50 Book Challenge 2014 Part 4

[Southeastdweller]

Thread four of the 50 Book Challenge.

The idea is to read 50 books in 2014 (or more!)

Here are the previous threads...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/1951735-50-Book-Challenge-2014

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

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/2094773-50-Book-Challenge-2014-Part-3?msgid=49151537#49151537

I am now embarking on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. This one might take a while...

Book 110 - 'The Enchanted Castle' by E Nesbit
I read this when I was about nine and adored it. Had never re-read it but it has always stayed with me, so I took advantage of it being free on Kindle. Well, I adored it once more. :)

I am in the rare and wonderful situation of having LOTS to read, after some Kindle buys and a trip around the charity shops today, so am currently a very happy Remus.

Cote - one of them is, "This Thing of Darkness." I stupidly gave my copy away after I'd read it, so now have it again and am due a re-read.

I too like the sound of Mr Mac and me. In fact I have just downloaded a sample and out on my "kindle to read" list

Just finished my 50th. It's the most I've read in a year since I started keeping track (2007 I think).
35. The Silent State - Heather Brooke
36. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
37. The Graveyard book - Neil Gaiman
38. Fair Game - Valerie Plame Wilson
39. Closure, Limited - Max Brooks
40. The Prime Minister's Ironing Board and Other State Secrets - Adam MacQueen
41. The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
42. In The Pleasure Groove - John Taylor
43. Endangered Species - David Gower
44. Love, Nina -Nina Stibbe
45. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
46. Bats Sing, Mice Giggle - Karen Shanor
47. Pied Piper - Nevil Shute
48. When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman
49. Dead and Buried - Stephen Booth
50. Bedsit Disco Queen - Tracey Thorn

Especially enjoyed Pied Piper. Northern Lights and Tracey Thorn's autobiography. Hated John Taylor's. Self-indulgent and boring

Remus - I'm waiting to forget This Thing Of Darkness a bit more to read it again

I'm reluctantly taking a break from The Goldfinch to read a textbook that I'd been putting off reading for weeks. Only read 90 pages of it since Tuesday so posting now as a way to motivate myself to finish it next week (and I do have to finish it as it's part of my new course).

Reserved the new books from Hilary Mantel and David Nicholls so I guess I'll be reading them in a few weeks time.

verona I adored Tracey's book. She is a superb writer and came across as warm and genuine at a talk I went to earlier this year .

46. The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein.

I found this really interesting. It starts off with a typical 'nature v nurture' argument and goes on to cover a wide range of issues, from the reasons why Jamaicans are good sprinters while Kenyans are good endurance runners, to whether there are genes which influence dedication and the pain response. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in genetics. Lots of interesting statistical titbits too. (Did you know that 17 American and 14 British men in history have completed a marathon under 2:10, while in October 2011 32 Kenyans did it in just one month? And I now know why, in the author's opinion, Paula Radcliffe has never won an Olympic medal despite being such a great runner!)

southeast, Tracey writes so well. I'm not a big fan of her music but I've just had to dig some out to listen to. I didn't feel like that after reading John Taylor's book!

tumble - Why does the author think Paula Radcliffe has never won an Olympic medal? I might mention it to her next time I see her

Cote - it's because of her height apparently. She's 5'8", which is tall for a female long distance runner. Small runners have a larger skin surface area compared with the volume of their body, which makes them more effective at dissipating heat, which is really important for endurance running. The Olympics in 2004 and 2008 were held in hot humid conditions so she was at a disadvantage compared to the shorter competitors. The woman who won the marathon in Athens was 4'11".

Do you know her then??

Well done to everyone who has hit 50! (Or 100!)

Interesting. I would have thought height would be an advantage, with longer stride. And isn't surface area/volume to do with how skinny one is, anyway? She is very skinny.

I can't say I know her terribly well but we live nearby and have several good friends in common. She is lovely, a genuinely nice person, as well as an amazing athlete, of course

Come to think of it, in the one marathon I ran, the top ten were some very tall Kenyans.

Height can be an advantage yes (or ideally long, skinny legs and a relatively short torso), but in that heat (35 degrees in Athens) her body simply could not cope. Skinny is good, but I expect the 4'11" winner was skinny too.

