50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and probably final) 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 and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.The lurkers among you are also very welcome to come out of the woodwork and share with us what you've read!

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

How have you got on this year?

No books here though dd got a couple I may borrow. I did get a lot of book tokens though, so will look forward to spending those. I've got nothing to do tomorrow after dropping the dcs to their father and taking the dog for a walk so am planning on getting into PJs and finishing off several half read books.
Merry Christmas everyone. I've loved this thread and the chat about books - it's been a tricky year but reading has been a highlight.

I would like to say thanks to those who start and post on the threads - the challenge to get to 50 really has got me to focus on reading books rather than just watching TV or faffing online and I have discovered some great new authors. I will definitely join again in 2019.

I got the new Kindle Paperwhite from a very generous friend as I had scratched my old kindle screen rendering it useless. Tis waterproof so looking forward to being able to use it in the bath/kitchen and hoping this will help me get nearer the 50 book mark next year. Hope you all had a nice christmas.

Hello Bibliophiles and a Happy Christmas. I got one proper book and two shit whimsical gifts (one from my Step mother who loves books so disappointed me a bit since I sent her the lovely Winterson book). DH doesn't have Amazon , or like shopping, so I have to request an easily avaiable supermarket book. So I got the new Steohen Fry, which I am quite keen to read. It needs to join the pile, though!

I am battling through the Tom Hanks collection of short stories. He can definitely write but the stories aren't really my thing. Hope to get it finished before year end and then I will have done 80.

Thsi thread has given me a goal this year, opened my reading horizons ( I never would have founf This Thing of Darkness without it!) and often cheered me up. It's a lovely , positive community

A signed Carol Ann Duffy is very exciting!

Merry Christmas, all! I made it to just about 80 this year. I reckon I could do 100 but I seem to lose my reading mojo in Nov/Dec as so much is going on.

I have however bought a few books on the 12 Days of Christmas Kindle sale (inc the complete works of Nancy Mitford). Plus, for Christmas, I received Becoming by Michelle Obama and a lovely poetry book, A poem for every day of the Year.

51. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion Don, an academic with social communication difficulties, goes on a quest to find his perfect woman. Similar in subject matter to Eleanor Oliphant, but less well done IMO. The author seems to want to make Don more normal, and the ending was far-fatched and cheesy.

However, my main motivation in choosing this as a Christmas read was to find something I could make sense of while a bit drunk, and it succeeded on that level.

47. Stephen King Goes To The Movies by Stephen King

This was a collection of some of the not-so-short SK stories that were made into blockbuster films like Children of the Corn and Shawshank Redemption it was OK except for the incredibly long and mind-numbingly boring Hearts in Atlantis ("Low Men in Yellow Coats") about an older man with telepathic powers and a couple of teenagers, which tied into the Dark Tower story towards the end.

This took me a long time to read because the whole teenage thing was just too dull for words. The rest didn't engage me as much as I though it would, either. I think I'm well and truly cured of ever wanting to read another SK book.

So now I have 3 days to read 3 books

Can you recommend me some short books that I would enjoy? Everything on my Kindle is over 600 pages!

I've just tried to get us some new members for the forthcoming 2019 thread by posting on the 'reading resolutions' thread and bigging up you lovely lot.

Thanks to everyone for a hugely enjoyable year in books. I've been spurred on to read more, have had great ideas and tip-offs, and have enjoyed the book talk enormously.

Cote, I'm almost 100% sure you'll have read it anyway, but just throwing this out as a suggestion because I know it's short (a novella), and it's musical so possibly of interest to you...... Mozart's Journey to Prague by Eduard Mörike?

114 And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie

I was quite disappointed with this, not only because I realised half way through that I’d read it before. Even so, I didn’t remember whodunit, but it all seemed rather silly and anticlimactic after such a high body count.

Splother - message me re Berlin - I have lots of recs!

Terpsichore -That sounds great. Thank you

cote , I recommend Jeanette Winterson's Christmas Days : a page turning festive delight, and you can cheat and skip bits!

Dylan Thomas - A Child’s Christmas in Wales is very short Cote and has been counted on here. And seasonal.

202. A Literary Christmas

Collection of poems and extracts from novels, with a seasonal theme. As with all these books, some I enjoyed more than others but a nice festive read.

203. Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford

Despite the title this isn’t really about Christmas at all - only one chapter is about Christmas, so I was a bit disappointed from that point of view. However, I enjoyed it otherwise - light and funny so perfect for this time of year when you don’t want anything too heavy.

cote there is an Ian Mcewan Novella quite cheap on Kindle (or was when I last looked) called My Purple Scented Novel or something like that.

cote - not sure if you are a Sarah Moss fan or hater (I know she polarises opinion on here) but her new one, Ghost Wall, is novella-length and in the kindle sale.

Happy Christmas, Everyone! 🎄

I received three books from DH - One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, Cassandra at the Wedding Dorothy Baker and The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst. I gave my DH three books from this thread: The Whites, The Boys in the Boat and The Warmth of Other Suns. I will definitely be borrowing The Warmth of Other Suns, handy that! And I got Amazon vouchers from my brother to buy Kindle books into the New Year. 😊

55. Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.

99p Kindle purchase a couple of months, I think. Entertaining-enough fantasy, not outstanding but readable in my current reading mind.

56. Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting by Noël Janis-Norton.

Excellent parenting book. This has changed the way I interact with my boys for the better. And made me look at my own behaviour. Easy steps, there is repetition but, I thought, not in a patronising way. Life-changing.

Just treated myself to a Kindle Fire.

Currently reading The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - far prefer Sayers when it's just Peter.

Merry Christmas everyone! Just the one book for Christmas this year, The Wood, by John Lewis-Stempel, which I think was a recommendation from this thread that I'm really looking forward to reading.

South I will certainly join the 2019 thread, it's one of my favourite corners of the internet, despite being very bad for my TBR list.

Happy Christmas everyone.
I received This Thing of Darkness from my mother and a very beautiful Folio Society copy of The Princess Bride from dh. Pretty happy with that mini haul.

shakeitoff I’ve just downloaded it thanks.

Would anyone on this thread like The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock as a late Christmas present? I have a nice hardback copy and I won’t read it again. I would be happy to post it to a good home, else I will charity shop it; let me know.

Good evening everyone, I dipped in and out of previous threads and have since name changed. I would love to keep up with future threads as I really enjoy all the recommendations; my TBR list has grown massively based on this thread alone!

Could anyone recommend an accessible book for parents of children newly diagnosed with Aspergers?

Just completed my 80th book, Uncommon Type , Tom Hanks collection of short stories. This started quite well but became tedious by the end as the stories - well, I guess it's the point , but nothing happens in most of them and most of them are pretty masculine. They are about American Life. Some of them are more fantastical (the time travelling one, for example) but generally they were rather ordinary. He does write well. Just not my cup of tea. Sorry, Tom. I still love you.

I have Decmber's Bleak House chapters to finish over the next few days and will also try to squeeze in Lullaby, the next book selected by my RNG. And then onwards to 2019! Very excited at the prospect of some of the books I have pre ordered.