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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:
DuchessofMalfi · 01/03/2013 19:10

I keep a written list of the books I read (started a couple of years ago) and also keep a record on Goodreads. I used to keep a record when I was a teenager but gave up, thinking it was a bit ummm anal anorak-y :o I don't care now :o

NicknameTaken · 01/03/2013 21:18

It's actually very cool. It's just that not everyone realizes.[

MegBusset · 01/03/2013 22:06

Started book 11 - From Hell (graphic novel) by Alan Moore.

BuxtonBlueCat · 01/03/2013 22:31

I started the year with a Goodreads challenge of 50 books - I'm currently on number 3 Hmm not doing so well! I love reading and always have a book on the go - just don't get time to read them Sad

PerksOfBeingNorthern · 02/03/2013 08:42
  1. Ann Nonny -The Merry Wives of Henry VIII
  2. Blake Crouch - Snowbound
  3. Tessa Dunlop - To Romania with Love
MrsMaryCooper · 02/03/2013 09:22

Finished No 21 The Visitor - Lee Child it was quite good although I knew who had done it really early on. The previous Lee Childs I have read were later on in the series and a bit by numbers, I thought. This was better.

I really don't know what to read for 22. I'm not feeling like reading this week.

minsmum · 03/03/2013 10:52

Book 15 If This Is A Man by Primo Levi finished this on friday. It was a brilliant book and it will stay with me. I don't quite know how to describe it. It wasn't at all what I expected. I expected a Holocaust survivors tale but this wasn't, it was more. Sorry this is not a good review because I can't quite explain how it made me feel I think I am still processing .

Book 16 The Truce by Primo Levi I am about half way through this now

juneybean · 03/03/2013 14:36
  1. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

I enjoyed it :)

DuchessofMalfi · 03/03/2013 16:54

No.21 finished - Back Story by David Mitchell. A little patchy in places but, on the whole, I enjoyed it.

MrsCosmopilite · 03/03/2013 23:00

How funny, Dutchess - your No.21 was my No.15. Totally agree with you. Were you reading it all in his voice to yourself?

I've just got started on No. 16 'The Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fforde. It was recommended by a friend. Liking it so far. Somewhere between Robert Ranking and Ben Aaranovitch in terms of fantasy setting/alternative reality.

NicknameTaken · 04/03/2013 11:12

24 books so far, half fiction and half non-fiction:

  1. A Corkscrew is most useful, Nicholas Murray (non-fiction about Victorian travellers)
  2. Sugar Nation, Jeff O'Connor (non-fiction about nutrition)
  3. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby (non-fiction about reading)
  4. Gillespie and I, Jane Harris (fiction)
  5. Russo and the River of Darkness, R.S. Downie (fiction)
  6. The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddartha Mukherjee (non-fiction about cancer)
  7. The Stepmothers' Support Group, Sam Baker (fiction)
  8. Stranded, Emily Barr (fiction)
  9. Dark Places, Gillian Flynn (fiction)
10. The Great Charles Dickens Scandal, Michael Slater (non-fiction) 11. The Sleeping Army, Francesca Simon (children's fiction) 12. A Rambling Fancy: In the Footsteps of Jane Austen (non-fiction) 13. The Last Princess, Mathew Dennison (non-fiction about Victoria's youngest daughter) 14. Dug to Death, Adrian Praetzellis (a textbook on archaeology with a light veneer of fiction) 15. In Ruins, Christopher Woodward (non-fiction about architecture/art history/literature) 16. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (fiction) 17. The Horlogicon, Mark Forsyth (non-fiction) 18. Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure, Artemis Cooper (non-fiction) 19. Truth to Tell, Mavis Cheek (fiction) 20. Ophelia in Pieces, Clare Jacob (fiction) 21. Daphne, M. C Beaton (fiction) 22. Deadline, Barbara Nadel (fiction) 23. The Lodger: Shakespeare in Silver Street, Charles Nicholl (non-fiction) 24. A Card from Angela Carter, Susannah Clapp (non-fiction)

I'm on book 25, Paula Byrne's The Real Jane Austen, and have another 10 or so lined up....

CoteDAzur · 04/03/2013 11:18
  1. Existence - David Brin (Arguably the worst sci-fi book I have ever read, and about 600 pages too long)
  2. The Power Of Now - Eckhart Tolle (By far the worst book I have ever read, full of nonsense that had me howling with laughter, and that is against some competition. That this book has ever been a bestseller sours my faith in humanity)
NicknameTaken · 04/03/2013 11:27

Cote, I had to stop The Power of Now a few pages in. I just couldn't make any sense of it at all.

I strongly disliked A Card from Angela Carter - all rather pointless and banal.

CoteDAzur · 04/03/2013 11:31

I wouldn't even have picked it up let alone force myself to read it, but have to for our book club. I have never ever seen so much rubbish in print and am frankly Shock that Tolle has convinced someone to print this crap.

CoteDAzur · 04/03/2013 11:36

Consider yourself lucky that you didn't come to the parts where he claims that PMS is your "pain-body" awakening to the collective historical suffering of humanity, or that when you stop thinking and live in the present at all times your body's molecular structure (no less) actually gets less dense and so it ages much slower.

Who reads such crap? Shock

NicknameTaken · 04/03/2013 11:48

Duly grateful for missing that!

mumslife · 04/03/2013 13:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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

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.

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?

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!
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.

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.

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.

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.