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

Thoughtfox re Hyperion and The Fall of, tbh I never intended to buy the second one, because while I found the individual stories in Hyperion enjoyable (if sometimes hard to follow), it annoyed me the way the actual story was barely moving forward. Unfortunately - mild plot spoilers - it doesn't really move forward at all. I had no sense of resolution and so I had to buy the sequel. Also I had a hospital appointment the next day that had lots of waiting around, so it made sense to have a big book to focus on.

Fall of Hyperion is kind of similar as regards forward progress. Lots happened, except for the bit I actually cared about (the baby's story). It's imaginative, philosophical, complex - but massive and a bit annoying at times too! I'm glad I finished it, but no way I'm going to read the Endymion books.

If you have a long to-read list and you are not getting on with the first, I wouldn't bother with the second.

As for me, I can't decide what to read next. I have Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionvar Tapestry series for a book club read and it's been on my shelf for ten years so I really should do that, but just can't be bothered. Sigh!

I'm trying to be good DumSpiro ! Some of the books I've read so far have been on my shelves/kindle for 1, 2 ,3 years!

All my kindle bargains from this New Year are squirelled away in a separate folder, waiting to be read! My to read pile includes 4 Dutch books - all presents - which I've been putting off as they take me so long (and have only managed to read 1 Dutch book EVER even though I've been here nearly 7 years!).

Adding lots to my wishlists though, based on all the recommendations am seeing on this thread!

Book 6: A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

A jaded owner of a private British bank based in Hamburg gets drawn by an idealistic young female lawyer into assisting a young man with the key to one the most exclusive, and dubious, vaults in the bank. The man himself is a Checen Muslim and wanted by three of the world's most powerful intelligenc agencies. Brue the banker and Richter the lawyer find themselves caught in a web of intrigue created by intelligence agencies as they try to find a way to help the damaged young man.

le Carre is an excellent author, and this is a very good novel. I do tend to find him very bleak though, he couldn't really be described as an optimist. Although you do rather suspect the way things will go in the end, you do very much find yourself rooting for the three people way out of their depth, in a world they couldn't hope to understand.

Gosh, I'm behind the times

1. The Worst Journey In The World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Brilliant account of the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913), written by one of its survivors. Much talked about on here so I won't go into details, but it is worth reading despite its length.

Glad you enjoyed it, Cote. :)

I'm now reading 11 and 12 at the same time - a book about Georgian England (interesting but the writing style is a bit meandering) and a psychology book (again, interesting but meandering!). I suspect I'll slow down for a few weeks now, unless I can get hold of some more fiction too.

I have to say I could have done without learning how much of what each pony ate every day of the three years Really fascinating overall, though.

I also have to say that I thought A Most Wanted Man was one if the dullest books I have ever read, with nothing at all ever happening. One of Le Carre's worst, imho. His recent books just haven't been as good as his earlier ones.

Charles Cumming writes really good modern spy fiction, if anyone is interested in recommendations in this genre.

6 12 Years a Slave.

This book is the true story of what happened to a free black man from New York State who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. The book is written by Solomon Northrup, the man it happened to.

I read this because the film has had such fantastic reviews that I really want to see it, but I much prefer to read the book first and then see the film than the other way around. It spoils my enjoyment of the book if I know what is going to happen, somehow this doesn't seem to matter as much with a film.

Also, in one of the reviews that I listened to, the reviewer couldn't believe that the events shown in the film could have been quite that bad and so read the book to see if they had exaggerated, to find that, if anything, the film tones it down. This made me want to know the full and accurate version of events before seeing Steve McQueen's take on it.

I was not as surprised by what was depicted as some of the film reviewers seem to have been, but it is still a shocking story. For me the full horror was not so much what happened to Solomon Northrup, dreadful as that was, but the fact that so many people where born into slavery, lived lives of suffering and degradation and died with no hope of release.

Book 6 - diary of a mummy misfit by Amanda Egan. It was a freebie and I really enjoyed it, I love diary type books, very fluffy though. Only available on Kindle by look of it.

www.amazon.co.uk/Diary-Mummy-Misfit-Amanda-Egan-ebook/dp/B0053UNS60/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1390059689&sr=1-1&keywords=diary+of+a+mummy+misfit

1. Cross and Burn - Valerie McDermid. Disappointing, I think she has run out of steam with Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, the ending was trite and was telegraphed from early on in the book.

3 Dodger - Terry Prachett. Seems good so far.

1. The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice From TheSilence Of Autism - Naoki Higashida

This is a short book written by a 13 year old Japanese boy, explaining his inner world. He is non-verbal but communicates by pointing at written letters/characters. The book is translated into English by David Mitchell (the author of Cloud Atlas) who has an autistic son.

Was it good, Cote? Was wondering whether to get it for dp's birthday.

Sort of. It is interesting to learn why autistic children repeat certain phrases or can't sit still, for example, but I got the feeling that it was heavily edited & sentences formed by a NT person. I would have liked it better if they left the text as he constructed it, but it wouldn't make prose, I suppose.

It must be very useful for parents with autistic children, but I don't know if your DP will like it.

1. Where'd You Go, Bernadette- loved it, lagged at the end though.

1. Twelve Years A Slave

Thanks, Cote. Dp used to work with autistic children, so he might. Will check it out.

1. Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James

Police procedural set in Brighton. Enjoyable on the whole, although having read a few in the series now I am getting a bit sick of the author banging on about political correctness and the smoking ban!

You are welcome, Remus I now started to read a recent biography of Bach written by a famous conductor of his music, called Music In The Castle Of Heaven: A Portrait Of Johann Sebastian Bach. This might be one for you - biography and a huge tome.

I like huge tomes, but not classical music! I've still got Moz's autobiography to read but just can't seem to be able to bring myself to it.

What sort of bios do you enjoy, Remus? I like some of the old Hollywood ones- Jane Fonda's is surprisingly good. And you can't beat David Niven- he gives great anecdote.

Cardiff, I really liked the one about the stag-do burial (can't remember the title), but by the second one I started to get irritated by the way that every single female character was described in terms of her attractiveness. Once I noticed it, it really grated.

I'm not a big fan of classical music in general. Just baroque music, Bach in particular. It is mathematical, almost geometrical in its complexity (I'm not explaining this well). Some of his music grips my whole being and doesn't let me be for weeks at a time.

I started playing the piano again last year, after 30 years, and am now going through the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach. Simple enough pieces for me to play (after much practice) but melodies of such beauty and complexity, with each hand playing separate tunes that complement each other. It is brilliance itself.

So it's the perfect time for me to read this biography, really, with his music in my head most of my waking hours

Also did you check out the two books I recommended you recently?

The Strangest Man (biography of Paul Dirac)
and
Measuring The World (historical fiction about the life of Gauss)