50 Books Challenge 2024 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 2024, 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?

Oh I forgot

• Squirrel seeks Chipmunk by David Sedalia

Hi, new to Mumsnet and this thread. Lost my reading mojo during lockdown. Last year aimed for 26 books and just managed it. 50 in 2024 sounds a good target and this thread might keep me motivated.

First of the year is The Raptures by Jen Carson which has started well.

Looking forward to the book chat.

Happy New Year all and thanks to @Southeastdweller for the sterling work in delivering these threads.

Starting off 2024 with Sarn Helen, A Journey Through Wales, Past Present and Future by Tom Bullough

I'm in!

I'll likely finish Cleopatra and Frankenstein today and will absolutely count it in my 2024 total

Then I've got a bunch of books waiting in my TBR pile, starting with a couple of short story collections: A Stroke of the Pen & Jordan Peele's Out There Screaming (although I'll only count them as one book each)

Have read this thread from the shadows for last year or two and it has definitely contributed to my reading so much more and varied my book choices massively. Have taken so much from the knowledge of everyone on here and 2024 is the year I’m aiming to get more involved.

Book 1 of 2024 is The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. Unfortunately not my cup of tea at all. Three interconnecting stories, two across the modern day and one from the first half of the twentieth century the plot focuses on a vanishing bookshop and missing manuscripts with a heavy dose of magical realism.
The characters were paper thin, the plot was all over the place and made no sense and significant events rammed in with no subtlety at all. Most annoyingly the love story between the two modern characters seemed to be based on nothing at all and the whole story could be resolved if they actually had a reasonable conversation like any normal people would do! Absolute tosh. Given to me as a Christmas present so felt like I had to read but is going straight on the charity shop pile.

Am determined not to buy anymore books or visit the library until I’ve made a significant dent in my kindle library so am looking forward to the next read being something more enjoyable.

Morning all.
Long term 50 booker been AWOL for the past few months. Name changed for the same reason.
Made 48 in 2023 and would have made more had I not decided that a reread of Harry Potter was long overdue.
Hope all bookers old and new are well. ❤️
Thanks @Southeastdweller as ever.

Hello fellow Fall fans - I really do miss MES, I was talking to DSis about his terrific lyrics just a couple of days ago.

I've also started Year of Wonder today. I love the Bach piece that starts the book.

I'm currently reading Lucy By The Sea" by Elizabeth Strout. * My long read is going to be The Illiad*, I'm not sure yet which translation to choose.

My Goodreads target last year was 35 books and I read 46. My goal for this year is being more judicious with my screen time and more time reading novels, so I hope I'll manage 50 books by the end of the year.

Oh, am halfway through The Order of the Phoenix on that note and how splendid it is compared to the bollocking toshfest of the Strike books.
😏

I’ve just set my reading challenge on Goodreads to 52 books!

I’m currently reading station 11 by Emily st. John mandel

Happy New Year and thanks for the shiny new thread @Southeastdweller you are so great for keeping this going for so many years.

I’m having a cozy reading day today and starting the year with The Long Shadow by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Number 6 in the Morland Dynasty. I think I’ll probably have a break from this series next as I try some of the other many books on my tbr and have a wee book buying ban!

Happy New Year 50 bookers, new and old and thanks as ever to southeast for keeping us organised. It's going to take time to get used to all these name changes.

I managed 103 last year, mainly due to this thread but don't think I'll achieve that again so setting my target to 70 on Goodreads. I started The Chrysalids yesterday but I also have A Thread of Grace, Making Sense of the Troubles, The Thirteenth Tale, Stay with Me, The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Gentleman in Moscow partly read so I must get them finished in January.

Happy New Year all!
My first of hopefully 50 is Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue. I for eight hardback books for Christmas so hoping to get through those first.

Looking forward to spending another year with you lovely people. My aim this year is to spend less time reading absolute tosh and more time making a dent in my tbr list. As most of you have said you are trying not to buy more books I suppose there is no point asking if you have seen anything good in the monthly deals on Kindle

Thank you @Southeastdweller for the new thread

I’m in and thank you @Southeastdweller for a shiny new thread for 2024. Happy New Year to all 50bookers! Looking forward to all the book chat and reviews. Thanks to ABookWyrn for your review of Into the Uncanny by Danny Robins. I am a bit of a fan as recently discovered his podcast and watched his tv series the other night. Will keep an eye out for this in the library or if it gets to 99p again. Never knew he had a book.
currently reading and enjoying The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside by Jessica Ryn. A new author for me. Also listening to The Lady of the Loch by Elana Collins and enjoying this as well. Glad to be starting the year with no duffs. Will be back to review once read.

Checking in! Thank you @Southeastdweller for the new thread. Welcome new people and hello to all. @minsmum couple of thread recs in the deals - the Max Hastings Cuban missile crisis book and Palaces for the People,, which someone read many months ago and made it onto my wishlist. I'm also contemplating The Convert by Stefan Hertmans, which is set in mediaeval France, and tells the story of a Christian noblewoman who falls in love with a rabbi's son.

