50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Three

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third thread of the 50 Books 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, 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 and the second one here.

@SilverShadowNight I find the iPad much harder for reading too. I’m not dyslexic but it’s quite hard on the eyes after a while. I was wondering if there was a magical way of getting the books onto the Kindle but it doesn’t seem so. I can’t do audiobooks at all.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I had a similar experience when I was reading Love in a time of War: My Years with Robert Fisk by Lara Marlowe. So many conflicts and so much death and destruction. I "took a break" but I doubt I'll go back to it. I appreciate how fortunate I am that my country is peace and I was able to close the book and leave it all behind. Many others aren't so fortunate.

The Carlingford Chronicles by Margaret Oliphant Inspired by Trollope's Brachester Chronicles Oliphant, a fellow Victorian writer wrote several short stories and novels about particular residents of her fictional small town (doctor, vicar etc.) This should have been right up my street and although the novels and stories often had a good premise and some deft humour, Oliphant is incredibly verbose and repeats information over and over again ad nauseum, padding out the narrative. I think like some of Dickens works they are overly embroidered due to be written for serialisation in a magazine.

Oliphant was a stalwart of Blackwoods Magazine often providing editorial, content, several reviews, biographies, historical articles, short stories and installments of her novels all in the one issue. She sounds like an amazing woman, she supported both her own and her brother's families with her prodigious output of novels, volumes of literary criticism and history books after being widowed at a young age and with little formal education.
I had hoped I'd found a new treasure trove - a good Victorian "domestic" novelist. I'll maybe give her another go sometime, as I'm not sure I was in the right headspace for her style of writing. perhaps I started with the wrong set of novels. Have any of you read something good by her?

I read a few of Margaret Oliphant's books in my late teens / early 20s (when they were published in the green Virago editions), but I wasn't overly taken & can't remember any of them. They're certainly not in the same league as Elizabeth Gaskell for example. I think EG edited her work post serialisation / pre book publishing, which maybe helped?

@Taytocrisps

Yes, and because I think many people don't appreciate how lucky we are and with the unfortunate increase in racism and xenophobia angle of demanding to know why "these people" come here when all that's needed is some decency and humanity, that's why I try and keep myself educated and informed so that I don't relate to ignorance. Not easy to process though

I have Borrowbox on my phone, Best. It's a decent size to read on (Galaxy S20) and it's possible to change the font size on it too (for my waning eyesight). I use Kindle a lot too and paperbacks. I like to vary it.

Borrowbox works for iPad

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
I enjoyed this. I wasn't sure if I'd read it before, but if I had, I'd forgotten everything including the twist.

@Sadik Thanks for your reply. I agree Oliphant is not in Gaskell's league. Interesting that EG edited her serialisations before novel publication - a good call no doubt.

BorrowBox on phone and iPad for me - I like having different books on the go so have something on their, something different on my kindle and a real / audio book for different moods.

for some reason I like memoirs on my phone / iPad I guess as they are often a little easier to read. I agree it can hurt your eyes a bit.

The moment I fell properly in love with my kindle was on an evening flight back from a long few days of work. I was using my laptop on the plane, and my eyes were so tired they were watering and couldn't focus. I wasn't sleepy, so I grabbed my kindle to see if that was any better, and lo and behold, my eyes stopped watering and I was fine to read. That was my first kindle; the paperwhite is even easier on the eyes.

@agnesmartin Kolymsky Heights is completely gripping! I loved it and it stayed with me for a long time.

Bringing my list over too. It's been slow going as I've had a lot on for the last few weeks. I'm currently reading the last 4 all at the same but at different times, one on a commute, one in the evenings.

1.	Silverview - John le Carre 
2.	Less - Andrew Sean Greer
3.	A month in the country - JL Carr
4.	<strong>Act of oblivion - Robert Harris</strong>
5.	I feel bad about my neck - Nora Ephron
6.	The highly sensitive child - Elaine Aron
7.	Harry Potter and the philosopher&rsquo;s stone (French translation) - JK Rowling
8.	Small things like these - Clare Keegan

The Harry Potter in French is wonderful for expanding vocabulary. I've learnt so many new words.

