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?

Me! Thank you southeast, these are my favourite threads. Happy New Year everyone, looking forward to hearing about what you're reading and consequently adding far too many books to my TBR again

Not sure what to start with, I collected 5 holds from the library on Monday so lots to choose from. Think I might join Best and begin with Me by Elton John for a lovely gossipy start to the year.

Welshwabbit and other Antonia Forest fans, I absolutely love Autumn Term (looks like there are a few of us here!) and all of the Kingscote books, I keep meaning to order the reissued ones. Wish they were available for kindle.

Knuckles I'm a bit dismayed to hear about Ducks, Newburyport, I just ordered a copy!

@Waawo a SCALPEL?

Venice, The Secret History is my absolute favourite book, enjoy!

Hello everyone!

I'm starting the new year as I finished the last one - reading a couple of behemoths (Ulysses and 11.22.63) interspersed with lighter reading when I need a bit of a break.

Pepe I'm 54% into Ulysses. Much of it is going over my head, but I'm still enjoying the experience!

Oh - Surfacing, Sightlines and Findings by Kathleen Jamie are all 99p on kindle today. I have snapped them up - I think they were recommended by someone on last year's thread although I'm not 100% sure.

Going to try again this year, was getting on fine last year but fell off when DH died, have few on the go at the moment.

noodle, don’t be dismayed. I'm loving Ducks, Newburyport although it is possibly an acquired taste. I keep thinking "just one more page" and then ten more have gone past. I'd give it 100 pages before giving up.

Tara, impressed by your Ulysses progress. I got bogged down after a flying start but will definitely pick it up again. Even ten pages a day will make a dent, eventually :-)

Hi all! Determined to read more this year. Starting with Fleishman is in Trouble

@noodlezoodle (and others): yes indeed, a scalpel. Maybe it would be less controversial to claim I was making the novels into experimental literature:

www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/books/review/Taylor-t.html

1. Asymmetry - Lisa Halliday (audio)

Set around the time of the US invasion in Iraq this is told in 3 seemingly disconnected sections that look at the imbalances in relationships. The first part looks at a young editing assistant who embarks on a relationship with a high profile author 40 years her senior. He guides her literary education and aspirations while she struggles with her ability to write of others in distant cultures to her own. The middle section, written in the first person tells of a young Iraqi-American travelling from NYC to Kurdistan who gets held in detention at Heathrow en route. He muses on his previous trip and the difference between he and his brother who chose to live in Iraq. The final part is a transcript of the the older author from the first part appearing on Desert Island Discs in which he drops a reference that ties the three parts together which have previously seemed very disconnected.

This will be a very marmite book. It is very cleverly done, but offers no real conclusions to each of the stories, leaving the reader to do all the work. There are lots of literary references including links between the young woman in the first section and Lewis Carroll's Alice. The writing is outstanding. I don't think this would be for everyone, but I do think the author is one to watch. It was a bit of a head bender for the first of the year.

Lovely to have you back Five, best wishes for a happier year.

Thank you Pepe, that's good to hear!

Waawo

I've just realised that as it's the 1st, there are new monthly kindle deals today, and along with the usual bizarre mix there are some thread favourites in there (Viv Albertine, John Boyne, Recursion, and lots of other lovely things).

I have put my finished list of 2019 on the 2019 thread. I managed 38 last year but I am now working full time and alot of my reading was completed when the kids were at school on my afternoons off!! i started After the party by Cressida Connely this morning. Enjoying it so far.

Hello and happy new year! I fell off the thread in about June last year, but did read more than 50.
I'm currently reading Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts, part of a post apocalyptic trilogy, not a challenging read!

Five so sorry for your loss. Good to see you back.

Nufflaff I would like to read Vanity Fair this year too.

Thank you for the reminder about the monthly deals! There's a "New Year New You" type sale too.

Nice to have you back Five

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks to southeast for setting us up for 2020.

Can't really set a target for this year as not sure what my job situation will be. Also, I felt like getting fixated on the number last year made me pick shorter books and not tackle some of the epics glaring at me from my bookshelves (The Agony and the Ecstasy, I promise I will read you this year!)

