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

[CardiffUniversityNetballTeam]

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.
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.

Thanks PerksOfBeingNorthern I will update when I get round to reading it!! Mau be a while though as I'm reading another one of his at the moment.

Daisy how was Gone Girl? I've just downloaded that onto my kindle!

Am reading Getting Rid Of Matthew. Somebody recommend it on another MN thread and I thought I'd give it a go. It's about an affair from both OW and wife's POV. It is a bit silly but I'm enjoying it.

It may be the version velcro as I have read it a hundred times a few times in paperback. It may be worth going back to it some time as it is very good.

I finished The Legacy and thought it ok - not badly written, but just didn't grab me very hard.

I went straight onto The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and adored it. It's written in an inventive and effective format. The end did feel a little rushed though and I would have liked some final dialogue to tie the ends together (don't want to give too much away). But otherwise superb.

I'm about to begin book 12: The House at Midnight by Lucie Whitehouse.

wednesday i loved gone,girl. read it one day, its a real page turner.

superscribbler book 12 ? wow youre flying through the books! well on track for the 50!

does anyone else have the kindle app on their iphone? its great - means you can sneak in a few chapters whenever you get the chance (which for me means sitting holding ds hand as he falls asleep which generally takes an hour.)

yes daisy the app is brilliant. Especially because it immediately knows where you are up to from your kindle. great for feeding

Thanks daisy! I'm looking forward to reading it!

I've got the android kindle app, which sounds the same. It's brilliant!

FleurPearl what did you think of 'still missing' ? I read it last year (50p from charity shop). I found it was ok but probably not the best book to read having read it straight after this one www.amazon.co.uk/A-Stolen-Life-ebook/dp/B005BQNC44/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1359477996&sr=1-1 .I also read 'A visit from the Goon Squad' which I did not like much.

I finished Getting Rid Of Matthew this afternoon. It was easy to read and funny not my usual type of book at all though.

Onto book 5 now. Need to find a good one.

I don't think I will read 50 books this year but it's good to see what everyone else is reading.

So far I've read:
Mandarin Gate - Eliot Pattison
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng

... and now I'm reading:
Born to Run - Christopher McDougall

Cote - What did you think of the Garden of Evening Mists; I read it last year and found myself almost hypnotised by the setting!

I've finished Anthony Horowitz's House of Silk, which was an enjoyable romp. I've pencilled in a trip to the library tomorrow to pick up some new books as quite a few that I've reserved are apparently now ready and waiting for me . . .

I liked it but it felt like the "light" version of a better, more profound book. The first third was utterly boring and it is only when the book came to the testimonies of various war survivors from both sides that it started to get interesting.

So much more could have been done with that book.

Noseyparker - still missing wasn't bad, there were parts I really liked (the first half being captured) but it all seemed a bit rushed at the end and a little bit far fetched with the outcome. I'm finding Goon Squad a bit difficult to get in to. It's not holding myattention much and seeing as i have such a big reading pile I might not finish it!

So my plan to read all the books in my house before buying any others went right out the window today, after a trip to the charity shop I came home with another 9 books!! 25p each though, bargain!

Having spent almost two years barely reading at all I launched into a reading spree this year and have already read 5!

1. The portrait of Dorian Gray (an old favourite)
2. The Prisoner of Heaven (good, but best read after Zafon's previous two)
3. Orchids on your budget
4. French children don't throw food
5. Top the Class (how Asian parents raise high achievers - excellent read!)

Needing more of a book fix, but didn't know what to read next. Some great suggestions here.

Incidentally I'm also (slowly) compiling a list of 50 must read fiction books for my blog, so any favourites/suggestions would be warmly welcomed!

Some of my favourites are:

Memoirs of a Geisha
Shadow of the Wind
Chocolat
The Time Traveller's Wife
The Historian
A Little Princess

Will try and quite possibly fail! I have the same piles of books by my bed and on my bookcase. I put all the books I have read in the loft and only kept down to be read... Loads!

Number 6 finished - now onto The Return of Sherlock Holmes

right, I'm behind at the moment, but have finished three books so far and am nearly finished the 4th. The first three are:

• The Red and the Black (stendhal)
• Tales of the Jazz Age (Fitzgerald)
• Snows of Kilimanjaro (Hemingway. I now really hate Hemingway)

and the 4th I'm reading at the mo is the Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Just read a children's book (not to an actual child), Francesca Simon, The Sleeping Army. I liked it, but all the gory descriptions of rotting bodies would have freaked me out as a child.

Now reading A Rambling Fancy by Caroline Sanderson, a short book about her visits to various sites associated with Jane Austen. It's the kind of trip I like doing in real life, so I'm enjoying it.

I finished Wolf Hall last night. Loved it the best book I have read in ages. The only down side was I couldn't read it before going to sleep as it kept going round and round in my head and keeping me awake. I love Thomas Cromwell. My dh has Bring up the Bodies so will read that later. So book 6 read now have to decide on book 7

Finished book 7 last night: Veronika Decides to Die. I really enjoyed most of it but did feel a bit cheated by the ending.

Starting book 8 today. It will be something on the kindle, but not sure what yet.

Superscribbler I loved The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, glad you enjoyed it too!

I've just finished my third book, The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. I really wanted to enjoy it as it is a very original idea, interesting characters and lovely descriptions, but at the end of the day the underlying premise (a girl slowly turning into glass) was just too weird for me.

Next book is The Child Who by Simon Lelic.

Well its the last day of January and I have managed 6 books this month!

1. The Country Girls - Edna O'Brien
2. The Ladies Lending Library - Janice Kulyk Keefer
3. Heft - Liz Moore
4. A glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym
5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
6. Mrs Robinson's Disgrace - Kate Summerscale

This thread is really keeping me motivated and I keep checking in to see what others are reading and looking for book ideas.
Can't believe this thread is 16 pages already - great thread CardiffUniversityNetballTeam!

I finished book 5 last night - The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes. Loving her books, and become a fan very quickly. Got to finish my book club book now and not enjoying it at all. The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift. I may sneak in another guilty pleasure in between!

gail, I adore Barbara Pym! I struggled a bit with A Glass of Blessings, because it's definitely one of her least comforting books, but I'm slowly coming around to it. But Some Tame Gazelle and Crampton Hodnet are two of my favourite books ever.