50 Book Challenge 2022 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 2022, 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.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

Who's in for this year?

@Robgem81

This is a genuine question - how are some people 4 or 5 books into this year already?

I'm about to finish book 3 of 2022 purely because it's an audiobook and I listen to them constantly when doing 'automatic' tasks like cooking/washing up/driving. I normally get through 2-3 audiobooks per week, more if we're counting shorter/children's/YA books.

It takes me about a month to finish a standard hard copy or e-book. My reading pace is slower than the audiobooks I listen to and I find it hard to make the time to sit down and just read. However, I'm going to try to set aside a minimum of 30 mins per day that is purely for hardcopy/e-book reading - starting Monday!

I'm on book 4 now as (a) 2 of the four were half-read as of midnight on 31 Dec and (b) I was reading for most of a day while traveling from my parents' house. It's not my normal pace.

Ah ok, I though I was just an extra slow reader. Only just got into audiobooks last year. They are a game changer when in the car or out walking!

I’m a reasonably fast reader but I go in fits and starts and there are times when I can find it hard to concentrate. I have a bit of a butterfly brain and know I ought to fight the tendency to get distracted by other things. If I could focus more on reading I’d be happier.

I don’t listen to audiobooks at all, though, I just can’t cope with them.

I find them tricky also, but at the gym I will listen to academic ones and pause to make notes.
I can manage autobiographies also

I would count cookery books where there is some food writing, as opposed to just recipes. If you're reading a lot there's a place for literary downtime, whether that's romances, thrillers or anything else that fits the bill. I read the odd children's book to give my brain a rest and I also count the occasional graphic novel.

And with that:

3. Cook, Eat, Repeat - Nigella Lawson

This is actually the first time I've read a cookery book, as opposed to just consulting it for recipes. It is exactly what I expected and didn't realise I needed for the first week of January: a cosy bubble of Nigella-ness, in which we learn to make appelflappen and the importance of burping your homemade hot sauce (while it's fermenting in the jar).

I'm now craving fish finger bhorta.

Make the fish finger bhorta! It's become a much-requested favourite here.

TheTurn0fTheScrew

Good to see my first book has sparked discussion

1. The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa. I'm not sure if someone last year recommended this. It was written in 1994 but translated into English more recently and shortlisted for the International Booker in 2020. It's written by an unamed narrator and is about an island where everyday objects disappear. Each time there's a disappearance, every one gathers what they have of that thing and burns it or throws it in the sea. The Memory Police of the title enforce the disappearances and ensure no-one is hiding anything. Once something disappears, most people forget it ever existed, but a few people remember. The Memory Police try and hunt these people down and they in turn try and hide. So elements of a Stasi/Gestapo type society, but although people are scared if the police, the focus of the book is more ethereal, about the nature of Memory and how it makes us whole. I liked this, I haven't read much Japanese literature other than Murakami who feels quite Western, and a book called Tokyo Ueno Station which had a similar other wordly feel. In both books, an earthquake plays a role which brings home how different life in Japan is. I think this differnt feel of life is exactly the kind of thing I want to get from reading more racially diverse authors.

I’m on book 4 now because I finished number 1 on New Year’s Day as it was half way through anyway.
Managed to fly through the second as had lots of free time with no work and other people around to entertain DD. The third would have taken me longer but I had a tooth out yesterday, had a long wait in waiting room and then felt so rotten afterwards I left DH to it and went to bed and read about half the book to the end in one go.

I will slow down no no doubt, but there are always some absolutely prolific readers here I’m in awe of.

I used to manage a big chunk of my 50+ books when on holiday as I’d spend as much of any holiday as possible just lazing around reading - ideally all day every day. With a nearly 18 month old now I doubt that will happen again for a long while so I’m sceptical as to whether I’ll manage 50 this year.

1. Death and Papa Noel by Ian Moore

Short story, part of the Follet Valley series about a miserable middle aged Englishman running a B&B in France, who gets dragged into solving mysteries by one of his regular guests, the glamorous Valerie. Here, Valerie hosts a murder mystery dinner party. This definitely fits into the ‘cosy crime’ category (and that’s not a criticism). Good escapist fun.

