50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Thread six 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.

The first thread of 2016 is here, second thread here, third thread here, fourth thread here and fifth thread here.

Welcome Bubble. I've had a look at the selection in Kindle Unlimited and the selection is generally pretty poor but I can recommend the Harry Potter books I've read (1-5).

I keep mine on an excel spreadsheet, along with lists of books to look out for on ebay / get from the library. Easy to copy and paste, but it didn't format very well!

Kudos to southeast.

Hmm, Sadik, a list of books to look out for, you say? I have a mental list or the odd scribbled post-it, but nothing systematic. I feel a new notebook coming on....

My "want to read" list on Goodreads is getting out of hand. I'm going to have to live forever at this rate . And I happened to buy three books this afternoon at a second hand bookshop. There's no hope for the serious book addict!

Oh bugger whippet, I'm midst Booker readathon but haven't got to All That Man Is yet ... Another disappointment then

I'm not as organised as others above (no names, no pack drill) so will not bring my list over quite yet but my additions since I was last here are:

Book 41: Sane New World by Ruby Wax. An unexpectedly excellent read on the subject of depression and Mindfulness. It's not hippy dippy shite either, she's a woman who needs hard science ... I may have misjudged her previously.

Book 42: His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett. More a piece of social science that a murder story, with an interesting discussion on the current thinking at the time about "the type of person who becomes criminal".

Book 43: The Many by Wyl Menmuir. Lots of reviews have spoken of EU Referendum and dystopian worlds, but all I saw was a story of locals not liking the incomer, with a bit of weird shit about malformed fish, dodgy water, shadowy characters at the Min of Ag & Fish. Oh & strange dreams and flash-backs. In the end, I think it was all about grief. It's the one Booker contender which has stayed with me, so I may have to reconsider the 3-stars I gave it, but not yet.

Book 44: Never the Bride by Paul Magrs. A gothic comedy with the heroines being two ladies of a certain age. Silly but fun.

Book 45: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. Unlovely person, surrounded by unlovely people, dreams of breaking free from her unlovely life. One day she falls into casually committing a murder which leads to her achieving her dream. Well-written, but I didn't like it.

I'm going to have to live forever at this rate

That reminds me of the ending of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova where

Dracula is portrayed as living forever in an underground bunker with a vast library. Is it wrong that it struck me as a rather pleasant prospect?

Sad to say this biblio but it sounds bloody lovely

Oh and I forgot to say:

Don't you need a nice pen to go with that new notebook biblio ...?

I have a handwritten list too but also keep track on Goodreads. I love my handwritten list. I almost love reading it more than I love reading the actual books.

Joyless, don't despair, All that man is is well written, honestly, but what women there are aren't great. I'm impressed you've read so many of the long list!

Sorry, meant to add that LookingForMe has an interesting reading of The Shadow of the Wind there. I didn't read it that way but will re-think. I did get very annoyed with the perpetual lusting/ogling that Fermin seems to do constantly. I am easily annoyed though

Sadik Agree entirely that the writer of Stasiland was really annoying, but I've chosen it as a stand out because it taught me various things about that period that I didn't know -previously, and because I've read a lot of real rubbish this year. So it was a stand out for other reasons than the writing style, if that makes sense!

That makes total sense, Remus - I found the individual stories fascinating, I just wanted to slap the author around the face with a wet fish to get her to shut up.

Good thinking about the pen, Joyless.... Actually, I'm not that much of a stationery fetishist, honest. It tends to be pound-shop notebooks and biros that mysteriously materialise, possibly from work. When you go through as many as I do, you can't afford to be precious.

Finished:
88. Eating for England : the delights and curiosities of the British at table by Nigel Slater.
This is a collection of very short snippets, often no longer than a paragraph, hymning the delights of After Eights, mint humbugs, farmers' markets etc. Enjoyable enough when you don't have the time or concentration for something longer, although a bit repetitive and one-note if read all in one go.

Sadik Absolutely!

Dug out my review - I was a bit more polite about her than you, but we're saying pretty much the same thing!

^"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."^

Does anyone think I need a new notebook and pen? (unabashed stationery fetishist - and September is our season)

Have Shadow of the Wind, might get to it quicker whilst the debate is still fresh!

Indulge your fetish, Satsuki, indulge it.

Remus I think part of the problem I had with Stasiland is actually the opposite to your comments - it's a place that feels very familiar to me from fiction and reportage since the fall of the Wall (though I've only visited E. Germany a couple of times, both in the early 90s). It took me a while to realise the author was Australian, and writing for an audience who would have had much less knowledge of the background to her story.

For those who want a good dose of paranoia as to what goes on in the way of policing here in the UK, despite a pretty well functioning democracy, I'd also really recommend "Undercover" - I know tangentially a few people who've been affected by some of the policing it reports on, and it certainly doesn't overstate or sensationalise.

whippet I'm determined to read the full longlist this year (I've failed the last two years) and with the number of short reads, there's no excuse this year I always do a Booker thing on my blog each year too which helps to keep me going.

Oh indulge that fetish Satsuki, indulge. I've found the only way to stop people stealing borrowing my pens is to use fountain pens. Although I do keep a very tight hold of the good ones

Where do pens go? I swear I buy a pack of biros every few weeks and they just disappear. Is someone eating them? :o I have one pen, found in my handbag and I'm keeping it there.

80. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

Second in the series about the fighting dragon Temeraire and his captain Will Laurence, formerly of the Royal Navy and now the British Aerial Corps. Laurence has only had a few months to adjust to his new role in life, but now could not imagine a life without Temeraire. But the Chinese have demanded the immediate return of the dragon, whose egg had been en route to France as a gift to Napoleon when the French ship carrying it was captured by Laurence's ship. So Laurence and Temeraire must travel to China, knowing that on arrival they could be parted forever.

Still enjoying the series so far, although I will bear in mind the warning from another poster that the quality of the books weakens as the series progresses.

I will bring over my list over the weekend. Mine is recorded in specific notebooks as well.

I just tidied out my handbag and found eight biros

Maybe some of them are yours, Mermaid

:o Maybe they are!

I bought pink flowery pens in a house of teenage boys and I still don't have any left!

52. Tripwire by Lee Child. Another Jack Reacher, quite a good one.

I think it was me that said to space out the Temeraire books Chilli- I enjoyed them but found they got repetitive- not enough character development, but I haven't read the last one yet.

I also thought the Temeraire books fell off after the first few - but possibly again having read them too close together.