I will still be lurking & not contributing much as I am still going to carry on reading in French as much as possible. (I moved to France a couple of years ago). Have been given a big pile of Agatha Christie inFrench so hoping to get going with those.

I will let myself read a couple of English books a month this year however.

I had a look at Kindle Deals & it is a right mess atm, with lots of last week's daily deals at their original prices. WIll wait a day or two to scan it.

And many thanks to @Southeastdweller for keeping this thread going.

Happy new year everyone and thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller.

I've name changed from Stokey. I know it's spelt incorrectly but the correct spelling was taken.

I finished a book yesterday which I won't count but would like to review

This Family - Kate Sawyer. I read her first book The Stranding a few weeks ago and really liked it so was excited to get the new one in the Kindle deals. I also thought this was very good. It's about a woman called Mary and her two daughters Emma & Phoebe and their half-sister Rosie. The book starts with Mary preparing for her second wedding, and then flashes back to different episodes from her life and her daughters' lives from their different viewpoints. This was very well done although I sometimes got slightly confused by the timeline as it's not linear. But it was a bold for me, I'd recommend to anyone looking for a gentle butt engaging family story, along the lines of Anne Tyler, Ann Patchett and such like.

Going to give it a go too! I’ve watched way too much telly last year and want to do something a bit more productive with my time.
I’m halfway in Poirots Silent night by Sophie Hannah. I’m pretty annoyed with the enormous font the editor used, but still curious how it ends.

Thanks for the thread @Southeastdweller I'm in again for 2024. I managed over 150 books last year, but want to focus a little more on quality this year so am aiming for 75. That said I have been up all night with DD and DH being ill, so I've managed to finish my first book and will probably finish my second later today.

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A man and a boy struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. This book is unrelentingly bleak, but for all its bleakness it’s beautifully written. It makes you think about love, what it means to be human and what is living vs just surviving and it is an absolute masterpiece. A definite bold to start the year.

Wow so many new joiners how terrific! The threads going a pace already!

Massive respect to @Southeastdweller keeping this going for us all

Like @BlindurErBóklausMaður I'm on a Harry Potter reread and so I'm carrying over from the festive season.

1. Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

Funnier than I remembered

1. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by JK Rowling

Still think this is the worst one. A threatening memory in a book. Controversial I know but I can't stand Dobby

1. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by JK Rowling

This used to be my favourite will have to do full reread to decide if it still is.

1. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire by JK Rowling

There's padding in this what with all the house elf stuff but noticing the changes between book and film does make me wonder about the series. Some stuff was better cut I think

Not sure if I'm going to go straight onto #5, probably

And that's my year started!

I've bought a few in the kindle sale that have been on my wish list for a while:

Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper
My Fourth Time we Drowned, Sally Hayden
Justice for Some: Laws & Questions of Palestine, Noura Erkat
Bomber, Len Deighton
Another Country, James Baldwin

Joining this year as a combination of academic work and eye surgery made 2023 something of a write off when it came to reading for pleasure.

So this morning I finished Susan Pfeiffer's Life As We Knew It, a YA book where an asteroid knocks the moon out of orbit. This is a re-read, and I like the way the author portrays the increasing maturity of the narrator and diary-keeper Miranda over the span of the book. Now to find the rest of the series somewhere on my crowded shelves.

In the interim, I started Kate Sawyer's The Stranding, based on recommendations here from last year. So far I'm finding it an interesting and fast read, although the chapter on chapter flip between pre- and post-apocalyptic Ruth is getting a little too routine. Only on Chapter 9 though...

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit
I've always found Dobby twee and irritating, and no, I didn't cry for 3 days when he died. But I confess I was too busy being astonished (and not in a good way) at Radcliffe's acting in that scene.

Also now realising how utterly dumbed down and Disneyfied The Goblet of Fire film was. I always just go from 3 to 5 when rewatching. The book is still her weakest (imo) but so so much better than the film.

I gave up ploughing through today's Kindle deals as I kept being bounced back (on phone) to the ones costing more than 99p which I had filtered. Will look on desktop later but thanks for heads up on Susan Cooper @TattiePants , I read The Dark is Rising just before starting the Potterthon (on 50 booker recommendations!)

Anyone got a good app?? For keeping a list?

Thanks for the new thread southeastdweller and happy new year to everyone!

So I plan to start off by catching up on Nicholas Nickleby and have made a list of 50 books I want to work my way through also. I had a list of 42 last year and managed 24 of them which I'm pleased about.

This is a big year of changes for me - house move on the 19th and I finish uni in May so it'll be interesting to see how getting back to potentially FT work will impact on my reading (maybe some long public transport journeys will help with this!).