1. Raising Laughter: How The Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling In The ‘70s by Robert Sellers

This book covers every sitcom made in the 1970s, with a bit of background about actors, writers, directors etc. I’m probably slightly too young for this (I would love to read the equivalent book about the 80s or 90s) but I still really enjoyed it, finding out more about sitcoms I have seen and finding out about those I’ve never heard of. My one criticism is that there’s no conclusion - it’s written on a chronological basis so it just ends after December 1979. I would have liked some sort of conclusion wrapping up the development of the sitcom throughout the decade. Still worth a read if you’re interested in sitcom and/or watched a lot of 70s telly!

1. 80s Kid: A Memoir Of Growing Up In The Last Decade Before Technology Took Over by Melanie Ashfield

The author is slightly older than me so the second half of the 80s were spent at secondary school for her so her experiences were a bit different to mine (I really was an 80s kid). Still some nice nostalgia though. One thing did shock me - she mentions that the house they moved to was fairly new and had been built on an estate where lots of Victorian houses had been demolished. When they came to build an extension the builders discovered a massive cellar with lots of Victorian furniture in it, including a cast iron range, and because the fashion in the 80s was for everything new and they didn’t think anyone would want Victorian furniture, the whole cellar was filled with cement with all the old furniture still down there. Would never happen now!

1. Diddly Squat by Jeremy Clarkson

Slightly disappointed in this because I assumed it was all new stuff, when actually it’s just his Sunday Times columns from the last 18 months and I’ve already read most of them. They’re still funny to read, and eye opening about the issues facing farmers, but slightly repetitive when read one after the other.

I’ve managed 5 so far because 3 of them were very short! I am quite a fast reader but this year I want to try and slow down a bit and make sure I’m properly appreciating what I’m reading.

Stokey I read The Memory Police last year and really liked it. I've read a few different Japanese authors and like that they're generally a bit out there and unusual in style.

I'm 68% into The Brothers Karamazov with another 14 hours of audio still to go. I feel there should be a special dispensation for books of this length to count for more than one!

I read The Memory Police a couple of years ago (I had a different name then) and adored it, ethereal is the perfect word to describe it. Would probably annoy those who don't like NLMG due to the lack of explanation though .

@PepeLePew

Remus, I think you may really like Hamilton. I'd start with Slaves of Solitude, or Hangover Square. Then move on to Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky or the Gorse Trilogy. I'd leave it there - the rest are patchy at best and some are downright terrible.

They are very much period pieces in terms of language and slang but they are universal in terms of emotion and longing.
And incredibly wistful and sad. If George Harvey Bone doesn't break you heart, nothing well.

Thanks @PepeLePew I've got a bunch of samples, but am currently reading Snow by John Banville. Liking it a lot so far, although it's a bit overblown in places.

Fish finger bhorta Definitely worth a try. My OH loves it. I can only tolerate it if the fishfingers are balanced on top of the other stuff, rather than mashed into it. It needs something alongside, like naan bread or garlic bread (or maybe we are just very greedy).

Don't get me started on And the Mountains Fucking Echoed or 1000 Splendid Suns and Some One Dimensional Cartoon Cut Out Characters but I liked The Kite Runner a lot.

@FortunaMajor maybe it was you who recommended it. @JaninaDuszejko yes not for those who like explanations!

I tried to read the Brothers Karamazov about 30 years ago. Ended up mainly using it as a pillow when I got stuck in Moscow airport for 18 hours, so it should definitely count as more than 1 book. I've never revisited it.

@MaudOfTheMarches how random I was literally trying to Google a recipe that involved actual frozen fishfingers yesterday. That recipe looks great!

Loving the fish finger bhorta love! Remus I quite enjoyed Snow but I felt it veered between melodramatic and longwinded, which is a shame as I really wanted to love it. I've also got The Secret Guests on my shelf, which John Banville wrote under another name, about Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth in the Second World War.

@ChessieFL have you read Josh Widdecombe’s Watching Neighbours Twice a Day...: How ’90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life it’s not quite the equivalent of the 70s book you mentioned but was an interesting look at 90s tv if you experienced it.

Maud - I enjoyed his take on Raymond Chandler, writing as Benjamin Black - The Black Eyed Blonde.

I joined this thread to encourage me to get on with my TBR pile but it’s just encouraging me to buy more books 😂. Three Twins at the Crater School and The Memory Police both look right up my street. Starting book 3 The Marlow Murder Club this evening.

I loved The Kite Runner and One Thousand Splendid Suns but was really disappointed by And The Mountains Echoed.

Same! I've had to put a self imposed embargo on any more Kindle books until I've read the ones I have