26-ish books in 2022

[StColumbofNavron]

Roll up, roll up ...

Shiny new thread for 2022.

I am setting my target at 25 this year.

I want to read at least a min of 5 in hardcopy and at least 4 non-fiction.

@RosieposiePuddingandPi

Can I join you all? I have really fallen out of love with reading over the last year and am determined to get back on the bandwagon this year. I've just started Ordinary People by Diana Evans which I'm struggling with a bit but I'm persevering for now. I'd be happy to get through one book a month for 2022!

Is that the same woman who wrote 26a? I loved that! Have always meant to read more of hers, shame to hear it's not great.

@TankGirl97 I think Natives is absolutely brilliant - should be compulsory reading on the school curriculum!

I'm also thinking I need to dig out my old Adrian Moles

Can I join please? I really need to get out of this no reading funk I’m in.
My tbr list had grown immensely from the suggestions on the thread!
I’m currently reading The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
And listening to The Midnight Library on Audible while I knit.

Ooh, can I be a latecomer too?

I almost read Fugitive Pieces. Loved the first half then just found it slow going and tedious (a reflection on my mind, not the book!)

Now reading and enjoying The Salt Path.

Just finished book 1- The True Story of the Christmas Truce by Anthony Richards Interesting, but quite repetitive. Only 207 pages long, but I was keen to finish it.

4. Watching Neighbours Twice A Day - Josh Widdicombe
Recommendation from TheAnswerIsCake at the end of last year's thread, the subtitle of this book is 'How 90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life', and I thought I would enjoy the recollections from my early teens to early twenties.

A good few laughs, a nicely paced book and fun reminiscing made this a quick, fun read. I particularly liked that Josh grew up in an out-of-the-way place in Devon, which closely mirrored my own experience in Somerset.

I enjoyed reflecting back on this decade, before the internet had taken off and social media/iPhones were not around, and agreed with his comment that 'sandwiched between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and resultant wars, the '90s feels almost like a self-contained period of naive political and social hope'.

After starting the year off with quite a few 'heavy' reads, it was nice to break things up with this light read.

@livingonpurpose

4. Watching Neighbours Twice A Day - Josh Widdicombe Recommendation from TheAnswerIsCake at the end of last year's thread, the subtitle of this book is 'How 90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life', and I thought I would enjoy the recollections from my early teens to early twenties.

A good few laughs, a nicely paced book and fun reminiscing made this a quick, fun read. I particularly liked that Josh grew up in an out-of-the-way place in Devon, which closely mirrored my own experience in Somerset.

I enjoyed reflecting back on this decade, before the internet had taken off and social media/iPhones were not around, and agreed with his comment that 'sandwiched between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and resultant wars, the '90s feels almost like a self-contained period of naive political and social hope'.

After starting the year off with quite a few 'heavy' reads, it was nice to break things up with this light read.

This sounds good, I will add to my Goodreads. Have you seen Josh Widdicombe's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? It's epic!

Just finished book 2 A Gentleman in Moscow. I loved it so much I don't know how to put it into words. Amazing book.

@dollybird No - I am embarrassed to admit I have no idea who Josh Widdicombe is - although I figured out he must be a comedian from things he says in the book! I will try and see if I can watch that episode of WDYTYA online though.

Wow @dollybird - I just read about his WDYTYA episode and what he found out...that was amazing! It's like the dream result from taking part in that programme.

@livingonpurpose

Wow *@dollybird* - I just read about his WDYTYA episode and what he found out...that was amazing! It's like the dream result from taking part in that programme.

Amazing isn't it? I didn't really know who he was either. The traffic lady on our local radio station watched it and said it was the best episode ever, so I gave it a watch and it didn't disappoint 🙂

@CaptainChannel

Just finished book 2 A Gentleman in Moscow. I loved it so much I don't know how to put it into words. Amazing book.

