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

OK, DBX and Remus, I've taken your advice and downloaded The Stand onto my Kindle. Will report back.

Hope you enjoy it. :)

Been studying so haven't had much of a chance to read but

13. The Doorkeepers, Graham Masterton. Reading Pet Semetary got me in a nostalgic mood for the kind of authors I read as a teen is the only reason I downloaded it but in a succinct review - rubbish.

14. Running like a Girl, Alexandra Heminsley. Really great read that I enjoyed as a wannabe runner but not quite got to the attempted stage yet. Written by a woman who didn't run at all to finishing five marathons.

book #21 - Almost a Childhood- Growing up among the nazis by Hans-Georg Behr

A tale of a grim childhood in war torn and post war Austria.

4 Do the birds sing in hell? Ken Scott. True story of Horace Greasley who was a prisoner of war during WW2, A great story ruined by an oversexed ghost writer, shame.

1. MacMafia - about the growth of globalised organised crime. Really interesting, really well written and agan quite scary as there's a lot of deliberate overlap between the legal and illegal business worlds in many countries.
2. (almost finished) The Descendants - the novel that the movie with George Clooney is based on. Really good. I've loved it.

Cote, yes, not scared off So Much for That by any hi-falutin' literariness, just felt like I wasn't in the mood for a big fat fiction book. Don't care enough to find out what happens.

I'm still pruning my way through my big pile of books to read to work out what I actually want to spend time on rather than what I feel I should read given I've lugged it all the way home from the library.

One of the books I'm giving up on is Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries II. Remus, why did you decide you hated him? I didn't find him all that irksome, just got a bit bored.

The only book I did actually read through is:
14) Bad Mother, Ayelet Waldmann. Short non-fiction essays about, guess what, motherhood. Not a million miles away from a Jewish-American Caitlin Moran (esp. in the chapter about having an abortion when told the foetus may - or, agonisingly, may not - have a genetic abnormality). Interesting if not groundbreaking - meditations on things like how we're a different parent to our various children, as they are born at different times in our lives. How you can long for another baby, even though you know it's not sensible. I found this worth the read.

1. Longbourn
2. You had me at hello
3. Love, Nina
4. Getting over Mr Right
5. The Husband's Secret
6. The Donor

I've been lucky, the next 3 are all excellent books:

7. Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. This was quirky and funny and full of love for books and computers. I bought it in hard copy last year but only got round to it last week - hopefully, it will serve as a reminder to go to my favourite bookshop and stock up rather than relying on kindle sales for my books.

8. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison. Another funny and warm read. Don is a really endearing character. Like Longbourn, I can imagine this as a big movie.

9. Black Venus by Angela Carter. Somehow I had never read this slim collection of short stories even though I love the Bloody Chamber and Nights at the Circus. Carter's writing blows everyone else on my list out of the water, the stories may be short but they are full of imagery and depth. I read many passages 2 or 3 times and found myself googling various characters to find out their real stories. I suspect I will be revisiting these , and other Carter, stories throughout the year.

Biblio - I'd be happy to tell you what happens in a PM, if you like. It taught me quite a bit about end-of-life decisions.

Ooh, you've piqued my curiosity, Cote. Tell me!

1. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
2. The Coming Race, Bulwer Lytton
3. The Foundation Pit, Andrey Platanov
4. What matters in Jane Austen, John Mullan
5. Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte

Lovely prose and it was interesting to read about the life of a governess etc, but it was a little flat for me and the love story was underwhelming. I preferred The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and still prefer Emily Bronte.

Ticked another box of the Goodreads 2014 challenge as a Free Choice. Onto my favourite genre (self defined since I don't think it has a title as such) and reading Biographi by Lloyd Jones.

Nigel Slater - irritating and fussy and lives on tomatoes and is all shuddery about things and feels guilty about liking frozen peas and oh gods not more tomatoes and and and...He reminds me of very old people who say, 'Ooh lovely' and have a little shiver, when given a cup of tea and slice of Battenburg.

13. The Song of Lunch by Christopher Reid, which completes my poetry square in the Goodreads Magic Square Challenge. I liked this very much.

Very vivid description, Remus!

Aww don't mock poor Nigel.

I have tried hard to like Nigel, but the older I get, the more he annoys me - him and his bloody tomatoes.

Book whatever I'm on now - Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch: I swore not to read this but was desperate. I should have listened to myself.

I love tomatoes though.

:) And Battenburg? Hi Nigel!

I started book 8, Mortal Engines - Phillip Reeve this morning, on advice from this thread. I've been meaning to read it for ages and it was in the clearance section of my local WH Smith for £1 :) I'm really enjoying it!

1. Spit against the wind by Anna Smith, 1960s childhood in West Scotland. Really enjoyed it, tad predictable but very moving at times.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/2000991-50-Book-Challenge-2014-Part-2

Thread 2

Count me in . Somehow on book 11 for the year. Got a kindle and load of vouchers for Christmas Worried I'd hate it . I don't.

So far:-

Book 1 - Carrion Comfort by Dan Sims
Book 2 - A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde
Book 3 - Loot, Inside the World of Stolen Art by Thomas McShane;
Book 4 - Wool by Hugh Howie
Book 5 - A Feast For Crows by George RR Martin - Game of Thrones
Book 6 - A Dance with Dragons, Part 1 and predictably
Book 7 - A Dance with Dragons, Part 2
Book 8 - The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes.
Book 9 - The Rosie Project.
Book 10 - Road to Rouen, Ben Hatch

and now

Book 11 - Gone Girl, am engaged with it but really dislike the main characters so not sure I am really enjoying it. Totally think he did it. He is so detached even though I am supposedly getting first person narrative here, he's hardly there at all.

So sad, I've actually created a pinterest board to help me keep track !

I see you are a sci fi addict cotedazur! I love it too, Neal Stephenson is fantastic. Must peruse your post there for possible reads! Wool was recommended to me and tbh, it read like a great first draft rather than a finished book. I did enjoy it but it is v hard to find good sci fi.

The last deent writer I unearthed was Iain M. Banks.

10. The Humble Companion by Laurie Graham 4/5