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?

Congratulations AnonYonimousBird!

I have tentatively set myself a new target of 60 books by the end of the year, having recently passed the 50 book mark myself.

47. Autobiography - Morrissey

Hard to argue with Stuart Maconie's Observer review of this as a frustrating mix of brilliance and petulance. He is really horrible about Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke but very sweet about Kirsty MacColl and various injured animals.

40. The Office Idiot Reviews by Pete Sortwell. Not sure what I was thinking really. It is a silly book that can be read in an hour. The plus side is I now only have 10 books to go so perhaps I will make it after all.

52. Jim Higley "Bobblehead Dad : 25 life lessons I forgot I knew". It was ok.

53. Charlotte Perkins Gilman "The Yellow Wallpaper". Only a short story but I loved it.

Started 54 last night: Sebastian Faulks "Birdsong"

Congrats on reaching 50 galaxymum and AnonYonimousBird

Foosyerdoos Enjoy! I love Fforde and really envy you reading his novels for the first time!! I too am impatiently awaiting the second Shades of Grey novel!!

funambulist - well done you, I too have updated myself to a 60 target, might be a tad ambitious on my part, but hell, let's give it a go.

90 - The Empty Family - Colm Toibin.
91 - Dark Matter - Michelle Paver.

55. The five orange pips (and other stories) - Arthur Conan Doyle. I've never read any Sherlock Holmes stories before. Quite entertaining, and makes me think that Jeremy Brett's portrayal was pretty much spot-on. Interesting to see how science now would blow some of Holmes' deductions out of the water.

Just finishing off
56. Jack the Ripper: The terrible legacy - Whitechapel Society. This one is non-fiction and looks as the people other than the murder victims whose lives were ruined/altered by JTR. I was hoping for some clues to his identity, or speculation about the same, but that's not covered in this one.

36. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

38. Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

One of those books written for women. Faux-profound rubbish full of truisms and inane "insights". I came close to losing my faith in womankind, seeing the silly nonsense hundreds of readers have highlighted on the Kindle

Whatever this book was trying to do, The Alchemist did better. I was 17 when it came out, and I still thought it was superficial faux-intellectual rubbish.

Why do women read stuff like this? I find it really puzzling.

Thank you for letting me get that out of my chest before book club meeting

Simply because we don't all like or look for the same things in books I suppose. If it gets people reading then it can only be a good thing in my opinion. This seems to be a book club favourite and I am surprised we haven't read it yet actually.

I might reset my target to 70. I'm hopeful, as I'm now on #57, plus the library have two books waiting for me...

Leyla - Sure, we are all different. But what exactly do readers find in this book? It's not well-written (very far from it). The story isn't interesting (there isn't even much of a plot). There is very little character development. It is not realistic. So what exactly do people find in it?

Maybe some women used to reading chick-lit like it because it gives them the feeling that they just read a real book. Like, with meaning and stuff. And hundreds of them underline inane sentences like "Sometimes, you have to start a journey at the beginning".

Men also read no-brainer books from authors like Lee Child but they don't pretend they are great books and give them awards. Why do women do this?

I find it really depressing

53 Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

To be honest I didn't really enjoy this book as I felt very uncomfortable reading about the main character's compulsion (trying not to include spoilers here) and there were just too many nasty characters in the book.

54 Black and Blue by Ian Rankin

I read this a while ago but forgot to include it in my original list.

I can't speak for every woman Cote, but when I read it, I was in a really dark place in my life and it was something easy going, twee and not at all emotionally draining- which was what I needed. Some people don't want to read great works of literature which require a lot of brain power all the time.

Perhaps people find things in it that speak to their own experiences. I certainly didn't underline those things in my kindle copy, but I wouldn't criticise those who do - it obviously meant something to them, even if it doesn't to you.

For example, the only thing I underlined in that whole novel was this: "And what no-one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The superhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that."

I have no doubt you will find that an inane sentence that someone would underline because it makes them feel like they're reading a book with meaning. The truth of it is, I wasn't bowled over by the story. It was alright. It was lighthearted. I highlighted this section because it meant something to me at the time I read it.

Maybe that's what other people see in the book.

41. Austerity Housekeeping by a MNetter It has lots of recipes, particularly a risotto recipe and a scone recipe. I may yet become a domestic goddess.

48. Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer

Real-life account of a young man from an affluent family who left it all behind and walked into the Alaskan wilderness, only to starve to death. Very thought-provoking and moving.

Wednesday - No, I wouldn't call that an inane sentence.

I read light books too, and so do most people, I imagine. Especially when going through a dark period

What I find depressing is that women put these light & fluffy books on pedestals, give them awards, and put them on pedestals. Vote their authors "best xxx of the year". Some count them among the best books they have ever read. Brain-dead tabloid tat like The Island, for example.

The image this gives of women readers is not a flattering one, and I wish it were not so. That's all.

You certainly have a point there. I don't really pay much attention to book awards though- usually for that reason: whenever I read anything that's won an award for being awesome I am always disappointed by it.

I enjoyed Harold Fry at the time I read it, but I wouldn't count it as one of the best books I've read. It certainly hasn't left a lasting impression on me as I can't remember anything particular from it, other than it reminded me of Forrest Gump.

I have to say, I also enjoyed The Island at the time I read it, but I wouldn't give that an award either, and the only part that stays with me is where the woman had to leave her children behind and go to the island. For me, it all got a bit happy after that!!!

72 Hasty Death - M C Beaton
73 Sick of Pain - M C Beaton
74 Our Lady of Pain - M C Beaton
75 Yvonne Goes to York - M C Beaton.

I liked Harold Fry - agree it wasn't great literature though.

44. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
45. My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding

I really enjoyed both of these.

55 The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman

I really enjoyed this book about a lighthouse keeper and his wife who long for a child and then find a living baby and a dead man washed up in a boat. They have to decide whether not to report what they've found and give up the child or whether to pretend the baby is their own.

Book 92 - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers.

Marking my place after a NC after outing myself (for a very good reason).

Circassian!

37. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins