50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

28. The Murder at Styles - Agatha Christie. Haven't picked up any of her books since I was a teenager.

Did you like The Lotus Eaters? I was very pleasantly surprised.

Very late, but would love to join you.

Have read little for myself over the last year, just professional reading. Need to get properly back to the habit and spend less time web surfing. I'm sure it is causing my deep concentration to atrophy. Got six weeks off work now, and tickets for the Edinburgh Book Festival to look forward to at the end of the holidays. Going to see Margaret Atwood, Carol Anne Duffy, Patrick Ness, Kate Atkinson, Ronald Frame on Great Expectations and the James Tait Black awards. Ridiculously excited! This will dictate a lot of my Summer reading.

1. The Testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson
2. The Lotus Eaters - Tatjani Soli
3. The Panopticon - Jenni Fagan

25. Darkness Hunts - Keri Arthur. It's number 4 in the Dark Angel series. I love this sort of paranormal story, it's so easy to read (which is why I read, I don't want to have to think too hard)

I've just started 26. The Colour Purple. It doesn't seem like my type of book at all but I've read a few books this year that I wouldn't normally pick up and really enjoyed them, maybe it'll be the same with this one.

Ah, I've misnumbered. That was actually 43.

42: The Secret Intensity Of Everyday Lives, by William Nicholson. Really absorbing look at a connected group of people's internal thoughts. It reminded me of David Lodge or John Lanchester's Capital.

I find Banks' Culture novels terribly lightweight. I think the name of the subgenre is "space opera" (as in "soap opera). Robots, people, and all sorts of aliens live together in harmony etc. I read more complicated and challenging sci-fi in my teens (no offence to his fans).

Player Of Games had an interesting premise but was completely underdeveloped. Iirc, Inversions was the better one among his books that I've read.

I'm not a sci-fi fan so I can't compare them to much Cote. I've read three so far and still waiting to be wowed tbh. But persevering.

After IB's announcement of his illness I followed a lot of the posts on Banksophilia, the website set up for fans by one of his friends. So many people raved about the sci-fi I thought I'd give it a try. I do enjoy the dialogue but not so sure about the world of the Culture which many people find so entrancing.

The mainstream novels are excellent; I really recommend them.

And yes, the grandmother did actually explode. Kind of. You'll need to read Crow Road to find out

Other books = non-scifi.

Did the grandmother actually physically explode? If so, it might make an interesting book

I am a big sci-fi fan who has read pretty much all the good sci-fi starting with Heinlein & Asimov all the way to contemporary cyberpunk, and I can't say that Iain Banks' sci-fi books are much good at all. I think I read about 8 of them before giving up completely. I heard his other books are better, though.

27. Home - Toni Morrison. Impeccable writing.

Wednesday Espedair Street is my favourite of the ten or so I've read. Really loved the central character, Daniel Weir, a former rock star. He has his faults but he's a very sympathetic character too.

Crow Road is another good one. Great opening first line; "It was the day my grandmother exploded" and excellent on family relationships, love, growing up, Scotland .. the murder mystery is just a small part of it.

Every book Iain Banks writes is quite different, and fans have their own favourites, but I'd say these two are probably the most accessible, and Crow Road is particularly Scottish which I also like

21. Running with the Pack: Thoughts From the Road on Meaning and Mortality - Mark Rowlands
    As much about running as Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance was about Motorcycles - i.e. very little.

22. Killing Floor - Lee Child
    1st Jack Reacher book. Easy, quick read. Written in 1st person singular & mostly in very short sentences and a 150-word vocabulary, so it gives the impression that the protagonist is a bit of a muscled imbecile, but still fun to read

18. No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym.

A re-read by my favourite author. An absolute delight. I need to re-read more often - I sometimes feel like I'm always racing against the clock to get books back to the library, a totally self-imposed pressure.

Succumbed to the e-reader enthusiasm and bought a Kobo Mini, but finding it very complicated to download books (had to download software, so maybe it'll get easier). Not feeling the love as yet - still feels very fiddly.

26. Eloise - Judy Finnegan. Overwrought, over emotional and silly. Not recommended.

highlandcoo it's the first Iain Banks novel I've read. I've always meant to read it (and others of his) but not got round to it!! Any recommendations for which of his to read next?

41. Faithful Place by Tana French- a crime thriller . Kept me busy for a long train journey, really enjoyed it.

And I also finished listening to The Gathering by Anne Enright (audio book). Good narration by Fiona Shaw, but quite a bleak depressing story.

Book 59 finished today - The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman. I liked it a lot. Harrowing in the bits set in Terezin and Auschwitz,

26. Secrets of the Tudor Court by Darcey Bonnette

Wednesday I just read The Wasp Factory too. Following Iain Banks' announcement of his illness I decided to read my way through all his stuff. Even the sci-fi; a bit of a departure from my normal taste in books. Have read him intermittently over the years - loved Espedair Street - and as a bit of a tribute thought I would do the lot. Starting with TWF

DH had read it years ago and warned me it was extremely disturbing and weird. Well I must have a sicker sense of humour than he thought but I absolutely loved it too. One of the best things I've read in ages, and one scene where Eric phones Frank is still making me laugh out loud. (Admittedly there's also one very disturbing bit which I try not to think about too often)

I'm now up to my third mainstream and fourth sci-fi novel. Mainstream is probably more my thing - really looking forward to Crow Road and revisiting Espedair Street - but all his books share a dry sense of humour and great dialogue and it's been interesting. Only 25 to go

Still on 24: "The Wasp Factory". Love, love, love it so far. Amazingly well written and so unusual. I think Iain Banks is going to be featuring on my reading list a lot more after this.

23. twenty wishes - debbie macomber, is done. absolutely loved this one. #5 in the blossom street series and its by far my fave one so far. absolutely lovely story with very likable characters. i even cried at one bit

24. summer on blossom street - debbie macomber. can you tell i love this author?

27. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

31. The Girl in the Mirror - Sarah Gristwood. Confusing in places, but entertaining enough. Highly improbable main character against an interesting historical backdrop.

Now reading

32. How to do Everything and be Happy - Peter Jones. A sensible and realistic self-help book. He's actually a friend of another friend of mine, and is a very down-to-earth, practical guy.

33. The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language - Mark Forsyth. I love books about words and their etymology, so this is right up my street. I see he has another book in the pipeline, out later this year, so that'll be on my wish list.

34. The Divorce of Henry VIII: The Untold Story - Catherine Fletcher. Covering the six year period that it took for Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon. Quite deep, but fascinating.