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.

tumbletumble you're the first person I've come across who read The Jigsaw Man. I read it when I was much younger and remember being fascinated by it!

I'm still on book 18, "A Feast for Crows" by George RR Martin. Enjoying it, but it's a slow read! I'm about half way through.

mixed It was the sweet shop element that led me to the Jenny Colgan, probably will get her new one too as it is about a chocolate shop
Added to my list:
32) Lee Child - Die Trying
33) Margaret Dickinson - Clippie Girls
34) Iain Edward Henn - Disappear

Lots of catching up to do if I'm to get anywhere near 50!

1. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
2. House Rules - Jodi Picoult
3. How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran
4. Is it Just Me?- Miranda Hart
5. Mum's List - St John Greene
6. My Dear I Wanted To Tell You -Louisa Young
7. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
8. When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman
9. Our Man In Orlando - Hugh Hunter

10. The Prisoner of Heaven - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 11. When Science Goes Wrong - Simon LeVay 12. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn 13. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

Currently reading The Snow Child and then thinking of Wolf Hall or Room.

WednesdayNext it's worth doing a bit of googling after reading The Jigsaw Man. The man he was convinced was responsible for Rachel Nickel's murder (but was never found guilty as the evidence was ruled inadmissible) was innocent - someone else confessed years after the book was written!

It's a fascinating subject, but interesting to see he is not infallible.

Oh wow. I didn't know that. It's years since I read it though. I might have to do a bit of googling.

So #23 finished. Really enjoyed it. Jasper Fforde was just what I needed after the depressing Stephen Baxter book. Problem is, I realised I've now read the first and last in the current Tuesday Next series, so I'll have to work out what order all the others go in, and read those.

Just started (literally on page 1) #24 The Somnambulist. And picked up #25 & #26 from the library today.

*Thursday, not Tuesday. (Confusing my diary with my fiction!)

12. Sea Stirred - Caroline Williams. This was a thoroughly enjoyable light read about first love set in Cornwall. Anyone who has been on holiday would instantly recognise the scenery and local flavour. The characters were believable and it made me remember being that age all over again.

I recommend it, particularly as it is written by a MN'er. It's currently on Kindle for £1.53.

No.17 was Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes, which I read because I have seen it mentioned several times on MN. Great to see such an important subject as addiction covered in a chick lit style.

No.7 Road to Paradise - Paullina Simons. A really lovely chunky read, but felt a little shortchanged by the ending - a massive length of time covered in very few pages. However, I love her style so shall be reading more.

Just started No.8 - My Time - Bradley Wiggins

I haven't been on this thread in a while. I had a flying start but faltered in April with a lot of failures. Book 12 was Winter of the World by Ken Follett which I enjoyed more than his last one. Book 13 was a Robert Parker (Spenser) who I love. I have just started a Terence Strong.
13 books in 4 months. Must do better.

Where did shrinkingnora go? Hope you didn't stop posting just because you got to 50 - it's still interesting to hear what people are reading!

46. Boxer, Beetle, Ned Beauman. Reminded me of The Crow Road, Iain Banks. Same kind of shock value. Okay, but not altogether my kind of thing.

47. The Council of the Cursed, Peter Tremayne. I like the concept (7th century female Irish lawyer) but not all that atmospheric or intriguingly plotted. Won't bother with the rest of the series.

48. Shakespeare's Local, Pete Brown. Non-fiction. Amusingly written, some interesting characters, enjoying it.

21. The BFG - Roald Dahl
22. Alone In Berlin - Hans Fallada

Alone In Berlin was really good, based on a true story of a middle-aged German couple during WW2 who start leaving anti-Hitler postcards around the city when their son is killed in action.

20. The Girl you Left Behind by JoJo Moyes.

Glad I borrowed this and didn't waste my money! Ugh, so darned predictable!!! Disappointed, so for a completely different read, I'm off to have a go with Gone Girl!

I've been following what everyone's reading with interest - here's my list so far:

1. Parade's End - Ford Madox Ford
2. Bitter Water - Gordon Ferris
3. To the End of the Land - David Grossman
4. The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki
5. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima
6. How to be a Good Wife - Emma Chapman
7. Blossoms and Shadow - Lian Hearn
8. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
9. The Box Man - Kobo Abe

10. Some Prefer Nettles - Junichiro Tanazaki 11. Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata 12. A Geek in Japan - Hector Garcia 13. Drowning Man - Michael Robotham 14. Kokoro - Natsume Soseki 15. A Treacherous Likeness - Lynn Shepherd 16. 1984 - George Orwell 17. The Book of Loss - Judith Jedamus 18. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 19. Shogun - Arthur Clavell 20. Empire Falls - Richard Russo 21. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 22. Circle of Shadows - imogen Robertson 23. Consider Phlebas - Iain M Banks 24. Like This Forever - S J Bolton 25. The Player of Games - Iain M Banks 26. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 27. The Ice Princess - Camilla Lackberg 28. The Painted Veil - Somerset Maugham

I had a plan this year to read in themes: first Japanese novels, then books set around WW2, then Tudor and finally Indian subcontinent .. with the odd crime novel or book club choice mixed in.

This was derailed by Iain Bank's sad announcement that he was terminally ill, which made me decide to try his science fiction for the first time and also go back and reread his mainstream novels from the beginning. That's what I'm into at the moment, having just survived The Wasp Factory (engrossing but occasionally stomach-churning)

I've also really enjoyed the clarity of the writing in classic novels like Grapes of Wrath and The Painted Veil, which were library book club choices. So my revised plan is to work my way through Iain (M) Banks, then focus on Victorian and early 20th century writers, and after that moving on to books set in the 40's.

I'm in my 50s and it's starting to dawn on me that I'm not going to live long enough to read everything that I want to

No 35 Hiss and Hers - MC Beaton quite banal but a very easy read.

No 36 Once Bitten - Stephen Leather, really should have been a short story not enough plot to sustain a novel, even a short one like this. I prefer his Spider Shepherd books.

I should probably read something more challenging!

Book 35 - Wolf Hall :) I finally got round to reading it and, whilst it was quite heavy going, I enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading Bring Up The Bodies soon.

28 The Guernsey Literature & potato peel pie society

Was it any good minsmum?

18. The butterfly lion by Michael Morpugo (DS1 bedtime story)
19. Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood

DS1 and DS2 both have chapter books at bedtime so I feel they have to be counted.

Wednesday its a very subtle book, I was going to say gentle but its not really. The story flows nicely and I read it over 2 evenings. I would recommend it and I really enjoyed it. I learnt something, and much to my surprise I found my emotions engaged. For the subject matter its not very "deep" but that can be a good thing sometimes can't it?

No. 18 was The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler. This wouldn't be for everyone as there isn't much of a plot, but I really enjoy her gentle, rambling st

yle.

Sorry, that should have been style. In fact my review is a bit like yours, minsmum!

Book 36 - At Home by Bill Bryson (not the full title - forgotten it, rather dull) - audio book.

Book 37 - On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan. Good story, but cringeingly embarrassing scene. If you've read it, you'll know :o