50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Nine

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the ninth and final thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year, possibly the shortest thread in the twelve years the other 50 Books Challenge threads have been going.

The challenge was 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 , the seventh one here and the eighth one here .

Sorry to hear about your pet @MegBusset

@Tarragon123 Assuming that title is a Philip Larkin reference? Excellent poem!

There once was a man called Charles Ryder,
To Brideshead he was an outsider.
First he tried the second son,
Then the daughter was won,
Until Catholic Guilt came along and inspired her
(To dump him).

Squeaking over the line with my 52nd book finished on NYE - Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi I loved this book. It is essentially a collection of short stories following the descendents of two half sisters born in Ghana - one of whom marries an English slaver and stays in a high position in Africa and the other who is captured and sold as a slave to be shipped to America. Beautiful and touching but also very accessible. I will definitely be reading Yaa Gyasi's second book next year.

This was a book club read and our meeting isn't until the end of January so I hope I will remember what happens!

@MegBusset

Sending love @MegBusset - the loss of a pet is so difficult.

I definitely won't give up @TimeforaGandT - I'm over half way now! I feel like I've got to grips with the main characters, but struggling a lot with the sequence of events. It's perhaps my own lack of background knowledge but I just don't understand the different factions, what they believe and why, and I think most frustratingly for me how a couple of boring lawyers were suddenly leading a revolution!

Well done all on the poetry and I hope everyone has a happy new year!

I'm sorry to hear about your pet, @MegBusset 💐

I’m currently rereading The Ink Black Heart as I wanted to re familiarise myself with it before watching the TV version. I don’t think I’ll finish it today but you can have my limerick review anyway:

A one-legged detective called Strike
Had a partner he rather did like
While she played a game
Under an alternative name
Their feelings were reaching a spike.

DD has also had a go:

We see them One Day every year
Often talking or drinking a beer
There are ups and downs
There are smiles and frowns
And at the end you might shed a tear

Two detectives called Strike and Robin
with masses of tedium and padding
but we read on anyway
despite all our pain
just to see if he’ll ever get his knob in

Can we do limericks as an end of year thing every year please 😁

Ooo I just saw the next one is out September 2025!

Loving the limericks!

I am sorry @MegBusset , there’s no good time to say goodbye to a beloved pet but just before Christmas seems particularly hard.
@BarbaraBuncle I hope your DS gets the help he needs in the coming year [hug]

I am in a cottage in the middle of a forest. There is a weather warning and the forest is ‘closed’. We did take a walk earlier to catch the sunrise and tbh the wind speed wasn’t at all concerning. It’s tipping it down now, the trees are starting to bend properly and we’ve planned a day in playing board games. Reading will also feature this afternoon, I’ve Girl A and Jenny Eclair’s autobiography on the go. Then a NYE spag bol, and might even stay up until midnight this year.

@MegBusset 🌺

I have posted on the 50book roundup wrong thread but has anyone any new year book resolutions other than reaching that 50? Mine is to fall asleep to an audiobook as think that will help me achieve my target. Also to read some more historical fiction.

Trying to read what I already own @Midnightstar76 and stop buying anything

Today is last buying day

Also Happy New Year 50 bookers!

There was a group of women or men who knows
Who are strangers but grew as friends don’t ya know
Books have bonded them with their great debate
So onwards and upwards and more bookish discussion as we step on in to 2025

My new year's reading resolution is to clear my unread books on my Kindle and on bookshelves which add up to about fifty. It's doable so long as I don't buy or borrow books! I have a few library loans to come in so I'll leave those stand.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit hope you make the most of your buying haul! 😊

Aw @Midnightstar76 that's lovely.
Happy New Year 🥳

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh to you to 😁

My resolution this year (other than 50 books) is to get back into my exercise routine. I had to stop in August when I was pregnant and then gave birth in October and have taken it easy for the first 3 months but the new year I'll get back into it! Nothing too strenuous...just 20 minutes per day on the elliptical machine.

Madonna in a Fur Coat: Sabahattin Ali

'A shy young dreamer from Turkey
In thrall to a woman in fur, world weary,
They roam Berlin streets,
He wears his heart on his sleeve,
But the ending is tragic and teary'.

This is my first year on the thread and I have loved it and found it very motivating. Thank you all. Just finishing my last two books hopefully to hit 90. Last year I only managed 4 books in total!

Somehow I still have more books on my TBR pile than I started last year with but feels a hopeful thing this year.

I've just tallied up my list and have made 152!

My last book of the year will probably be How the Railways Will Fix the Future: Rediscovering the Essential Brilliance of the Iron Road by Gareth Dennis which covers climate change, urban planning and secret fascist rooms in Milan station and is rather good.

Sorry to hear about your pet @MegBusset 🌷
No book resolutions here apart from trying to get to 50. Been on these threads a couple of years now & still not got there. Doesnt matter though - the company is great & it keeps my reading motivation up even if im a bit more sluggish than others.