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?

Please can I join in?

1. Snap - Belinda Bauer - christmas thriller, read in bed in one sitting.
2. Life Before God - Douglas Coupland. Found it gathering dust on a shelf and read some in the bath yesterday. Can't work out yet if it's essays, short fic or a disjointed novel. Not one of his classics, but I do love his style so enjoying it so far.
3. Beautiful Mutants - (on the go at the same time) by Deborah Levy started this before Christmas but not finished it yet. Was absolutely loving it. Plotless and very poetic both of which normally annoy me but this is a fantastically perceptive and moving portrait of misfits and oddballs bumbling along with their lives.

Oh I’d not heard of Book Worm before - added it to my wish list. I definitely had a Sweet Valley High phase and various pets were named Elizabeth after my heroine.

Re: Swallows and Amazon I saw the recent film adaptation over Christmas. Felt a bit unnecessary to rename Titty Tatty.

1. This is Going to Hurt Great, easy read that makes me hate what’s being done to the NHS. I messaged a doctor friend afterwards and she said it’s basically all true and loads of her colleagues are leaving.

1. Normal People, Sally Rooney. Just stayed up til 2 am reading this gift from my husband. I loved it. Captured the school / uni phase so well for me. The way friendships that seemed so important can just sort of end when you move away and then it’s never the same again. Can not believe Rooney was born in 1991!

I was disappointed that Swallows and Amazons wasn't in Bookworm too - it's a big classic. I'm going to have to try and read Bookworm again soon I think, it might have been the omission of S&A that finally led me to abandon it 1/2 way or thereabouts.

I'm in again if anyone remembers me

I drop out as I don't have the time to update regularly so then it ends up a huge task!

I carried my first book over from 2018 and finished it last night:
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. It is essentially about what it is like to be a British Muslim. The brother who's disappeared to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. His twin sisters befriending the son of a powerful British Muslim politician. Love and politics inevitably collide and sacrifices made all in the name of love.
This was a book group choice. My initial feeling is one of disappointment. I wanted to like this book more than I did. I found the story somewhat predictable especially the ending and my overall feeling is that it could have been so much more. I do think it will make a good book group discussion though.

I'm aiming to read all my unread books in the first part of the year so started The Missing Girl by Jenny Quintana which has been on my kindle since last June.

I just finished my third book of the year Tales of Twilight and the Unseen by Arthur Conan Doyle

I didn't enjoy this collection of short stories at all. I love old fashioned short stories, especially ghost stories but these didn't work for me. They were a mixture of mystery, ghost and science fiction but I didn't really enjoy any of them. The endings were flat and while they weren't terrible they left me cold. I can see why he was renowned for Sherlock and not for these. This is going straight in the charity shop bag.

Can I join?

I've also just finished reading

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney but I didn't like it. It's going straight to the charity shop. I found it too emotionally draining. He liked her, she liked him, his friends didn't. Then she had a boyfriend. I could not handle the drama!

Now reading
2) The Core by Peter V Brett, fifth and final instalment of a fantasy series

And also
3) Murder never misses by Faith Martin a Hillary Greene detective novel. I love Hillary Greene!

hi , i,m in! 1st book is The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. Set in Paris and Hungary during WW2.

@BonBonVoyage I've got some Sally Rooney books on my kindle after hearing all the hype. I've either heard that it's the best thing people have read in ages or it's overhyped. Your review is interesting. I want to give it a go now to see if I'm like you or if I believe the hype

I would love to join in. I lurked last year but never thought I could read 50 books so didn’t post. I started tracking my reading on goodreads and reached 41. Hoping for 59 this year as reach that age and hoping to take early retirement.

Currently reading - Bleak House by Charles Dickens following the readalong but started later so playing catch-up. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Finished The Sisters last night in one sitting. Very easy read and interesting twists and turns. Felt the ending fell a little flat though and felt rushed but an enjoyable read all the same.
Moving onto book 2 Of Mice and Men.
Like the sound of Book worm I haven't heard of that before. Might go to that next. As a teacher I get to revisit books from my childhood by introducing them into my classroom.

