50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, 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 the year is here, the second one here, and the third thread here.

What are you reading?

Great line Satsuki - exactly what happened to me last night!

I loved A Little Life last year. I was definitely in the camp of those who thought they wouldn't like it - wouldn't go near a misery memoir with a bargepole - but just couldn't put it down. In fact I borrowed it from the library but will buy a real copy to keep.

19. The Twelve - Justin Cronin. Well I've already complained about this, but basically what he's done is not write a sequel so much as write a different story using the same premise from the first book and just chuck our loved characters in halfway through with a scanty explanation of what they've been doing for the last 5 years. The second half was better than the first and I feel like I need the closure of the third now, but wildly differing standard to the first.

I do think this happens in a lot of trilogies. People have a good idea, build a world and write some decent characters, but then either don't know how to finish the story, or fall so in love with their world they lose sight of plot.

Ha, Satsuki, I fell asleep holding my Kindle last night. I love my Kindle. If I could, I would marry it and have lots of baby Kindles, all loaded with hundreds of unread books. Then I would form a Kindle army and take over the world.

whippet

DH wouldn't eve think that's funny. He already complains that my Kindle gets far more attention in bed than him.

at whippet

whippet that's crazy no it's not

Whippet! Love my Kindle too but still have to cheat on it with real books every so often. Can't beat the thrill of paper!!

I have personally also been whacked on the nose by my kindle when I have had the audacity to fall asleep in bed while trying to read it

Have also been known to try read in bed with one eye closed, to "rest" it you see

Best, the shardlake love is not quite universal! Not a fan here but I don't generally like whodunnits.

"A Kindle hitting my face is my signal to go to sleep at night."

Too true

I once dropped a book on my breast-feeding baby during a night feed . I went through a PFB-induced self-flagellatory period, where I chose books not based on their content but based on the possible damage they could do if they fell on the baby. I was the mad woman standing in the bookshop weighing up books. Not weighing them up intellectually, you understand? Actually weighing them in my hand and making dropping actions

That baby is now 10 years old and is quite the bookworm herself, so the knock on her head obviously did her no harm

PoeticLE

I read lying on my side and holding the kindle next to me, until I fall asleep and it drops harmlessly onto my pillow. I never realised how many kindle-related injuries I've saved myself from!

Another who loves their Kindle - I was most annoyed this morning, meeting a friend for coffee, arranged to meet at 9:45 in a particular coffee shop in town to give time to get there after the school run knowing I'd get there at 9:20 at the latest and time to read my kindle for a bit, but as I was halfway there I bumped into her having managed to drop her dcs and get a parking space. Had to pretend to be glad about losing nearly half an hour to myself with a brew.

Finding I'm not interested in reading anything I've downloaded and trying to find some more inspiration.

Sorry wilting .

1.The Wolf and The Raven - Steven MacKay
2.The Hobbit - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
3.Greenwitch - Susan Cooper
4.Child 44 - Tom Robb Smith
5.Fellowship of the Ring - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
6.Into the Heart of Borneo - Redmond O'Hanlan
7.The No1 Ladies Detective agency
8.The Two Towers - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
9.Crosstalk - Connie Willis (Audible)
10.The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd
11.Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
12.1066 - Kaye Jones (Audible)
13.The Reformation - Edward Gosselin (Audible)
14.The Return of the King - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

Thanks for all your condolence messages. Have book club next week, so have read it and highly recommend .....

15: Lion by Saroo Brierley
True story of a 5-year old boy Saroo who gets lost at an Indian station and boards a train alone. A day or so later, he ends up in Calcutta, not knowing his last name, or his home town, except it began with B. After living in the streets of Calcutta for a while, he is taken to an orphanage and eventually adopted by an Australian couple, and does well, but as an adult is drawn back to finding where he came from and tracing his family in India. With not much to go on, he spends months searching along the hundreds of train lines out of Calcutta for towns beginning with B on Google earth.
It's not misery lit at all, but very readable. Recommended.

