50 Book Challenge 2016 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Thread one of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2016, 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.

Who's in for this year?

Hi all, would like to delurk and join.

1. The Ice Twins
2. Bernie Nolan Now and Forever
3. The Lady in the Van

Currently reading The Seven Sisters, Lucinda Riley.
Are we counting books that we read aloud to our children?

emcla - I count the books I read to my DC, as long as they are chapter books, eg Roald Dahl, David Walliams, Tove Jansson etc. Welcome to the thread - hope you enjoy it :)

Elle - No, I had not heard of Daemon but it looks interesting! It's now in my Kindle wish list. Thank you for the recommendation

Have you read Seveneves? I really want to but its Kindle price is still almost £10 and I'm not buying it out of principle.

Best - re "at the moment I'm looking for recommendations that fall more into the scientific (like The Martian) and less into the fantastic. (And yet I loved the Orison of Sonmi 451). Does that make sense?"

I think you would like Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, where story runs in two timelines: a young man wants to put together a "data haven" in a tiny sovereign state, and his grandfather works with Alan Turing to decipher the Enigma machine. It's scientific, with lots of problem-solving like in The Martian, and has no "fantasy".

Anathem by the same author is also scientific and has some brilliant world-building about a very different social system, although it's not dystopian. It's very brainhurty, though, so you need to like a challenge to get through it.

Since you liked An Orison Of Somni, I would definitely recommend you to read 1984, if you haven't already (or even if you have read it as a teenager but not since, as was my case before I re-read it recently).

alltheworld I read I capture the castle last year and thought the same thing about Cold Comfort Farm.

I have added the Sahota book and the Tremain, they look like books I would like.

I second Cryptonomicon - it's one of my all-time favourite books. It's very dense, with a lot of technical diversions and fantastically geeky episodes. In fact, if I wasn't in determined "clear tbr pile" mode I could easily pick it up again right now lol

lookingforme no it's my first read of Moonstone! I love Woman in White and also read No Name ages ago (due a reread though I think as don't remember much) I can't really explain it, but because I knew I was going to really enjoy it, I've been holding back on reading it have decided enough's enough though and am just going to read the thing About 40 pages in and just love his style.

Cote, I loved 1984. Like you I read it as a teenager but also read it again in the last couple of years. Cryptonomicon sounds a perfect recommendation especially as my last read was a social history about women working at Bletchley and I longed for more technical detail. I was going to look for books about Turing and Enigma so this sounds ideal. Added to my wish list. tHank you.

1 Dinosaurs and Prime Numbers Tom Moran
Very funny, literally laugh out loud in places. Time travel detective comedy full of puns. Would make an excellent holiday read.

"my last read was a social history about women working at Bletchley and I longed for more technical detail. I was going to look for books about Turing and Enigma so this sounds ideal"

Oh you'll love it, then

Another book you will enjoy in that case is Alan Turing: The Enigma, his biography by Andrew Hodges. It is very very detailed, and explains the state of the field of mathematics when Turing started his work and his contributions to it, as well as exactly how the Enigma code was deciphered. It's fantastic.

1. Another Christmas present, this one from BiL who is a reliable source of interesting SF.

Dark Star by Oliver Langmead A Chandler-esq noir detective story set on a planet where the sun gives out no visible radiation (ie, no light), written in blank verse.

I loved this book, it's short (under 200 pages), focused, and the epic verse style worked beautifully for me - the ideal antidote to the sprawl that was Perdido Street Station. I'd strongly recommend it.

Having said that, and subsequently read some reviews, I think it's a real marmite book. I loved the sense of being in darkness as a reader, getting flashes of illumination when I realised what the protagonist was seeing/thinking about, and the way it mirrored the darkness of their society. I suspect others might just find it annoying.

There's a reference at one point to 'blind white cows' - if you're the sort of reader who wants to know whether these are Earth cows genetically modified, or an indigenous species named in reference to a cow, this isn't going to be the book for you. We're evidently in a declining society, possibly some generations down the line from settlers / refugees, but we don't really know. The book is told as the interior monologue of an uneducated cop, so we only know what he knows (and is thinking about at the time).