I think it will stay with me too. Can see it ending up a bold. Might have to read again to see how the author managed to make it quite so gripping. Never read a book like it.

General Klaxon that Thread Favourite Patrick Radden Keefe has a new book oyt

It is very local authority dependent. My library is part of a larger conglomerate which means they have serious purchasing power. For us it costs 7p per resident per year to provide Borrowbox.

Just taking audiobooks into consideration my area has 17327. Bristol 14578. Surrey 2515. Durham 5590. Leeds 3702.

Leeds is by far the worst of these as most libraries will purchase more copies once the list reaches a certain length (usually a few months). At Leeds the 5 newest books have waiting lists in the years, the best being available in 2025 and the worst 2030.

We've just had a big meeting with BB and they discussed the stats for each library and how the digital use has taken off month by month since we introduced it. People are really embracing it. We're reaching people we wouldn't otherwise and it costs peanuts compared to physical library provision. I can imagine a point where digital is the only offer in some areas. Library provision is enshrined in law, but you do hear a lot about smaller branch closures or opening hours being cut to as little as 4 hours per week.

I didn’t know recently that authors get paid when you take out a BorrowBox loan - feel less bad about the things I borrow and return without getting to

You may find this interesting

dcmslibraries.blog.gov.uk/2020/03/12/public-lending-right-explained/

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I thought that was some sort of military coded message for a moment!

Ok, so I’ve gone in on BorrowBox. I’ve gone for a Sally Rooney as she divides people on here, I very much suspect she won’t be my cup of tea but won’t cost me anything.

I love borrow box - a third of my books last year were from there. I only read ebooks on my phone though, I don't have a specific device. I've found in the last couple of years that if something is on 99p Kindle deal, really often it's also on borrow box. I used to volunteer in the library when dd was smaller & was surprised how few of our customers knew about the elibrary, it's good for audio books even if you don't like reading on a non Kindle screen

I'm making a real effort though this year to get back to using the physical library post covid. Our library is very small so it does mean ordering in. But I figure the charge isn't too much & is balanced out by the number of free ones from the elibrary.

I like the convenience of Borrowbox (and read on my iPad) but the selection on offer from my library is pretty woeful. For example, they don’t have any of Mick Herron's Slough House series - which has been hugely popular, especially with the TV series. Most of the things people mention on here that make me think 'ooh, must read that…' Almost guaranteed not to be on Borrowbox.

Every now and then I go on there and trawl despairingly but find literally nothing for my (admittedly odd) tastes. It’s a shame. It’s a bit like wading fruitlessly through 55 pages of the Kindle Monthly Deal.

Having said that, I did get in the queue for the latest Richard Osman about 4 months ago and it’s just become available.

Interestingly no Mick Herron in my county either, Terp. But (of books from my TBR list added from here) I've got Hex, American Wife, Where Did it All Go Right and Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow all available.

I don't find it easy to browse though, I just always search on there before adding to my Amazon list & things come up often enough that it's definitely worthwhile.

I use our library's Borrowbox a lot, especially for audiobooks. I have very poor eyesight now and find reading actual books quite difficult.

Where we live, the libraries are part of a multi county group, and Borrowbox is very good. In fact I've recently given up my Audible subscription because I was finding everything I wanted to read was already available through the library.

I am also still a member of another county's library, whose online offering is much smaller, so would be quite disappointing if that was my only one.

I haven't really used our physical library that much in recent years. It's quite small, the opening hours are limited and everything I want to read needs to be ordered in, at £1 per book.

How interesting - I wonder how many authors get to 60k or borrows. I did see a lot of authors celebrating the income arrival earlier this year and saying it makes a difference.