50 Books Challenge Part Eight

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth 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 , the fifth one here , the sixth one here and the seventh one here .

What are you reading?

You've all made me giggle this morning on Nigel - you funny, clever people! I generally can't even bring myself to read his Gruniad musings.

100. Wandering Stars - Tommy Orange. This sequel to There, There which I read earlier this year was longlisted for the Booker. The events take place before and after the previous book. Lots of people said they preferred the first part but I actually liked finding out what happened to some of the characters from There, There. He writes teenage boys and young men very well, which is a viewpoint I don't read that often. I think it can stand alone but works better having read the first book. It's about addiction, belonging and not belonging and the generational trauma suffered by native people. Not a bold but a decent read that brought to my attention issues that I don't know much about.

Pleased to have hit 100 which was my aim for the year.

Making it So - Patrick Stewart. This memoir is dry in places and would have benefitted on less detail on his work and more insight into his personality and personal life, but in general it's an undemanding and fairy enjoyable, if overlong, read. Someone on Amazon said it's “just a long version of his Wikipedia entry”, which I pretty much agree with.

I read this recently too (well, listened on audio!) and found it fairly enjoyable. Was the first David Nicholls I've read so I might look out for more of his.

Has anyone thought yet about reading goals for next year? I'm aware there's some longer books I've been avoiding as I've maybe got too many books out the library by accident (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) or I'm too invested in my overall numbers to pick them up. Plus my Ellery Queen magazines have been building up unread in favour of boosting numbers, which isn't great either.

I think next year I need to focus more on the books I've been passing over eg Stephen King Dark Tower series and maybe intersperse with fluff here and there to reset my brain.

@InTheCludgie, I want to clear the enormous unread pile of London Review of Books which glower reproachfully at me from a corner of the bedroom! But also to finish Proust, and maybe embark on Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (a bit of an epic endeavour but worth it).

@InTheCludgie

Having read 4 books by David Nicholls, I think I enjoyed Us the story of a marriage breakdown the most. It was really relatable

In terms of reading goals, I might use Twixtmas to finally read a 1,000 pager such as Shogun or The Count Of Monte Cristo and then again I might chicken out, I wish I wasn't so daunted

Well done on your 100, @Stowickthevast!

@InTheCludgie I’m listening to You Are Here at the moment, quite enjoying it but I’ve got about 2 hours left and it’s starting to feel a bit same-y. It does make me want to go walking somewhere beautiful though.

I’m a bit similar with longer books, although I have really enjoyed several longer ones this year (The Bee Sting, Demon Copperhead and Fingersmith). I know what you mean about numbers though! I was going to suggest it might be worth setting a number of pages goal rather than number of books. The StoryGraph app tracks this for you. So at least if you have read a longer book one month you can see you’ve still read a lot of pages!

Glad I'm not the only one avoiding the subscriptions and lengthy books 🙈 Storygraph sounds like a good shout, I've only ever used Goodreads but this might be ideal thanks @OdileO

I find that a target of 50 works well for me because it means I read a good mixture of long and short books. In other words, I'd get to more than 50 if I stuck to mainly short books and fewer than 50 if I included lots of long books, while 50 seems to be the sweet spot. I've ended up somewhere between 50 and 57 every year for the past 10 years!

Currently downloaded on my Kindle are 122 unread books (I have more unread books, those are the downloaded ones, though).

I am going to have a crack for the next few months at not downloading any more from my TBR pile because I should have plenty of choice from 122!!! I shudder to put a number on it but maybe once I have it below 90?

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie yes I agree it's the weakest in the series. It feels like he lost his way a bit and struggled to bring the story back together. And yes, the Mia stuff drives me mad too

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I've had Shogun and The Count of Monte Cristo on my list of things I feel I would enjoy and should read for years. And Middlemarch, and The Moonstone. I like the idea of a Twixmas challenge.

Hi and place-marking. Thanks@Southeastdweller
My list

1. The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside by Jessica Ryn

2.The Lady of the Loch by Elena Collins

1. All The Lonely people by mike Gayle

4.A Tomb with a view by Peter Ross 5.Paper Cup by Karen Campbell

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
2. Would you ask my husband that? By Kathleen Whyman
3. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
4. The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club by Faith Hogan
5. The Woman In The Walls by Faith Cobaine
6. Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross
7. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
8. Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
9. In the time we lost by Carrie Hope Fletcher
10. Finders Keepers by Natalie Barelli
11. The Ghost Woods by C.J Cook
12. The Maiden by Kate Foster
13. The Push by Ashley Audrain
14. Angel Meadow:Victorian Britains most savage slum by Dean Kirby

Really haven’t read much this year and that’s okay. Currently reading The Pumpkin Spice Cafe and very much a judge a book by it’s cover as really rather crap but will persevere. Reminds me of the series Gilmore Girls where nothing particularly happens. Have not read all the thread so time for a catch up

I quite fancy reading The Count of Monte Cristo too or maybe Les Miserables. I think my goals next year will be similar to my goals for this year:

• Read more non fiction
• Get through my physical TBR list
• Listen to more audiobooks
• Not buy as many kindle books
• Get more use out of kindle unlimited and audible plus.
• Read more classics
• Read a book in French ( I can't remember who inspired me on here to do this but I'm keeping up with relearning French, Although next year might be a bit ambitious for this one).

I've definitely focused less on the numbers this year and have read a couple of fairly chunky books. After using Goodreads and StoryGraph last year I switched to just StoryGraph and I do like the page count function.