I'm now reading the Wizard of Earthsea - a children's fantasy novels that is always on recommended reads - it's light but what I need at the moment.
I have "The Muse" on the go on Audible for my commute to work. Was slow going at the start and was on the verge of giving up to listen to one of the Harry Potters as one of my comfort listens, but have perservered and enjoying it now.

I love my Kindle. I had a paperwhite, and have recently moved to a Fire, so I can have my Audible on the same device as my Kindle books (I liked the idea of having all those lovely books-Kindle and Audible crammed into one device- like a virtual library in my bag) and it does do that, but as a reading experience the Paperwhite wins hands down. I gave my DD20 my Paperwhite, she loves it too.

invisiblekitten I had the same feeling when Parents Evening was running on time for once. Any spare time is potential reading time, and other people just don't realise they're stepping all over it with their damned punctuality.

wilting I have done the one eye at a time thing, until I realise I am actually sleeping more than I am reading and it's time to give it up

I have dropped books on babies too, poetic let's hope it's not aversion therapy.

I had a new paperwhite for Christmas and sad to say I don't love it as much as my old Kindle Keyboard. I keep accidentally hitting the touch screen and flipping forwards or backwards a few pages and losing my place.
I also miss the engravings of Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Jane Austen etc that I used to get on the home page. Now I get ads for books I'd never read in a million years ( Forged in Fire - Seals in love! He put the woman he loved before all else. With pictures of over muscled half naked men).

Anyway. Book 39 Breakfast At Tiffanys - Truman Capote More a short story than a proper book but delightful all the same.

best it took me a while to transition too; loved my old keyboard. Have adjusted and the Light and other functions are very useful, but miss the buttons and general styling. I paid to get rid of the ads as I couldn't take it, now it's pictures of the ends of pencils all packed together so tightly it makes me shiver (trypophobia) so might have done better with the naked men.

You can pay to get rid of the ads? What?

If you go into your Amazon account Manage content and devices, click on Devices and find your Paperwhite, it will have Special Offers listed and give you the option to unsubscribe. It will charge you £10 to do this, which was the discount for buying it with the ads, but you will get Kindle specific screen savers again like pens, pencils, letters, typewriters etc but no Mark Twain.

I may still be tempted.

It's a small thing but I have no regrets, I hadn't realised how annoying I'd find the adverts.

Still Been thinking about tips to fit in more reading. I always have my book/Kindle with me, OH regularly rolls his eyes as he sees me slipping it into my handbag!! But the main reason I have read lots more that this time last year is I have practically given up watching TV. Honestly there are only one or two things in a week I regularly watch. My OH has started working away from home in the week and he had the TV on constantly. Quite often head up to bed with dog and my book pre 9 o'clock these days!

"A Kindle hitting my face is my signal to go to sleep at night."

I shall show this to my DH to prove that I AM INDEED THE NORM.

I doubt if people reading 50 Books per year every year are quite what we would call "the norm" but I know what you mean

cote in my little bubble you all are...

Another one of the 50 Book thread "norm" here. In fact, I've just bought myself a kindle paperwhite as I was beginning to really hurt myself everytime I dropped my iPad (containing kindle app) onto my face. Thank you boss for the bonus and the resulting lessening in reading-related injury

15. The Leaving of Things Jay Antani which I really loved, although possibly influenced by the combo of my love of India and a reflection on how much I've missed reading about it. Loads of wonderful observations about food, behaviour, mannerisms, language and culture in this tale of Indian teen returning "home" from Wisconsin with his family.

16. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies J B West. Covering Roosevelt to Nixon, filled with details of what being a White House usher entails, to little details about each first lady. He finds something positive and admiring to say about each one, with a couple of unexpectedly gossipy bits about one or two (but not those you'd expect).

17. For Kicks Dick Francis. A re-read, but one I'd almost forgotten. Now have all his books on my kindle for whenver comfort reading is the order of the day

I'm in the loving camp for A Little Life and here's what I wrote on my blog at the time it was booked short-listed.

Yes! I'm normal! I knew it! I KNEW IT!!