I'd love to join in please.

Currently on my first book of the year, Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. It's about a hidden tribe of super athletes in the depths of a rainforest in Mexico. I'm hoping it inspires me to get my running mojo back!

I’ve never read Swallows and Amazons.

Is it worth reading as an adult?

I'm now mildly depressed at the number of people who've already finished more than one book, and it's only the 2nd of Jan!

My first book is West Pier by Patrick Hamilton. I loved The Slaves of Solitude last year and I've had this one sitting on my shelves for years (an old secondhand hardback copy which apparently I paid £1 for at some point in the distant past). So far I'm loving it. It's very dark.

I wasn’t a great fan of Swallows as a child, tried reading it to my ds and it didn’t stand up that well for us. He loves Enid Blyton and Rumer Godden and other older books.

I never read Swallows and Amazons as a child Stitches. Started and abandoned it last year - it didn't do anything for me.

Hi guys, I am a quarter of the way through "why mummy drinks" very funny. Any recommendations for my next read would be good.

Thanks

Pecky I hope you enjoy The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - I've heard mostly good reviews.
But I have to say that I haven't been into Waterstones since I went in one day to pick up a copy of The Eagle of the Ninth for my grandson and the woman in the children's section was basically standing over me trying to push me into buying something else. I wasn't even browsing, I went in knowing exactly what I wanted.
I'm not keen on hardselling at the best of times and certainly not in a bookshop.

I’ve thrown myself into this challenge as per all NY resolutions! I have a written plan for how I am going to achieve 50 and a weekly formula!!! Will finish my first book tonight although it is a short one!

1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
Loved this! Really well-written and the characters were believable. There was a real sense of creeping disquiet as I read through. It made me think about the themes of outsiders, small town politics and madness. Really want to read another of hers but they are a bit pricey on the kindle at the moment.

I tried reading Swallows and Amazons to my dds several years ago. They were both outraged at the division of roles by gender and refused to listen to anything where the girls took such pleasure in washing up while the boys got to to do the fun stuff. Kept telling them to wait for the entrance of the Blackett sisters but it was too late. I was also fairly horrified at the negligent parenting of allowing one’s offspring to bugger off in a boat for god knows how long when one of them can’t even swim, and the blatant disregard for safety and common sense by using paraffin lamps INSIDE a canvas tent without a fire bucket
The memories of reading them are wonderful though, and we saw and loved the play at the outdoor theatre in Chester last year which reminded me that the story itself is great.

I have just finished The Silent Companions I quite enjoyed it but was a little disappointed with the ending. I am now reading 10 Keys To Happier Living and may start The Innocent Wife.

I would have said it was worth re-reading Swallows as an adult except that I re-read A Town Like Alice last year after it being my favourite book for years and years. I don't know if I'd read it too often (is that even possible?) but I was disappointed by it.
None of my DCs liked Swallows and Amazons at all.

Joining in again this year (under a new name). I did 40 reads last year but dropped off the thread as my lists kept corrupting with the formatting being all over the place. It drove me mad so I got fed up trying to retype it each time I updated.

Trying again this year though.

1. Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman.

A fabulous retelling of the old Norse myths. I like the way he injects humour and colour into the tales, making them feel much more contemporary. An easy and enjoyable first read.

@FortunaMajor - Mythos is a great book - it was my first read of 2018. Words were had in the Dot household when his follow up "Heroes" was not delivered by Santa!!

I have numerous Christmas books and an ever growing TBR pile, so have settled for pre -ordering the paperback when it comes out in June!

Finished book 1! Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch. I’ll be honest: not impressed. Bit meh. Love the ideas and concepts - the Folly, a social branch of the met police for magic, and local gods and goddesses, and some great characters - but the writing is pretty bad. Like, typos, thin characterisation, and plot held together with very unclear prose. Shame :(

Onto 2. This is Going to Hurt

will join too please. Just returned from the library with a mixed haul of crime, chic lit and 1 volume of short stories. the last thing I read in 2018 was Sally Rooney Normal People - like others I was underwhelmed. It was one of those where you want to shake the protaganists rather than empathise with them.