50 Book Challenge 2013 -The Sequel!

[CardiffUniversityNetballTeam]

Morning all,

As the old thread here is nearly full, I have created a shiny new one for your delight and delectation.

Sign in and update your progress here!

I'm Cardiff and I've nearly finished book 16, so I'm very behind as to be in track we should be approaching 25 by now. Where is everyone else up to?

Cote - I was slightly disappointed. There were some very long and tedious bits where Tolstoy took to task all the historians for having a misconception of how history works. The last chapter of 40 pages is entirely taken up with this! The "story" bits were moderately interesting but not really gripping - not like, say, Middlemarch or other comparably great British 19th century novels. I felt I was missing something - maybe it's to do with reading it in translation, maybe it's my lack of familiarity with the Russia of the period, but it didn't really do it for me. Have you read it?

I enjoyed Enigma, but I have to say that it didn't pack the same punch for me as The Best Of Our Spies did. I read a factual one a few weeks ago now that is probably still cheap on kindle- The Secrets Of Bletchley Park - that was fascinating.

Book 85 The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.

Some mindless easy reads to escape into at minute:
81. Rebecca Shaw - A Village In Jeopardy
82. Cecily Anne Patterson - Invisible
83. Jenny Colgan - West End Girls
84. Victoria Fox - Glittering Fortunes
85. Rachel Schurig - Three Girls And A Baby
and just started book 86. Diane Chamberlain - Breaking The Silence, am enjoying the flashbacks to psychiatric nursing in the 50s.

52 (look away if offended by 'earthy' language) cunt - Inga Muscio. Non-fiction, slightly feminist but wholly worthwhile reading. Reclaim more than a word!

49: Anne Tyler "Ladder of Years", loved it up to the ending. It left too much unresolved imo and seemed also to end very abruptly.

50 was Sue Townsend "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole". It was okay. I'm intrigued to read the others.

Yay! Challenge complete!

51 is Sir Walter Scott "Ivanhoe", which has been on my "to read" list since my third year of uni 2007

congrats wednesday!

35. city of glass - cassandra clare. i am so enjoying these books. i only have 1 left though. need to find book 5 cheap and wait for number 6 to come out. then buy the other series she does.

and im so sorry... im about to lower the tone of this thread somewhat...

36. twilight breaking dawn - stephanie mayer

Thanks InLove!

I've got Twilight on my To Read list too

Duchess of Malfi, I really enjoyed "Heartburn", but haven't read any of her others so can't compare it to them. I think that I might put "I Feel Bad About My Neck" on my list as my next easy read. I am trying to alternate these with more worthy books which I feel I "ought" to read. My current book is Franz Kafka's "The Trial", which is rather depressing and claustrophobic so it's taking me a while to get through it.

Hackmum, very impressed that you've got through War and Peace, well done. I read it whilst inter-railing as a student and I'm sure I only managed it because it was the only English book I had with me.

I wondered if anyone else had been looking at the 100 best novels list that they are doing in the Guardian? They are looking at a different book each week. It seems to be chronological as so far they've done:

1 Pilgrim's Progress
2 Robinson Crusoe
3 Gulliver's Travels

37. The happiness of Blond People, by Elif Shafak This is an essay really but I am counting it. It was fantastic and I found myself nodding my head and even uttering things like "exactly!" on the bus.

Circassian - Elif Shafak has a book called Black Milk I think you would enjoy.

BOF - Could you tell me the exact name of the Bletchley Park book you read? There are several books with similar names. Thanks.

I misremembered it slightly- it's actually called The Secret Life Of Bletchley Park, and it's by Sinclair McKay.

Côte - I met her at the weekend and she talked about it. I am definitely going to read it.

funambulist: we should form a club - "I read War and Peace and survived to tell the tale." It would be small and select.

I read the first blog, the Pilgrim's Progress one, then forgot about it! Must go back and look at the other two. Hope they reach one I've read soon.

11. Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding
12. The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window...- Jonas Jonasson

Excellent idea hackmum, we should have badges.

I read the blog on Pilgrim's Progress and the comments underneath actually put me off reading it as everyone was saying what hard going it was.

I have read about two pages of Kafka's The Trial today. It is good, but so depressing that I really don't have the urge to read it at all. My Kindle says that I'm 22% of the way through it so I feel that I should just keep at it. I do feel virtuous when I read a book like that, even if I have to force myself to do it. It's kind of like eating vegetables. You feel that it must be doing you good in some way. Plus I keep nagging my children to read "proper" books so feel that I ought to read some myself.

Circassian I like the sound of The Happiness of Blond People and short is good too if I'm going to get to 50 books by the end of the year. I think that's going on my to-read list.

thank you wednesday, for admitting that! makes me feel better

and the bonus of having gallstone attacks? i only started the book yesterday afternoon and im on page 512 already as i havent been able to do much. thought it would take me at least 2 weeks to finish as its so thick. im flying through it still prefer the films though

Thanks, BOF

Côte - she said that she writes initially in English , then the books are translated for her and then she rewrites them in Turkish. I read them in English, but she also spoke about how certain emotions like sadness and love are better/easier in Turkish and satire/humour she finds easier in English. I agree.

I have only read The Forty Rules of Love but I have a slight Sufism obsession so it really worked for me but I will be reading the others.

She is heavily involved in translation though when it comes to English and Turkish.

27. Catalina's Riddle by Steven Saylor.

Crime and intrigue set in Ancient Rome featuring Saylor's world weary private eye Gordianus the Finder. Good reading.

43. The Other Typist
44. The Way We Live Now (audiobook - simply outstanding!)