Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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:
Thefourcees · 08/01/2013 17:55

I'd like to join as well please, have a stack of books on my bookshelf and another lot on my kindle, so im thinking of alternating one from the shelf one from the kindle just so I eventually get them read.
1st of Jan I started reading The Girl Nobody Wants by Lily O'Brien , yesterday I started reading Siege by Simon Kernick.
So nearly two down, forty eight to go. Smile

SuperScribbler · 08/01/2013 18:35

Just checking in - have finished The Glass Painter's Daughter (ok but not as good as I hoped) and have started 100 Year Old Man (25% through it and enjoying in an abstract, slightly disengaged way).

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 08/01/2013 18:42

Elkie - am really sorry but have completely forgotten who wrote it. The name sounds reasonably familiar though.

NomNomDePlumPudding · 08/01/2013 20:17

me. i've not really been reading and have stacks of things to catch up with. so far i've read jane yeh's the ninjas (if poetry counts) and half of one of the game of thrones series, the fourth one i think - dragons and brutality, not edifying, really. thinking next the china factory (mary costello, short stories), the prime of miss jean brodie, and bring out the bodies. see y'all in february :)

BabeRuthless · 08/01/2013 20:25

I'm onto Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. On the final third and frustratingly working the next couple of days so not sure when I'll get to finish it. I really want to know who the murderer is! It's a brilliant book but be warned has pretty graphic descriptions of self harming.

PerksOfBeingNorthern · 08/01/2013 20:40

I'm trying to keep count this year just to see how many I can read, have far too many lined up on my kindle/bookshelf. I will definitely won't get tempted by all suggestions on here Grin
Easing myself in gently I've read only kindle freebies:

  1. Robert Brumm - Windigo Soul
  2. Anne Bronte - Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  3. Grace Wynne Jones - Wise Follies
  4. Peter Lihou - Rachel's Shoe
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 08/01/2013 20:43

'The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie' is such fun - I may have to re-read that!

Southeastdweller · 08/01/2013 20:51

AmelieRose I'm with you in Ephron. Just finished 'I Feel Bad About My Neck', which was glorious. Felt the same about 'I Remember Nothing', which I read last year.

Started 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit' this morning.

WednesdayNext · 08/01/2013 21:38

AmelieRose I enjoyed the Gretchen Rubin one! Have you seen she has a new one out? Happier At Home? Also I LOVE Life of Pi. 20p is a bargain. I hope you enjoy it!

WednesdayNext · 08/01/2013 21:42

minsmum I read Swimming Home before Christmas. I really enjoyed it. Found it quite gripping, though a bit strange too. I'd be interested to hear what you think of it when you've read it!

nomnom Jean Brodie is one of my all time favourites.

ThedementedPenguin · 08/01/2013 21:45

I've read three books so far this year. Haven't read in 3 days though. Need to get back into it, I'm hoping to start reading properly again. Is difficult with a 16 week old baby though.

I'm gonna check out that link. Seems interesting :)

WednesdayNext · 08/01/2013 22:39

Finished 'Angel's Fury'. It was okay. Nothing special. Interesting concept but I think very predictable and what the blurb said it is about is quite rushed and I don't think comes across that well.

Think I'll save choosing another book until tomorrow!

mumslife · 08/01/2013 22:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

highlandcoo · 08/01/2013 22:48

ilovecolinfirth if you liked A Thousand Splendid Suns I strongly recommend A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman .. set in Sri Lanka, similar in theme but better than ATSS I think.

I also think you'd love The Observations by Jane Harris - a really enjoyable read.

Btw, my DD had to clamber over Colin Firth when working as a seat-filler at the Baftas a few years back. A tough job but someone's got to be prepared to do these things Grin

ilovecolinfirth · 09/01/2013 01:58

Thanks for the suggestions, will look into them.

VERY jealous of your daughter! :) what a task!!!

Shellwedance · 09/01/2013 03:38

First book done, Mary Ann in Autumn, last in the Tales of the City series. V easy to read and best if you'd read the others. Great ending.

ilovecolinfirth · 09/01/2013 08:00

mumslife I didn't realise Kirsten Dunst wrote books. What's she like as an author? Looked up "a long road" on Amazon but couldn't find it, can you post a link pls? X

Dragontrainer · 09/01/2013 10:06

Elkie - the White Tiger I read was by Aravind Adiga, and I'd definitely recommend it; it made me think, and given the state of my sleep deprived brain these days, that's quite something!!

As it was short, I've now finished Alys, Always which was OK, but did not blow me away. Moving on to book five, The Care of Wooden Floors, although it is not looking good from the first chapter!

MimsyBorogroves · 09/01/2013 12:51

I'm in!

I've started 'Wicked', but it's quite slow-going.

howdoo · 09/01/2013 14:11

Ooh, I'm definitely in! Can we include Kindle Singles (cheat emoticon)?

So far this year, I have read Falling by Alexandra Fuller which is my first of hers. I was really gripped which is unusual for me, and this has made me dig out Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight which I have had lying around for ages.

Just finishing Emily Giffin's Where We Belong which is, like all her others, a solid, easy, quite interesting read.

I am also half way through Half Safe by James Nestor which is a slightly strange story about a man who tried to drive/boat all the way round the world in a Duck Boat style jeep. Is another Kindle Single though.

Now looking at Before I Go To Sleep - is it VERY scary?

Pantah630 · 09/01/2013 14:48

Can I join you? Will need to mix fact and fiction books for my 50 as my bedside and kindle pile is a 50/50 mix. Must stop reading fanfiction, put down ipad and pick up my books again. The tottering pile is getting ridiculous and DH is starting to comment on all the bookmarks. I used to be able to read a book in one sitting, and still do if I pick up a Lindsey Davis.

PerksOfBeingNorthern · 09/01/2013 15:47

ilovecolinfirth I don't know if mumslife means On The Road by Jack Kerouac? Kirsten Dunst was in the film version this year and is on both my to read and to watch list!

WednesdayNext · 09/01/2013 20:18

About to start book 3: Matthew Green's 'memoirs of an imaginary friend'

NotGeoffVader · 09/01/2013 23:02

As a distraction from revision (zzzzz) I am now trying to simultaneously read books 2 & 3:
Kate Atkinson - Behind the scenes at the museum
Terry Pratchett/Stephen Baxter - The Long Earth

MercuryRising · 10/01/2013 08:11

Well done silvery!

I have completed my morning routine but am back to bed soon as Im working tonight.

Have a good day everybody Smile