50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Four

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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.

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

What are you reading?

I have never seen the LOTR films either. I got as far as the fireworks (or was that The Hobbit) and fell asleep. Even worse, I borrowed a copy of the book from a friend in University and she demanded it back when I was 20 pages from the end and I have never managed to finish those 20 pages.
I did love The Hobbit as a child though and still have the battered copy my DF bought me in 1973.

Currently still listening to Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe (excellent if brutal). And reading the new Marian Keyes (ok, not her best).

I took the Lord of the Rings trilogy with me when DH and I went travelling for 2 months (before kindles were a thing). I read it all the way through 2 and a half times during the trip and have never touched it since. Also I went into labour with DS1 while watching the first film!

@ASighMadeOfStone I've never come across a song or piece of poetry within a story that I thought was worth reading. I usually just skip it tbh.

I must admit I don't like The Hobbit book or film, didn't they make it into 4 films or something ridiculous

I think the LOTR films are amazing though. I wonder if any streamer has them ? I'd like to watch again

The books?

Not so much actually

Tom Bombadil can fuck off

The worst is when it happens on an audiobook and the narrator SINGS

I'd never thought how songs would translate into audiobook! How cringe 😂

Ermagerd

I loved Tolkien as a teenager, but to my surprise, when I tried LOTR as a grownup, I didn't like it very much any more! It just felt so earnest, pompous even. I loved the LOTR films though: so beautiful. I couldn't make it through the Hobbit films. That one book was NOT meant to be a film trilogy, sorry.

I think it was partly my childhood love for Lewis and Tolkien that made me want to work on medieval literature. Those guys were absolutely steeped in medieval chivalric and courtly texts. And medieval literature still brings me a lot of joy, so I'm grateful to Tolkien for that. Although medieval romances are often a lot more ironic and less syrupy-sweet than LOTR!

I'm not a Tom Bombadil fan, but the Hobbit song 'Far over the misty mountains cold' still sends a shiver of delight down my spine. Just the words, I mean!

Incidentally, if you want a very recent example of bad poetry interspersed throughout a novel, just read The Wren, The Wren! Ha. It was brave of Enright to create a Famous Poet character and then actually create samples of his Famous Poetry, but ... no, just no. She should stick to her forte, which is prose.

I am not allowed to watch the LOTR films with anyone who actually wants to watch them, because of certain comments I made about "convenient ring sized pockets" whilst watching the first one, which apparently indicated I was not taking them as seriously as I should have been.

I like The Hobbit but twice got stuck halfway through vol 2 of LOTR and I've learned my lesson and am never trying again. A bunch of male characters traipsing through a forest for pages on end just doesn't do it for me. I know others love it!

😂@Welshwabbit . Ruining the viewing experience for your poor companions!

@JaninaDuszejko , I have a male friend who sounds very much like your DH! Isn't a big reader but is utterly besotted with LOTR. So much so that he wrote his own fantasy trilogy in his spare time, in the style of LOTR, and self-published it. In French. (He's French and in his day job, he's a space engineer!) He is a total sweetheart, and his children all have medieval fantasy-type names. (Hope I'm not being too outing, but the odds of him coming across this thread seem slim.) What is it with this obsessive love for LOTR?!

12 - Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
I generally enjoy Ann Patchett's novels and this was no exception. Not a lot happens. A mother is encouraged to reminisce about an early love story and her initial career path by her 3 daughters (in their early 20s I think) during lockdown. The cherry on the cake was Meryl Streep's ❤ narration on audible

13 - The Strawberry Thief - Joanne Harris
The final (I think!) of 4 instalments that have followed Vianne Rocher and her daughters since her adventures in Chocolat. I didn't enjoy this as much as the other 3 books - which is strange as I was definitely able to relate to her anguish as her daughters fly the nest!!

Just started Soldier, Sailor by Claire Kilroy which I am very much looking forward to after all your glowing reviews.

I've been slowly listening on and off to the audio version of the LoTR trilogy, it's absolute torture to be driving along and unable to skip the singing sections.

I have never read any Tolkien or seen any of the films. Fantasy isn’t really my thing and they’re all so long I can’t face it (although I might give The Hobbit (book) a go sometime as I don’t think that’s too long).