My heart is complete once again. I said to a friend that I hesitated to recommend it to her because if she didn’t like it it would be like rejected my child. I am a drama queen clearly. But I just loved it so much.

She didn’t.

CaptainChannel
Gentleman is a very very special book and I have to immediately disassociate myself from anyone who thinks otherwise 😂

Ooh do you know where I can watch this episode? Love WDYTYA but I don't think I've seen this one! Added the book to my Goodreads TBR shelf too!

iPlayer usually

1. No one is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

This was nominated for the Booker Prize and Women’s Prize For Fiction last year and I bought it last autumn as I was curious to read it based on some reviews. I have to say though that I found it really hard going both in subject matter and style. It’s a difficult read, especially part 2 which is about a baby with a life-limiting disability. Part 1 is about the narrator’s on-line persona. The book has ”important” ideas but it was just quite difficult to follow and referenced a lot of memes which were a bit lost on me.

Next up I need to read a bit more of a page turner. I am considering Rose Tremain’s Restoration.

I’m a bit funny about A Gentleman in Moscow. I started it in summer 2019 but then ended up having quite a traumatic time and a week in hospital. I read the first few chapters in ICU very unwell and couldn’t pick it back up once I was better. I think this might be the time to give it another go because I was completely loving it until I got sepsis. For avoidance of doubt, I did not catch sepsis from the book.

@BaconAndAvocado

CaptainChannel Gentleman is a very very special book and I have to immediately disassociate myself from anyone who thinks otherwise 😂

:-) I'm firmly in the fan club. I want to read it all over again. I'm foisting it on DH later.

@Fridafever

I’m a bit funny about A Gentleman in Moscow. I started it in summer 2019 but then ended up having quite a traumatic time and a week in hospital. I read the first few chapters in ICU very unwell and couldn’t pick it back up once I was better. I think this might be the time to give it another go because I was completely loving it until I got sepsis. For avoidance of doubt, I did not catch sepsis from the book.

I don't think I'd be mad keen about any book that is associated with such a trauma! I do hope you're fully better, and if so please try it again it's so lovely.

@Manteo

Ooh do you know where I can watch this episode? Love WDYTYA but I don't think I've seen this one! Added the book to my Goodreads TBR shelf too!

It's the most recent series, so should be on iPlayer. The Ed Balls one was good too.

I have A Gentleman in Moscow lined up for this year....maybe it should be next as I want a fiction once I finish Vaxxers which is excellent BTW.

1. The House at Old Vine by Norah Lofts
2. The House at Sunset by Norah Lofts

3. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss This book was ok, a quick nostalgic look at some of the popular books I read as a teenager. Need something meatier next!

1. The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai
2. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan - Loved it! Read it across 2 nights because I didn't want to put it down. The 'secret identity' aspect wasn't what I'd imagined, but actually made more sense given the age of the protagonists.

I think I'm going to read Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson next. It's about a girl called Mary, who was convicted of killing a baby in the care of her mother at age 9. Now 16 and pregnant, with the state threatening to take away her unborn child, Mary wants to set the record straight. Hope this one's just as much of a page turner!

Re the Miriam Margolyes book, we read it for book club (i used audible) and it was a universal thumbs down, some stopped reading halfway through. We were expecting it to be graphic but some of it was grim, and we felt quite disturbed by certain aspects of it (telling a story that wasn't any of her business to tell was one). I have lost a lot of respect for her.

1. The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
2. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
3. The Red House by AA Milne

Just finished number 3! This was great if you like that sort of thing (which I do). It’s a very easy read - a locked room murder mystery set in a country house. Zips along, satisfying conclusion. It’s a bit of a curiosity as it’s Milne’s one novel of this type - the main character seems to be being set up for a series of detective novels but they never happened.

Not sure what to do for as number 4 yet. I’ve got a non-fiction book about the evolution of intelligence that’s been on the shelf a few years so might tackle that. It’s Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. It’s a big heavy hardback which is slightly putting me off! No good for reading on the tube.