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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:
Allalonenow · 17/03/2013 19:43

Just popping in to say that Cat and Mouse by Tim Vicary is free on Amazon Kindle today. I am reading this ATM and really enjoying it, set in 1914 and following the lives of two sisters involving the suffragette movement and the Ulster Volunteer Force, it's fast paced with interesting characters.
Double check that it is still free before you click as offers cn be short lived.

MrsCosmopilite · 17/03/2013 23:05

^Up there, I meant I've just got hold of another Jasper Fforde book to read.

NicknameTaken · 18/03/2013 10:30

Gave up on Whoops by John Lanchester and a book on Stonehenge. I think I might enjoy them in other moods, but I have other stuff going on that requires more concentration, so I just want to read frivolous things.

Finished Lovers of Pound Hill by Mavis Cheek. All very quirky, some mild commentary on gender politics, and everyone gets their just deserts by the end.

Another of the Six Sisters series by M C Beaton - Deirdre and Desire. Still swooning over the handsome, rich, masterful yet kind heroes she portrays, though they might be hard to live with long-term.

Have discovered a new series - Herring on the Nile by L C Tyler. Very funny crime fiction, riffs nicely off the Agatha Christie stock characters and situations, and lots of laugh-out-loud comments about the sorrows of being a third-rate crime writer. I'm going to seek out the rest of this series with enthusiasm.

shrinkingnora · 18/03/2013 11:55
  1. Capital - John Lanchester finished on Saturday. I thought it excellent.
  2. Skin - Mo Hayder. These are getting a bit samey now but was a good light read.
  3. The Photograph - Penelope Lively. Recommended up thread and very good it is too.

Despite having no money, I accidentally bought my entire shopping basket on Amazon the other day. So there's another 10 books on their way to me Grin oops! In my defence they're all less than £3 including postage.

DuchessofMalfi · 18/03/2013 12:22

I'm currently about a third of the way through Atonement by Ian McEwan. So far, so good.

It will be one ticked off from my shelf of books bought far too long ago and left unread, gathering dust :o

InLoveWithDavidTennant · 18/03/2013 15:45

im late for the book party but im going to make myself comfortable any way Grin

i have a serious book addiction and i have SO many to read... but so far this year i have read...

  1. twelve days of christmas - trisha ashley (started in dec but ended in jan so im including it)
  2. where rainbows end - cecelia ahern (bathroom book) Grin
  3. deja view - lisa armstrong
  4. out on a limb - lynne barrett-lee
  5. the shop on the corner - marita conlon-mckenna
  6. when i fall in love - miranda dickinson
  7. love always - harriet evans
  8. dont look back - scott frost
  9. something blue - emily griffen
  10. never say never - melissa hill

currently reading "left to die - lisa jackson"

am reading by alphabet otherwise id just be picking ones ivd brought recently.

CardiffUniversityNetballTeam · 18/03/2013 20:15

I am struggling miserably through March. I have temporarily given up on the Time Travellers Guide To The Middle Ages. Parts of it are very interesting but other bits seem to drag on a bit and its taking me ages to read. The print is really tiny as well, which is something that always seems to slow me down.

I have to confess that on taking DS to the library I accidentally got out How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, based solely on MN reviews! I'm really enjoying it, it makes me grin Grin so that should be finished by the end of the week.

OP posts:
Allalonenow · 18/03/2013 21:37

Chin up Cardiff you know you can do this, soon it will be Agile April, and you will be filled with enthusiasm.

Don't take Caitlin too seriously, you could have written a better version yourself !!

Galaxymum · 19/03/2013 11:51

Book 10: The Truth about Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell - easy read chick lit but with interesting themes and really enjoye dit.
Book 11: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton - excellent book with some great twists. I am a big fan of Kate Morton.

Now trying to decide on book 12!

NicknameTaken · 19/03/2013 13:54

Oh shrinking, what a distressing accident. I've just spent the last of my Christmas Amazon voucher. I was in two minds about whether I should put it towards the cost of a Kindle or just buy books. In the end I went for the books, because I get so many books free from the library that I don't think I would really save money by using a Kindle, and my reading borders on the obsessive anyway, so it's not like I need to fit more of it into my day.

moonshine · 20/03/2013 20:39

I'm one of the snail-pace readers on this thread Grin.

