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

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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.

Snap, Galaxymum - was awake till after 2am last night reading Gone Girl. Not just a thriller, but an interesting take on marriage and the impact of the recession.

I also read In Ruins, by Christopher Woodward, for what must be the fourth or fifth time. It's non-fiction, and takes in art history and architectural history, subjects I know very little about, but he makes me want to know more. It's written in a really appealing style, and I always end up with a list of places I want to visit.

I am being fickle. Have got bored of both Sherlock Holmes and Middlemarch. Have read No7 Where'd You Go Bernadette? this weekend (excellent) and am now reading No8 Alone in Berlin (probably finish tonight) - also very good but very tense and sad too.

Finished the first of the two stories in "Smut" and actually found it really uncomfortable reading. Hoping the second one will be a more pleasant read!!

Not sure what to read next, so have just got the Brian Cox "Wonders of the Universe" on Kindle. It is a bargain ATM, £1:99 instead of £20, though will probably display better on the iPad app than Kindle.

I bought 3 new books today. Oops. In my defence, I had a voucher to use :) I have now added to my collection:

' The Prisoner Of Heaven' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
' The Lifeboat' by Charlotte Rogan, and,
'The Good Father' by Noah Hawley

I've finished Visit from the Goon Squad and it was ok but I couldn't really get in to it and found I was forcing myself to get through and finish it. Book 5 is The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Last week I popped in to the charity shop and came out with 9 books!!! I've since bought a few on ebay and other charity stores. Can't help myself!!! My "to read" pile is huge!
I see a lot of you are racing ahead so I definitely need to get my read on!

is that a new Carlos ruiz zafon book wednesday? V jealous

Yes Brockle it's apparently the sequel to ' The Shadow Of The Wind!!

you see wednesday all my good intentions about buying no more books has flew out of the window

It's buy one get one half price in waterstones at the moment!! I'm about to start reading it. My good intentions of finishing my old books before new ones have also flown.

Enjoyed the second half of "Smut" far more than the first. It was less disturbing.

Starting my next book now - number 13?

Finished book no. 8 - James Herbert - The Secret of Crickley Hall.

The plot in the book hangs together better than the plot in the TV adaption, particularly at the end of the book.

Finished No. 10. When will there be good news? - Kate Atkinson. Really engrossing, cleverly written, and well-constructed. I'm pacing myself now so will try another of hers later in the year.

Just got started on No.11 Point of Origin - Patricia Cornwell. She's my 'default' author when I'm between things. The right balance of predictabilty, twists and turns, and darkness. Given that the cat chucked up a hairball on it earlier, I need to read it quickly and ditch - scrubbing with cleaning fluid really hasn't helped much.

No. 12 is lined up - Lee Mack's autobiography - Mack the Life. I'm only reading it because earlier this year Neil Oliver tweeted that he was snorting with laughter reading it. And also because I'm still waiting for DH to finish reading Charlie Brooker's latest offering.

Purple - I read Crickley Hall last year. Have you read many others by James Herbert? He caused me to spend much of my late teens and early twenties scaring myself witless! Crickley Hall is pretty tame compared to some of his earlier stuff, still good though.

Cardiff - I read one of James Herbert's Rats books years ago - one where London had suffered a nuclear bomb attack and the survivors were trapped underground with the man-eating rats. That one gave me a few sleepless nights and kind of put me off reading more of his books.

I agree that Crickley Hall is tame in comparison with that!

Finished The Black House by Peter May,book 11, didn't really grab me till right towards the end. I would never have predicted the ending though. I have the second in the trilogy on my kindle but will probably wait a while before starting it.

I enjoyed The Blackhouse minsmum , maybe because I know the islands and enjoyed picturing the setting.

I've read the second which is also good but maybe less unusual. Saving the third for a long plane journey!

Just finished No 16 - White Nights by Ann Cleevley. I really enjoyed it, its the second part of a series set in Shetland, I read the first one last year and I'm going to read the third one, Red Bones as number 17.

Finished book 8 - The Finkler Question - which I was pretty meh about, can't really see why it won the Booker Prize. Still no Amazon delivery so will move on to the other book my mum lent me (The Hand That First Held Mine) and hope it's better!

1. Edge Of The Orison - Iain Sinclair
2. The Year 1000 - Robert Lacey
3. The Clay Machine Gun - Victor Pelevin
4. V For Vendetta - Alan Moore & David Lloyd
5. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
6. A History Of England Vol 1: Foundation - Peter Ackroyd
7. The Death Of Grass - John Christopher
8. The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson

Finished The Sunne in Splendour, which was good, but perhaps not as good as I was expecting. I suspect that's because it's showing its age- wordier than more modern historicals and the 'love story' was too overblown for my taste.

Book 17: The Robsart Mystery - a lightweight hist-myst, so not too taxing I imagine.

Highlands maybe that was my problem that it's not somewhere that I know. I just couldn't see where it was going and I didn't like him very much.

Just finished "Walking Home" by Simon Armitage, about a poet walking the Pennine Way. I realised on typing that synopsis that I should have guessed that the book would be slightly pretentious!!

Moving on to Dominion by CJ Sansom next and looking forward to it as I love his Shardlake books. My only problem is that it looks quite thick and is due back at the library soon with no chance of renewing it as lots of others have reserved it. Oh well, it will give me a "valid" excuse to procrastinate dealing with ironing mountain and to read instead!

Dragon, that's the best thing about having to return library books by a set time!

I'm currently reading Horlogicon by Mark Forsyth. I really enjoyed his earlier book, the Etymologicon, so I knew I would be in safe hands, and he keeps making me laugh out loud. The chapters on the pointlessness of office life are particularly funny.

I loved The Etymologicon. Wasn't sure whether to read The Horologicon, but you may have just persuaded me Nickname :o