Can I join please?
TBH I am not expecting to reach 50 (particularly as Bleak House is in my to-read pile, and I reckon that's a couple of months' worth), but hope that being on this thread will spur me on to get off the internet in the evenings and start reading a little more.

First book is a bit of a cheat really:

1. Medieval Cats - Kathleen Walker-Meikle. Short account of attitudes towards cats in medieval life and art. Beautifully illustrated with illuminated manuscripts.

2. The Betrayal of Trust - Susan Hill. Grabbed by mistake in the library - didn't realise it was number 6 in a series. Quite enjoyed it though bleak themes, and Serailler seems a bit of a ridiculously middle-class knob. Easy reading though so might go back to the start of the series and see if our hero can endear himself to me a bit more.

1. Two Brothers by Ben Elton Just finished this, first book I have read by Ben Elton and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was shocked at just how bad things were for Jewish people in Germany and shocked at my own lack of knowledge of recent history. The book gave me a lot to think about and although in parts is not a very pleasant read, I would definitely recommend it.

I am going to start 'Spill Simmer Falter Wither' next, which I won from a Book Giveway on here - lovely to win something.

I'm going to start Spill Simmer Falter Whimper after i'be finished my first book (Do No Harm) so it will be good to compare notes.

Fiveshelties I haven't read that one of Ben Elton. I loved The First Casualty and really recommend that, I did start Time After Time but have put it aside for the moment

V pleased to see some Wilkie love on here.

Book 2 - 'Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall' by Anna Funder
This was very good indeed, and am glad it just about survived its drowning!

She chooses to focus on just a handful of individuals, and my only complaint is that she could have spent a bit less time describing herself making journeys and sitting on benches etc and had more time then to spend on broadening her scope a bit more and talking to more people and telling more of the history.

I highly recommend it though, and it's terrifyingly close both historically and geographically - barely credible that it could all have been going on elsewhere in Europe, whilst I was sitting in German O' level lessons complaining about umlauts.

That sounds fascinating Remus. Added to my wish list too.

"Added to my wish list too"

That awkward moment when newbies realise that this thread won't help reduce their to-be-read pile

Oh bugger, people have finished books already. I think I'm going to get seriously left behind here. Ah, well...
It doesn't help that last night I read two pages and promptly fell asleep with my Kindle in my hand and was woken by it clattering to the floor . Fortunately, it still seems to be working.

Satsuki I haven't read Life After Life, it's one I've got waiting for later. I enjoyed the first two Jackson Brodie novels but haven't read the other two yet either.

LookingForMe I've told the kids (well, they're 20 and 17) to get lost between 9pm and 10pm tonight. I know without asking that they won't be up for watching it, but they're not averse to bursting in talking (or singing) when I'm watching things.

I haven't Highlandcoco although read others of hers. Thank you for recommending and will add it to my TR pile. I have downloaded a sample on my kindle

Fiveshelties I have Two Brothers on my bookshelf and have been meaning to read it for ages so thanks for the recommendation. I have been putting it off as it is a heavy hardback so not portable or great for reading in the bath

cote I already have this huge sinking feeling that this year is not going to reduce my book pile

Me too - I think for every one I read I am going to add another 10 from the recommendations on here. Oh well, there are worse things I could be doing.

I'm in again for this year, but am incredibly frustrated that I haven't been able to make a start with reading yet this year. Family visiting from the US, plus the bloke has had the full break off and we've been doing "together" stuff.

I've set 70 as my goodreads target for this year, having reached 69 this year. There's so much on my TBR pile/list, not sure where to start, although Dick's "Man in the High Castle" in my book club read this month, so it will feature soon.

I fancy, 'The Man in the High Castle.' Have been waiting for it to be cheapo on Kindle, but it never seems to go down.