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?

I'm in! I've never counted how many books I've read in a year, but started towards the end of last year and read around 13 in a couple of months. I have two & three in Conn Iggulden's war of the roses series to read, as well as the book theif, Brighton rock, some Stephen king that I haven't got round to yet, and I do a book club at work. I have a tonne on my kindle to get through also.

I'll try. Need to get my kindle down S have a number of books to read x

I lurked last year but will try to join in this time. I've set up the Goodreads challenge at 35 books. It helps me to keep track.
My favourite author of 2016 was Adrian McKinty and I'm starting the year with In the Morning I'll be Gone. He's an Irish writer though now lives in Australia and his Sean Duffy series is set in 1980s Northern Ireland.

I'm in :) I want to read 30 this year, looking back through what I logged on good reads last year I only read 21 - need to try harder & pick better books because I gave up on a few so didn't count them

I'm currently reading Dirt Music by Tim Winton & loving it and next on my list is the new Maggie O'Farrell

I've just realised I need to read Nut Shell by Ian McEwan by Thursday, and re-read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, as well. That should well and truly get me started.

I'm in the middle of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, ATM, which I have to admit I have never read before.

I was given Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl by Grayson Perry for Christmas, so have that to look forward to, and have also downloaded Learning From Baby P by Sharon Shoesmith, after hearing her interviewed on Radio 4.

So, lots to be getting on with!

Happy New Year everyone

I've really enjoyed reading this thread for the last few years and picked up some great recommendations .. this year I'm going to join in properly.

First book of the year will be The Coroner by M R Hall, a present from DS (we both like crime fiction) and the first in a series about a female coroner in a rural area near Bristol. So far, it's pretty readable.

Also, must just give a quick mention to my last book of 2016, Fall of Man in Wilmslow by David Lagercrantz (author of The Girl in the Spider's Web ) and translated by George Goulding, who has captured the idiom of the time really well. This is a fictional account of the death of Alan Turing and the subsequent investigation; lots of detail about the code-breaking work going on at Bletchley and would be interesting for anyone who enjoyed Enigma or the film The Imitation Game.

Hi everyone

I'm in again and am looking forward to another year of great reading.
Like other posters I would like to concentrate on reading my huge Kindle backlog, plus a lot of the unread books on my shelves at home. I have a book buying addiction but as a librarian, I get to buy books for work, so will have to do that instead!

I have just started A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov and The House of Silk by Anthony Horrowitz (a Sherlock Holmes). This year I want to read about 50% 'classics' and have set my Goodreads challenge to 100.

Bring it on!

Another one with a big Kindle backlog. I also tend to buy a lot of non-fiction that I find interesting, but then read easy undemanding fiction instead. Which is fine, but would like to actually read some of those interesting books this year.

Have just made a collection on my Kindle app called 00 Next Up! (so it appears at the top) and added a bunch of non-fiction to it, in the hope that this will let me browse without getting distracted. Going to aim for non-fiction January.

I'm in! I really want to clear my "to read" pile as well as my kindle backlog, but I get easily distracted. I'm currently (re)reading The Sword in the Stone as a prime example - I read H is for Hawk for book club last year then immediately fancied re-reading it rather than something new.

I'd like to join this year! And I would like to aim for 50 (though might be ambitious if I choose to read War and Peace, as DH bought me it for Christmas.)

Currently reading Once More, With Feeling by Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton. Enjoying it so far, and will post a review when finished.

Next on my list will be A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale, as that is a book club read.

I'm in again. And this year I'm going to keep up. I always fall off the thread at some point.

My to read pile is mahoosive!

Tried a couple of years ago and going to have another crack this year, although managing 50 might be a push.

Going to start with POPism - by Andy Warhol & Pat Hackett, which I got for Christmas, and a re-read of Wuthering Heights.

I'm in. I've followed these threads for a couple of years but rarely post. Aim is 52 books in the year but always have to push it a bit in December to make 52. Looking forward to it!

I'm in - I've just set my Goodreads challenge to 50. I finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini very late last night and have now just picked up Fat Chance by Nick Spalding. I chose that one mainly because day 1 of my diet starts today and I could do with some motivation!

I'm in, I'm currently enjoying The teatime islands by Ben fogle.

50% classics sounds good whippetwoman. Ages ago I bought the entire series of Barchester Towers but have never got round to starting them. This might be the year! Would also like to revisit George Eliot, Edith Wharton and Mrs Gaskell, and read some more Zola too.

For anyone interested, there's a great classics book club that meets in Elizabeth Gaskell House (in Manchester) every month. January's book is Madame Bovary I believe.

I'm in ☺ baby due in 3 days so think I'll maybe start with rereading some Austen aswell to start off.

Hello! Happy New Year, everybody and here's to more good books in 2017 than in 2016 (wasted my time on too many that were not v good last year).

First read of 2017 is The Essex Serpent. I'm about 30% in and really liking it so far, even though not much is happening and it's not at all clear where it's going or what kind of book it's trying to be. On what I've read so far, I'd recommend it to people who like Robert Macfarlane - lots of descriptions of landscape, plants etc.

1. All the Light we Cannot see by Anthony Doerr

Read the final 50 % today.

This follows the intersecting stories of a young radio engineer in the German army and a blind French girl in occupied St Malo during WWII. I enjoyed this very much after a slow start, and at the 3/4 mark I would have given it 5 stars... but he didn't stop writing so it fell a little short for me, but I would still recommend it.

I'm in again! I'm going to try to beat my target of 24 from last year. I got some great books for xmas - The Bone Clocks and Slade House by David Mitchell, The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, Lexicon by Max Barry, and Is That A Fish In Your Ear - the amazing adventure of translation by David Bellos which looks really good, and has been added to my linguistic geekery pile. Come to think if it, I also have David Crystal's The Gift of the Gab (went to his talk on this book, it was so interesting and he is lovely ) and half of The Elements of Eloquence - how to turn the perfect English phrase by Mark Forsyth which I really really recommend if you're interested in English language and things like litotes, transferred epithets, zeugma, hyperbaton and a ton of other things that I had never heard of until I read this book. It's beautiful

And I have to thank the last few threads and posters for some fantastic books that people have recommended - Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem series, Lexicon and not forgetting Cote's incredibly useful and brain-saving 'walk through' of Cloud Atlas Looking forward to finding more great reads this year!

Shiny new thread

Thanks for the new thread! I read 55 in 2016 and will be aiming for 50 this year, I have a brand new Kindle Paperwhite so will be looking for as many cheap deals and free classics as possible :)

I'm currently on Rivers Of London by Ben Aaronovitch which I picked up cheap in the Kindle Christmas sale, enjoying it so far.

I have a new paper white too meg and love it already

Satsuki - Agree entirely re All the Light. He should have stopped just after the two characters finally meet, and not bothered with all the 'modern day' nonsense.

I m in read 30 books last year aiming for 50 this year might be too much. Will be happy for 30+.

How do you do bold? I m using an iPad...

Currently re reading The Guernsey Literary and potatoe peel pie society. Love this book
Starting Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis & Two by Two Nicholas Sparks

I am also trying book buying ban for 2017 till my TBR reduces!