I think she's amazing!

Will have to do a proper catch-up, but guiltily aware that I've been awol from the thread for a while. Real life a bit hectic.

Have just finished a re-read of Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years and really sad that there won't be any more. I grew up with him and miss him.

Dipping in and out of the shorter Virginia Woolf diaries - reassuringly unliterary. Now reading The Year of Reading Dangerously. It's not very well written, but I like books about books, so I'm ploughing happily through it anyway.

Lined up: the Val McDermid version of Northanger Abbey. I also read a Donna Leon book recently and I've ordered a few more from the library. I fancy losing myself in Venice for a bit.

finally...
#43. The Long War - Stephen Baxter & Terry Pratchett.
Mixed feelings. I read the first in the trilogy and sort of felt the same. I love TP's writing, but this is not in the same vein. There are hidden asides to things, and some 'in jokes' but this feels more serious. I found it hard to get into as there is a big jump in time (narrative wise) between the first book and this.
I also found a number of things that remained unexplained. I shan't put spoilers in but am left wondering - What is the significance of Roberta? Was there more to the rings? How did Joshua get away from Rectangles?
I expect I'll read the final book in the hope of some 'closure.

Finishing off #44 & #45 this week.

96. Ian Rankin "Set in Darkness". Not my favourite of his so far, but worth a read of you're a fan of the Rebus series. It also seems to be setting up another stand off between Rebus and his old enemy Big Ger Cafferty, which had the potential to be brilliant.

Mrs C - I couldn't get on at all with, "The Long War" and gave up without finishing it, even though I really enjoyed the first in the series.

56. The Ninth Life of Louis Drax - Liz Jensen. A really good read.

Currently re- reading Alan Bennett's Untold Stories which is fantastic.

Thank you to everyone who gave me reading tips and told me how they manage to read so many books. I have some good ideas now for maximising my reading time (baths are a key element and world reading domination awaits).

In the meantime I have decided to read all the books lurking about on my Kindle that have been there for ages.

45. The Rosie Project - that man wot wrote it
46. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers
47. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
48. Old Greek Stories - James Baldwin

My short summary is: Rosie Project - meh (but I did read it immediately after The Goldfinch so it didn't stand a chance). Ballad of the Sad Cafe - weird but kind of good. Her books are always slightly off-kilter and disturbing and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by her is on my to read list.
Life After Life - really loved this actually once I had got used to all the jumping back in time, she writes so well. I liked the concept of the book. Greek Stories - Greek Legends simply told and I fancied something a bit different, so now I'm all like, ah yes, Achilles, interesting....

I am currently reading Gone Girl because it's been on my Kindle forever and I don't think I am going to be able to avoid spoilers now the film is out. It's funny how I can intensely dislike a book, the writing, the characters and yet not be able to put it down. I have been like this all day.
By the end I might be

52. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Conjuring war ships made of rain or moving Belgium to America to baffle Napoleon's army, making all the stone statues of York Cathedral come alive to tell their tales, raising the dead to the living, accessing hidden landscapes via mirrors... These are some of the passages that held me, ahem, spellbound throughout this vast novel. I kept turning page after page despite being so tired my eyes were hurting.

But I admit by the page 700 mark I was getting weary both of the story and its characters and of the realisation I still had another 300 pages to go. So I started skipping through rather than slowly absorbing.

An interesting and for the most part a highly entertaining read, but I may have to re-read the last 300 pages at a later date. I simply ran out of steam!

BsshBosh - Isn't it brilliant? I refrained from saying so before, because previous experience on these threads suggests that building up expectation with high praise in advance of reading a book is sometimes not a good thing but... isn't is just extraordinary? (Spare a thought for those of us plodding through the childish fairy tale that is The Night Circus )

I loved JS & Mr Norrell. Such fantastic writing, intricate story, and richness of detail (I hope you read all the footnotes - that's where most of the background is).

I really hope that she writes a sequel (or prequel) about the Raven King.

Cote you and I will obv never agree as I really love The Night Circus. Thought it was a beautifully written gorgeous story.