50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Six

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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.

Some of us bring over to the new thread lists of the books we've read so far, but again - this is your choice.

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

What are you reading?

I currently have 279 unread books on tbr which never seems to go down as I keep getting sucked into 99p deals as well as recommendations from this thread

Not to mention the kindle first reads which I diligently download every month, like number

53. The Darkest Flower by Kristen Wright Pta president and all-round Stepford Wife Kira Grant is accused of poisoning her best friend, Summer, at their children's elementary school graduation. Pov switches between Kira and her attorney, Allison, as they prepare for and then go through the trial. I really enjoyed this, I loved that the reader was kept guessing over Kira's guilt. I also loved Kira's inner monologue, it was a lot more realistic than many books depict, as I think most people are at their worst inside their own head. This was the first in a series following the attorney, Allison, and I won't read anymore as I didn't love her enough to want to keep following her story. I think this book worked great as a standalone though. It was fast paced and the characters all stood out as individuals

Those 2 could make all the difference Welsh 😉

@noodlezoodle – wow! But things are not as bad as you think. You need to go into your phone app and mark them as read there. I only realised that during the Spring Kindle challenge that my read books where not showing as read on my actual kindle. I think its because I have an iphone? So once I’m finished with a kindle book, I make sure I go onto my phone app and complete it there. I do occasionally read on my phone if I have 5 or 10 minutes to spare. But if you don’t use it, might be worthwhile deleting to save you the faffing about?

Sorry I missed the 99p Wasp Factory deal yesterday. I’m polishing my halo with 56 unread books, including the current Caledonian Road, 76% read. The Wasp Factory is one of the most incredible books that I have ever read. I’m also horrified that it’s the 40th anniversary edition @Stowickthevast. I wonder how old I was when I first read it? I must have just been a teenager. I’m going into Edinburgh next week for a bookshop browse, so might treat myself to an actual copy as I love it so much.

Those of you who have Kindles, do you take part in the Challenges? I try to read at least 15 mins a day to keep up with the Challenge. Obviously I do much more than that usually. But I used to go for months without picking up my Kindle because I was reading physical books. This way I feel that I have a plan to try to whittle down the numbers. It is difficult trying to decide which book to choose next. I’m thinking about getting the one that I have had longest and starting there. Does anyone know a quick way of finding out when you bought a Kindle on the Kindle app? I know I can do it from my Amazon account. Would be good if you were able to sort your books out in that order.

I would

1. create a collection called “lovely old books”
2. go on the website to manage your content, which default sorts newest to oldest acquisition date
3. add the oldest 20 to the collection
4. read from the collection

Great review of Enlightenment @MorriganManor it was pretty relentless.

@Welshwabbit I share an account with my husband and can filter by my items and his items - which is a game changer. Otherwise I have loads of unread Sci FI!

A couple of reviews:
66. Summer Sisters - Judy Blume. A cool girl Caitlin joins a school in 6th grade and invites Victoria to stay with her for the summer in new England. Victoria's family are poor, she is the oldest of 4 siblings including a brother with cerebral palsy. Caitlin's family are rich and unconventional and the two girls end up spending every summer together for the next few years discovering boys and growing up. This is billed as Judy Blume's adult novel but reads quite like any of her other ones - I actually think it's more YA or new adult as it finishes when the girls are 29, but mainly focuses on them as teens. I think my teen would enjoy it more than I did but easy holiday fare.

67. Greta & Valdin - Rebecca K Riley. @GrannieMainland reviewed this recently and I agree with her assessment. It's about two half Russian half Maori siblings who alternate each chapter. There's a large chaotic group of characters, most of whom are either gay or bi and a lot of whom have similar names. It's quite amusing in a "Fleabag" way with some great one-liners but a few things just didn't work for me. The voices of the siblings were a bit too similar and I didn't really believe in them as characters. There's not much plot and a few points aren't really clearly explained. I also didn't know any of the Maori phrases in there. It's on the Waterstones debut prize list but I much preferred the other one that I've read from there, Mongrel.

Thanks Tarragon. The ones I've finished reading on my kindle do show as read - the thing I'm unsure about is whether things I read on an old kindle show up as read on the new one.

