50 Book Challenge 2018 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 2018, 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 one here.

How're you getting on so far?

I'm envious too, of those who can read quickly. Not only am I quite a slow reader, but I struggle to retain what I'm reading. So if I try to speed up, I miss stuff and keep going back to read it again. And I can't skim read because I'm useless at picking out the important bits!

Just started a non fictional book Godless by Dan Barker. Will update on whether I like it some time in the next 6 months .

I meant the day to day - how do you fit in reading 50+ books in three months while looking after kids, pets, home, work, social life, fitness etc. I just can't work out how you manage it.

Weirdly, I often think it's easier to fit things in if you're busy. Commute time is perfect for reading, and audiobooks for when you're at the gym.

I've finished The Blackest Streets (review to come) and have just started on The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Last thing I tried to read by him made me want to gnaw my eyeballs out from the inside by the tedium (When we Were Orphans I think), but I'm enjoying this so far. Bit odd though.

I'm glad I'm not the only one SatsukiKusakabe

I also think that reading is something that sometimes you have to cram into opportune moments. I also think that reading 50 books is daunting if that's how you look at it. I prefer to just keep picking up another book and then being pleasantly surprised when I finish it. I think that reading pace is irrelevant. If you find a book you're enjoying you will find all opportunities to pick it up and finish it and therefore read it quickly

I don't like audiobooks (hate them in fact), don't go to a gym or commute via public transport. However, I have decided to start reading more after years in the wilderness. I now read for at least the half hour of the day when DH is watching crap Australian soap operas. I don't think that's as much as some people on here but I have got through a lot of books (ish). if I don't enjoy a book , or am bored by it, or find it too easy, I will admit I skim. Whole chapters of Middlemarch got a very light read!! This thread is a very good motivator for me as I am competitive , and also like discussing books and no one I know reads (as I think many know , I am an English teacher...)

DH and DSs are now watching football , so I shall crack open The Nightingale in a minute .

Cote - Dp liked the film too, and you and he seem to have similar tastes in some respects.

I don't skim read. I work full time in what can be a stressful job and often have to work in the evenings too, but I have a bath every night and that is my sacred reading time. I also read on the way to and from work.

I'm sometimes surprised at how many books people read on this thread, mainly because I read more than pretty much anyone I know in real life and I read very quickly. Even a novelist I know was disbelieving when I said I read about a book a week. But I waste a lot of time on the internet, don't have a commute at the moment (which is great reading time), am teaching myself a couple of languages, do a lot of writing and editing etc, so I don't fill every spare minute with reading, and I suppose if I did, I would read a lot more.

Moreover, I have read and listened to some very long books over the last few months - JR by Gaddis is over 700 pages, Atlas Shrugged about 1500, Perdido Street Station over 800, my JFK tome 1600 pages, so they all take a long time and some are too big to leave the house if not on Kindle or audio.

Sometimes a longer book is more satisfying though Ontopofthesunset

I've been totally MIA for the past few weeks due to really life shit.

Just popped in to say I've finally read Into Thin Air...

I don't know why I waited so long. Absolutely couldn't put it down, and am now going to read 'The Climb' and 'Left for Dead'.

(I've also decided I want to climb Kilimanjaro. Dh rolled his eyes a lot).

Other recent great reads are the grapes of wrath..... I remember doing OMAM and school and not finding it too gripping, but really enjoyed reading this. Steinbeck writes very evocatively and I couldn't wait to get back to reading it. Followed with East of Eden, which I also enjoyed but found a bit slow going in places.

Tried to reread Catch 22 as suggested by another poster. I had hoped that I'd 'get it' second time round but no.

I mean, it's vaguely amusing and very clever I'm sure, but it's just a bit...dull. Odd really, as stylistically it's usually the sort of book I like, quite chaotic with humour thrown in but for some reason reading it feels like a chore. so I gave up and read Less Than Zero for the hundredth time

Is Left for Dead the Beck Weathers one? I absolutely hated it!

piggy I hope at least the other English teachers you know read What my English teachers read outside of school and talked to me about, recommended, and on occasion leant to me, had as much impact on me as the curriculum texts. I got introduced to a lot of things I wouldn’t otherwise have come across and they really expanded my little working class world. The entire course of my further education would have been different if my GCSE English teacher hadn’t casually talked about some poets he was reading at the time and let me borrow them.

I genuinely don't think they do... certainly we never talk about books, outside of the texts we teach

I added some apps to my phone last year that let me read ebooks on my phone.

