50 Book Challenge 2020 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 2020, 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?

Hi can I join in too?
I doubt I'll manage 52 books but would be happy with 25. Or even just to have less unread books I the house this time next year (must stop buying more when I haven't read the ones I've got!)
I'm currently reading the castle by Kafka which I hate but refuse to not finish a book. I got very excited last week as thought I had lost it on the train and could start something else but then found it at the bottom of my bag...

@whippetwoman, such a bargain. I usually skim through the first few 'Look Inside' pages before I buy kindle books, and with all the Kathleen Jamie's I didn't want to stop reading.

First book finished

1. Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Loved this. A sort of murder mystery/ghost story, set around an ancient pub The Swan, on the River Thames. A small community all reveal their various strange stories when a girls body is discovered drowned on winter solstice. It’s quite a magical story with some nice historical references to riverside life long ago.

@CordeliaScott That’s surely the very definition of the universe telling you not to finish the book? The fact that it’s Kafka, I’m sure there’s a joke there somewhere but it’s late and I’m tired lol

Ooo has Diane Setterfield got a new one out? I liked the two I've read.

1. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyankin Braithwaite

Short book set in Nigeria, about a woman who helps her younger sister cover up murdering her boyfriends. I did enjoy it, but I was expecting a twist at the end that never really came.

Me!! I've set my Goodreads Reading Challenge at 75... The last couple of years I've set it at 50 and I've gone past it each time so it was time to up it.

EineReise This one (Once Upon A River) was published Jan 2019. I’ll definitely read more of Diane Setterfield on the back of this one.

@chrissysouth I've seen the movie adaptation of Sarah's Key and it was a brilliant movie. I'd say the book is definitely worth a read!

Hello! I'm joining for the first time - not so much as a challenge but as a way to record what I read. I've set up a goodreads challenge but I'm having trouble recording - after creating it i put a book on read but it hasn't added to the challenge. Any advice appreciated!

My first one is a cheat as i read only half this year - Hold The Dream bu Barbara Taylor Bradford. Not good but enjoyable and I will read the next one.

I'm another who got a kindle for Christmas so will be be trying to read some of the thousands I got on the app. Some just don't feel right reading on the phone - hopefully the kindle will feel more book like. Bookbub is fantastic for free or cheap books and if I don't like it I can abandon a book conscience free.

To the person who is reading a new Brandon Sanderson and is worried it will be a dud I will be amazed if it is. Not read anything by him I haven't loved! Can't justify it right now but Skyward is on my list...

Thank you for setting up this challenge- really looking forward to it and getting inspired by other's lists.

@NewYearsHumberElla

I've read both and both are really good, Thirteenth Tale is a "Big House With Secrets" story and Bellman and Black is "Gothic Victoriana Haunting"

Thanks to everyone who mentioned "sorry I'm late"... I bought it for the kindle app and it's wonderful so far.

And now someone is commented on my challenge and I cant find how to see it!

1. Marie Antoinette: An Intimate History – Melanie Clegg

Kindle read in preparation for my birthday trip to Versailles and Paris next week.

This was definitely a light and informal introduction to the life and times of the doomed last queen of France. As the author intended, it is more of a first look and not a heavy, in depth thesis. I was disappointed by the total lack of references and links to original source material; unforgivable in a historical biography.

Clegg states that she initially planned this as a 'beach read biography' which was to have been called 'From Teen Queen to Guillotine'. I actually felt a bit relieved that the author herself doesn't take herself too seriously as I really wanted to love this, but couldn't.

To all those reading Anna Karenina - I read it in my twenties (as an inveterate reader of classic literature) and I suggest that you give yourself permission to skip the bits that are about harvesting cycles [unless a particular personal passion].

I did enjoy it - but I wasn't entirely convinced that I did enough to justify the reading hours.

I also wasn't sure I'd really got it.

Had a lecturer at uni that told me to watch the movie. He may have had a point!

I was a history student and not a literature one though....

Book 2 is The Wych Elm by Tana French.
Enjoying it so far....hoping it will keepe gripped as I really want to lose myself in a book during my last few days off before I go back to work.

@Chrissysouth if you haven't read the handmaids tale I recommend it. Not too long either, but worth it. Though bleak.

Thank you all, I haven't read any on the list yet. I've just started reading The Rosie Project and will be reading Sarah's Key and The Handmaid's Tale next.

@Binglebong I think you have to add it to your currently reading first then mark as read. Otherwise it thinks you’ve read historically rather then this year.

Woohoo! thanks Palegreenstars.

Now I just have to figure how people are commenting on my challenge...

For the Goodreads challenge you need to have the started reading date in 2020 for it to register.

Binglebong The advice above from Palegreenstars is the easiest way to make sure it counts for this year. You can also add a reading date on the book's own page in the app, or in the 'my books' section on the website which will then add it to your challenge.

Ooh I didn’t know I had to start it this year for it to count - got a few library that I’ve not started yet that have been on there for a while. Thanks!

@Chrissysouth The Handmaid's Tale is one of my favourite books and I loved A Man Called Ove so would definitely recommend them both.