Also definitely going to avoid buying new books and avoid going to the library (except for book club or practical tomes), and read the contents of my own bookcase. I have banned myself from looking at the kindle daily/ monthly / pirate day deals - after going on a spree on the various post-Xmas sales yesterday, naturally.

Vanity Fair is genuinely brilliant and thought provoking not like some of the older titles that can be a bit of a slog

David Copperfield is the best Dickens as well and if you come at me with fucking Great Expectations you'll be wrong. It's my worst!

Happy new year everyone! Managed 61 last year after bringing my goodreads challenge down from 80 to 60 and so I have set it for 70. Seemed to read less than normal last year with just a mixture of a difficult year and more Netflix etc.

Going to try and read the tonnes of books on my kindle and the paperbacks I own that need read hut I've said this before and don't always do so well

First book of the year complete
1. The Dilemma - B A Paris
Livia is having a 40th birthday party that she's always dreamed off and the only person missing is her daughter Marnie. However, she has a secret and is happy that her daughter won't be there. Her husband, Adam, also has a secret, he has organised for Marnie to come home. When the party starts they have their own dilemmas to cope with.

This was a good start to the year. I loved B A Paris' first book and the 2nd and 3rd weren't as great for me. This one, however, I couldn't put down. The switching viewpoints between Adam and Lydia kept the tension building.

Now to pick a book for book 2..which is more difficult than it sounds.

Not sure who mentioned the Clare Mackintosh book club but I also take part in this so I have Strangers on a Train to read too

I'll join! Had a really good start to reading last year then totally tailed off towards the end. I've got 3 books on the go at the moment which I need to finish then back to the reading list!

five good to see you back

pepe I did express a wish read Ulysses again but bit off more than I could chew last year and put it down. Will try and pick it up again though as you say small amounts. I enjoyed it first time round but it was pre children and was easy to immerse in it but I do think I might get more out of it now.

Welcome to all newcomers - and please no one worry about what you’re reading - anything goes and we discuss and review all sorts. I’m giving it a lot of big talk about Ulysses but I’m currently reading a comic book

I read 67 books last year!

I am just finishing The Infernal City by Greg Keyes. Got it for Christmas, enjoying it.

Hi everyone! Would like to join too. Hoping to read at least one book a week this year. I'm starting off with The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris.

I've been waiting to join this group

I've just finished Wykenhurst by Michelle Paver. It was the perfect spooky, gothic read between Christmas and New Year.

Currently reading The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax by Christopher Shevlin. Very funny.

I'll join!
Currently reading a fantasy called, "The Name of the Wind", by Patrick Rothfuss.

I’d like to join... I usually only lurk.

Today I finished Lifespan by David Sinclair. I didn’t love it but it was an interesting read- about longevity. I don’t agree with him on a lot of his philosophical views; he’s a transhumanist and far more optimistic than I am about technology (she says, tapping on a tiny screen).

Just started The Van Apfel Girls are Gone.

Hello all, please may I join? I lurked on these threads last year and started recording my own reading from August onwards. I think I read just over 50 books last year (and I may have forgotten a few pre-August ones), so I'm going to aim for 75 this year. My library has just replaced its dire app with a much better one, so I've been listening to audiobooks on my commute recently, which should help bump up the numbers.

Thank you so much for your potted reviews - I've discovered so many great books that way! Books I particularly enjoyed last year (in no particular order):

Patrick DeWitt, French Exit
Ali Smith, Autumn
W. Ross Greene, The Explosive Child
Genevieve Cogman, The Mortal Word
Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders
Emma Byrne, Swearing Is Good For You
Lucy Mangan, Bookworm
Shaun Bythell, Diary of a Bookseller
Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister The Serial Killer
Hilary Mantel, An Experiment in Love

I'm really excited about joining in this year!

I'm in for 2020. Read 21 books in 2019, but previous year was about 10 so I did pretty well.

Currently 2/3s through Elena Ferrante - The Story of a New Name, not finding it the most wondrous read, it helps when I get chance to read it in longer sessions.

Have quite a few books ready to start straight after. Keen to finally read All The Light We Cannot See due to the recommendations on 'Book of the Decade' thread.