50 Book Challenge 2014

[juneybean]

Hopefully nobody minds me starting this thread.

The idea is to read 50 books in 2014 (or more as many people have achieved this year!)

Please also check out our group on Goodreads if you're stuck for ideas of what books to read!

www.goodreads.com/group/show/59438-the-book-vipers

Finished my second book which I've been reading in short chunks on my kindle app: Grimm's Fairy Tales.

No major excitement but I did find it interesting how different they are to the stories I know (some are really dark)!

I'm 25% through Les Mis. Generally enjoying it, but found the in depth description of Waterloo a bit tedious and also disruptive to the story. I'm interested in history, but it felt as though he'd plonked a history textbook into a novel.

7 days in and I feel like I'm lagging behind already!

Finished no1 today - The Great Gatsby. Am a quarter of the way through Mansfield Park & also have The Kindness of Strangers by Kate Adie on the go.

Anonymous I'd love to hear what you think of The Rosie Project - saw a mini review of it at the weekend and really liked the sound of it.

Please may I join?
I am aiming for 25 this year as I have DS2 18 months, two others,work, the dog...
I may have started badly though as I am reading Can You Forgive Her? by Trollope and it is nearly 900 pages long. So there goes January...

1. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon

Excellent, touch of Nick Hornby about it. Sympathized with everyone, it was at once a roller coaster and very banal and simplistic....he manages to write how one thinks, all disjointed and manic but makes it readable and understood. Lovely book

Dum At least you've finished one - I'm still on my first, Quiet . Hopefully I should be finished tomorrow.

America Glad you enjoyed that one. I re-read A Spot of Bother for the third time last year and always enjoy it. I could relate to so much.

Thanks wolfcub will keep an eye out for that one, really enjoying the mistborn series, stayed up until the early hours reading book 3 last night, couldn't put it down!

Late to this thread but would love to join in. I need to spur myself to read more! About to finish The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

I'm off the blocks!

1. The death of Eli Gold by David Baddiel.

Late to this but I would love to join - used to read 70 plus books a year but the last couple of years I've read about 10. Currently tryng to finish the Pickwick papers which just goes on and on.......

I'm in. Not setting a target, but it's interesting to keep a record and see what everyone else is reading too.

1. The Fiery Cross, Diana Gabaldon. Book 5 of the Outlander series - missed book 4 so had to pick up a few plot threads. This is a series set in the 18th century, with a few characters having travelled back from the twentieth century. I'm a bit ambivalent about it. The author has the major hots for her hero, Jamie, and we're always being told how gloriously sexy he is, even when reeking of sweat, alcohol and vomit. It's a very immersive experience - the book felt steeped in blood, breastmilk, semen and babyshit. Lots of adventure and sex and humour.

Late to the party, but hoping to get to 50 books read this year - last year disappeared in a haze of unproductive online apps (e.g. the likes of candy crush) so have deleted them all and trying to use my free time better.

Have already read

1. Me Before You - JoJo Moyes

and now on to 'The Husband's Secret' by Liana Moriaty. Will go and join the goodreads group.

I'd love to join please. I usually average about 25 and I doubt I'll hit 50 but I will try my best.

2014 so far..

1. The Midwife of Hope River - trash off Amazon deal but quite enjoyable.

In progress, Death Comes To Pemberley for my book group (not loving).
Goldfinch for my own enjoyment. Massive Donna Tartt fan. The people struggling through Little Friend - it is worth persevering!

I'm in again. I lost count last year.

1 - The Secret History. Bloody loved it, and it was interesting to read a book where I disliked all of the main characters.

2 - Bridget Jones 3. I'm only a few pages in, but her 'voice' is annoying me. It worked in the earlier books, but all of the GAAAAH-ing is annoying me this time round.

Ooh, Abgirl, I'm just about to pick up The Husband's Secret from the library. I flicked through it in a shop and thought it sounded good. Looking forward to it.

Agree with the lack of enthusiasm for Death Comes to Pemberley. A bit pointless. Also with BJ's "voice". It's not that I expected (or wanted) her to be all grown up and dignified, but at times it felt embarrassingly like arrested development.

