50 Book Challenge 2015 Part 2

[Southeastdweller]

Thread two of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

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

Previous thread here

Well if it helps, I'm a big fan of trashy rubbish that's not going to be called a classic or on reading lists in 20 years time!

I read for fun. My list is light and fluffy and in no way improving.

whippetwoman I love Plath's three women, the lines where she describes the baby arriving 'as if he had hurtled from a star' and childbirth as like being 'at the center of an atrocity' have always stayed with me as such stunning imagery. A lot of Plath's work has too often been looked at as though it was just the prelude to her death, but it is more complex than that and it does her a disservice. There's a lot of warmth there too; all her 'love poems' are addressed to children.

I know what you mean about being overwhelmed by Kindle reads, I end up 'collecting' rather than reading sometimes.

I haven't started anything this week. A combination of sleep deprivation and indecision. After the sci fi discussion up thread I have been reminded I have a few of that ilk on my kindle and they might be the way to go. I read a huge amount of old sci fi when I was younger (my dad had a huge collection of Asimov, Dick, etc) but have been out of touch with the newer stuff, so have been wanting to give it a go.

My 'beach reads' are the same as my normal reads though generally, I like literary fiction and classics so don't find them hard work as such, I'm not really a fan of lightweight or blandly written fiction, beach or not, so really just read whatever I fancy. I struggle to 'read for the plot' if the writing isn't good. I do find it hard deciding though

Hope you have some luck fixing/replacing your kindle wilting

Thanks for your replies Sirzy Bssh and Mary I do think I need to read more for fun and not think about "improving" myself! Also, I will stop buying books on my Kindle. I have about 200 of them (lots are free classics) but they are oppressing me. A friend of mine has a one in one out policy with physical books which works well. It's just that there are about 100 books I really want to read just now, probably more and it's making me anxious. I need to chill!

whippetwoman - I feel like that too. I never used to - it's got a lot worse since I had my Kindle. I don't reread any more, or have days between reading, or browse in libraries. I go relentlessly from one read to the next, and for some reason always feel desperate to read a new book by a favourite author the moment it comes out, whereas I always used to wait for the paperback. I hate being like this.

And thanks Sootgremlin.
Collecting is exactly what I seem to be doing!

The Plath poems, and play were just as you say and there was a lot of warmth, as well as fear, mixed in which was very powerful. I will certainly read more.

hackmum that's it, exactly! That's what I was trying to say. I just bang through them and because they are often so cheap on the Kindle I just keep on buying because I want to keep up and read the most recent thing.

Yy hackmum I've found that with the kindle, I'm trying to balance it with library books and also buying the paperback if it's a book I'm looking forward to, not just downloading.

I use good reads to keep track of books I fancy reading but only download a new book when I have started a new one (I like to have a "spare") incase DS gets taken into hospital. If I have too many waiting to be read if just gets overwhelming.

I don't have a kindle, so my reading is a mixture of what I pick up in the library, a few I've bought and wading my way through the hundreds of books friends and family keep lending me. I'm trying ot use the library more often now, mainly because there's a small local library near me and a larger one in our main town centre. The small one is apparently under 'review' so a lot of local people are making a point of using it as much as possible. I figured if I can get round to borrowing 20 or so books this year (I have accepted i'm not making it to 50!), then hopefully I'll help boost the figures for them!

Book 8
Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell.

I last read this in my teens. I'm so glad I've re read this now. It really is a tour de force of language and style.

Obviously the plot is exciting and the ideas never wane, but Orwell's attention to detail is what really stands out for me. World building of sheer magnitude.

I also find I rush through Kindle books - my weakness is crime but I think seeing the percentage of book left is a challenge for me that I need to finish.
I'm trying to read better quality books on my Kindle now so I don't just cruise mindlessly through.
I also liked Ready Player One.

#14 Her - Harriet Lane. This follows two women over alternate viewpoint chapters. Nina recognises Emma and has some past history with her. Emma doesn't remember or recognise Nina who infiltrates her life. This was a quick read - it's only around 200 pages - and well written. There's some very good descriptions of life as a young mum and how overwhleming it all is. The last part lost me a bit, I just felt unconvinced by Nina's need for revenge and it all ends very abruptly.

