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?

Moosey, start with The Moonstone! It's funniest, I think. The Woman in White is also good but marred by the fact that the romantic interest is utterly pathetic (although her sister is a brilliant character).

I've just read the Moonstone moosey, ditto above I liked the humour and characters more than the Woman in White, but WIW will be utterly gripping whenever you read it

1. Marie Kondo, the life-changing magic of tidying. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Bonkers.

Right Moonstone added to my list, thanks TooExtra and Satsuki

Yes TooExtra, there might be something in that. The two I mentioned, Wind in the Willows and the Narnia books, I first read as a child and still love now.

The cookbook thread is now live! Do feel free to pop over there.

In my view.'No Name' is Wilkie's funniest - I find 'The Moonstone' rather depressing, apart from the butler.

Started reading the Martian in my lunch hour today. I loved the film and liking the book, haven't found it too science-y

No. 3 Rosie Rushton - Summer of Secrets

A reworking of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, set in the modern day and very YA. I hated it.

No 4. Jodi Taylor - A Symphony of Echoes

Second book in her series about the time travelling historians of St Mary's. This one is featuring Jack the Ripper and Mary Queen of Scots. Thoroughly entertaining. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

No. 5 Aarathi Prasad - Like a Virgin

This is non-fiction and looks at conception and how scientists have been trying to recreate this in the lab. It's very readable, and goes through historical ideas about conception before looking at things like IVF and how scientists have been trying to create artificial wombs (they've had some success with grey nurse sharks, but not mammals).

Book 2 finished
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith - I was a bit bored by the first part but intrigued and then completely immersed in the final chapters. It was a big build up introducing the different suspects and backstories but I did think Robin's back story fitted very well and added more depth to her character. Jo Rowling (as Galbraith) is very skilled at weaving in extra information and added depth to characters.

I am now reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and enjoying very much. It is more sparse than her sisters' novels but I love the observations of other characters from the narrator and subtle details of her isolation and being undermined as the governess.

"started the year with 6 in progress books. I have finished 1, read 6 others and started a further 3 books."

How does that work, then? Can you also watch 6 films at the same time? Nope but i can watch a film, read a book and knit at the same time and know what is going on.

It works like this:

1. 6 easy pieces - requires thinking and concentration and can be dealt with chapter at a time
2. The middlewich cuckoos - small print and can't concentrate on it when too tired
3. Book 1 reading with ds and it got put in a safe place and lost last year. would like to finish it now it has been found
4. Animal farm - reading with ds a bit at a time

picked up another book, like the look of it so read the 1st two chapters and did not hate it so added it to the to read list

1. concentration poor due to pain/insomnia and needed an easy read so started another morpurgo book
2. non fiction so can be picked up and put down as mood takes
3. Game of thrones - got bogged down with this one and decided that it would make sense if i could concentrate a bit better.

If a books grabs my attention I need to read it cover to cover in 1 sitting preferably. Although I can read books over a period of time I just don't tend unless they hit the in progress list as the mood suits list.

There are some on that list that will be left for ages before they get read and i am likely just to pick up another book and read in one sitting if the mood takes. Never used to be like this but it seems to be a side effect of medical issues causing concentration fog.

Just finished no 8. The loves and lives of a He Devil by Graham Norton. Quite enjoyed this light, easy read. Some chapters better than others.

I am reading mainly lighter stuff and fiction at the moment as I want to clear some of the rubbish on my kindle and work up to books that require more concentration.

1. The Nothing Girl by Jodi Taylor I've finished all her St Mary's books so decided to give her mainstream fiction offering a go. A young woman who has shut herself away due to a stutter and crippling anxiety enters into an unconventional marriage and starts to find her place in the world, and that some people have not always had her best interests at heart. For fans of magical realism, there's a golden talking horse. The problem I had with the St Mary's books was lack of really well developed characters, but there you could get away with it, with all the bonkers action. I'm afraid many of the characters here are stereotypes, and we just don't learn enough about what makes them tick. There's plenty of witty dialogue though, and overall it was enjoyable.

I think I'm going to join this year. My rule is going to be that I can't include anything that I am reading for work or for the masters I'm currently studying. but I can include audiobooks which is how I consume most fiction these days. A lot of what I read is going to be rereading this year as with the masters and a full time job and a family when I do read for fun I'm looking for comfort food type books. I'm also going to include the books I read aloud to my DDs.

So far this year:

1. and 2. The two towers and The return of the king. The reading on Audible by Rob Inglis was brilliant if anyone is interested

Book 4 - The Bizarre of Bad Dreams by Stephen King After a disappointing start, I thought this got better and I particularly enjoyed the final story. All in all, one very good one, a few pretty good ones, but rather too many duffs.

Still wading through 'The Book of Strange New Things* - feel as if I've been reading it for weeks and I'm still only at 50% but I've invested too much in the damn thing now to stop, and there are still bits of it that I'm enjoying, within the pages and pages of treacle.

Just finished books 4 and 5.

