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 thought I was a fast reader, but I'm goggling a bit at Teufelsrad's 11 books.

I adored The Observations, (the sort of book The Penny Heart wanted to be but fell far far short of the hurdle), and enjoyed Gillespie and I. I didn't know Jane Harris had a new book out and I'm all excited now.

@Toomuchsplother and I have added Civilwarland in Bad Decline to mine!

Homegoing is definitely going on my list - how come I've missed that! thank you highlandcoo

Toomuch - no not read any others by Angela Levy - just looked it up and added it to my wish list.
I have £40 worth of amazon vouchers to add to my account and then I'm in for a spending spree

My "to Read" list grows considerably quicker than I can read....

3/50 The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes. I enjoyed this and am
looking forward to the other books in the series.

A gentle whodunnit mixed with historical detail, an unsolved real life case and one of Britain's most notorious families.

Having read three "frothy" books since Christmas, it's time for a more serious book - Parliament: The autobiography / volume 1 by

I've just started reading The Mitford Murders this morning. Only had time for a couple of chapters but seems ok so far. Light and easy to read, which is what I need right now.

Thanks for the recommendation, highland. I hadn't heard of that one, but I'll look out for it.

teufelsrad explained that she had a lot of time to read at present.

Everyone has different time constraints and reads different types of books - I’m into a couple of 700 pagers with only one at school so won’t surface for a while - but it’s just to place to keep track and discuss. I’m a much quicker reader than my husband but he has a commute whereas I have a preschooler so while I still average more over the year, he reads much more consistently!

I'm only on book number two ghostie ! Fear not!

In my defence it is Middlemarch.

This thread is a bit like the gym for me. I start every Jan but then by March I have trailed off However last year I read 70 books, after a few years of reading less and I want to try and match that this year.
I also had a slightly strange conversation with my sister recently, whereby we were talking about how long we could live for and how many books we could read in that time! Bizarre but made me want to read more!

So far this year I have read;

Grief is a thing with feathers - Max Porter
I am sure this has been reviewed here many times, but I loved it so much. Very short so read it in under 2 hours even with kids interrupting. The language was beautiful and conveyed so much about death, life and grief in a very poignant and wonderful way.

The Witchfinders Sister- Beth Underdown
Easy to read but quite a chilling tale of witch hunts in the south of England. Conveys really well how fear spreads, rumours start and the hatred a certain type of man have for women. Also has a fab last page which I won't spoil for anyone, but although I saw it coming I thought was really well done. Would recommend for anyone looking for an easy page turner.

In Consequence: A retelling of North and South - Trudy Basure
I am normally a bit skeptical of retellings, and I love North and South but this was recommended to me and I was surprised that I liked it. It takes the story and changes one scene and then the story unfolds from there. Keeps the original characters quite well and was an easy read. Basically if you read North and South and skipped the bits with the unions then you would like this!

My next books up are A God in Ruins and A History of Ancient Britain. Have read some easy things recently so looking for something more meaty next. I am trying to read all the unread books on my bookshelf first but there are so many good new books coming out that I think that resolution may fail!

BellBookandCandle I liked the Mitford Murders as well, I thought it was a good read and will be interested to see if she has a different sister as the focus for the next story or if she sticks with Nancy.

I agree with the recommendation of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi I read that last year after hearing about it on the Radio 2 bookclub and thought it was brilliant.

*teufelsrad explained that she had a lot of time to read at present.

Everyone has different time constraints and reads different types of books *

Oh, I know -- was just being a bit tongue in cheek and joky. And I think I'm a bit fed up about having wasted so much time on my latest read too. :p

Sorry if I came across a bit... Judgy's not the word but I'm drawing a mind blank on the actual word I was to use. I wasn't being entirely serious but 11 books is still impressive.

Ellis, is that A History of Ancient Britain, by Neil Oliver? I found he's a good writer - unlike Alice Roberts, whose writing is unfortunately very dull.

Oh no I didn’t think you were being judgy (or the word you were looking for)! I just thought you might have missed it as the thread moved so quickly. I was trying to be reassuring, but, failed

There are a few impressively fast readers on here, I agree. It’s awful when you give a lot of time to a stinker, I had a bad run at the end of last year where I got halfway through several but couldn’t bring myself to finish them, so had a depressingly short list for the time spent.

bibliomania yes that's the one. It contains a lot of data and information but is easy to read. He seems to really enjoy the human stories behind artifacts but without making assumptions. It was recommended to me on a thread here and I am about a third of the way through and enjoying it. Plus I like the asides about the other scientists he meets and how passionate they are about what they do.

