50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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.

The first thread of the year is here and the second one here.

What are you reading?

Order placed with the book people, mostly ones for my DS though so he's going to do very nicely out of it.

Im quite ruthless with my books, I give them away or sell them once im done. The reason I still have loads of books is my unread list is huge and I'm a sucker for a nice edition or a collection.

Just finished The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. This was a fascinating read focused mainly on an outbreak in monkeys of a virus very closely related to Ebola Zaire and how it was brought under control. Ebola Zaire has a fatality rate of 90% in humans so there was real fear it could escape into the community. There are some very graphic descriptions of what Ebola and a similar filovirus called Marburg do to the body. I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in infectious diseases.

I apologise in advance for posting about multiple books at once

What happens is I open the thread, spend so long reading everyone's reviews and buying books based on them that I run out of time to post...

Book 8. Wonder by RJ Palacio. I was supposedly reading this with my DS after we watched the film together, but ended up reading it ahead by myself in one sitting. For me, it stayed just the right side of touching and thought-provoking, without tipping into sentimentality, and dealt beautifully with themes of friendship, loyalty, etc. One to keep and re-read.

1. Moose by Robert B. Sherman (Audible version, read by his son). Bob is one half of the Sherman brothers (Dick being the other), who wrote songs for Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and loads more.

Really enjoyed this, but I'm a bit obsessed with the Sherman brothers tbh, and Bob was such a dude. The book is made up of short stories from his life rather than a linear autobiography, and there's not so much from his time working with Walt Disney, but more from his childhood and WW2 (he won the purple heart, then came home and whipped up a load of beautiful timeless songs, what a life!).

10. All Creatures Great And Small - Audible version, read by Christopher Timothy - still makes me laugh after many years.

11. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden - childhood favourite which I hadn't read for a very long time, one of the best children's stories about the war and an ending just for the adults (which went completely over my head when I read it as a child).

We operate a strict one in, one out policy with books now. I used to think that having thousands of books proved how clever I was - but I know how clever I am anyway!

OK, fair enough if Marie K only wants 30 books for herself. Not for me, though

I used to think that having thousands of books proved how clever I was - but I know how clever I am anyway!

I know you were joking, Remus, but that's actually quite profound

I’ve come round to the idea of weeding out more since having kids as there’s so much stuff everywhere and then they’ve got their own, but I find it hard. I’m currently reading my childhood copies of 101 Dalmatians, The Hobbit and Matilda to them and I get pangs of nostalgia just seeing some of the pages, so some I could never part with. I never judge anyone by how many books they have or what ones, although I love looking at bookshelves, however I have been a bit unsettled by places with none at all. Like not even half a dozen beach reads and a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird from school? Where are they!

It’s fine to do a few updates in one privatespidey - I only do separate ones because I’m all thumbs and often accidentally delete a big update before I get the chance to post it

I fall in the middle on books - I reckon I've got around 300 or so, and I try quite hard to only keep books that I think I'm very likely to re-read. There's the odd exception (a Spanish language herbal, for example) that I keep purely for memories/sentiment, but I've become much more ruthless in recent years.

I do also have a large bookshelf at work though that I don't count towards my total as theoretically they're not mine as such honest

I'm with you on the people with no books Satsuki. I try to resist my urge to inspect people's bookcases when I visit

Not helpful, but thinking of exploration adventure stories reminds me how much I used to love reading the serials in a Boys Own Paper annual from my grandad's house (he was born early 1890s). That's one of my sentimental books I'd never get rid of :) (There's an 1890 copy digitised - mine is from 1897)

When I was keeping all my school set text books my husband liked to quote this Seinfeld line at me...

Books everywhere here. All rooms have some apart from bathrooms. I do cull from time to time - what is here is mostly things that haven’t been read or which have been read but may be re-read, and I take several bags to the charity bookshop twice a year. DP is unable to get rid of a book, though, and is horrified by my “read ‘em and recycle ‘em” approach. Which is a looming problem as we are contemplating moving in together and that will be a huge issue for shelf space.

My class avoided To Kill a Mockingbird at school

We got Animal Farm instead. Although my copy of that went long ago.

Inspired by you lot, I've just got rid of this bad boy: 1535 pages and 1.225kg of tedious moralising gone.

Plus another 40 or so with it - hurrah!

I know what you mean, Satsuki - I've spent a lot of time on Rightmove recently, and am genuinely surprised by how many houses seem not to have even a single bookshelf

squiz81 Jerry does have shelf space for approximately 10,000 boxes of cereal and a fusilli pasta model of himself though

sadik that is great, and how lovely to own. I’m going to zoom in later and read some of that.

21. No Dominion by Louise Welsh

Final book in her Plague Times trilogy.
It’s 7 years after the Sweats pandemic wiped out civilisation as we know it. A small group of survivors have built a community on the Orkney Islands, but when a group of island teenagers run off, Stevie and Magnus travel to the mainland to try and bring them home.
Readable and plausible, this left me wanting to read more.

22. How to Lose Weight Without Being Miserable by Richard Templar

A collection of weight loss tips.

23. The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

Another post-apocalyptic novel, this one’s set hundreds of years after nuclear war has devastated the world.
All babies born are twins - one a perfect Alpha, one a defective Omega. And intrinsically linked, so if one twin dies, both do.
Twins Cass and Zach both look healthy and flawless, but Cass has a secret psychic ability that marks her as an Omega.

