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?

I'd love to join in, managed about 40 books last year and could do with reading more rather than wasting hours on pet rescue and farm heroes...

I'm halfway through Cloud Atlas and really enjoying it - hopefully will update soon with book no. 2.

Evening all!

I'd like to join you this year. Not sure that I'll get to 50 books (30 this year) but will give it a go.

Just started 'Living with it' and have 'Daughter' and 'The Shock of the Fall' lined up in my Kindle next.

I should add that this time last year I was adamant that I didn't want/need a Kindle. I got mine in May and I wouldn't be without it now. I also love seeing my 'finished' collection mount up

Love Secret History. Read it in the sunshine against a tree after finals many years ago.

The Kindle brigade grows stronger every Christmas. We shall soon take over the world.

Thanks biblio. Confederacy Of Dunces is history

stokey, I enjoyed reading Us. I loved the idea and how he run with it. Made me question a lot of things. Sort of put myself in the wife's shoes, thought, so, DD leaves home, will I enjoy spending time with my DH? (It looks pretty bleak, tbh, him watching telly, me on my phone or reading, me organizing absolutely every single thing we go....dangerous territory)
Oh, I've ordered Wifework.

I'd love to join.

Have just started:

1. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

Oooh can I join in please? I saw the threads towards the end of last year but way too later to join in! Before dd I used to read loads but now she's a bouncy toddler I find I'm reading less and less, but the book pile is mounting up!

Book number one for me is the midwich cuckoos by john wyndham

I have kicked off 2015 with a raging ear infection and have been in bed feeling sorry for myself all day . On the plus side I managed to finish The Fault in Our Stars then read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry .

The Fault in Our Stars - I liked this, but I didn't love it. I'm surprised by all the 5 star reviews, maybe I'm just a bit old for this book. It's a nice read but the main characters are not believable (they sound like they walked straight out of Dawsons Creek) and I never really connected with them. I enjoyed reading it but it won't stay with me. I'd give it 3 stars.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - I really liked this book. It's an easy read and I loved the writing style. The first half was lovely, the second half wasn't quite as good (I prefered it when he was on his own) but overall it was enjoyable and surprisingly touching. I would give it 4 stars.

Hi can I join please. One of my New Years Resolutions is to read more. I am starting 2015 with The Fault In Our Stars.

I dropped off last year too and lost my list!

So, signing in for a new year and joining the dystopian fanatics with Maddadam which my DBro finally bought me for Christmas

I'd like to join in too please (I think)...would be good discussing what to read next with more people than just my DSis..full of great ideas that she is. She's given me "I am Pigrim" with a fulsome recommendation and the caveat that it's very long.
I aim to start that as soon as I've ploughed my way through the second half of Shadow Bible...normally I inhale the latest Rebus but I've found this one a bit stop-start.

Ooops, where the hell's the missing "l" in that title??
Teach me to post without previewing..

I managed 21 books last year, and I would like to aim for the same this year. I have a new baby though so I'm not sure if I will end up reading a lot more or a lot less!

I've just started reading African Diary by Bill Bryson.

Can I join? I started using Goodreads to track my books last year and logged 20, but I'm sure it was more than that as I was pretty inconsistent at putting them on. Not 50 though. I commute for 1 1/2 hours 5 days per week so should read more and Mumsnet less.
Book no 1 is Er ist wieder da by Timur Vernes. Translated as Look Who's Back in English, I'm reading it in German because I can but I'm sure I'm missing some of the cultural references.

Cote, I had to read Confederacy of Dunces for a book group a few years ago and really didn't get on with it but others loved it. Vernon God Little was the same. Real Marmite books. Split opinions make for interesting book group chats but if you're reading it just for yourself it isn't worth persevering I'd say.

I couldn't get on with Confederacy of Dunces either Cote , give it up, life's too short.
Kia my DC are little so I'm still at the stage where time with my husband without them seems like an amazing luxury. But it's definitely interesting to think about the empty nest syndrome.

