50 Book Challenge 2019 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 2019, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

I’m glad I didn’t buy Emma yesterday. I don’t mind multiple narrators/sound effects/dramatisation but only when it’s made clear upfront that’s what I’m getting. If it’s sold as narrated by one person that’s what I expect.

whilst Stephen Fry massaged my feet and Prince Harry peeled grapes for me.

Was the therapy successful? Stephen Fry can stay well away from my feet thank you very much

I see your private yacht and raise you my own jet plane.

And I haven’t spotted any snobbery on here (hopefully it’s not me she’s referring to!!)😀 I agree that there’s a wide range of reading on here and I’ve never seen anyone be snobby about someone else’s reading choice - healthy disagreement yes, but not snobbery!

I've not read Little fires either but might pick it up if I see it in the library. My 10p find from yesterday Margaret Forster's The Unknown Bridesmaid was an easy read. Child Psychologist Julia is herself damaged by a traumatic childhood. Not one of her best and a bit "doughty Northern matriarch" heavy but still about 20 times better than all the so-called psychological thrillers out there.

Can I respectfully suggest that we adopt this as the official thread book?

I’ve just heard that Bill Bryson will have a new book out this year - not until October though. It’s all about the human body. I’m looking forward to that as I love his writing.

Hmm I read a wide range of books including some pretty low brow stuff. Just like I'm not always in the mood for a three course meal sometimes I just want a takeawy.

My book #6 is The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp oner of those chick litty retellings of classics Vanity Fair this time. So far it's OK but I'm bust at work so good to unwind.

MuseumOfHam I'm the Ann Leckie fan. I also found the first book took time to get into. I think she wants you to discover the world for yourself. The second and third books are great.

I’ve just heard that Bill Bryson will have a new book out this year - not until October though. It’s all about the human body. I’m looking forward to that as I love his writing.

Oh, excellent news. I hope it's good as I do like his writing but I've found the later ones about Shakespeare, the 1920s on and Thunderbolt kid to be poorer than his travelling ones.

Oooh Bill Bryson. I remember lots of people petitioning HQ for a webchat when they were all the rage .
I am in a real post-christmas rut of psycho thrillers. Very much enjoying You Let Me In
I've picked up Little Fires Everywhere a few times in shops and put it down again.
I devoured Agatha Christie's in my teens. Love And Then There Were None and Sparkling Cyanide best.

I’m reading Infinite Jest and a massive Stephen Pinker book while hurrying up DD to get on and finish the last in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy because I want to read it when she’s done. All books welcome in my TBR pile if they add to the general merriment or interest of living.

Love a bit of Bryson but hated Little Dribbling. One about the body sounds perfect.

I particularly liked his books about languages such as The Mother Tongue

Bill Bryson returns this year with a new book, to be published in October by Transworld.

THE BODY: A Guide for Occupants “is an extraordinary exploration of the human body which will have you marvelling at the form you occupy”. The successor to 2010's A Short History of Nearly Everything, it will “help you understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up”, according to the publisher.

Bryson said: “We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us. What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.”

THE BODY: A Guide for Occupants will be published by Transworld on 3rd October 2019 and in the US and Canada by Doubleday on 15th October 2019 and is now available to pre-order.

I couldn’t bear Little Fires Everywhere. So twee. So much description about the mums photography. I rarely find books that describe fake art projects any good but here just sounded so naff may as well have videoed a sad plastic bag.

I really liked Little Fires I immediately bought her other book all the things I never told you (title might not be right!). I didn't like that one as much though.

Gosh this is a dangerous place for adding to your “must read” list!

@shake the Chinese memoir sounds fascinating - read an excellent Chinese novel last year, Dream of Ding Village (based on a true story of the blood-selling scandal in Henan province - heartbreaking but somehow also funny) and now really curious to read more. I like Bill Bryson’s “sciencey” stuff too so that’s exciting.

Love that Jilly Cooper quote

FortunaMajor it’s not the audiobook of The Hobbit narrated by Nicol Wiiliamson is it? It does have music in it (not all the way through though) and I’m afraid I simply cannot countenance any criticism of it It’s the most important book, yes that particular audiobook, in my life. I was unable to MarieKondo it despite no longer owning a tape player and I plan to have it playing in the background as I depart this mortal coil. It’s the definitive recording of The Hobbit and I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL

All books welcome in my TBR pile if they add to the general merriment or interest of living.

This ^^ by pepe. But taste is a real thing too and everyone is entitled to like what they like, and say when they don’t. And some things just are worse than some other things, but as long as that is not extended into judgement of the reader there is nothing wrong in saying so. My Mum reads vastly different things to me and would never get on with many of my choices, but raiding her shelves was as formative for me as a reader as anything I found for myself. I rather enjoy trawling for books I think she’d like, and it is always extra special if I find some common ground for us

Talking of new books Underland: a deep time journey by Robert MacFarlane (a favourite of mine) is out on May 2nd.

Discover the hidden worlds beneath our feet...

In Underland, Robert Macfarlane takes a dazzling journey into the concealed geographies of the ground beneath our feet - the hidden regions beneath the visible surfaces of the world. From the vast below-ground mycelial networks by which trees communicate, to the ice-blue depths of glacial moulins, and from North Yorkshire to the Lofoten Islands, he traces an uncharted, deep-time voyage. Underland a thrilling new chapter in Macfarlane's long-term exploration of the relations of landscape and the human heart.

ScribblyGum I can't remember as I didn't get that far in to it, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have been The Hobbit as I bloody hated it when I read it in school. That music definitely set off some sort of twitch though.

@Southeastdweller psst it's time for a shiny new thread if you haven't yet seen.

Yes I'll do it shortly

I quite liked Little Fires Everywhere but thought she bit off more than she could chew with her story and it felt a bit unfocused.

We're a talkative lot I've survived 2 weeks without dropping out
Happy days

@satsuki I can really relate to what you say about your mother. Raiding her shelves as a kid took me from the Chalet School via Agatha Christie to Iris Murdoch and Muriel Gray with a detour via P.D.James, Josephine Tey, Georgette Heyer and Ruth Rendell. Then we had an uncomfortable decade of trying to “mould” each other’s taste before I woke up and realised it was completely fine to buy her Colin Dexter for Christmas and she began buying me Ali Smith. But the best moments are when we find overlap novels - Gentleman in Moscow was the most recent and I somehow especially enjoy those books that she also likes.

New thread here