50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 1

[Southeastdweller]

Thread one of the 50 Book Challenge.

The idea is to read 50 books (or more!) in 2015.

Who's in for this year?

oooh ,pick me - I've already read 9!

Wilting-fast don't feel bad. Got 'Us' for Xmas on 3 for 2 in book shop average price per book €12??

So £1.99 bargain. Hundred pages in and enjoying it.

How do you guys get notified of Amazon price drops? Sorry if off topic!

No idea Booty, I just saw some of the links posted up thread and clicked thru from there. I've seen someone post before about a website that you can type in a list of books you're interested in and it will alert you if the price drops - can't remember the name though I'm afraid (not much help!).

Thanks book I ll have look on line.

It's this website you need for the Amazon price drops :)

bookwormbeagle - 46 hours and 46 minutes of 1Q84!!!!
well worth in price per minute

Wowzers, I'm definitely going to have to get a Bluetooth adapter for my car if I'm ever going to get thru that!

ATM I only listen to my audiobooks with headphones/Bluetooth thru the speaker in the kitchen when I'm cooking.

Terrific value though, am a huge fan of audiobooks - I loved The Woodcutter as the narrator did an amazing job.

Thanks duchess!

Bookworm do you find audio books expensive? Local library only have small selection! Currently listening to Bridget Jones edge of reason on cd in car!

I've bought 2 Kindle books already today and there are at least 5 more I want. If I buy them it's technically saving money because they're so cheap, right?

Have just read 130 pages of, 'Longbourn' and not liking it much. I'll probably carry on with it, because I need something to read in the bath and it's the only physical, rather than Kindle, book I have at the moment, but I'm finding it both dull and laboured, like she's followed some sort of ticklist to cram in all of the things that Austen ignored, or only just touched on -war: tick / the slave trade: tick / racism: tick / sex: tick. And the writing style is so slow and so dull. I like Mrs Hill and Lydia - everything else is boring me.

Among noteworthy price drops for Kindle books, there is also The Martian for £1.99.

Have you read it, Cote? I've been toying with it.

I read and reviewed it in the last 50-Book thread of 2014

It's about an astronaut mistakenly left for dead on Mars, alone, with not much air and very little food. He has to get very inventive to survive about a year until the next Mars mission lands. I really liked it because of the geeky detail and McGyver'ish inventiveness, calculations, etc. Really well thought out. It's also quite humorous and not at all dark and depressing. I'd recommend you read it.

Lots of great Kindle bargains at the moment. My non-fiction pic is the Alan Cumming memoir, one of the better autobigrapies of the past few years.

I can also highly recommend The Children Act and The Paying Guests.

autobiographies, I meant to type.

Currently reading Curtain Call, which is very enjoyable indeed.

booty
I've been on the 1 book a month deal from audible which works out at £7.99 per month. Although you can get great additional deals if you read more than this. I think this is pretty good value really, some of them are 30-40 hours long! If you don't like the narrator/story you can return for a refund even if you've partially listened to it. Customer service is top class.

Would definitely recommend.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned the great Kindle deals. Have just bought The Paying Guests (very excited about this, have loved all her previous books), The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and The Narrow Road to the Deep North all for £1.99

Thanks for highlighting the Kindle price drop. I got Bone Clocks, Book of Strange New Things, How to be Both and Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Thought I was done, then checked in on here and now have The Martian too!

Nice to have lots to read but I'm making slow progress with Bring Up The Bodies currently - getting next to no sleep at the moment due to teething baby so come the evening not managing more than a few pages before I'm done.

I am enjoying BUTB - popular opinion seems to suggest it is the better of the two books, but I'm not sure it has the charm of Wolf Hall. It is more readable, it feels as if it has been all tightened up, but I don't know if it hasn't lost something along the way. All the 'He, Cromwells' seem unnecessary to me, and this, combined with some of the punctuation choices, mainly serves to take me out of the story, rather than aiding meaning. WH, stylistically there were quibbles, but artistically it hit the mark. These are the thoughts of a very tired person though and I'm not half way yet so I'll reserve judgment until the end.

Please ALL have look at your libraries e-book and audiobooks pages.
I know most of the libraries in the SE and London have this service where you borrow an audiobook _>>>FOR FREE

I'll be having a look at that tonight. I've been meaning to for ages but kept forgetting. Thanks for the reminder antimatter,

On book 6. Witness by Cath Staincliffe.

I started this yesterday and it's hooked me from the very beginning. I'm just over halfway through it and I can't put it down! Very likeable characters and full of suspense.
A very good read so far.

11. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. There are so many reviews on here already of this book, so I won't go into detail about it.

Not too sure how I feel about the book. I liked it, but didn't love it. I found Maud's confusion and endless questioning of everything so frustrating - but then that's what it's like (if I hadn't been reading it on my kindle, I might have thrown it at the wall - reminded me rather of the exasperation I felt when reading Before I Go To Sleep).

I liked Helen (Maud's daughter) and her frustration and anger, as main carer for her mother, was well portrayed.

What I thought was shown well was the comparison between impaired short term memory and long term memory which is more or less still intact, although there were glimpses towards the end of the novel that that, too, was going. Probably a 3.75 out of 5.

Next up - I should be reading The Miniaturist to get that out of the way so I can start Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell BUT the library has thrown a spanner in the works - a book I requested ages ago has arrived, and I really ought to read that - The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane. Need to read faster :o