50 Book Challenge 2017 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2017, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

Here's what I can remember (remembered a few more).

So You've Been Publicly Shamed - Jon Ronson
A Sense of Style - Steven Pinker
Stasiland - Anna Funder
Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier - brilliant
The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton - rubbish
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth - brilliant
The Brief - Simon Michael
Julian Barnes - Sense of an Ending
Ian McEwan - The Children Act
Sebastian Faulks - Where My Heart Used to Beat - rubbish
Tessa Hadley - The Past
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre - brilliant
Girl in a Band - Kim Gordon
Douglas Coupland - 1/2 All Families Are Psychotic

1. The Skeleton Cupboard Tanya Byron

I picked this one to start off my attempt to do a month of non-fiction for January because I felt it'd be easier to read an autobiography as there's usually a clear narrative/storyline. There was, but there was also a theme running through the book of each case being about figuring out each patient's narrative in order to treat them. For patient confidentiality, the cases are not real people, but composites, so perhaps a bit of a step further towards fiction. It's based on Tanya Byron's clinical training - so covers just 3 years from 1989-1992. I thought it worked well as an approach and found it pretty easy to stay engaged (read it in one sitting).

So sorry about your father, Joyless.

Exile, I love your name!

1. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer, by Sydney Padua. Sadik's review is spot on: this graphic novel is a fantastic, smart, fun romp. While its main focus is Lovelace and Babbage's work on the first computer, Padua's footnotes provide a rich exploration of their lives, the historical background, the mechanics of the machine, and the stock market--which might sound awful and is anything but. The drawings are wonderful, too. Highly, highly recommended to anyone who might have a modicum of interest.

I'm in! Never counted how many books I've read in a year before. I've finished hurrah for gin already (very funny!) but had read most of it before the new year - does that count?!?!

Just started how I won the yellow jumper by Ned Boulting which is quite amusing for anyone interested in cycling/Tour de France. Got lots of fiction for Christmas too, looking forward to recommendations from this thread when I've got through them all.

Can I add? I don't know if i'll get to 50. I'm reading The lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Quite a few of mine will probably be childrens books as dd (9) and I read to each other every night.

Although I'm hoping to get some good ideas here.I want to try and read more non-fiction. Next on the bedside cabinet is East of Eden (one of those always meant to but didn't).

Where do you all read? Me - bed or bath

I'd like to join too. I lurked last year, mainly for inspiration and managed over 50 although I've not done an end of the year count up to confirm the final number. I've got a stash of books given to me at Christmas, so plenty to get started with, including The Sellout, by Paul Beatty and The Watchmaker of Filgree Street by Natasha Pulley. I'm also reading all the LM Mongomery books, think I've got one last Anne book to read!

Thanks SatsukiKusakabe, it's good to know the rest of series is good too. I am enjoying the second book so far.

I'm in! Currently reading a very easy read: Always With Love by Giovanna Fletcher

Has mermaidofzennor checked in yet? If you are under a cunning name change no need to respond, just wanted to thank you for recommending Heresy for my dad on another thread - he has been bereft since finishing the Shardlakes and is really enjoying this and happy to be at the start of a new series.

I'm in too. I did this last year and got some great ideas from this and other threads on this forum - my favourite forum on MN.

I did 100 books last year. I count re-reads and audio-books.

Currently reading The Woman In Cabin 10. seems ok. I finished A Kind of Loving (recommended by the Books you'd like to read for the first time again thread) on Jan 1. It was lovely.

I'm in! I managed 51 last year. I'm starting with an easy read this year (in terms of style, not so much content) - "My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece".

Written from the viewpoint of a little boy whose sister was killed in a terrorist attack and the aftermath on the family.

Can I join? I've tried and failed to do this for about 4 years, getting to the mid-30s each and every year. Mostly because I get stuck on one book that I'm not really enjoying, that slows me down. What do you do about those? Ditch them?

This year I'm starting with the Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, and flying through it.

Satsuki, I'm friends with mermaidofzenor on Goodreads and I will pass on your thanks for you and get her to check in to this thread!

I'm in. I have found much more time to read over Christmas and New Year and it has really inpsired me to make the time to do this more. I doubt I will get to 50 but if this thread helps to read more than I will be pleased.

Currently reading The Kingmakers Daughter.

Oh yes I'm in! Love books

I'm starting the year near the end of a very long one - The Swarm by Frank Schätzing kind of an eco sci fi thriller all about the sea. Looking forward to seeing what others are reading for ideas!

If memory serves me right, mermaid said a couple of months ago she doesn't hang out on MM much anymore and probably won't participate in this years challenge

Lemond I tend to abandon books that I don't enjoy and find myself getting stuck on.

Just finished 'We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

Just started 'Things we have in common' by Tasha Kavanagh and 'The Green Road' by Anne Enright.

Was by the pp who posted about the Sharon Shoesmith book. Suppose I should add that to my list, if I can bring myself to read it: www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/19/sharon-shoesmith-baby-p-haringey-social-services-interview Shoesmith

Thanks whippet. Oh that's a shame southeast. I've enjoyed her reviews.

I abandon, too. Sometimes I put down and pick up again later if just not in the right mood, but if there is something not right, poor writing or a grating style, I give up. That being said I do try and give it 100 pages if it's just a little slow to get going.

Oooh....I'd like to join as one of my goals is to spend less time on social media/MN and more reading (clearly failing this morning).

I have 2.5 hours a day on the train so I really want to use that to read instead of just refreshing FB five thousand times.

Not sure I'll make it to 50...I have a very bad habit of starting many, many books and never finishing any

Currently reading Rawblood by Catriona Ward, a sort of gothic horror style novel which I started at Halloween.

Hello Satsuki and southeast - MermaidofZennor here with a new NN for this year. I got a bit fed up with the old one and had a break from MN over Christmas, but am back now. Decided I would rejoin the thread after all, but won't be around a huge amount - just about to start Keeping on Keeping On by Alan Bennett which looks as if it will keep me out of mischief for quite a while :o

She's back

I have no problem saying "This book wasn't for me but others may like it" for other books, but not this one.

Haha, Cote, that's how I felt about that bloody street cat book which someone chose for our book group. Hated it so much.

Have taken up your invitation to download a sample chapter of HHhH, "just to see what all the fuss is about" :)

Buy the whole thing, keith

Seriously though I would say it's hard to get a real idea of it from the first chapter - it accumulates scraps of ideas, history, memory and perception into a satisfying whole, and the latter half where it all comes together is as grippingly written as an espionage novel, but more compelling and affecting as it is based on the truth. I'll shut up about it now.

Hi, therearenoghostshere

I've just downloaded the Kindle sample of HHhH too, and ordered the book itself from the library. A significant amount of restraint was required to not buy anything while on Amazon!