That means that now I’m almost never without a book at hand to read. It’s especially useful in scenarios where I’m waiting around (especially school pick up time) and have a few minutes to spare.

Although I’d get more reading done if I kept away from Facebook and Mumsnet

I manage to read a lot because I read very quickly, and as well as reading on my commute (including audiobooks while walking) i take any other possible opportunity to read - a few paragraphs while on the loo, reading in the car while husband drives etc. I’m lucky because DH does all the housework (he is SAHD while I work full time) and my DD is also a bookworm so we sit and read together!

I have just found a spelling mistake in my book and feel the need to tell MN since my DH does not care greatly about this.

56. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness - Arundhati Roy
Firstly an apology for the fact that I have previously referring to this as Upmost not Utmost. I could blame spell check but not it was just my own blunder!
I started off really enjoying this, lost interest in the middle and then came back to it again in the final third. As Scribbly said in her review there are just so many characters that it is hard to keep track. In the main the stories come together in some way but at times it feels like a torturous journey. This book reminds me of a very dear family friend who loves to tell stories but has a way of describing the life story of everyone in the story, so you struggle to keep up. She however always maintains her original thread!!
There is some absolutely stunning writing in this book, some beautifully written scenes. For example the scene between Musa and Amrik Singh is a pocket of brilliance.

As Scribbly said I do think Roy was trying to convey the complexity of the cultural and political situation in India and Kashmir. The below quote, really seemed to sum it. It feels like the whole think took on a life of it's own.

Tiki understood he was deliberately digressing, circling around a story that was as hard - harder - for him to tell as it was for her to hear.

I think it was beautiful in parts, standout beautiful but at times it bordered on being inaccessible.

I need to get into audio books. That way I can read while walking or doing other jobs.

Ontopof, I agree. I read more books than almost anyone I know in real life (I can think of one or two others) but I’m still one of the relatively slow readers on this thread.

I don’t mind though. I’ve been on this thread for over five years now, and I usually end up between 50 and 60 by the end of the year, which is a huge improvement on the few years before I joined the thread (I was a avid reader until I fell out of the habit when I had very young children). I’m also reading a greater variety of books, thanks to the recommendations on here.

I love this thread

Piggy I hope you have taken a pen (preferably red) and very pointedly corrected it. I always find that is the best course of action on such occasions

Desdemona, I may well go back and do that : the book has very small typeface!

I don't think Americans spell minuscule differently anyway...

remus yes it is the beck weathers one I think. Did you not rate it then? What was wrong with it?

I really enjoyed into thin air and would be interested to read a different perspective but will keep an eye out in the charity shops rather than paying full price if it's gonna be pants.

I do read some absolute rubbish though which often doesn’t merit much more than skimming. If I love something thing then I’ll treasure every word because I won’t want it to end. Though if something is an absolute page turner then I will flip through it quickly to get to the end BUT that means I will often read it again at a slower pace and get something different out of it.

Scribbly need an update on the lunch.

Remus glad you enjoyed, going tomorrow. Looking forward to hearing what Cote thinks too.

Clash - It's mostly about him being a tosser and about his relationship with his wife, rather than about Everest.

Will update my list...again not hitting the great heights of some of you. I find it hard to delve straight into the next book if I have really enjoyed/been affected by the last book. Just need a day or two to absorb, then move on. Anyhow..

10. Frankenstein : Mary Shelley very surprised by this, far more emotional than expected & so different from the film interpretations. I almost started to think the monster was a figment of Frankenstein’s imagination... well deserved classic

11. Black Swan Green : David Mitchell Yet to read anything I haven’t loved by DM... great coming of age story, capturing the 80’s of my childhood in immense detail. I like how DM plays with format - each chapter read like a self contained short story.

12)Winter : Ali Smith Struggled with this at first, but it quickly became very beautiful. that’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again
A family gathering at Christmas brings together 2 sisters who have grown apart uniting current events with their interwoven personal history. This book made me cry on several occasions yet remained joyful. Recommended.

13. I am I am I am : Seventeen brushes with Death, Maggie O’Farrell Great concept - the first chapter was chilling, some other chapters not so but remain valid as those fleeting moments that could so easily become tragic. She writes so fluidly - this is a very honest and open account of some of her darkest moments. Another recommendation.

remus oh that sounds arse. Might try pick it up second hand then.

You can have my copy if you want. I'll swap it for something good!