50 Book Challenge in 2013. Who's with me?

[CardiffUniversityNetballTeam]

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.

Ooh, we're having a Ben Aaronovitch moment!

Just a little one Nickname

I'm doing it, but my reading pace really fluctuates so I have no idea if I will hit the target, exceed it or fail miserably.

I read 45 books last year which is reasonably good for me, but I am doing a fast track A level in Biology at the moment so trying to focus on that. After exams in June I will hopefully crack on with the novels again.

I am halfway through 2 books right now - Five Children and It by E Nesbit ( but children's books don't count if you abide by the rules) and The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.

Glad other people have books stacked by their beds in such quantities.

Can I join? But I will want to include religion, georgette heyer and crime, some of which I will already have read, and biography.

velcro is The Children's Hospital good? I keep picking it up, meaning to read, then not.

I would love to join in too. I am also on 'Goodreads' and managed to read 42 last year (after originally setting myself a target of 30) I have set myself a target of 50 this year. I tend to get loads of freebie books ( I just browse the top 50 free books each week on Amazon) and as a result my reading tends to be very eclectic. Atm I am reading 'Me Before You' by JoJo Moyes, which I am finding just as surprising as her last one 'The Girl You Left Behind'.
I got these 3 books for christmas which I am looking forward to reading:
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry , Vanished Years by Rupert Everett (I have read both of their previous autobiographies) and 'Death at Seaworld by David Kirby.

Can I join?

I just started Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I was bought last year.

I too have loads of books, and I feel quite ashamed that I have let my reading go.

I will also have (another) go at Wolf Hall. I've made several false starts.

Nosey Ooo, didn't know Rupert Everett had done another one. His first was amazing. (Can feel Wolf Hall once again taking a step back from priority...)

Finished 'Wicked' - which I really enjoyed in the end. Some of the political-type stuff made it hard going for me, but the character development was fantastic.

I'm now reading "Pretty Little Liars" and feel a bit dirty admitting it On the plus side, if I read the full series I will be through another 12 books in a fortnight or so. It's a bit...candy flossy.

I'm just about to start book 8 this year. I'ver read all of the Jack Reacher books since the middle of november.

A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness
Shadow of Night - Deborah Harkness
Stolen Crown - Susan Higginbotham
Mary Boleyn - Alison Weir
Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades darker
Fifty shades freed
Fitzroy: The boy who would be King - Kathleen S Allen

I clearly read too fast. And have been reading rather than ironing

I've read three this year already, The Silver Linings Playbook, I recommend it, excellent, Ian Rankin.. Standing in another man's grave and JK Rowling, casual vacancy...didn't like :(
I am looking for books to download to my kindle :D

thewhingingdefective I did enjoy The Children's Hospital, it was an interesting idea but I found the end unsatisfying.

KinkyDorito I was excited when I saw he had done another one and immediately put it on my Christmas list. I too have 'Wolf Hall' on my kindle but have not got round to reading it yet. LadyofWinterfell 8 books already :0 (although does '50 shades' really count, I am not judging I have read them too )

Can I join? Dont know if I'll hit 50 though! Does it have to be fiction? And do books I've already read count? I like re-reading books.

No forget that I loved the Ian Rankin, Just JK's I wasn't taken by :S

Oh, count me in please. I managed it last year and want to do the same this year.

Can I join in too? I did read 120 books last year, target of 10 a month, though some months more and some less! The Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies month a lot less - quite hard going but I enjoyed them. This year my challenge is NOT to buy ANY books!!! I have them stacked around the house - some are even on shelves! I am allowed to download free books for my Kobo and then I have to get through the piles. Plus I am skint. Very skint. So books are not to be bought. (Apart from my £10 Waterstones voucher!) The library is my friend .

So far this year I have read:

• To My Best Friends - Sam Baker. Froth/chick lit but OK

-Not Dead Yet - Peter James. Fab. I love these and this was great. But I'm worrying about the twist in the that that threatens the happiness of Inspector Grace. Why am I worrying about a character in a book I ask myself?!

• The Radleys - Matt Haig. This was good -a very different take on the vampire genre, which I don't read, but I enjoyed this one!

And I'm currently half way through 'The Last Time They Met' by Anita Shreve, who I generally enjoy, and this is OK so far!

So far this year I've read Weirdo by Cathi Unsworth which was so brilliant I started to reread it all over again. If you like crime that's not too traditional - this is the best i've read since Kate Atkinson's last Brodie book.

Started The Casual Vacancy - I'm enjoying it but keep picking up other things instead. Hasn't gripped me, but I don't understand people who think she's not up to much as a writer. I like her style.

Also read a handful of short stories from Best american Mystery Stories 2012. V good so far.

I am up for it.

I have so far read,

Great expectations by Charles Dickens
The uncommon reader by Alan Bennett
The mysterious affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Half way through,

The Lighthouse by Alison Mooore
Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone by J K Rowling .... I am counting this as I am doing most of the reading with DC

So far this year I have read 14 books I usually read between 4 and 7 a week.I am a very fast reader and if the weather is bad I can read about 500 pages a day.I dont watch tv at all.
The Bell Jar I abandoned many years ago.I loved The Snow Child.I am currently reading The Chess men by Peter May and have just finished Dying Fall by Ellie Griffiths.

I'd be keen to join too but, like others, I think 25 is more realistic for me than 50.

In response to some above,
-'Before I go to Sleep' is not too scary, no, go for it.

• IME if you assess The Casual Vacancy at page 50, you'll bin it. But I'm glad I finished it
• for those that want a classic when they don't usually, I'm no expert but I really like Wilkie Collins' Woman in White and The Moonstone though they take much longer to read than modern fiction again affecting your number!

I read Ben Elton's latest over Christmas, may have finished in the New Year, does that count? It's called Two Brothers, set in WW2, I liked it but it's not funny like his earlier offerings!

And this week I finished Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry'. I did enjoy it but my expectations were very high and sadly it didn't quite live up.

This year I have read:

Divergent - veronika Roth
Insurgent - veronika Roth
Partials - dan wells
Switched - Amanda hocking
Torn - Amanda hocking
Ascend - Amanda hocking
Unwind - Neal shusterman
Matched - ally condie
Crossed - ally condie
Reached - ally condie

I'm about to start I am number 4 (pittacus lore).

Count me in! I havent managed to read anything this year as of yet. Last year I had a look on the bbc 100 top reads and started with them although I digressed and read something I fancied in between. I wanted to read some of the classics as its a travesty I feel to read as much as I do and not actually touch on any of them. I did find it very hard and as someone suggested earlier on I did start with Pride and Prejudice and absolutley loved it.
I make it my mission though as many of you have to actually dust off many of the 'to read' pile also (blush) which I can imagine getting through lots of (wine) and snacks.! (wink)

I am staring the year by finishing The Voyage of The Beable by Charles Darwin. Its very interesting and in parts quite humorous. Bus journeys to work are all the more interesting with a good book in hand (smile)

ooh my little smileys didnt come up....sorry ladies!

thegreylady I am seriously impressed by the number of books you get through!

What did you think of The Chess Men? I've just read Peter May's first two - loved the first one and enjoyed the second although not quite so much. How does the third measure up?