50 Book Challenge 2015 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Thread six of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2015, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

First thread of the year here, second thread here, third thread here, fourth thread here and fifth thread here.

How did you get on this year?

wilting, that sounds interesting. I am going to check it out...

With 2 days and 16 hours to go I've completed the 50 book challenge. I've loved getting back into reading for enjoyment again.

Huge thanks to everyone here who recommended books I might not have read, and an especial thanks to the posters who encouraged me to keep going (and pointed me in the direction of some shorter books!) when I fell behind.

Looking forward to participating next year- got a healthy list of recommendations to get started with.

Happy New Year everyone.

Congratulations, Olly.

What's everybody got waiting for them in the new year? I remembered today that I still haven't got the new Stephen King, so will be buying that v soon.

Mine are:

After You Jojo Moyes (read Me before you this year)
A spool of blue thread Anne Tyler
The god of small things Arundhati Roy
Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
The Garden of Evening Mists Tan Twan Eng
The Peter May trilogy.

I might get some of these read this week, so won't be part of my 2016 challenge.

placemarking. I would guess that I read between 80 and 100 books a year but may be deluding myself, so am going to use this to see how many I do actually read!

Fiction and non fiction, don't touch Kindles etc has to be paper for me.

Going to get into tip top reading shape now, by having a short nap ...

I have SPQR, Mr Mercedes and This Thing Of Darkness waiting. Currently reading a book about women at Bletchley Park. Good so far.

Finally finished Perdido Street Station (China Mieville).

Mixed feelings - I thought the writing was good, very much liked his world building, enjoyed the steampunk feel, and really liked the way he paralleled RL immigrant groups within a city with his different species. Would have liked it much better, though, if it had been 400 pages, not 900 - I felt he just didn't have enough plot for the length of the book. Having said that, on the whole I tend to prefer shorter tighter books over longer sprawling ones - I'm definitely in the Austen rather than Dickens camp, so it may just be me.

I've got a good selection already sorted out for 2016: Dark Star (Oliver Langmead), Ready Player One (Earnest Cline) and the last Gemsigns book (Stephanie Saulter) are the first three on my list.

Currently reading A Place called Winter by Patrick Gayle then I have The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, The Girl in the Spider's Web, All the light we Cannot see, We Were Liars,SPQR, A Man called Ove and all my library books . It's going to be a busy year

I'm hoping that some of you will read 'HhhH' in the new year. I thought it was superb, and completely forgot to put it on the, 'Best reads' thread.

100. Mislaid by Nell Zink. Very inventive novel about a marriage breakup. Highly recommended.

101. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Science fiction set in a future where nanotechnology and Victorian values are the cornerstones of civilization. I loved the first 200 pages or so where the author introduces the world and all the characters. However it's a 500 page book and there wasn't enough plot to sustain my interest.

Hello all, I'd love to join in the challenge next year please! I'm another one who spends way too much time faffing on the internet, I used to be a great reader once but not so good in recent years. I'm great for buying kindle books though so I have loads waiting to be read! For Christmas I reread The Hogfather which is one of my favourite Terry Pratchetts, and am now rereading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis which is another Christmas favourite.

Lined up for me are Untold Stories, Wolf Hall, and a biography on Laurence Olivier. Currently reading a book on mindfulness, which is just what I need right now.

Have forgotten where I'm at to but my recent reads are:
Book 64 The Humans by Matt Haig. Sort of science fiction but really about what it is like to be a human being. Enjoyable.

Book 65 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. A book about reading a book with books within books. Inventive although slightly dragged at the end.

Book 66 A child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. Charming and perfect for Christmas.

I didn't think I'd get as far as this during the year. I'll be aiming for the same number next year. Currently reading Evelyn Waugh's travel writing and also Shirley by Charlotte Bronte but won't get through them by Friday.

Best - You have This Thing Of Darkness to read for the first time? I envy you

But make sure you have tissues, Best.

Um.. I don't remember needing any tissues?

I think my first read for 2016 will be The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. I have also got Heartstone and Lamentation by C J Sansom, Sweet Caress by William Boyd, and many many more :) 2016 will be the year I make big inroads into my book backlog (I say that every year )

Not at the end, Cote? I found it heartbreaking. :(

mmack - Sorry you didn't get along too well with The Diamond Age. My recollection of the last couple of hundred pages is quite different. I can't say why for fear of flooding the thread with spoilers but loads happened throughout that book, and especially towards the end, and it ended on quite a high (I thought).

I wasn't expecting to need tissues but I'm always happy to have a good cry ( at a book).

Yes, it was sad but I didn't actually cry.

You have clearly got, to quote the great Wham themselves, a soul of ice.

Why, thank you

I'll be interested to hear what you think of Little Dribbling, Quog.

I was so disappointed with, 'Little Dribbling'. :( And I love Bill Bryson, so even more disappointed. :(