1. The Last Kingdom Bernard Cornwell
2. The Pursuit of Love Nancy Mitford
3. The Importance of being Earnest Oscar Wilde
4. You had me at hello Mhairi McFarlane

Fluffy chick lit, it was my kindle read for bed whilst reading no. 5. It was ok, there were some characters that brought it to life. Girl meets the one that got away 10 years later. There were some funny bits too and overall I enjoyed it.

1. Captains of the Sands Jorge Amado

Apart from some parts where the translation let it down a little this is my favourite read so far this year. It is the last in a series about the Brazilian state of Bahia in the 1930s and tells the story of a large group of street children and how they survive. There were some very moving passages and some that were incredibly difficult to read due to content (violence, rape) but overall a fantastic read. I took a break for a couple of days because I needed to digest it and because I didn't want to finish it. I was floored to discover the writer had written the entire series between the ages of 18-26.

Not sure what to read next. I have some more South American literature planned for a course I am doing in Feb but might squeeze I something lighter first.

Captains of the sands sounds really interesting Anne, although not sure I could cope with the horribly sad bits...

In regards to reading multiple books, I can't remember the last time I didn't do this! I often read a chapter in one book and then a chapter in another. A bit like watching a comedy show on TV followed by the News, followed by a murder mystery etc....it always feels a bit weird on a very long journey to have only one book with me!

Anne that has taken me right back. I read whatever Jorge Amado I could get my hands on about 20 years ago. Before Amazon and kindle they were hard to come by here, and I mostly borrowed from an American friend. I was totally seduced by the romance of Bahia, while being appalled by the violence and poverty. My favourite was Tieta. I longed to go there, but was young and penniless, and now DH keen to point out the downsides to me (i.e. violence and poverty not that great in reality). I have never read Captains of the Sands, so now added to wish list. I never knew he wrote them when he was so young.

Okay so here is my initial list of books to start of the challenge

Sweet caress
An astronauts guide to life on Earth
I let you go
The wine of angels
This book could save your life
Gentlemen and ladies
The snow garden
Miss peregrines home for peculiar children.

Phew. Wish me luck!

Book 2 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Hard to review without spoilers but this is a real page turner with a constantly twisting plot. Highly recommended

I've now started Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller and I'm already hooked.

Pedantry alert, but can I just say that the Stephen King short story collection is called The BAZAAR of Bad Dreams, not Bizarre!

I've finally finished A Dance to the Music of Time:Spring. DH pointed out that it was written as three novels so am (hopefully not cheekily) declaring this as my first three!

1. A Question of Upbringing - Anthony Powell

The scene setter introducing us to the main characters of the 12 book series as they are approaching the end of their school years in 1921. I found the initial chapters quite slow but as I got used to the writing started to enjoy the style and pace of the novel which is written in the first person of Nicholas Jenkin (Nick). The novel is very descriptive and although I initially compared it to Brideshead Revisited it has a greater amount of characterisation and less drama. Equally enjoyable but a different style. When trying to describe it to DH I realised just how little action had actually taken place but I found it an interesting read.

1. A Buyer's Market - Anthony Powell

The pace definitely picks up and we now see Nick, working at a London publishers, enjoying society life through a series of dinner parties and house parties. Another raft of characters are introduced - more varied than in the first book. There is an element of Nick being an observer of everyone's life and a sense that he is a little unsure where he fits in. Again there are scenes reminiscent of Waugh - perhaps more the bright young things of 'Vile Bodies'. The interaction between the characters - often through chance meetings - is the real driver of this book.

1. The Acceptance World - Anthony Powell

We are now up to the early 1930s. Some of the gaiety of the second novel seems to have caught up with the characters with a number of marriage breakdowns and new relationships starting up. I felt that Nick was becoming more of a 'player' in the story line and less of an observer - particularly when he embarks on his own love affair.

Overall I have enjoyed reading the first three novels and definitely intend to read the rest but feel I want to read something different first. Number 4 is going to be 'The Virgin's Lover' by Philippa Gregory.

1. The Waste Land - T.S Elliot

I know, I know, it’s a poem, but it’s sizable (and difficult enough!) that I’m counting it.

It’s not something that I could say I enjoyed reading but I found it fascinating and even today shocking in it’s scope and originality. My general feeling is that modernist texts are usually only truly satisfying to analyse ( which is the complete opposite to most other fiction) but as a stand-alone read, is often confusing and fragmented. The Waste Land hasn’t changed that opinion.

1. Cryptonomicron - Neal Stephenson. Recommended by Cote and several others on the thread, this is as a huge, enthralling, techy read. To use a Cote word, parts of it are extremely 'brain hurty*. The book follows a US Marine Commando and a cryptographer through the Second World War and a programming geek during the 90s plus a whole cast of supporting characters. The action spans the globe but much of it takes place in a fictional country near Manila. Lots of technical stuff, maths, cryptography, computing. I can't pretend that I understood it all and I am quite techy ( I was working on UNIX Machines in the 90s myself, I got those bits) but I enjoyed it enormously.

Cryptomomicon not Cryptomomicron

Aargh