50 Books Challenge 2023 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 2023, 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?

On Viv groskrop I saw her speak when promoting how to own the room (just before covid so haven't much had a chance to put any of it into practice since) and loved her in person
I have the Anna Karenina in my TBR will bump it up

Such a good book. I very much enjoyed that one.

Hi all,

can I join please? I used to adore reading but haven’t given myself the time lately. I’m aiming for 50 books this year. I have recently joined the local library and I just love going in there and looking at all the different books.

I’ve just finished ‘we are all liars’ by Carys Jones. A twisty thriller set in a Scottish cabin. I enjoyed this as I do like a good thriller. Has chapters of flashback also, which I quite like as it builds the tension for the present day story.

Im currently reading ‘honeycomb’ by Joanne M Harris. This is a really beautiful book, a fantasy adventure with a lace wing king and spider queen etc… it’s also got some lovely illustrations. I’m not usually into fantasy genre but wanted to widen my reading and it’s actually very charming and the imagery evoked from the writing is so vivid.

A book I read last year, I thought I would mention as it was very well written, and quite dark was ‘A kind of intimacy’ by Jenn Ashworth.

Everyone is welcome x

Just finished my first book, which was reviewed on here a year or two ago and has been on my TBR pile ever since.

1. ’Hillsborough Voices. Kevin Sampson.

A gripping read, made up from interviews of survivors, bereaved family members and other notable figures, it retells the day of the disaster, the 27 years of fighting for justice and the eventual truth coming out. Highly recommend this book. I was very young when it occurred and although I know some of the details of the cover up and smearing of the fans, I never knew how awfully they were treated by the police and the extent of the tragedy not just on the day but for the years after.

I’ve finished my first book of the year…

1 Exit - Belinda Bauer I got this from the library on the basis of reviews of Bauer’s books on last year’s thread, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a crime thriller but very much at the lighter, cosier end of the genre - the tone was very similar to Richard Osman, although a bit less frivolous. Good plot, funny bits, and some very moving bits too. Definitely recommended.

@LessObviousName I read Hillsborough Voices last year (not sure if I ever reviewed it on this thread as I dropped out early last year) but also highly recommend. Hillsborough was a stand out news event from my childhood. I also read One Day in April by Jenni Hicks, who lost both her teenage daughters that day. That book also includes many of the details of the fight for truth and justice, but is also a mother’s personal and touching tribute to her girls and details of the lives and opportunities they so tragically lost.

Finished my first book of the year Christmas is Murder - Val McDermid - collection of short stories, first couple are Christmas related and the rest are not particularly (two do not feature a murder and one doesn’t feature any crime). A mixed bag, some definitely stronger than others, I haven’t read any other McDermid and can’t say this has particularly inspired me to.

1. Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker

This is kind of a lesson in what happens if the mist descends and you go a bit wild in the deals and just start hitting Buy Now With 1 Click. Lethal. (Currently 99p)

I thought this was music criticism based solely off the title.

It's not, it's his memoir (and I maybe wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't been so certain it wasn't)

It's told through the medium of him clearing out his tat storage and the stories the bits of tat tell. Inevitably it ends before he becomes famous so he can get the mileage out of another volume. All extremely safe stuff, very rose tinted. Slightly money for old rope, the chapters are punchy and short, some pages are just photos, that's what made it such a fast read.

The best music memoirs I have read are by women : Just Kids by Patti Smith and Clothes Music Boys by Viv Albertine.

I'll likely read the second half, but will definitely wait for it to also be 99p

I’d love to join! I might fail miserably though- only 27 books last year! Currently reading The Couple at No 9 by Claire Douglas. It seems a bit formulaic but a couple of twists so far have kept me entertained

1 Unmasking Autism: the power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity - Devon Price

A call to radically reshape society so that a wider array of neurotypes is both visible and accepted. On the individual level, this calls for an unmasking of traits and vulnerabilities; on a societal level, a much broader conception of acceptable ways of being.

I found the overall concept and agenda engaging - a more inclusive and understanding society would clearly benefit all neurotypes. I’m never going to agree with Price on trans issues, but that’s ok. What was lacking was detail on the practical steps for unmasking, and at the halfway point at was getting annoyed at the lack of acknowledgement of the difficulties of doing this. I’m not diagnosed but I clearly have many ASD traits; I have to hold myself together at work in the face of networking with strangers, and at home when dealing with my daughter’s behavioural challenges; I can’t just let go on the grounds that it’s all too much.

That said, Price did redeem himself in the final chapter by acknowledging the difficulties of personally unmasking and the fact that social change is needed. I’m left wanting to explore the ideas more widely before forming definite conclusions.

(Book 4) The London Football Companion by Ed Glinert. Second tbr pile book of the year. Does what it says on the tin really - many anecdotes about London based football clubs and other places related (some tangentially) to the London football scene. As usual for this kind of thing, I learned two or three new things out of 250-odd pages. Most pleasing, that Arsenal's first ever home game took place just a couple of streets from where I now live. [Note to other fans/quizzers: I don't live anywhere near Woolwich!] Some of the entries are at the gossipy end of things, particularly around some more recent younger players.

I picked this up from a book box in an office that was closing down (because the company was basically ceasing to exist) after working there for more than five years, so it was a bit of a souvenir of that time - this happened just before Covid, so three years ago now, and the book has been sitting there ever since. Off to the charity shop now I think - it's certainly very cleansing, getting rid of some of the mental baggage of unread books nagging away, "read me! read me!" - I'm aware others may not suffer from this to the same degree!