Haven't read anything by Alice Roberts but I find her quite dull on the programmes she presents so I'm not surprised her writing is. Which is a shame as i like the idea of her last book but wasn't tempted to read it.

I can't remember much about it, except the big wave bit, but I remember liking it.

4 books from the charity shop today! I need help!

2. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh - a very light, short read (basically a novella), poking fun at Californians and Hollywood of the 1940s, posh expat Brits and all the euphemisms etc of the funeral industry.

3. The Middlepause by Marina Benjamin - recommended to me by another MNer. Non-fiction; a personal account of one woman's sudden plunge into menopause just before she turned 50, basically looking at the twists and turns in how she came to terms with ageing and what it does to our bodies and brains, and the prospect of death, with lots of references to literature, psychology and philosophy. A good, thought-provoking read, particularly for those of us of a similar age.

What did you buy, TooMuchSplother?

If it makes you feel better, I got 3 books from Waterstones today, (I had a giftcard) and also 11 books in The Works' sale.

We won't mention the three Kindle books I bought yesterday.(I had an Amazon voucher, and they were discounted too.

I was looking at some beautiful hardbacks in Waterstones today. A few were half price, but some were eye wateringly expensive. £25 for one book, and not even a special edition, just a fairly average non fiction hardback. I think I'll be sticking to the charity shops now that I've used up my giftcards.

I was going to have a no-book-buying January, but have already bought two (one charity shop, one sale, so grand total of £5.49), and I have just discovered in my wallet a fully-stamped up Waterstones loyalty card, worth £10, so I have a feeling I may slip up again...

I love a beautiful hardback but i save buying those for books that i love and I know i will read again and again. Otherwise they are too expensive to justify the price

Teufelsrad I bought Perfect by Rachel Joyce, A place called winter - Patrick Gale, Lady of the English - Elizabeth Chadwick, The Victoria Letters - Helen Rappaport. A couple had been on my to read list for a while and two just caught my eye. I need to stop though!

I've tried to have a no book buying month, Exexpat, but I'm lucky if I last a week. I can never resist a Kindle daily deal. It's a nice idea in theory though...

Same here EllisIsland. I'm on a tight budget but even when I wasn't on such a tight one, I began to become more cautious about what I was buying, because like you there seems little point in splurging on books that I won't keep.

That's a great haul.TooMuchSplother. I got The Victoria Letters in my last charity haul, but I haven't read it yet. The others are on my wishlist, just added Lady of The English, thanks to you. I hope you enjoy them.

1. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper.

Think quite a few have read and reviewed this over the past month or so. It’s a great evocative Christmas adventure and purely by chance I managed to read the Christmas Eve chapter on Christmas Eve to the dds, and the Twelth Night chapters over the weekend just gone which made it even more special. Some great descriptive writing, particularly of cold, snow and floods. I did wonder if Philip Pullman had been influenced by it in anyway when he wrote La Belle Sauvage.
Will definitely be continuing to read the series to the dds this year.

Have had to resentfully put JS&MN to one side in order to read some absolute bobbins of a thriller for my book club (I Let You Go). Urgh. Like eating beautifully hand made pasta with an elegant exciting sauce and it being snatched away and being given a styrofoam box of tinned macaroni cheese to eat instead.

I'm struggling a bit - turns out it is taking me much longer to finish The Power than I expected.

I don't want to think about how many books are on my TBR pile. Kindle - probably about 50. Real books - two of the massive Billy bookcases full. I think I need a clear out as I am never realistically going to read them all.

Buying books cheers me up more than just about anything else.

@ George R R R R R R R R R R R R R Martin

Biblio have you read Hillbilly Elegy? It would be interesting to compare the conclusions reached by the author of that to those in Poverty Safari (have only read the former but have added the latter onto my stupidly long list)

Still plowing through middlemarch slowly, can't remember the last time it's taken me a week and still not finished! I usually spend about 2 hours of the day on busses and also read in my lunch break and at home but our company pool car is dead so I've had to drive to work so have lost 2 reading hours a day