50 Book Challenge 2018 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 2018, 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 just finished book number 5. The Jungle by Pooja Puri
It's about a teenage boy named Mico who is alone, far from home and family, and his life in 'The Jungle' refugee camp in Calais.

This was an impulse buy. I got it in a charity shop selling 3 books for a pound and I couldn't see another to go with the two I already had,so picked it up.

It was ok. It has a very interesting premise but it's YA and reads like one which isn't really my thing. It does a good job of showing how brutal and hopeless life there could be,and it's suitably dark so not one for the pre teens. The ending is very abrupt which annoyed me.

I don't know what to read next. I might pick up Golden Hill, or one of my Orwell books or perhaps Simon Sebag Montefiore's "One Night in Winter".

I have a number of 'easy reads' that I want to get through too because I know that I'm unlikely to read them again,and having limited shelf space i want to make some room. I also get really 'twitchy' if my shelves are too crowded.

Sorry Stitches- it might have been Satsuki! (I am on the mobile site so it’s hard to search back through a thread). I should write it down!

Top tip for any newbies (I don’t do this but I should!), make a note of any interesting recs as you go, or you can spend ages rereading the thread, instead of an actual book!

The only book I can remember giving up on is We Need to Talk* About Kevin

Middlemarch was meant to be one of my A Level books but I Swapped schools halfway through and ended up doing Nostromo instead, my choice

Agreed Tanaqui, I try and add recommendations from this thread to my 'Want to read' section on Goodreads as I go along now, although my 'What To Read' list is growing like Topsy as a result!

I read Tale for time being last year - I think someone else reviewed it more recently though

LadyWithLapdog I do listen to a lot of audiobooks, but tend to find I zone out any background noise when knitting something more complicated.

I abandoned 13 books last year, a lot of them I think was more down to me not being in the mood rather than the book being the problem.

I really didn't get on with Life After Life, I was over 100 pages in and I simply didn't care what happened.

I find Catch-22 much maligned. Someone who didn't get on with it gave it to me when I was serving in the Air Force. It had a real resonance for me and I completely "got it". I think it's a book you have to read in one sitting and I stayed up all night to finish it. I thought it was marvellous.

I remember enjoying One Night in Winter when I read it a few years ago Teufelsrad. The fact i can remember that about a book read a few years ago speaks volumes

I've also got Golden Hill on my kindle "To read" pile. Will get round to that very soon.

Checking in, doing this with another group. Firat set of books is GoT which ive put off for years. Then re reading Harry Potter and onto some classics

Catch 22 actively pissed me off? I couldn't stand the writing style.

Thanks Coffee+, but starting and not finishing books is becoming too much of a habit with me. I'm allowing myself to get distracted with whatever is going on in my life, chores and tv. I really need this thread to focus on books. I have this book on the coffee table since before Christmas and really need to get going on it. There are loads of books, though, that I haven't given the time to and rightly so, for now.

In again for this year. Although I haven’t posted since the summer, I kept a note of all books read last year and managed to read 55 so pleased to see I met my target of 50. Looking back over the list, it consists of mostly crime fiction, psychological thrillers, modern literary fiction and psychology and self help non fiction.

The only one that didn’t fit into these categories was 1971 Never a dull moment by David Hepworth. A self indulgent (for me at least) traipse through the the albums released that year to back up his premise that there was never a better year for rock music. Made me revisit so many albums from my formative years. Well worth a read if you grew up with David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, the Stones etc. Fascinating info on the making and influence on music by Carole King’s Tapestry. Of course, he could be , and has been, challenged that other years had just as much or more influence, but that doesn’t detract from the pleasure of living through how it felt being young when all those musicians and bands were young and new and groundbreaking.

I’m going to set my Target at 60 this year and aim to read more classic literature starting with my Dickens collection. Despite having the entire collection on my shelves, I have never read one for relaxation, only as part of A level and Uni courses. Will start with Bleak House and go from there. I could also do with reading more non fiction so will aim for that as well.

Book 1 finished last night. Die Last by Tony Parsons
Crime fiction - yes I know, I’m trying to widen my tastes, but I’ve read all his Max Wolfe series and this is the latest. The plot is woven round the refugee camps in northern France and human trafficking into Britain from around the world. A quick, but disturbing read in places if his descriptions of refugee camps and how people are trafficked or gain illegal entry into Britain are based on fact rather than exaggerated to make a better story. I must admit, I quickly worked out whodunnit and why, but it was a good read nonetheless.

Going to get Bleak House off the shelves now........

Hi everyone and Happy New Year.