Just finished #1 - All Over Creation, by Ruth Ozeki. Picked this up because I enjoyed A Tale for the Time Being so much. It was a good read although I didn't like it quite as much. Lots of interesting potato facts in it though :)

Finished #1 at last - Do It For Your Mum by Roy Wilkinson. It's a biography of the band British Sea Power by their ex manager (and brother of two of the band members), I enjoyed it a lot!

Currently reading I, Partridge so should probably line up something a bit more serious to read next.

bish I absolutely hated The Little Friend too, loved Secret History.

I'm in! Although changing it slightly from 50 books to 50 "good" books - I can polish off trashy chick lit quite quickly and not sure that counts! Given that the only book I've finished so far is Flawless by Tilly Bagshawe I'd better get going...

First on my list is Death Comes to Pemberley in the hope it's better than the BBC made it look, although from what people are saying it sounds as though I may be disappointed. Ah well, have paid a whole £1.99 for it now so may as well give it a go.

Yes please, I'd like to join! Always late to the party....

I'll aim for about 25 this year. The rest of the books will probably be taken up reading board books to the DC. 'Run, spot, run'... etc.

Half way through Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. Bit of a whopper at nearly 800 pages but beautifully written; worth savouring every sentence.

FYI: The Secret History is on BBC Radio 4 extra at the moment.

Hi!
This seems like a fab challenge and I'd love to join.

So 50 books for 2014...So much new knowledge and experiences to look forward to, I love reading!

I am currently on book no.1 which is a collection of poems called Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes.

Book no.2 is The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

slev I hear you re: chick lit. I'm also amending it to '50 good books'

I'm in. I used to read voraciously until my eldest DC was born nearly 5 years ago - things picked up once he was a toddler but then I had another DC. Now I seem to waste time on the Internet rather than read a book.

Looking at my Kindle app the other day I think I have around 200 - 250 unread books - aiming to read as many as possible this year.

Hi, I like this idea, may I join please? I read voraciously (if fitfull) and have actually read all but one of the current books, Jan & Feb. Currently have too many books on the go on my kindle, I read them depending on my mood.

So I have - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Heavy subject matter, upsetting at times (conditioning of babies etc), no discernible story although i can't seem to stop reading it.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Wasting Police time by PC David Copperfield (hmm, do you think it's a nom de plume...)

The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. Re-reading for light relief.

For actual, hold in your hands, real books to love and treasure I recommend Persephone Books. I have a copy of The Making of a Marchioness by Francis Hodgson Burnett which I'm looking forward to losing myself in, the fact that the book is also beautiful makes reading it very special. Their bookshop in Bloomsbury is pretty much the highlight of my rather frequent trips to GOSH. Due to end soon (yay!) so making the most of it now.

I've just found this thread, and I'm in!

Currently on #1 The Goldfinch, and loving it.

I also started Behind the Beautiful Forevers at the end of last year, so am going to count it in this year's total. I managed 26 books last year, so 50 seems an ambitious, but achievable aim.

3 A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively

Children's book borrowed from my 11 year old daughter as my kindle was low on charge.

Rather good I thought. I would have absolutely loved this at that age and it was sufficiently well written for me to enjoy as an adult too. I paused several times to savour particularly well crafted sentences. I'm going to encourage my daughter to read it.

It's about a lonely and very imaginative little girl who seems to hear echoes of past events in the house where she's spending her summer holidays.

I liked the depiction of her relationship with her parents, who are basically caring but a bit distant. It made a refreshing change from the perfect / dreadful parents you usually get in children's books. The girl says at one point that she overheard her mother telling a friend that they weren't sure whether to have a child or not, but are glad they did. I imagined the mother posting about her dilemma on mums net!

#1 Open - Andre Agassi's autobiography. Excellent and very honest. Some bios bore me rigid when they bang on about their childhoods but his childhood was amazing as his father pushed him to be a tennis pro.

#2 The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous - Jilly Cooper. Realised I had not read this one and found it in a charity pile. It's good but not as good as Rivals or Jump.