Peace club... Anna Karenin was enough for me tbh!

Some excellent books currently on this thread (and Breaking Dawn )

Circassian, I found that comment about expressing sadness and love better in Turkish and humour/satire better in English really interesting. My Grandma was Russian, she was a fluent English speaker but she continued to cook, pray and swear in Russian!

39. The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger, about a woman from Bangladesh who meets an American man on a dating website and comes to the US to marry him. Good stuff.

36. 1984 - George Orwell

Brilliant, concise, merciless, pertinent and even urgent. I read 1984 in my teens and loved it. Not sure why, since it would seem I didn't understand much of it.

Much of its predictions are eerily accurate. Doublethink, Newspeak - unfortunately these are tactics currently in use, and are being used against us.

We won be discussing this in book club soon. My examples of Doublethink from everyday life will probably be: "Jesus is human and he is God" and "Jesus is God who is also Holy Spirit"

43. The Other Typist
44. The Way We Live Now (audiobook - simply outstanding!)

She is heavily involved in translation though when it comes to English and Turkish.

Côte - she said that she writes initially in English , then the books are translated for her and then she rewrites them in Turkish. I read them in English, but she also spoke about how certain emotions like sadness and love are better/easier in Turkish and satire/humour she finds easier in English. I agree.

I have only read The Forty Rules of Love but I have a slight Sufism obsession so it really worked for me but I will be reading the others.

Thanks, BOF

thank you wednesday, for admitting that! makes me feel better

and the bonus of having gallstone attacks? i only started the book yesterday afternoon and im on page 512 already as i havent been able to do much. thought it would take me at least 2 weeks to finish as its so thick. im flying through it still prefer the films though

Excellent idea hackmum, we should have badges.

I read the blog on Pilgrim's Progress and the comments underneath actually put me off reading it as everyone was saying what hard going it was.

I have read about two pages of Kafka's The Trial today. It is good, but so depressing that I really don't have the urge to read it at all. My Kindle says that I'm 22% of the way through it so I feel that I should just keep at it. I do feel virtuous when I read a book like that, even if I have to force myself to do it. It's kind of like eating vegetables. You feel that it must be doing you good in some way. Plus I keep nagging my children to read "proper" books so feel that I ought to read some myself.

Circassian I like the sound of The Happiness of Blond People and short is good too if I'm going to get to 50 books by the end of the year. I think that's going on my to-read list.

11. Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding
12. The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window...- Jonas Jonasson

funambulist: we should form a club - "I read War and Peace and survived to tell the tale." It would be small and select.

I read the first blog, the Pilgrim's Progress one, then forgot about it! Must go back and look at the other two. Hope they reach one I've read soon.

Côte - I met her at the weekend and she talked about it. I am definitely going to read it.

I misremembered it slightly- it's actually called The Secret Life Of Bletchley Park, and it's by Sinclair McKay.

BOF - Could you tell me the exact name of the Bletchley Park book you read? There are several books with similar names. Thanks.

Circassian - Elif Shafak has a book called Black Milk I think you would enjoy.

37. The happiness of Blond People, by Elif Shafak This is an essay really but I am counting it. It was fantastic and I found myself nodding my head and even uttering things like "exactly!" on the bus.

Duchess of Malfi, I really enjoyed "Heartburn", but haven't read any of her others so can't compare it to them. I think that I might put "I Feel Bad About My Neck" on my list as my next easy read. I am trying to alternate these with more worthy books which I feel I "ought" to read. My current book is Franz Kafka's "The Trial", which is rather depressing and claustrophobic so it's taking me a while to get through it.

Hackmum, very impressed that you've got through War and Peace, well done. I read it whilst inter-railing as a student and I'm sure I only managed it because it was the only English book I had with me.

I wondered if anyone else had been looking at the 100 best novels list that they are doing in the Guardian? They are looking at a different book each week. It seems to be chronological as so far they've done:

1 Pilgrim's Progress
2 Robinson Crusoe
3 Gulliver's Travels

Thanks InLove!

I've got Twilight on my To Read list too