  1. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 7.5/10
Thought this was well written but, whilst I don't like neat happy endings, I just didn't like the last few pages of this.
  1. Stuart - A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters 9/10
Brilliant funny/sad non-fiction book about how an 'ordinary' man came to end up being homeless and living on the streets, and his friendship with the author.
EggBasket · 20/03/2013 23:01
  1. From Hell - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
  2. Room - Emma Donoghue
  3. Omon Ra - Victor Pelevin
  4. The Knife Of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

The Patrick Ness book is really, really good. Book 1 of a trilogy and I've got the other two from the library so they'll be next.

MrsMaryCooper · 21/03/2013 08:18

Finished No 24 Crucible - S Mackenzie. It disappointed me, it is set in Aberdeen in the 17th century but they all talk in RP.

Now on The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves

NicknameTaken · 21/03/2013 09:44
  1. Buried in Clay by Priscilla Masters. Appalling. No idea why I finished it. It purported to be be about a historical mystery - potter makes jug with clue to ancient crime - but this part of the book ended up being only a few paragraphs, while most of it was about how irresistible the heroine was to wealthy and controlling men, with their controlling natures portrayed as being the ultimately in Sexy. Awful.

Now on (31), Ten Little Herrings by L C Tyler.

Dragontrainer · 21/03/2013 11:39

Got swamped down in the Patrick Leigh Fermor biography for a while - think I was somewhat hampered by not knowing who half the people referred to were and also by not having a microscopic interest in the names of various beaches around Crete. It was a good book, clearly well written, but I can't help but feel that I missed the point of it!

After that I moved on to two quick page turners - The Chess Men by Peter May (not as good as the two previous books in the series, but OK) and How to Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman (read this in one sitting, really enjoyed it).

Off to the library shortly to choose some new reading material before picking up the little one from kindergarten! Will be avoiding the Buried in Clay book, Nickname!

NicknameTaken · 21/03/2013 11:51

What, my review doesn't make you want to rush off and buy it, Dragon? Wink

WednesdayNext · 21/03/2013 12:02

Book 15: The Lifeboat finished. It was a really good read.

Book 16 is the 3rd in the Game of Thrones series. I'm afraid I'm a bit addicted!

MrsMaryCooper · 22/03/2013 08:23

Game of Thrones is great

CoteDAzur · 22/03/2013 08:30
  1. The Quantity Theory Of Insanity - Will Self

I thoroughly enjoyed this book of Ballardian short stories. Will Self has clearly been inspired and influenced by J G Ballard (especially his The Atrocity Exhibition) and introduces dark humour to Ballard's twisted themes involving insanity. Love it! Grin

Now on to a spy book by Jeffrey Archer that's been "sitting" in my Kindle for over a year...

NicknameTaken · 22/03/2013 10:52

Now on Amateurs in Eden by Joanna Hodgkin. About the wife of Lawrence Durrell, written by the subject's daughter. I'm really enjoying this, very well written. So far it's been a portrait of an unhappy Edwardian girlhood in a dysfunctional family. It's a reminder that modern family breakdown and divorce represents a rather wonderful freedom, looked at in a certain light. And I'm reminded all over again of the value of women being educated to make their own way in world.

NicknameTaken · 22/03/2013 10:53

I may have made it sound very preachy. The book doesn't come out and say those things - they are my meditations on the subject...

DuchessofMalfi · 22/03/2013 12:25

I've finished 27. Atonement by Ian McEwan, which I really enjoyed. Good twist. Briony Tallis is the ultimate manipulative, unreliable narrator.

Now on to no.28 a book of short stories - The Closed Book and other stories by Dorothy Whipple. Started this morning, and liking it so far.

mumslife · 22/03/2013 12:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

shrinkingnora · 22/03/2013 12:56
  1. Gone - Mo Hayder. Much better than Skin.
  2. JFK is missing - Liz Evans
  3. Don't mess with Mrs In Between - Liz Evans
  4. Barking - Liz Evans

Things are getting a bit trashy. Must get back to the Booker shortlists.

The Liz Evans ones are like an English Stephanie Plum. Funny and fairly intricate plots.

minsmum · 22/03/2013 19:52

I have been really struggling to get into the book that I have been reading. So I have left it at the moment to browse the amazon kindle spring sale. Am I mad

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