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.

No 23 The Portugese Escape - Ann Bridge proved to be quite dull. I didn't really take to any of the characters.

I finished book 23: The Incendiary's Trail, which was not the rollicking Victorian thriller I wa hoping for. I found it a bit meh.

Book 24 was On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and this I did enjoy.

Book 25 was The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman. I enjoyed, but suspect is quite controversial amongst the church.

Book 26 will be a bit of fluff I imagine: The Three Body Problem by Catherine Shaw.

Such a doofus - book 24 was actually The Remarkable Journey of Miss Tranby Quirke!

So book 25 was On Chesil Beach.
Book 26 was The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.

Book 27: The Three Body Problem.

Book 13 ~ Dancing in Phoenix Park by Frankie Valentie, a very easy read, a bit too chick lit for me, with the plot driven by a series of huge coincidences, it would be a good beach read.

Book 14 ~ Small Kindnesses by Fiona Robyn, about loss, bereavement and healing, I enjoyed this! A soothing tale of recovery, told with a gentle humour.

Book 15 ~ The Agincourt Bride by Joanna Hickson, the story of Catherine de Valois from childhood to her marriage to Henry V. Quite a bit of political information, lots of social history detail, a very good read, the first of a series.

Book 8 - The Somnambulist, Essie Fox (good)
Book 9 - Next to Love, Ellen Feldman (ok)
Book 10 - Harold Fry (great)
Book 11 - Snow Child (great most of the way through then weak last 50 pages)
Now on Book 12 - Memoirs of a Geisha..... (GREAT! so far, so interesting....)

Finished Room, it was... OK I suppose. Surprised that it merited a Booker nomination but then the other crap book of my 12 so far (The Finkler Question) actually won the Booker that year so the judges must have been on something!

11. From Hell - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
12. Room - Emma Donoghue

Agree. Room is distinctly average! But Sense of an Ending WON the Booker and that is very dreary and inconsequential.

Checking back in - have now finished:

Book 11 - Evonne Wareham - Never Coming Home (sort of cross between thriller and romance. So so)

Book 12 - Linda Geddes - Bumpology (looks at evidence and research about pregnancy / baby advice)

Book 13 - Vicki Petterson - Cheat the Grave (No 5 in a series about supernatural battles of light vs shadow in Las Vegas. Need to get the final book in the series now)

Book 14 - Essie Fox - The Somnambulist (OKay. Set in late Victorian England. Lots of twists and turns)

Book 15 - Rachel Caine - Firestorm (More supernatural heroics. Trying to stop Mother Earth killing all the humans this time)

Book 16 - Amanda Hocking - Switched (So so. Misfit teenage girl is really some sort of changling princess.)

Book 17 - Karen Thompson Walker - The Age of Miracles (Good - premise is Earth's rotation gradually getting slower & slower, seen through the eyes of pre-teen Julia)

Book 18 - Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life: Volume 1 (undemanding but entertaining graphic novel)

purple you are the only other person I've come across who has also read the somnambulist!!!! I enjoyed it. I am not a gothic novel person, and it isn't my best read f the last few months but it surprised me! And I now know what a SOMANMBULST is as well.

26. Minerva, M.C. Beaton (part of the Six Sisters Regency Romances that I read in my teens. I'm gobbling them down like cream buns)

27. The Vanishing Point, Val McDermid (works well as a satire on the whole reality tv industry. The central character has elements of Jade Goody and Katie Price. Very little overt violence, which is good because I am squeamish about this sort of thing).

28. The Taming of Annabelle, M.C. Beaton (see 26. The author has quite a lot of fun at her very flawed heroine's expense).

Now on book 27, The Lovers of Pound Hill. Still in the early chapters, but it's reminding me a bit of J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, with more wit and style and less social conscience. It's about the inhabitants of a small village with a Cerne Abbas-like giant on the hill nearby. The author is in good form, having fun with her characters.

I'm reading a few chapters of John Lanchester's Whoops, but I haven't really got into it. I seem to be in the mood for entirely frivolous reading at the moment.

31 turned out to be Atonement - nearly finished. HATED the first part and had to force myself to keep reading but really like the second part so far.

32 will be Capital by John Lanchester (but DD was using it to prop up the laptop hence Atonement).

17 The Alchemist Paul Coelho

Just finished book 14: A Clash of Kings. Ready enjoying the Game of Thrones books, but they are long and complicated stories which take some concentration, so my next book definitely needs to be something lighter.

Book 15 is We Can Be Heroes by Catherine Bruton. I can already see this annoying me given that a supposedly 11 year old character who doesn't know about 9/11 had just used the sentence "informed discussion is a valuable educational tool". I appreciate the sentiment, but can't help feeling the author shoehorned that into the conversation in a very awkward way!

Yes, clunky!

32 nearly finished - Capital by John Lanchester. I am really enjoying this - one of the best I have read this year. Funny and moving with incredibly believable characters. Hope it continues to be this good to the end.

11. From Hell - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
12. Room - Emma Donoghue
13. Omon Ra - Victor Pelevin

Omon Ra was great - a short, funny, incredibly black satire on the Russian space race.

22. Notorious Nineteen - Janet Evanovich - a bit samey, but still love this series.
23. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou - fabulous, want to read the rest of the series.
24. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (audio book) - chilling.
25. The Fast Book - Dr Michael Mosley & Mimi Spencer (eye-opener - I'm hooked :o)
26. The Magic Faraway Tree trilogy - Enid Blyton - DD's bedtime story (a mammoth 600+ pages) 26.5 Esio Trot - Roald Dahl (so short, it doesn't really deserve a whole book number :o)

Mrs Cosmopilite - sorry I completely missed your post Sunday 3/3 - yes I did keep hearing his voice as I was reading it :o. I'm pleased I got to the end, still liking him!

Finished No 23 The Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch which I really enjoyed and now am reading Crucible

I've had to give up on book 15, I couldn't bear reading any more. I was put off by the author putting very politicised and adult conversations into the mouths of children. In theory, not necessarily unbelievable, but the language and ideas were far too advanced and political to fit with the image if young children playing in treehouses and riding skateboards.

I don't know whether that counts or not, but my replacement choice is The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Good choice Wednesday - I read The Lifeboat last year, and really enjoyed it. Hope you do too :)

Thanks Duchess I'm only a few chapters in so far, but enjoying it. I'll let you know.

Ha, no problem, Dutchess - this thread is so long,with so many interesting potential reads on it, it's easy to miss things. :)

Well, No.16 "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde was real fun. It was somewhere between Ben Aaranovitch and Robert Rankin. I've just got hold of another book to read.

Currently on No. 17 "Roughing It" by Mark Twain. About 20 chapters in and I'm still not sure. It's not as dry and funny as other works. I'll stick with it, but I am a little disappointed.

Lined up:
No. 18: "Bronze Summer" by Stephen Baxter.

Allalone I have just reserved a copy of 'The Agincourt Bride' as it sounds like my kind of book. I might also look into 'The Sonambulist', Purple.