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50 Book Challenge 2017 Part One

999 replies

southeastdweller · 01/01/2017 10:12

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?

OP posts:
SwedishEdith · 07/01/2017 14:24

I loved The Road - the writing is sublime but, yes, harrowing. I actually had a proper cry when I finished it - felt drained. Blush.

Does anyone else find being in a book club a problem? I don't think I'm suited to one unless I can choose all the books. And I find it difficult to articulate an opinion when I think it's crap.

divinemintthins · 07/01/2017 14:28

I won't manage 50 but I am determined to read more this year. I have just started reading The Warden, never read Trollope before.

Plan on re reading Out of Africa and have got a couple of books that I bought last month to read, The Dean's Watch (recommended on a thread on here) and The button box.

Sadik · 07/01/2017 14:30

I read Stasi Child last year, Remus, I thought it was very good, and far more evocative - if that's the right word - than Stasiland which I listened to around the same time.

InvisibleKittenAttack · 07/01/2017 14:40

Finally have finished the first book of the year! (it's been a busy old week, not had a good amount of time to read in peace)

1. Sword Song - Bernard Cornwell - book 4 in the Last Kingdom series, more Viking vs Saxon blood fest, this time a lot focussed on King Alfred's Daughter being all grown up (12 I think!) and married off to a 'wrong un'. Our hero Uhtred is tasked with giving her London as a wedding gift - bloody Vikings nicked it again... Shield Walls and irritating Priests aplenty. If you are a fan of the books, this is a good one and has a nice neat story to it, so feels more like it's one tale from his past, rather than just part of a longer story (if that makes sense).

Am going to take the recommendation on here and read Essex Serpent next.

Oh and I read Station 11 - I liked it. I know Cote didn't like the focus on feelings and emotions of the people involved, but there's a place for books that don't just do 'action'. I tend to not like the fact that in many "end of the world" stories, the main characters are people who know how to survive the break down of civilisation, but in the case of a flu pandemic, the 'nice but a bit useless at practical things' types are just as likely to be the humans left, and so getting civilisation back up and running would take a bit longer if it's being staffed my people like me who's idea of "hunting and gathering" is driving to Waitrose.

RemusLupinsChristmasMovie · 07/01/2017 14:55

Cheers, Sadik. I liked Stasiland but thought it would have been better in the hands of a stronger, less self absorbed, writer.

I must be a heartless creature - The Road really didn't move me, and I thought the ending was weak.

SatsukiKusakabe · 07/01/2017 15:11

I thought The Road was just ok, agree about the weak ending and it didn't really move me either - didn't feel 'real' enough somehow. Bleak and a bit nothingy. I think I didn't gel with the writing style either.

Older child at a party and toddler sleeping off a cold so am halfway through Golden Hill. Not gripped exactly, but it is a fun read. Think a lot is going to depend on the denouement so hoping it doesn't disappoint.

Wex · 07/01/2017 15:31

SparrowandNightingale I think Jack Reacher is wonderfully silly. DS2 reads him as well and we make up Jack Reacher plots. Lee Child did a MN webchat recently and was lovely.

I read The Road years ago and it gave me The Rage. I won't say why as it's a spoiler.

I've given up on NW. I gave it four chapters and I'm not wasting any more time on a book I hate.

Wex · 07/01/2017 15:42

SwedishEdith I really wanted to join a book club, partly for social reasons.I've found one and read the first book ready for the next meeting.
It was Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell.

There were two books over Christmas and the second was NW which I've failed to finish.

wiltingfast · 07/01/2017 15:42

Yeah measuring the world is another. Think that was one of the first books I watched courtesy of cote these threads and that baby has never moved.

Mind you, thing of darkness dropped eventually...

StitchesInTime · 07/01/2017 15:53

I tend to not like the fact that in many "end of the world" stories, the main characters are people who know how to survive the break down of civilisation, but in the case of a flu pandemic, the 'nice but a bit useless at practical things' types are just as likely to be the humans left, and so getting civilisation back up and running would take a bit longer if it's being staffed my people like me who's idea of "hunting and gathering" is driving to Waitrose.

It is of course true that in something like a pandemic, the 'nice but a bit useless at practical things' type would be just as likely to survive initially.
However, I think you can't ignore the point that if society were to completely break down following a pandemic or whatever, then the survivors would have to get good (or at least adequate) at practical things pretty quickly, or they'd wind up freezing or starving to death before too long. Not sure how many stories I'd want to read that featured all the main characters freezing to death a few months after the pandemic because none of them can figure out how to chop firewood.

wiltingfast · 07/01/2017 15:58

Ok book

  1. Gone to Ground by Marie Jalowicz Simon; this was an interesting read. Not what I expected really, I thought it would be more dramatised, it's actually quite a dry retelling of Marie's survival journey having "disappeared" herself to the authorities by telling the postman to mark her as "gone east - no known address". Gone east of course, meant the concentration camps and certain death. Instinctively, Marie seems to have known that. She survives by miracles and kindness, by constantly adapting to her protectors, putting up with starvation and abuse. I have read a fair bit around WW2 but this was the first single perspective personal account I have read. it brought home the banality of the day to day desperate efforts required to survive the war. I was disappointed that it ended with the war, I would love to have seen how she coped with the aftermath. Remarkably, she stayed in Berlin, had a family and made her career there afterwards. Good book. Would recommend Smile
Passmethecrisps · 07/01/2017 16:13

Think I might join a book club if I can find one. Am pregnant and fancy doing something just for me. Certainly more likely to invest in that than a fitness regime . . .

