50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Thread two 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, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Previous 2016 thread here

15. One Summer: America 1927, Bill Bryson. Book club book for the month. Not really my cup of tea - endless endless trivia about dead white men. I was interested in some of the historical figures like Charles Lindberg, but honestly, there was just too much about everything. I don't think you could really say anything particularly interesting even happened in 1927 (with the possible exception of the first transatlantic flight, and that was covered in the first few chapters). I've read and liked Notes From a Small Island, Notes From a Big Country and Walk in the Woods, and what this was missing, for me, was that narrator's voice that pulls you in and makes light of all the facts. It took me ages to read because I kept MNing instead out of sheer boredom.

FrustratedFrugal sorry you've lost your mojo too! I think for me it's more my general state of mind and stress levels rather than the reading material. Middlemarch is sort of coaxing me in gently I feel which is rather nice!

elle hope you get some good news soon and a nice book memory to go with it I remember picking Middlemarch because I thought it might be my last chance to get into a big classic for a while...I was right because by dc2 my brain was frazzled and it was the Hunger Games Trilogy, I think. I might have to post-date my reading of Anna Karenina or something if she ever asks

canyouforgiveher that's lovely too; I love hearing stories like that. There's a certain very beautiful passage near the end of Middlemarch - which I normally wouldn't hesitate to quote in its entirety, but I won't here obviously - and I remember looking up from the book, looking down at the new baby, and just feeling overwhelmed with the wonder of it all. I've never read any Trollope; I think I will do something about that this year.

As for reading pace - everyone has different schedules and commitments and reads different types of things. Last year I only managed 20 over the year, but I'm trying to prioritise my reading this year as I know I feel better when I do. The year before I only read four in the whole year (and three of them starred Jennifer Lawrence)

Satsuki that is really lovely of you! I will see if I have the same experience with Middlemarch and we can compare notes.

Canyouforgiveher that is lovely. I wish I had as lovely a link to the first time DH said he loved me. I've not read Trollope yet either, but intend to, at some point!

LEM with my library you can borrow both ebooks and audiobooks (download via app)-have you checked whether yours offer them? With my library it's free.

TheoriginalLEM - my library's online service lets you borrow both e-books and audio books for free. Might be worth looking into whether your local library offers this too?

X-posted with Elle

I am so too slow for this thread!

world war z was one of my favourite books from last year, a tricky format and very well executed.

Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favourite authors so I am jealous you read Witch Week for the first time- I actually think it is one of the best- I love "I got up, I got up, I GOT UP!", and the pink ballet dress!

Book 4 - I'm only counting as one, but it's a series of chapter books, basically sanctioned fanfic of The Mortal Instruments, but I love Sarah Rees Brennan who is one of the authors! Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy by Casssandra Clare and various others.

Tanaqui, I enjoyed Shadowhunter Academy a lot, entertaining fluff :) I think I've read all except the last couple of stories (for some reason the library ebooks site doesn't have all of them, and I can't quite bring myself to buy them).

Agree Witch Week is excellent, though I think my favourite DWJ remains The Power of Three.

Love Witch week too! Tanaqui, your name is a DWJ character, isn't it? Think my favourite is Conrad's Fate. Although Dogsbody is really really good too.

Sadik with my library, you can recommend books for them to purchase-does your library use overdrive? If so there should be a 'search for books to recommend' button?

That's a good thought, Elle. It's a Wales Library site, but I imagine there must be some similar system - I suspect they bought the earlier stories before all were published. Will ask in the library. I may have found some of the missing ones as pdfs online

Power of Three is my favourite DWJ.

"I started it in late pregnancy with my first dc and finished it with a newborn and the afterglow of the book and how it made me feel is inextricably tied up with that time for me."

I was reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in the last week of my pregnancy with DS and was racing through its sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire as I was breastfeeding him in the hospital. Thankfully, never thought of what it made me feel as inextricably tied up with that time

It's definitely not a race to see who can read the most books :) I read a lot because I don't work, have a lot of enforced rest time due to CFS/Fibromyalgia and also whilst waiting for the DC to come out of school/after school activities. I listen to audio books as well whilst pottering doing the bits of housework I can still manage, cooking etc. Hence I usually hit the 50 book marker around the middle of the year. But if I still worked then my numbers would be a lot less.

cote yep, it certainly is an inexact art

11.5 A shortish story called Mrs Zant and the Ghost by Willie Collins. It was a free download from Audible, read rather well by Gillian Anderson. I enjoyed it, although it was typically Victorian melodrama (woman loses her mind to grief following death of her husband, needs new protector before falling victim to unscrupulous man). I'd forgotten how good a story teller Wilkie Collins was.

1. Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall

This was not the best written non-fic I've ever read and it was a bit long but full of fascinating facts about sleep and its function in our lives, battlefields, sports competitions, people who have murdered while asleep, insomnia, and dreams. Odd results of sleep deprivation. Teenagers' circadian rhythms essentially shifting three hours backwards. Interesting sleep studies.

I have a personal interest in sleep studies, as someone who often struggles to fall asleep, can't ever nap and can't go back to sleep if woken in the night. All this is much better now, thanks to my beloved Kindle. No more endless thoughts, analyses, plans, reviews of the past etc as soon as the lights are turned off. I just read until my eyes close

I'm moving on to Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

12. The Quest for the Wicker Man Ed. Benjamin Franks, Stephen Harper, Jonathan Murray, and Lesley Stevenson

This came about following a conference on The Wicker Man in 2003 and contains essays on a variety of subjects: Paganism; anthropological explorations; the origins of the idea for the film; gender and sexuality; contemporary Paganism and the film; the music. It's quite interesting but a bit dry. Includes contributions from Robin Hardy (director) and Gary Carpenter (associate music director).

7 Do No Harm by Henry Marsh. Rather lovely for non-fiction, Marsh's tales from the neurosurgical front are manifold and thought-provoking. His self awareness is endearing. Do No Harm isn't too long, and I'd recommend it for anyone who doesn't think of themselves as particularly into non-fiction.

P.S. does anyone have any recommendations for any new-ish YA? I've been reading adult fiction, inc. lots of 'gripping psychological' thrillers for ages now and feel like I need something a little lighter!

thanks for the heads up re the library. will look into it.

I just realised every one of the 10 books I've read this year so far (including 2 books on CD) are from my local library (have stacks of my own books here too)

As the jingle goes in the PBS show Arthur "Having Fun Isn't Hard if You've Got a Library Card" :)

Apples, I've heard very good things about Patrick Ness' The Rest of Us Just Live Here, though I've not yet read it. It's on my list, though, and I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoyed Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which came out a while ago. A friend of mine also enthusiastically recommends Rowell's Eleanor and Park, but it's not light. At all.

I also enjoyed Fangirl (and Carry On, the 'fanfic' in Fangirl turned into a novel!) - dd's a RR fan.

I did quite like The Rest of Us Just Live Here, but it is a bit of a one joke book.

Have you read the Uglies books, Apples - not that new, but perhaps a bit less well known, and definitely light YA (and they have hoverboards )