50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth thread of the 50 Books 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, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

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

What are you reading?

Yes @IsFuzzyBeagMise I also picked up on the 25p present in my recent review!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4584077-50-books-challenge-2022-part-five?page=24&reply=119483386

So you did @Tarahumara! 😄Great review. I also thought Anne was a sympathetic character and relatable too.

£4.50 for a tank of petrol?! Daylight robbery!

What is this dated book club thread of which you speak?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4624300-the-mumsnet-rather-dated-book-group-all-welcome-to-join?reply=119697652

Thanks Chessie!

I'm a regular lurker on this wonderful thread and an occasional commenter (under various names) and as a result have a rather long wish list!

I am just wondering what is the best app for audio books? What do you all use? I prefer book or kindle with an occasional audio book so not worth joining audible. I try and use borrow box but it's not often the book I want is available.

Currently just finishing book 60 What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (enjoyed overall but got too bogged down in descriptions of art) next book The island of missing trees will be perfect to listen to on a long journey later this week.

Two to add to my list, one fiction and one non-fiction, both (not deliberately) set in prisons!

43 The Devil You Know by Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne. Adshead is a forensic psychotherapist who has spent most of her career working in prisons and secure hospitals with violent criminals. I like a psychologist's memoir, so this was right up my street.

44 The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. Romy Hall is a young Californian woman serving a long sentence for murdering her stalker. As she adapts to life in a women's prison, and meets various other inmates, she reflects on her life before prison and worries about her son left on the outside. I thought this was good but (unsurprisingly) rather bleak.

Hi marbles welcome

I read What I Loved many years ago now, I very much enjoyed it at the time, but don't know how it would stand up to a reread

Oh and I love Audible

I use Audible too, I don't listen to many audio books so I never buy books and only use my free credits. I usually get books which are expensive on kindle.

The Beatles - Hunter Davies Following on from the epic Mark Lewisohn - All These Years, I thought I’d have a reread of this, the ‘official biography’ written in 1968 and the only one to which the Beatles themselves contributed,

The first two thirds didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t know (Quarrymen, Hamburg, Epstein, Touring) but the last third, where Davies visits them at their homes and at the studio in 1968 is really interesting, especially if you’ve watched the recent Get Back documentary - boredom and frustration has clearly set in. I also loved the little updates on the Beatle parents and aunt Mimi.

Audible here as well! I’ve never looked into audiobooks from my library - I don’t always have that much time to listen and I always have plenty from audible to get through.

210 Himself And Other Animals: A Portrait of Gerald Durrell by David Hughes

This was originally written in the 1970s but never published, then tidied up and published after his death. Hughes was a friend of Durrell’s so had good opportunity to observe him and speak to other friends and family. As the title says it’s a portrait rather than a full biography so it’s more about what Durrell was like as a middle aged man rather than a full description of his life. Worth a read if you’re a Durrells fan.

I am a heavy audiobook user with several accounts based around the country (family let me use their log ins as they don't use them). I was also able to join the library of my 2 neighbouring areas without being a resident or paying council tax there. One I had to pop in for a card, the other posted it to me. They each game me an immediate temporary digital account until my full card was sorted.

Depending on the service your library offers, you are likely to get an allowance of 6 or 10 each for ebooks and audiobooks. This can be used for a loan or a hold. The loan period is usually either 2 or 3 weeks. The best way to use them is to keep a few back for instant loans and use the rest for holds for books you really want. Even if the book is showing as unavailable until February, it's still worth using a hold as many users will return it early, or remove the hold which will bump up your place in the queue and reduce the time you are waiting. I got the full Booker Longlist before the Shortlist was announced via the library. Some libraries are better than others. The worst one I know of has only 3k audiobooks in the catalogue, with the better ones offering 13-16k. You can always find something you want to listen to while you wait for something else. You get an email when your holds are ready.

Borrowbox seems to be the more popular app. Overdrive is sadly being phased out for Libby, which I'm not a huge fan of.

For libraries with Borrowbox, there is always a website as well as an app which is usually
Town.borrowbox.com or
Borrowbox.com/town
You library or council website should direct you to the right place.

In the library I work in, footfall and item lending data is very carefully monitored as we get more funding if the service is used and we can prove it. Same goes for digital use. Each library in the area has a different demographic, the ones with higher book loan data get more new books delivered, those with higher computer use get bigger computer suites. Our Borrowbox just got more items as they moved to the next package up when usage increased. It's very much a 'use it or lose it' service. Your libraries desperately need you to visit and to borrow items, even digitally. I know some libraries will have opening times that make it impossible to visit if you work full time, so it's not always simple, but if you can, please do use them. Max your loans people, make us look busy! And if they have a digital door counter, waft past it several times.

Oh dear. I’ve joint another readalong thread. Thanks @ChessieFL

@FortunaMajor for the digital stuff is it all based purely on number of things borrowed or does the system know if people actually read/listen to the ebooks and audiobooks borrowed and only count things that are read/listened to? I have never used my library’s digital offerings (I don’t want to read ebooks on my phone/tablet and I have enough audible stuff to keep me going for years) but I would be happy to borrow digital stuff just to keep the numbers up - although that then presumably stops other people borrowing the item which isn’t fair if I’m not actually going to read/listen to it.

I do borrow physical books from the library and I do read them!

I'm not involved on the digital side, so I don't know. The woman who deals with it spoke about more users meaning they can justify the spending. The catalogue size for audiobooks has just jumped this month from 12 to 16k. Before covid they had no digital service at all.

In terms terms of book lending, we have a network of 12 libraries which are all different sizes with some only receiving 1 or 2 new books per week, with others getting 1 or 2 boxes. The collection at each library is also different. The one I work in gets a decent choice, but the village next over has a more literary selection, others I would struggle to choose something for my tastes. The libraries also each have different special interest shelving eg mine has a massive separate 'crime' section whereas another has a huge 'chick lit/romance' section. This is based off user data of what gets borrowed most. This data is also used to stock rotate. If one library sees an ongoing upswing of a certain type of book, others will weed out what hasn't been borrowed for a while and send it off to a new home. When we do a general weed, anything that hasn't been borrowed in the last 2 years gets removed and sold off to make room for new stock. Now most libraries are using self serve machines so the data is being used in all sorts of ways.

Thanks Fortuna, that’s really interesting. Crime is obviously popular in my library too as there’s a big separate crime section!

Thanks Fortuna. Your post has made me resolve to use libraries more!

Reaper Man
I said this was my favourite TP and liked it a lot the 2 previous times I've read it, but this time it didn't really work for me. I really liked the bits with Death, but found all the wizard stuff very wearing, and overall there were more wearing wizard bits than Death in dungarees bits. In my memory, there was Much More Death.

Having said that, the bit where Death goes on His version of wooing is really rather lovely.

The Booker Shortlist is out

Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo
Treacle Walker - Alan Garner
The Trees - Percival Everett
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
Oh William! - Elizabeth Strout

My advice being to read the women. I'm calling Glory for the win, but would choose Small Things Like These personally.

Thanks Fortuna! Good advice there.

I'm delighted for Claire Keegan.

I genuinely can't understand why Treacle Walker is there. It's the only one of the list I've read, but I thought it was a big disappointment. It felt like Garner hadn't progressed/thought at all since 1967 imo.

Remus I haven't read anything else of his, but this was rather odd and a bit pointless. I got nothing from it other than a sense of wasted time. I wouldn't read anything else off the back of it.

RIP Peter Straub - co-author of The Talisman, the best thing Stephen King ever wrote and a colossal touchstone book in my life.