50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Nine

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and definitely final) thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge was to read fifty books (or more!) in 2018, though reading fifty wasn't mandatory. 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, the seventh one here and the eighth one here.

How have you got on this year? Feel free to list your stats, full lists, favourites and disappointments!

Reckon Mary Beard will be in that top 5 - 10 as well.

Yes, I remember now Satsuki that you weren't a fan either. Good to know it wasn't just me

Here's the top 5 (top 10 is too many books to list)

1st

This is going to hurt Adam Kay 10
Everything I never told you Celeste Ng 10

2nd

My grandmother sends her regards and apologises Fredrik Backman 8

3rd

61 Hours Lee Child 7

4th

All quiet on the western front - Erich Maria Remarque Erica Maria Remarque 6
The Good People Hannah Kent 6
The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller Madeleine Miller 6
SPQR by Mary Beard. Mary Beard 6

5th

Snap Belinda Bauer 5
I See You Clare MacKintosh 5
Mothering Sundayby Graham Swift Graham Swift 5
The Reservoir Tapes - Jon McGregor Jon McGregor 5
The Hunting Party Lucy Foley 5
Why I am no longer talking to white people about race Reni Eddo Lodge 5
The silkworm Robert Galbraith 5
First One Missing - Tammy Cohen Tammy Cohen 5

Wow, that’s interesting. Not surprised by the Adam Kay. Not heard of the Backman and Lee Child is a surprise too, though why I should be surprised I don’t know seeing as he is so popular.

Surprised that Eleanor Oliphant wasn't in there. Thanks Brizzle. That must have taken you ages!

208. How to hold a grudge by Sophie Hannah

Managed to squeeze one more in today! Sadly I didn’t like it much. I like Hannah’s crime books, but she’s now decided to write a self help book about how holding grudges can be good for you if done in the right way. I’m not a fan of self help books (I was bought this as a present, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered) and I don’t think this really added anything to my life! I did like the stories of situations that she and others hold grudges about though.

I’ve only read two in that top 5 list! I was right with Adam Kay being top, but was surprised that Backmann and Child were so high. Not surprised Eleanor wasn’t in there as I think lots of us read that last year. Thanks for collating that Brizzle.

And thanks to Southeast for running the threads, and thanks to all of the rest of you for making my to read list incredibly long and giving me different ideas of things to read.

See you all on the other side!

Most popular authors in order by number of books read - the more prolific authors benefit here! I think you can ignore Jeffrey Archer - somebody read nearly all of the Clifton Chronicles (a 7 part series) and I (sorry!) read the 12 free short stories which were released as one book each month for the year.

1st Jeffrey Archer
2nd Anne Cleeves
3rd Susan Hill
4th Ellie Griffiths
5th Susanna Gregory
6th Lee Child
7th Agatha Christie
7th Kate Atkinson
7th Stephen King
6th Mercedes Lackey
6th Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre
5th amanda prowse
5th Barbara Kingsolver
5th Jenny Colgan
5th JK ROwling
5th Matt Haig
5th Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
5th Robert Harris
5th Sebastian Faulks
5th trisha ashley
4th Anne Tyler
4th Catherine Storr
4th Elizabeth Strout
4th Georgette Heyer
4th Jonathan Coe
4th Naomi Novik
4th Penelope Lively
4th Tammy Cohen
4th veronica henry

Thanks for crunching the numbers, brizzle . I did read one from the top 5 after all - I forgot about Snap , which probably says quite a lot! Not a memorable book, and frankly astonishing that it got onto the Booker longlist.

I blame myself for the Anne Cleeves - I think I read about 15 of her books this year. She s good though.

Thanks so much Brizzle for all your hard work. Interesting lists. Funny that the Adam Kay was predicted but the Celeste Ng slipped under the radar.

Finished my reading with my Bleak House chapters with a character spontaneously combusting wtf Charles are you on glue?

See everyone back again in 2019

Finished another one - this really will be my last book of 2018! (I don’t think it’ll be popular enough to mess up your lists brizzle )

89. Keep You Safe by Melissa Hill

This story is all about vaccination, specifically the MMR vaccine.
There’s two families - first one, with daughter Clara, has chosen not to vaccinate because of concerns over vaccines safety (including the discredited claims that MMR causes autism).
Second one, with daughter Rosie, hasn’t vaccinated because Rosie is severely allergic to a component in all vaccines.

Clara gets measles, a few days later Rosie also gets measles and Clara’s family get the blame, which is made worse when Rosie becomes very seriously ill.

Just squeezed another in today,

65. Christmas Pudding Nancy Mitford I enjoyed it actually, bit too pissed to write a more intelligent review!

Thanks for collating the lists, brizzledrizzle

Interesting reading

I think I’ve only read one of the books in that top 5.

and finally 1223 different books were read by 813 different authors.

and thank goodness for excel macros

and really finally, that's 1725 books in all counting the multiple reads for some books.

Yes we all plumped for the wrong Celeste Ng!

I don’t recall the Backmann mentioned at all so that is a surprise to me. The Lee Child less so as he crops up quite often throughout so it makes sense.

Thanks bizzle

I’ve only read one in the top 5 this year; others previous years.

Very surprised to see Eleanor Oliphant isn't among the most-read - i thought I'd seen it on loads of lists, including mine.

Tell a lie, 2 from the top 5.

Thanks bizzle : you're a legend! I still think Lucy Mangan was the single most read book....

I have only read Matt Haig and Faulks off the collated list this year, oddly. Kate Atkinson lurks in my tbr.

Scribbly the spontaneous combustion is so famous and so odd that I forgot to concentrate on who actually combusted and had to google.

Thanks bizzle. Fascinating.

5 people read the Lucy Mangan book from memory, I didnt finish it as I couldnt get into it so I didnt count it, Ill try again next year.

I'm also surprised Eleanor Oliphant isn't on there, along with The Hearts Invisible Furies. Then again maybe only four of us had each one in our lists on this thread.

I think with the Lucy Mangan you have to be almost exactly her age and have read the same books as her. I loved most of Bookworm but our tastes did diverge at several points and the later chapters deserted me all together!

Next year, I plan to read Shakespeare Saved My Life by Laura Bates of Everday Sexism fame which looks interesting.

39 Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds

Graphic novel in a class of its own, The pages are almost used like a sketchbook to get the right images in the right places to make every well-observed point individually. Masterful.