Hound - If you haven't read Neal Stephenson's books already, you really must. Start with Snow Crash, then go on to The Diamond Age. Since you are a seasoned sci-fi reader I can recommend you Anathem. It is long, demanding, mindbending, and ultimately very rewarding. Cryptonomicon is brilliant, too, but it's hardly sci-fi - two storylines, one about Alan Turing, breaking the Enigma, etc and the other in 1990s, cryptography, building a data haven in a fictional little country.

William Gibson's earlier books (before All Tomorrow's Parties) are pretty good, too. Neuromancer, Idoru, and Mona Lisa Overdrive were pretty good, as I remember.

More recently, I have quite enjoyed Lock In by John Scalzi and Spares by Michael Marshall Smith, although they are nowhere near the caliber of Stephenson's books.

I don't have anything like Hyperion for you, unfortunately. If you know of books like it, let me know.

I have read about 8 Culture books by Ian M Banks and had no love for them, him, or that hippy dippy space opera universe where robots and humans hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" on all sorts of drugs they release from their brains

#7 Ark (flood #2) by Stephen Baxter finished.

Book 8 Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

cote I have Hyperion sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me to pick it up

Had started Liane Moriarty's Little Lies but ended up in Waterstone's tonight, waiting for my DH, reading The Miniaturist. Got hooked.

1. Stone Mattress (Nine Tales) - Margaret Atwood.

This was my first Atwood book, I wasn't sure what to expect. Quite liked the first three linked stories. Not sure about Lusus Naturae, maybe I didn't get it properly... I really enjoyed The Dead Hand Loves You (creepy, good buildup of a story within a story, considering it's such a short tale). I also liked The Stone Mattress. Torch the Dusties was very good, unsettling on a number of levels.

Have downloaded some free samples of other Atwood books & loved them too...

I really enjoyed StoneMattress, Telephone. But I love Atwood.

Currently reading Anne Tyler's latest - have you read any of her? I think she's a similar sort of writer in many ways.

I'm a newbie checking in here. I hope that's OK? I was looking for some recs to get back into the habit of reading and found this thread.

The whole 'overwhelmed by Kindle' thing is the main reason I sort of stopped reading last year. I've decided this year to alternate new books with ones I've 'collected' on there to see if I can clear the backlog a bit and start to have a bit more of a considered approach. I also REALLY need to stop downloading worthy things that just make me feel guilty.

To kick off the latter resolvehe first book I read was 'Celebrity Chef Rants' by Alex Watts. I am a bit food obsessed so it was an enjoyable read, even if it was a bit name-droppy. Next on the list is 'Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet' which I have had on my Kindle for ages.

hackmum how are you finding Anne Tyler's new book? I've only read a few of her's but am contemplating buying/borrowing this one...

10. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer

This is a short book with not much to say that could have easily been a very good short story, or even a computer game. Still, those few ideas it has are quite brilliant, so I'm in two minds about whether or not I have liked this book.

On one hand, it is perhaps the most original and interesting "first contact" story I have ever read. On the other, the prose is quite bad and at times shockingly awful, and there isn't much of a plot. The narrator is unreliable, compromised, her perception doubtful and her intentions uncertain. But does that make it even more realistic, given that the whole thing is meant to be the notebook of the last survivor from an expedition into a quarantined area?

I can only compare it to Wool - this book is almost as badly written, but more gritty, realistic (if an experience so incomprehensible and clouded by hypnosis and who knows what else can be called 'realistic'), full of original ideas, than Wool. I had no inclination to read Wool's sequels, but I'm intrigued enough to read the sequels of Annihilation, although I'm not thrilled about the prospect.

16. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
    Had not read it before, only seen the film. Really enjoyed it.

17. The Paying Guests by Sara Waters.
    My first Sara Waters book. Beautifully written, but it was ages until anything happened and I thought the story was just so long and too much trembling in each others arms. I really struggled through it and found it very boring. I would like to try another Sara Waters book, but perhaps I don't have the patience for her writing.

Quite a few interesting sci-fi / speculative fiction books are at £1.99 today!

Hyperion £1.99 (Don't miss it!)
Flowers For Algernon £1.99
Valis and Ubik by Philip K Dick, £1.99 each (These are great - classics)
Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke £1.99

Thanks coye

cote !

Philip K Dick's masterpiece Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? ("Blade Runner") is also £1.99 today!