I think you've guaranteed I won't read The Wren, The Wren @cassandre

@ChessieFL The LOTR books are each a reasonable novel length it's the films that are lengthy

The Hobbit: Read the book years ago and thought it was ok. The films were mediocre, 1.5 films stretched into a trilogy.

LOTR: Never read the books. Absolutely LOVE the films. Me and DH watch the extended versions every couple of years.

I like TLOTR and have read them maybe 5 or 6 times. The films are flawed, largely because the Frodo actor is very bad. I also hated the actress playing Arwen. Strider/Arogorn, Gimli and the pretty Orlando Bloom all very well cast, as are Sam, Merry and Pippin. Ian McKellan great, if a bit cliched.

The Hobbit book is fine, but I loathed the first film and haven't seen the others. Martin doodah is abominable.

I saw Martin Doodah do Richard III

According to MN lore he's not a very nice man

I'm like you @cassandre . I loved LOTR as a teen, Strider was one of my literary crushes - well cast in the film but still not as charismatic as in my head.

Weirdly, my kids loved The Hobbit films. Thought they were far funnier than LOTR, we binged them in lockdown.

I know nothing about him as a man, but he's a dreadful actor.

Something XH and I bonded over was never having managed to read LOTR. (I did enjoy listening to the BBC’s The Hobbit in primary school lessons though.) Then I saw the DVDs of the films going cheap, and thought we’d finally find out what all the fuss was about…
We never managed to finish watching. All I remember is actors competing to roll the Rs in Morrrdorrr, and discovering that the zippy-trousers shop (Rohan) was named after a place in LOTR.
Meanwhile, I still have the copy of LOTR that DM bought to read on maternity leave. I was 5 weeks early. She is 80 now, and I think she’s probably never going to read it.

Haha I came here expecting sass about the WP shortlist, only to find bonus Tolkein sass!
@JaninaDuszejko nailed it with Non-Readers and Their Very Favourite Book 💀 I did like The Hobbit as a child but found LOTR a bore even as a teen who read lots of technically inferior and even longer fantasy epics. OTOH I find the first LOTR film a lovely comfort watch, though can leave the sequels and failed to make it through even half a Hobbit film.

Women's Prize shortlist: looks like it'll be a duel between Soldier Sailor and Enter Ghost.
Ended up finishing In Defence of the Act - Effie Black in my lunch break and after a promising first half, it did indeed go off the rails (waaaaay off, and over a few dozen shark tanks) landing straight into my "shouldn't even have been longlisted list". Special petty shoutout to the paper edition with its pretentious skimpy sans serif font, full of uncorrected duplicated phrases and typos - hair 'malting', hungover 'wretching' into toilet bowls, yikes. If anyone does give it a go, I'd recommend stopping after the very relatable bookgroup scene (every discussion of A Little Life ever, the enby trying to make trans Jo March happen, the people attending as free couples therapy...)

I read (and bolded) The Secret River earlier this year (my first KG) but Restless Dolly Maunder felt like a homeopathic retread cobbled together with the aid of AI 👀 My brain is incapable of retaining anything by Enright (can't even remember if it's 2 or 3 of her novels I've read) so I wasn't tempted even before @cassandre sounded the poetry klaxon. #Nolanwuzrobbed

Totally agree with the name recognition thing. It also feels like the Women's, Carol Shields and Stella prizes are trying very hard not to step on each other's toes.
Thank you for the overview of the CS list @FortunaMajor I'm currently reading I Have Some Questions for You from the longlist, but need to whittle down the rest.

When DH (who is generally very good at reading out loud) read The Hobbit to the kids he sang the songs. They still like to take the piss out of him for doing it.

Ah, LOTR is my comfort read… must have gone through it seven or eight times, in fact am probably due a reread soon, it’s been a few years! Lol at having to sit through the songs on audiobook 😆 I loved the films too. But only managed the first Hobbit film.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Amusing short story about what happens when the (late) Queen discovers the joys of reading. The main effect of which was to make me want to read some Ivy Compton-Burnett.