A brief synopsis for those considering Us. It's about a couple who's 17 year old son is about to leave home. They have organised a final grand tour of Europe but days before the wife tells the husband she wants to leave him. They go on the tour anyway and the book is told from the husband's viewpoint with the tour interspersing with chapters of their past.

The husband is a scientist and the wife is an artist and a lot of the book is about how the geeky husband doesn't really fit in with his arty wife and child.
I enjoyed it, it's easy to read and amusingly observed. I empathised with the husband as well as being slightly infuriated by him. The wife is less well drawn, a bit stereotypical and I was never convinced by what attracted her to him.

There's also a lot about Art as they tour round the main galleries of Europe.

Much less brief than I intended, sorry for the waffle.

My next book is The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble.

I'm in! Started last year but dropped out after a while as was having health issues. Continued to lurk and pick up ideas for my wish list though! Aiming for 50 but not going to be too upset if I don't make it. I read all sorts of crap so looking forward to some more recommendations!

I'm enjoying The Signature of all Things so far though the early life and history of Alma's father is terrifically implausible and his attitude towards his own, hardworking, perfectly decent, father is poor. I do like to read about early plant and spice explorers, books like Nathaniel's Nutmeg, the Philippa Gregory books about the Tradescants for example.

It's great to hear that others have enjoyed it.

At the end of last year I read The shock of the fall and was very moved by it. I also read Us and although it was thought-provoking as a PP says (thinking about my own future once the DC leave) I found it hard to sympathise with any of the characters.

Those 2 books were pretty much all I read last year - too much mindless web browsing, Candy Crush and, well, collapsing in a heap of an evening having run around after the DC. I used to read voraciously, it was part of my job to get through the popular fiction, the award nominated books, even the Richard and Judy reads! Then I changed roles and had 2 DC... My commute to work twice a week is now my sacred reading time - if Thameslink could see fit to there occasionally being a seat I'd be grateful.

Several books have been mentioned here that I'm unfamiliar with, I'm looking forward to getting some recommendations!

bibliomania: "That's James Joyce's Ulysses rather than Homer's, I take it?"

Yes, it is. I'm half way through now. I just had a run of about 30 pages where I could follow what was going on, which was encouraging.

I know life's too short, etc, but I feel it would be defeatist to stop now when I've got this far. Incidentally, I have read the Iliad but not the Odyssey, which might at least have given me some clue as to what was going on. Not that I remember anything about the Iliad, though, which does make me wonder why I bother.

Heigh ho. Will make all the other reads so much more pleasurable when I've finished...

I totally get the whole gritted-teeth "I'm not giving up now!" feeling. And it could be worse, at least it's not Finnegans Wake.

I almost never give up on a book, but I must admit to being defeated by Ulysses. And Proust. I just didn't have a clue what was going on!

I also loved The Signature of all Things. Might re read it this year.

We'll have finished my first book of the year (thanks to all night boob monster newborn!)

1. The woman who stole my life - Marian Keyes

I normally really enjoy her books but this one left me cold. unlikeable characters and a dark overall tone with none of the more comedic elements that are normally in her books. Wouldn't recommend.

Next up is The Purchase by Linda Spalding. Started this morning and looks promising so far

Oh and am also a kindle convert. Wouldn't be without mine now!

1. A man called Ove by Frederik Backman (Swedish author)

Ove is a grumpy old man suspicious of a lot in modern life and his neighbours, who has just lost his wife and job. Ove has given up on life, but then he meets his new neighbours....The story is about Ove's life and about how life make us who we are. The book is funny, sad and very touching. I already know it's going to be one of my favourite books this year. I give 5 stars.

Finished the first 1

1 Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. Nice and funny but not as good as either Pratchett or Gaiman by themselves. But a good read none the less.

Now on to
2 Skeleton Road - Val McDermid

thelittlebooktroll - I've just reserved A man called Ove from the library on the back of your recommendation. It looks just the sort of thing I enjoy. Could take a while as I've reserved the paperback which isn't out yet but at some point I have that to look forward to, thank you.