The whole linked twin thing does require a lot of suspension of disbelief. And the Alphas are horrible to the Omegas, which, again, seems senseless given that the Alpha’s lives literally depend on keeping the Omegas alive.
But, on the whole it was an entertaining read.

24. Chimera by Mira Grant

Final book in the Parasitology trilogy.
Implanted tapeworms have effectively turned their hosts into zombies, with a few tapeworms around who’ve managed to infiltrate their hosts brains effectively enough to be fully functional chimeras.

Not my favourite in the trilogy, but it wrapped the series up well.

mackarella I guess the rise of ebooks means that it’s easier than ever to be a keen reader without owning a single book - that may account for some of those seemingly bookless homes?

I was reading The Quarry by Iain Banks, but finding it really hard going entirely due to the subject matter - a dad dying of cancer - so I've stopped that and am now on something about as different as it could be:Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge. This is definitely a YA, on the young side of YA I would say. A fantasy adventure which moves along nicely in a pretty well realised world. No serious themes particularly evident, no sex, no swearing. Good for 10 yo and up, I think.

Our house is stuffed to the rafters with books - dh, dd and I are all bookworms. Thousands of the things!

I try to whittle it down, I try to go through them and sort out the ones I'll never read again or wish I'd not read in the first place but out of every 500 I manage to part with, maybe, 6 to 10. It's hopeless.

AND I have a Kindle.....

Been on a bit of a binge this week

7) Estates; an intimate history - Lynsey Haney
A history of social housing in Britain interspersed with the authors own personal experience. It was well written enough, but she kept saying she hated the stereotype of estates being violent and lawless places while often going on about how she irrationally felt scared just walking through it etc. It was also nothing I didn’t know but I did do my dissertation on housing for my degree so probably shouldn’t have expected to learn much.

8 - Room - Emma Donoughe
Imagine most people here have read this. I enjoyed it but found Jack as a narrator when they were released less effective, as young children have such small worlds anyway and wonder if Ma’s voice would have been more effective as she sees things again.

9 Touching the Void - Joe Simpson
Again assume everyone has read this. First, god mountaineers are insane.
Second, I loved this and it had me hooked, even though the blurb gives away that he is going to be ok, and obviously he wrote the book so didnt die! Found myself holding my breath from when the other two decide to break camp the next morning to when he manages to get back. The complete desire to survive was very inspiring.

12 Rules for Life - An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson

I picked this up from the library when I was feeling particularly chaotic and some kind of 12 step ladder out of it seemed appealing. This is very thought provoking and has lots of interesting diversions into humanity’s history and its need for myth, which is explored through extensive reference to the stories we tell from the Bible to Disney movies, the author’s own experiences of the application of his “rules” to his own life and in his clinical practice. There is not much to find amiss with these rules; they provide a practical and meaningful framework for approaching life and are a kind of common sense, accelerated. Stand up straight, tell the truth, pet a cat when you pass one on the street etc. All great and helpful and expanded on in interesting ways. However as it goes on it gets a bit bogged down in some leaden ideological stuff that seems only tangentially connected to the chapter subject, so by the end I felt I was being doorstepped by a particularly zealous evangelical. One chapter, on the importance of properly disciplining your children, I agreed with totally in theory and (I thought) represented my own approach to correcting behaviour ie cultivate manners and appropriate behaviour and set them up to “win” by not staying too long at restaurants and not allowing them to draw too much negative attention to themselves etc. But then the examples he gave for how he accomplished this took a huge swerve from mine. For eg prodding a 9 month old baby until they open their mouth so you can stick a spoonful of food in then putting your finger over their mouth so they can’t spit it out because they were making a mess and not eating much when they had the spoon themselves. I mean I’m no Earth Mother but that sounds deranged. And holding a child down on a bed and calling him a monster when they wouldn’t stay down. Then we get onto sex differences, and you’ll be pleased to learn it’s all your mother’s fault and if you’re a mother it’s potentially all your fault. Women are told by society they shouldn’t be mothers, that mothering is not important and undervalued and women should be encouraged to fulfil this important biological role despite this. But she shouldn’t be too motherly and protective because her sons will become mass shooters and her daughters will become neurotic messes. Ok, what can dad’s do wrong then? Nothing? Be absent. If they’re present, I think, that’s enough, they can’t really go wrong, just turn up and be a man. Women damage men, women damage children, women damage themselves, got it? Great. I am standing up straighter though. And don’t forget to pet a cat.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

I really enjoyed this thoughtful, quirkily-plotted Western about two brothers who are hired guns. They are on a mission to find a man with a mysterious plan in gold rush California, but one of them may have had enough of the murdering life and we follow Eli Sister’s internal struggle to find a way back to a life of his own choosing. It is gently philosophical on humankind’s relationship to money, the natural world, and the potential and limits of scientific and spiritual endeavour to soothe the soul. This is the second book I’ve read by DeWitt and vastly different in subject and tone to the first. I like him as a writer very much, it is difficult to set the tone of a first person narration such that it captures you easily and completely but he does it here effortlessly.

I like your insights @mackerella . I did languages at A level and Uni and still have a shelf of books from then. I didn’t ‘get’ Marguerite Duras at the time and have no desire to even try now (although I enjoyed reading a biography of hers a couple of years ago), so I should probably get rid off Moderate Cantible, and L’Amant.

I’ve just finished

13. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

I enjoyed the language which was beautifully descriptive but was somewhat underwhelmed by the plot. It’s one of those books I felt I should have read so I bought it when I came across it in a charity shop, but I think it will be going back there too.