My first book of 2018 is A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax. Hoping to find it helpful :)

1. Live Your Best Day Ever - Anne-Marie Faiola

I'm not normally one for self-help books, but the New Year is always a time for introspection for me, and I'd heard really good things about this book. I wasn't disappointed. It gives you 35 'strategies' to take small steps to improve your life / mindset. It's an easy read, but really got me thinking about what I want out of life and how to achieve it.

1. River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey: in 1910, the US Congress debated a plan to solve two problems facing the country: a meat shortage (due to a population boom) and the clogging of the Mississippi River with water hyacinth, a nonnative invasive species. The solution? Hippo ranching in the Deep South, particularly Louisiana. Seriously.

Clearly, this cockamamie plan was not adopted, but Gailey's alt history caper of a Western imagines that it were. Winslow Houndstooth, a Lancanshire man and best hippo wrangler in the West, receives a commission from the US government to round up and relocate feral hippos that clog the Harriet, a part of the Mississippi. However, Houndstooth's secret mission is to extract revenge from the man who burned his hippo ranch to the ground. He assembles a team team of outsiders to help him, including a demo expert, a pregnant assassin, and a deadly mistress of disguise.

This book was a fun diversion. While I didn't wholeheartedly love it, I found it to be an amusing caper with decent characters and world building. If you're up for an alt history Western caper with elements of romance, you could do worse.

This thread is moving very fast!
I loved Middlemarch, but it took me a few attempts to get there. I think I mentioned when we had last year's debate about it that I tried to read it while in the early stages of labour. Huge mistake! Apologises to those who have heard that story before...

2. How to measure a cow- Margaret Forster.
It tells the story of Tara a young woman who moves to a distant area of Cumbria to rebuilt her life, taking a secret with her. No spoilers about the secret! She starts to develop an unlikely relationship with her elderly neighbour and discovers that leaving her past behind is not easy.
I have always enjoyed Forster's work. I think she writes character well, particularly female characters. She explores the theme of individuality and how who we are affects our actions and responses. There is also a nod to the nature / nurture debate and its effects on choices and behaviour. This was Forster's last novel, written when she was suffering from cancer and published after her death. Her themes are interesting but underdeveloped, possibly due to her personal circumstances/ health.
Not her finest but still a book to be proud of. I enjoyed it

I read A Tale for the Time Being a few weeks ago and reviewed it on the 2017 thread, but I was inspired to give it a go after someone else reviewed it further up the thread, so can't claim to be the mystery MN-er :)

Sorry if this is a little morbid but I realised this year that I am never going to read all of the good books in the world before I die. So I now feel zero guilt about giving up on a book if it's not for me. I'd much rather go out and discover something wonderful than keep trudging through a book that isn't for me.

TooMuchSplother I’m a huge fan of Margaret Forster and just finished (over Christmas) her teenage diaries. I think she’s the female equivalent of Alan Bennett and should be more celebrated.

1. (A bit of a sleepless night last night) The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper - classic children’s adventure book. Made me wish I was 9 again and could read this kind of thing all the time.

The first few chapters or so of Middlemarch are awful. I must have tried it 20 times over the years. But when it finally gets going it’s brilliant. My poor Dad was so moved by it that he didn’t read any fiction for 10 years after reading Middlemarch as he felt nothing could top it.

Best that is one I have on my wish list. My mother in law has also recommended Hunter Davies memoir about his life with her. The name escapes me but hope to read that too. Diary of an Ordinary Woman is one of my favourite books

I will look up the Hunter Davies, thank you. I’ve read just about everything she’s written. DOAOW is a great book. I also love the one where she contrast her life with her mother’s and grandmothers’ lives .

I wonder if they will publish more of her diaries.

Tanaqui and KeithLeMonde - I think the mystery 50-Booker is me! I’d had A Tale for the Time Being for ages on my Kindle, eventually getting round to reading it at the end of last year.

Starting to think I shouldn't have joined this thread...lol

I have more books listed to buy than ever before thanks to you lot.

When do you all read. I tend to cross stitch in the evening so only read when I am in bed or the bath. Love nothing more than getting into the bath and staying there for hours with a good book. I have a Kindle (the old one with no light) but don't use it much as my husband hates the light on at bedtime so tend to use the Kindle App on my phone at bedtime and keep the actual books for the bath.

I can’t believe how fast this thread is moving. I have designated one of my lovely Christmas notebooks for the writing of recommendations from this thread

I read whenever I can. I don't have children yet and I'm off sick long term from work with mental health issues so I have a lot of time to read. I do have other things to do not involving reading, and the internet gets in the way, but unless I'm in a reading slump. I try to use most of my spare time to read.

I even have a book in hand while brushing my teeth. That's not such an option if you have young children to supervise and get ready though.