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?

Ah, wilting I think those instructions are for a newer version of the kindle than mine. Mine is a first gen one. Some books have page numbers are chapter markers and some seem to have random 'location' markers.

I am much more adults about books now but as a late teen with a book that I felt defined me, it would be fair to say I took it a touch personally.

I have The Road coming up, I'm nervous based on comments

McCarthy I have read No Country For Old Men (preferred the film)

and All The Pretty Horses - which I found pretentious eg there are these baffling exchanges between characters in Spanish and no attempt to explain them, so you basically need to know Spanish. Also, verylongsentenceswithoutpunctuation.

If you press menu on an older kindle the page will appear at the bottom left, but as wilting said not all books have them. Golden Hill doesn't and I know what you mean, I can't get the hang of locations but percentage works better for me now.

Sorry you're unwell chillie and therearenoghosts

Invisiblekitten

If you want good "end-of-the-world stories, I can recommend Margaret Attwood's "Oryx" Trilogy (Maddadam, The Year of the Flood,and Oryx and Crake). They are brilliant - I didn't want them to end (but not easy reads, as you would expect from MA - she gets you thinking).

Russell Hoban's book, Riddley Walker is fantastic and very original, but you have to work at translating it almost as it is written largely phonetically. It is the world after nuclear war, with society pulling itself back together at a primitive level.

I've read my 1st book of the year shopoholic to the rescue, it was really bad - writing, story, can't think of a single good thing about it. I skim read most of it.

One of my flaws is I am a completist, if i have read all the other books in a series I have to read the next one, no matter how bad previous ones have been. Its almost a compulsion, I have to know how the story ends for all the characters. Another I have on my to read list is crimson death the 25th laurell k hamilton - the last 10 books have been beyond terrible but I will power on through the 700odd pages to see what happens to the characters (most of which I despise). Crazy i know!

I have just started fellside, I really enjoyed the girl with all the gifts so I'm hoping this is just as good.

No. 3 The Emperor of All Maladies -A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee

Pulitzer Prize winning book about the history of cancer research written by an oncologist/geneticist.

From ancient history to modern research , the development of chemotherapy, discovery of genes responsible for cancer, the politics of the tobacco firms vs the anti smoking lobby, this book covers it all.

It's not an easy read - the book is interspersed with real life cases and these can be heartbreaking although the author always writes with compassion.

I did find some of the science hard to understand and often got confused between the many different scientists.

It's probably longer than it needed to be as well - I stopped half way through and read The Hunger Games for some light relief.

That said, I came away with a much better understanding of the disease. Overall I'm glad I read it.

Paws, I adore Cloud Atlas and have read it three times as well as watching the movie several times. The storyline of Robert Frobisher and Somni 451 makes me cry like a baby. I hated Mitchell's book The Bone Clocks however and found it a real slog to get through.

Also a big fan The Road. I love the post apocalyptic genre.

Ah best ! I thought that book was amazing! One of my top non fiction reads. Ever!

Hell yeah happy I actually read blood meridian first and was really reluctant to read the road as a result, but dm and dsis persuaded me. But that's it. He's on my read no more list.

Oh Gods - I read Riddley Walker because lots of people on here recommended it. I thought it was nonsense, I'm afraid. Not the language - that was okay, just like A Clockwork Orange - but I just couldn't see the point of the story.

I refuse to read The Road and will never read any Cormac McCarthy again because I found The Crossing to be one of the most upsetting novels I have ever read - I think it's that one, where he travels with a wolf to Mexico. It really upset me and despite thinking he's a good writer, I can't face any more.

Two other novels I refuse to read are We Need to Talk About Kevin and Room. It's not going to happen.

Room is moving rather than distressing in the end, as is the film, despite the tragic topic. Kevin is one of the most depressing, relentlessly negative books I have read.

I read Room. It was a shite read and was such a simplistic view of something rather too close to the bone that I felt dreadful for days after. That'll teach me to ignore my instinct that I shouldn't read a book.

Room isn't very good tbh. The first half is okay, when they are actually in the room, but it goes rapidly downhill.

I'm in...starting with The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne.... Interesting language so far

I thought Room was awful but I never seem to like popular books that everyone else does. Contrary sod that I am

Never read Kevin. Dp made me watch the movie a few weeks ago and it was grim and depressing. I definitely will not be reading the book ever.

What I found the most difficult was whether there is ethical issues (for me) in basing a fiction novel that borrows too heavily from a well known crime. I can think of a few books that fit the bill of that description...

I mean I know writers get their inspiration from the world for many many novels but I feel bad for the victims and whether it's more exploitation they don't deserve.....

But then any novel that is about real people has that issue (historical fiction)

I'm not saying either way that it's wrong or OK, just that I've pondered it, I think it's case by case really.

I didn't get v far with Kevin. Found it boring and irritating.

I've thought about those issues too, Every. Room troubled me on a few levels.

I'm planning to read the Emperor of all maladies. I was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, so I think it would be an interesting read.

The thing which I found frustrating about both room and We Need to Talk About Kevin was the representation and overt judgement of mothers. I remember being infuriated by the suggested book club questions at the back of the latter which focussed wholly on the mother's failings and how they related to Kevin's actions. Room seemed to imply that her incarceration made her a better parent and that the child was neglected as a result of their freedom. I read both before I became a mum so I don't know how I would respond to them now. I hope the level of detail I have given their is ok. Scared of spoiling plots. Please let me know if I do that

Yeah Room really troubled me from that view, as did When Will There Be Good News and one called Remember Me Like This the similarity to actual famous crimes was more than subtle with all three.

I didn't know that When Will There Be Good News was based on a crime; I'm assuming it's Louise (the GP)'s back story?

Yes, for me, I felt it strongly reminiscent of The Russell Case

Joanna the GP, I should have said.