Signing in for 2023. Last year was the first year I've failed to read 50 books, after Covid wrecked my ability to focus. This year I am determined to read more and feel like myself again. I am probably going to start with a pile of fluffy, easy-to-read choices so consider yourselves warned.

Hi, bookmarking now, will catch up with thread, hope to return later today (just at the stage of waiting for kids to go out to school now, dp in charge of herding our two teenagers out of the door).

Yeah, that's interesting. The last couple of years, following Covid twice in 2020, have been pretty disastrous for me reading wise. I had put it down to the general chaos of everything that's been going on, and also the doomscrolling, but doomscrolling is pretty mindless and so more likely to be a symptom of something else, rather than a cause of reading malaise...

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I’ve been umming and ahhhing indecisively about buying Good Pop, Bad Pop for several days. Cocker is one of those people that I admire and loathe in equal measure. Given how many other books are already on my TBR, and based on your review, I think I’ll give it a miss. Possibly a first for me from these threads - usually they make me buy stuff!

@Waawo definitely cleansing! I’ve recently started clearing out unread books on my Kindle. I got my first one for my 30th birthday 13 years ago when you still had to have them shipped from the US. There is a distinct pattern of books that charts how life moves on. Permanently deleting stuff that has lost its relevance to me without ever being read has definitely been cleansing… and seeing the number of “unread” books go down has been an odd kind of release.

Welcome to all the newcomers and hello again to everyone from last year. Definitely hoping to do better this year and hit my 50 and off to a good start so far

1. What You Did by Claire McGowan Pretty sure this was an Amazon first reads A group of friends who originally met at Oxford University 25 years ago have a reunion. The group is made up of 2 couples and 2 singletons. On the first night of their weekend reunion the single woman accuses one of the husbands of brutally raping her in the garden after everyone else has gone to bed. His wife has to decide who to support and believe - her husband or her best friend. The crime also dredges up some unpleasant memories of an incident that occurred at their ball just before they left Oxford. Are they linked or just unfortunate coincidences?

This was VERY reminiscent of Anatomy of a Scandal except the men are lawyers instead of politicians. But it was well written and gripping and I stayed up far too late reading it as I was desperate to find out what happened. I also found myself relating a bit to the main character in an unfortunate way. She's been a stay at home mum since her children were born and now they're approaching teenage years she feels her life lacks purpose and she's let the potential of her youth go to waste. Despite being about 10 years younger than her I can see my life heading that way which makes me a bit sad. Something to think about heading into the new year I think (sorry for the unexpected self-indulgent tangent)

Both of these were started in 2022 and completed in 2023 (I quite often have two books, or more, on the go at the same time - usually only only one novel at a time, but will dip in and out of non-fiction and collections of short stories):

1 - The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
2 - The Storyteller - Dave Grohl

I liked The Colour of Magic but you can really tell it is the first Discworld book and that he was still finding his feet a bit (the earliest book I've read up to this point is Mort - 4th book - and I feel that already the style was more natural and established by then). The other thing that struck me was that the descriptions of women seemed to be mostly aimed at teenage boys...that is something else that doesn't seem to feature so much in later books! I couldn't quite work out whether this was satire or not - maybe someone could tell me!

I loved The Storyteller! I really like Dave Grohl and this is a really honest account, in his own voice, of his amazing career.

@TheAnswerIsCake YY! Same, I've had my Kindle account about ten years, so there are some unread books there that feel as though they're from another life!

Signing in for 2023 as well!

I have already DNF'd one book this year because I wasn't into it. My main aim this year is to read books I'm enjoying and put down books I don't like.

1.Christmas cakes and mistletoe nights by Carole Matthews.
*did not finish

I've just started Twisted Love by Ana Huang. I'm not too sure about it yet!

Starting off my list so far:

1. Mythos - Stephen Fry
2. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
3. Rizzio - Denise Mina

I was mid way through Mythos at the start of the year. Enjoyable and I will like buy Troy and Heroes to listen to in the car as I think the style of writing is best served by audible

Small things Like These was something j picked up from seeing it on here. It was wonderful. It is a short read but not insubstantial and sits with you.

Rizzio was a Christmas gift. Another bite sized book ( which is great for upping the momentum). This is the story of the plot to murder David Rizzio, aid to Mary Queen of Scots. It is short, dramatic and very well written. I immediately picked up another of the Darkland Tales series - retelling of incidents in Scottish history told by Scottish authors.

I am hoping that whizzing through a few Novellas gets things churning over in my brain a bit better than the usual 500+ that I usually have

I have the Jarvis Cocker book too. Perhaps I will also downgrade it on my list on the strength of Eine's review. Eine, am I correct in remembering you are a fan of a well written music memoir? I loved Substance by Peter Hook which I read last year, and Just Kids is one of my favourite books. It's both a joy to read and a great example of Patti Smith (a hero of mine) at her best.

I'd like to join please. Currently reading Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, which I'm enjoying, but it hasn't grabbed me as much as others of hers.

@BigMadAdrian I’ve had The Storyteller for months now and have been a bit back and forward on reading it as I normally prefer fiction. I might pick it up soon!

I don't normally read biographies, but it does kind of read like fiction as it is separated into different 'stories'. It did take me a while to read it - he's very obviously written it himself (which I loved), but he's quite intense, so small doses worked well for me!