Realistically it doesn't matter, let's face it, I'm never going to make it through them all... and let's not even talk about the physical TBR pile

I also went to the library yesterday to pick up a hold and came back with 5 books to read. Je ne regrette rien!

awesome work @noodlezoodle

I have now gone down the rabbithole of marking Read content as Read on Amazon. I have gone through a few Kindles in the last few years and I do think those only read on the older Kindle still count as read. A surprising number that I have definitely read are not, though - including those shared with DS1, for example, which may mean I have read them but he hasn't. If you mark something as Read it puts the 'bookmark' back to p1 so I have left those.

However, I think it is more accurate with more recent purchases - though this might be me becoming aware you need to flick to the end past the bonus chapter etc.

Ooooh! Thanks @Stowickthevast! I now have a mere 275 unread items. Lovely.

That's a big reduction, @Welshwabbit :)

I have only reduced from 431 to 412, which is a bit weird as I was marking many more Read than that, I thought. But it's something.

Now all I have to do is stop buying more :D

I’ve got 15 on my Kindle yet to be read. I do a Collection per season, so I transfer over any I haven’t started when I make the new Collection. About 20 physical books. I do feel such an amateur compared to the numbers above
I’ve just bought another one because my TBR pile doesn’t contain any Folk Horror currently and that’s what I feel like reading this evening. If I have to bore myself to sleep with Boring Man Makes Walking 279 Miles In The Lake District Actually Very Boring I’ll be asleep in 5 mins. 😴

Prophet Song is on my list and 99p today. Is it worth a read? I added it a few months ago and now can't remember what people were saying! I think it might be one of the books that is in a weird format or hard to get into and tbh I like my fiction quite accessible!

@RazorstormUnicorn

I thought Prophet Song was good. The ending was a bit unsubtle / moral of the story is. It's also as a read a massive wall of text with not a lot of spacing

It's worth a read definitely though

I thought Prophet Song was fantastic, a strong contender for my book of the year so far (the other one being A Suitable Boy ). It's not at all experimental or inaccessible, but it is quite hard to read in places just due to the nature of the story.

Hmm - I read it from Borrowbox, & didn't experience it as a wall of text, so maybe it varies by format?

I loved Prophet Song but I listened to it on audio.

I think maybe the only reason I have fewer unread kindle books than you all is that I always mark books as finished when I've read them!

I definitely don't count my dad's books - we share a kindle family library, but since he's currently alternating Robert Parker thrillers with James Joyce I'm not sure I'm going to be reading his purchases any time soon.

@Sadik

I've just gone and had a look, and "wall of text" is inaccurate but the formatting is a bit odd in each section IMO

Purchased! Thanks team 😄

Maybe I'm used to Borrowbox books coming out a bit odd sometimes, so didn't realise it was intentional Eine !

I like the sound of Madensky Square that Biblio mentioned. I haven't read Prophet Song yet but think I will soon. I have it in my head that it's a difficult read so I'm bracing myself for it. Speaking of difficult reads, I've never read The Wasp Factory, only the blurb. I don't know if I ever will or not!

I went through my Kindle books and I have around ten unread books. I share a Kindle account with dh and we don't do Kindle Unlimited so I think that's why my numbers are low. I like to think I have a manageable number of books to read.

I need to do some catching up on writing reviews of latest books. I'm on my 51st one of the year at the moment.

The Bee Sting was formatted very strangely on Borrowbox. I could have missed a really important* *part of the story if I hadn't double clicked on a page.

Tom Chesshyre, Morrigan, perchance?

@bibliomania Yes! It looked so good but I’m feeling every weary footstep with him as he casts a pall of ennui over some of my favourite places.

Hope you all have a wonderful time in Manchester. I really enjoyed the London meet up and would have loved to join this weekend but it’s not to be.

I hope you’re ok Mama.

Sympathy to everyone who suffers with vestibular migraines, I have a friend affected and the impact is huge.

No kindle here but at least 80 on physical tbr - as others have said, if I don’t read them soon after purchase they tend to languish.

My latest was Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman. I’d long been interested to read this historical novel of Richard III (him from under the car park, long reviled as a chief suspect in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower) but my library’s copy is a whopping hardback which is too big for me to contemplate and so this had been on my mental 'if I ever get a kindle’ list. I found a paperback in a charity shop though which wasn’t quite so huge and started it on holiday - after the discussion about how many books to take, I didn’t even finish 1! Long and unashamedly partisan, this was an escapist and entertaining read and would be a good suggestion for ‘what to read when convalescing’ threads, if the weight of a physical book isn’t a concern.