I don't really have any goals for next year - I just love reading! I also love reading the reviews on here and have discovered so many good books that I would not have come across otherwise. Thank you all. Xx

My goal for next year is to read War and Peace and Middlemarch and to finish The Neapolitan Quartet and another two volumes of In Search of Lost Time (currently in book 2 of both). Finally I’d like to read The Women’s Prize shortlist, and longlist if possible.
Apart from that I intend to read by mood and my spinning wheels and to complete my ‘Read what you Own’ challenge. I’m not putting a book goal because I feel it makes me read too fast rather than enjoying the read. This year I will reach 200 and that is too many for me to actually take everything in properly.

I’ve finished
182 (and book 1 of Read what you Own) The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Ive been meaning to read this for years. I read another book of his The Stranger’s Child? Or something like that years ago and didn’t love it but always heard this was the superior read, which is very true. Nick Guest becomes almost a member of the Fedden family after attending Oxford with their son Toby and moves into the spare room. The family are wealthy and connected (father is an MP in Thatcher’s government) and Nick uses this to his advantage. There’s a lot of depth to this book and it touches on many themes including wealth, class, relationships, AIDS, mental health. It also has shades of the empty rich as observed by the outsider a la Gatsby. Pretty sure it’s bold but will see how long it lasts with me. I see there’s an old BBC drama- anyone remember it and know if it’s worth watching?

I like to read as the whim takes me, so don't intend to set many reading goals. Reading two physical books I own per month has been working well for me, so I'll keep that up. I'm inclined to try one big classic, read in short daily chunks. Maybe Gibbon, Decline and Fall, but I'll see.

74 Material World - Ed Conway

Enlightening and readable pop science book on six substances that have been, and continue to be key to human civilisation - sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium.

My only aim is to try and reduce my TBR list but that’s always my aim and it never seems to happen! I’m constantly putting myself on book buying bans but it never lasts. I have no willpower when it comes to books. I also like to support my local independent bookshop as I wouldn’t want to lose it.

What I have done this year is always make sure I’m reading the newest book I’ve bought. That does mean I haven’t made much inroad into the existing TBR pile, but it has stopped me buying a few books where I don’t want to read them straight away. Before I would have still bought them to read at some point, so I do think this method has slightly reduced what I’ve bought.

Sorry, been MIA doomscrolling the news in the hope of something positive - sadly not, so welcome to all those of you have become fellow gin drinkers.

In good news, I am managing to eke out the Rivals adaptation which I really don’t want to end.

I don’t think I can commit to not buying more books and am in awe of Mamanewts reading aspirations for next year!

Latest read was:

76. Spy Hook - Len Deighton

Continuing the story of Bernard Samson, employed in the Berlin Desk of the intelligence services in 1980s London. Life is not going well for Bernard as he keeps discovering people he thought were dead are actually alive and something is clearly afoot which he is not party to. He starts digging which doesn’t work out well for him. Poor Bernard, still drinking too much, juggling a tricky private life and in a whole heap of professional trouble. Easy read.

Onto the Agatha Christie challenge book for this month - The Third Girl - never heard of it before which means it’s clearly not a classic whodunnit and I am doomed to be disappointed….

My first year doing the challenge I hit exactly 50 and was thrilled but I've aimed since then to build on that each year - not that I've always achieved it! 50 next year seems much more manageable for me I'd say. Quality over quantity (possibly)

Does anyone else get very annoyed by chapters from a book you haven't read at the back of another book? I never read them and they mess up my Mark As Read!

No reading goals for me - I'm too beholden to my library/BorrowBox reserves to be specific!

55.Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Effia and Esi are half-sisters living on the Gold Coast in West Africa. Effia is forcibly married off to a slave trader, and her descendents remain on the Gold Coast. Esi is enslaved and transported to America. The story follows the impact of the Atlantic slave trade across many generations of their descendants.

This was very good, although obviously harrowing. Inevitably though, with so many different character perspectives, some were more successful than others. Broadly the American narratives were more well rounded, and I felt like I would rather have focused on these stories and characters for longer.

I listened to this on BorrowBox and thought Dominic Hoffman's narration was brilliant.

Urgh what a week. I stopped using Twitter when I opted out of academia (that’s mostly what I used it for) and after last October I just stopped reading or watching any news at all as the Middle East stuff just pushed me over my edge. Now I scroll FB, and watch reels of people dancing at weddings and snippets of Modern Family. I epitomise burying my head in the sand.

The Count of Monte Christo and Shogun might make decent read alongs.

I am still reading Les Liaisons Dangereuse but will finish it before EOY.

I’ve been sick, work has been intense and I’ve been in a bit of a slump that I think I’m now out of thanks to Barbara Pym. I’ve hit 31, with 30 being my personal target this year.

Sidessplitter: how to be from two worlds at once, Phil Wang
I like Phil Wang’s comedy and this is all about being mixed race/heritage which is something I am always drawn to, since I am also mixed. He makes some interesting observations and points on race but with humour and sarcasm - in some ways he does a better job than some who write about race more seriously. I loved reading about his upbringing, about Malaysia. He managed to be insightful but also very funny. I was on the bus crying with laughter more than once.

Jane and Prudence, Barbara Pym
Classic Pym. I just couldn’t pull myself together to read much and just thought, vicars, tea and spinsters was just what I needed. Pru lives in London, very girl about town went to Oxford where she met Jane, now a vicars wife, but not terribly domestic. Jane tries to set Pru up with philandering widower Fabian Driver. It was just what the doctor ordered.

Obvs still have LLD on the go, Black and British by David Olusoga and just started Shakespeare: the man who pays the rent Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea.

I’ve not made any reading plans next year, but inspired a bit by the discussion, I might do Monte Christo as a long read across the year.

Yes! I try and remember to mark the book read manually but sometimes forget.