50 Book Challenge 2021 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?

I’d like to join, too please. Starting with Spoon fed, why almost everything we have been told about food is wrong by Tim Spector.

May I join?
I've just started Heroes by Stephen Fry.

I bought two of the Jan Morris ones - the Europe one and another more general collection of essays. I highly recommend Coronation Everest.

I've got loads of DNF books. Probably about another 50! Life is too short to read a book that doesn't grab you!

I've bought Coronation Everest as well. I'd forgotten Jan Morris broke the story at the time.

@bettbattenburg

I've taken the first step towards not buying books in 2021 - I deleted my Amazon wishlist

I audibly gasped at that bett I can’t even imagine! Well done though, that is a big step!

I also did a double take of that betts

A small shiver went down my spine

PERISH THE THOUGHT!!

Yowza, bett, deleting your wishlist feels very brave!

Cheese, if the Ex Libris you mention if the one by Anne Fadiman, it is adorable.

Tax, you have some good books lined up - I love the Adam Rutherford one.

I've just come back from a run using the Zombies Run app. At my speed, the shambling hordes would be contentedly feasting on my brains in minutes, but never mind. To stick with the theme, I intend to go back and finish World War Z, which I abandoned half-read last summer. First I need to finish finish Trandscende, by Gaia Vince. It's non-fiction, and as is subtitle says, it explains "How humans evolved through fire, language, beauty and time". It requires a bit of concentration, but it is accessible and I'm enjoying it.

It’s not the Ann Fadiman one biblio, although I did read that a couple of years ago and agree that it’s lovely. This one is quite new and is by Michiko Kakutani.

I don’t think I would be brave enough to delete my amazon wish list. I use it to remind myself when books are due out and I often just use it as a reminder of books I want to read which I then get from the library.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit @bibliomania @TaxTheRatFarms I know I will regret it but it became a bad habit to look at it and then buy anything that was 99p and some books that had halved in price. Clicking that delete button wasn't easy [rolls eyes a la Jo Brand]

I’m going to count this as book 1 of 2021 as whilst I started it yesterday I read over 60% of it today
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz:
An Agatha Christie-esque crime novel but it is also a story within a story and very intriguing it is too!

Editor Susan Ryeland has worked with the crime writer Alan Conway for years and his detective, Atticus Pund, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s. When she is given the manuscript of his latest novel, she has little idea it is not quite what it seems. Hidden in the pages of the manuscript there lies another story between the very words on the page, telling of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder.
I’ve been reading a lot of ‘Whodunnits’ over the past year and this has been a fitting way to end 2020 and begin 2021

I'm not really concerned about how many I read but more about keeping a track of what I've read. I'm also planing to reduce my book buying and concentrate on my TR pile although having been on this thread before it's more likely my wish list will grow

Having a lazy day today so after the obligation NY day walk I'll be settling down with book number 2 - *Snow by John Banville

Sorry!!! Bold fail!

@Eine Greenlights was ok. It is interesting reading how McConaughey's early experiences have shaped him. He credits a lot of his success to his upbringing, which I think is frankly abusive, and it's bloody lucky he didn't end up a crack head in a trailer park.

I listened to him on Rangan Chatterjee's podcast recently and he is just a stream of consciousness. I got literally none of his content, but enjoy his accent and his turn of phrase!

Can I join please? I read and enjoy these thread , but never join in. I've decide this year I will. I'm currently rereading shardlske I've just finished Dissolution and am about to start Dark fire. I love the character of Matthew.

Me I’m in looking forward to all that reading!

Happy New Year 50 Bookers old and new! I'm starting with Middlemarch by George Eliot .

Looking forward to reading all your reviews and recommendations in the months ahead.

Will wait for your review, Chessie.

Hello - I’m aiming to read 50 books this year - just managed it for 2020

I mainly read young adult and girls own type books (school stories etc) although do read some grownup books

Started a new one last night so will be my first for 2021

Golden Pavements by Pamela Brown

I'd like to join too! I might start the new year with a couple of slight cheats () as I started them in December

1. The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater
2. Unnatural causes by Richard Shepherd - this memoir of a forensic pathologist is definitely an antidote to the lovely festive vibe of the first! I'm reading it for a book club otherwise I probably wouldn't have chosen it for Christmas reading.

Those reading The Five - it is brilliant and also one of my 2020 faves

First book down The Stranger Harlan Coben. Not sure if the plot really stood up but was an easy enough read & suited my mood.

Happy New Year everyone! And thank you for the new thread. I tend to pop in and out of these. Managed 78 last year and hoping to just go for 80 next year.
Don't want to buy many books.. But I have set up one Pre-orders every month from January to July as I'm hoping to look at buying a house. And these can be little treats.
@bettbattenburg deleting the wishlist is brave! I keep mine and try only buy kindle books that drop to 99p that are on my list. Not any others.
Starting this year with what looks like an easy kindle unlimited read The Three Mrs Wrights - Linda Keir.

Oh OK bett - that makes sense.

I’ll be trying to get to 50 this year.

For Christmas I received Thursday night murder club so I will be starting with this.

I'm going to join this year after lurking last year. Book 1 will be The Nakano Thrift Shop, loved The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by the same author so hoping it will be as charming.

1. The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré A good one to start the new year. It is the story of Adunni, a teenage girl from Nigeria, whose mother has died and her father, contrary to his wife's dying wish takes Adunni out of school and marries her to a local taxi driver who is much older than her. Adunni will be his third wife and is told in no uncertain terms that she will be required to have a baby boy within a year. Her husband's first wife treats her appallingly, but she forms a friendship with the second wife Khadija, who is heavily pregnant. Adunni misses school dreadfully and knows that getting an education is her only route out of her situation. She dreams of being a teacher. When Khadija dies, Adunni is terrified she will be blamed, so she runs away. She finds herself in Lagos, working as a housemaid, and initially it looks as if she has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. The previous maid has disappeared and no one will talk about her, the agent who got her the job has disappeared with all her salary and she is beaten daily, but all the time she sneaks books out of her employers bookcases in an attempt to continue her education. I enjoyed how the narrative is in her voice, and how that voice becomes more educated and knowledgeable as the book progresses. It is a page turner and I was thoroughly invested in what happens to Adunni. I'd definitely recommend it.

I am also reading The Five and really enjoying it, and I listened to a chunk of The Body by Bill Bryson while I was cleaning out the fridge earlier.