In soft play hell. Should have brought my book. Really enjoying The Muse but finding it slower growing than the last few books I have read. Just a change of author I think.

I am sending the build up to an injustice of some sort and I can find myself getting frustrated for the characters. That was what I loved about The Miniaturist. I absolutely believed in and was invested in the characters and could not believe it when the Very Bad Thing happens. I kept waiting for a reprieve or saviour but it never came.

The only thing I am finding annoying is that the kindle copy doesn't have page numbers. I like to know what page I am on for some reason.

ElizaBenson · 07/01/2017 16:26

I've read the second of the Clara Benson books I bought The mystery at Underwood House. All the reviews I'd read of the two books said that the first was easy to guess and the second harder, whilst I found it the other way around. These are both quite easy relaxing reads, nothing to complex in them. The sort of books I reach for when I'm feeling rubbish and like I have a brain full of cotton wool. Not that thats an insult to the books! I love books like this

I've also finished Aspects of the Novel by E M Forster which was a bit more of a slog. Its a series of lectures he gave on fiction/novels. Its written quite conversationally and starts off well, but gets a bit bogged down half way through and never really recovers. Its an interesting read for anyone looking to start writing fiction, for the story, people and plot chapters

RemusLupinsChristmasMovie · 07/01/2017 16:56

I wish I could find a book club. I didn't like the one I joined before.

Book 3
Stasi Child by David Young
Not up there with the first two books of the year but thought this was pretty good on the whole. It’s a who-dunnit set in the DDR, with a female detective who (don’t all fictional detectives?!) has her own issues to deal with, as well as the horrific murder case she’s currently investigating, and then on top of that she’s not even sure who she’s working for, Kripo, the Stasi or what. She doesn’t even know if she can trust her own partner (the latter being devastatingly attractive (but of course) but a bit of a dick (you surprise me, David). Occasional silly bits, a couple of clunkingly awful sentences and a few characters pretty thinly drawn, but I mostly enjoyed it. It re-imagines a world in which it must have been virtually impossible to tell who, if anybody, you could trust pretty well, I thought.

SatsukiKusakabe · 07/01/2017 17:04

I never seem that keen on book club choices when I've contemplated joining them before, and hate the idea of having to read something I don't fancy.

I know lots of people like to challenge themselves to try something different, but I feel a bit like I know what I like now. I do miss talking about books though.

PawsandWhiskers · 07/01/2017 17:14

Having completely failed to finish more than two new books last year (a reflection of just how rubbish my year was) signing up, if not for fifty, at least to get into double figures.

Have finished my first of the year Harry Potter and the Cursed Child undoubtedly not as enjoyable as the novels, but read cover to cover in an afternoon/evening so I clearly liked it quite a lot.

The thread has already inspired me to reread Cloud Atlas soon, as I loved it on both my first and second reads.

But, feel my next book needs to be from my enormous pile of unread books. Am going with a Christmas present from 2015 which, although I specifically asked for, have never picked up since - John Boyle's A History of Loneliness.

SwedishEdith · 07/01/2017 17:22

That's my problem with book clubs as well but I like the social aspect. I think I hate lots of books which makes me seem picky and sound like a snob (I hated The Miniaturist* as soon as I'd finished it). And bigger clubs ones often lead to bestseller type books, too many of which are written to be films, I think.

ChillieJeanie · 07/01/2017 17:37

The book club I go to is brilliant because there are no set books. Apparently they did try it when it first started but no one read them. So instead it's a group of people who meet in a room in a pub once a month and everyone talks about whatever they happen to have read. We also have a book swap thing going on as well, so if you're interested in something someone reviews then you may well be able to borrow it too. There is a vague concept of a book of the year and there are usually a couple of charity shop copies of that circulating if anyone does fancy reading it.

Sadik · 07/01/2017 17:39

I'd love to belong to a book club, but like you Satsuki the book choices never sound like the sort of thing I'd like that much - partly because they tend to be limited to the book club sets offered by the library service.

A chap at our local labour party meeting was talking about trying to get a political book club off the ground which would be much more my cup of tea. I'm not sure how it would work though in that there's probably only 1 or 2 copies even of more popular non-fiction books in the county. Those of you in book clubs, do you use the library offerings, or do you buy your own & share them round?

Sadik · 07/01/2017 17:41

Your club sounds excellent, ChillieJeanie - maybe something like that but with a lefty theme would work better.

SwedishEdith · 07/01/2017 17:46

Oh, ChillieJeanie, that sounds much more sensible. Agree that meeting in a pub works as well - no pressure to tidy the house.

SwedishEdith · 07/01/2017 17:47

I buy or download the books Sadik but lots do use the library.

StitchesInTime · 07/01/2017 17:47

I picked up a book at the library last year, went to the counter with it - and was told by the librarian that it was a book club book and that I wasn't allowed to borrow it as it was only for people in a book club Confused Hmm

Presumably it would have to be a book club registered with the library. I was too taken aback by the whole exchange to ask too many questions about how it all worked. Including why put the bloody book on display if they weren't going to let random members of the public take it out.

RemusLupinsChristmasMovie · 07/01/2017 17:50

The book club I went to was like that, Chillie and was one of the reasons I didn't like it.

BestIsWest · 07/01/2017 17:51

I like the sound of that Chillie, love the idea of meeting up in a pub just to talk about books.