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 .

Hello again! and Happy New Year!
I’ve badly fallen off the thread since the summer holidays. Life is busy! However, this afternoon I realised I am nearly there. Oh so nearly. I have 3h 44mins of Billy Summers by Stephen King to listen to and then I have completed 50. It’s the push I need because this is probably one of the major reasons I haven’t read much recently. I’m just not enjoying it. And it’s really long. And so I have been listening to podcasts instead....

Anyway... here is my reading to complete my year’s list.

43. No Far Shore by Anne Marie Fyfe

An odd and challenging text read for OU course. A mixture of poetry, prose, biography and travel. Fyfe is a Northern Irish Poet who now lives in London. However, she finds herself drawn back again and again to the coast where she grew up. She goes on a journey to explore various North Atlantic coastlines. She explores their meaning to her and connections to poets and writers who have gone before her.

It’s quite a beautiful and very complex text. I think I’m a bit too basic to truly connect with it... rather than a poem about Emily Bishop’s bedroom I probably wanted a few more paragraphs about the journey to get there and what it was really like. But that’s my problem and not Fyfe’s. It’s an interesting read.

44. Ariel by Sylvia Plath

I’m conflicted by Plath. I loved it as a teenager and was disappointed to return to it and find it a bit... teenage. I just don’t really connect with the rawness of it. I kept wanting to ask ‘Are you Ok, Sylvia?’ (clearly not....). But I quite enjoyed the analysis of it for OU literature course.

45. Take Your Eye Off The Ball 2.0 by Pat Kirwan

So I’ve made a slightly weird life decision. I LOVE the Olympics and watch it +++ when it is on. I don’t follow any other sports but wondered what it would be like if I did. So I started to follow the NFL. DH loves American Football and it’s become a nice Sunday evening ritual for us. However, I didn’t really have a clue what was happening so I bought a couple of books. They were very enjoyable and informative for me. If you are not weirdly obsessed with the NFL I might give them a swerve....
46. American Football for Dummies by Howie Long

As above.

47. The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

Not a huge fan of this. I really like dystopian fiction but this fell short somehow. I can’t really say why I didn’t like it without spoilers but I thought the twist was pretty poor. Interesting concept and most of the individual bits were reasonably well painted but as a whole piece I didn’t enjoy it.

48. Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
    For OU course. ‘How can literature speak back to power?’ Will post thoughts once have completed the assignment and associated reading.

49. Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
    As above.

50..... Billy Summers by Stephen King
Provided I can get through the last 3hrs or so. Ugh. I have read a couple of Stephen King I have really enjoyed but this has all of the viciousness without any of the world building I have so enjoyed in the others I have read. Get thee to an editor.

can't make my whole list appear. sorry!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie 😁

Happy New Year @LadybirdDaphne!

These limericks are killing me.

megb so sorry about your pet. It's such a hard thing to do.

I've accidentally acquired an Alexa which came with 2 audible credits. I've taken the plunge and gone for This Thing of Darkness. I'm 25% in of 30 hours. It's not exactly Hornblower levels of excitement is it? ducks and runs

Remarkably Bright Creatures Shelby van Pelt
I think many have read this already (surprise surprise I am, as usual, behind the curve). Set in a quiet seaside town in Washington it tells the story of Tova, a seventy year old who lost her son to the sea when he was 18 and Cameron, whose mother abandoned him. The main character beyond these two is Marcellus, an octopus who is bored in captivity and becomes an unlikely friend. This is for book club, and whilst reading I didn’t really think much of it - just ok. Now that I have finished, I think that was unfair. It’s actually quite an interesting look at grief, friendship and family as well as things and how important they are or are not. I think this is one I might go in ambivalent about but by the time book club finishes it will be bold.

This was no39, so I’ve lined up the very slim (possibly so small I am cheating) The Canterville Ghost so I can hit 40.

My resolution is not to over commit on Reading. I almost joined an online book club that will have two books per month - fiction and non fiction. But I’m pleased to say I didn’t join, because with work book club and regular read-a-longs here, I want some space for my own reading choices too.

@elspethmcgillicudddy I read the Bell Jar along time ago. There has never been a book that has affected as much as Sylvia Plath's. By the end of the book I needed to take time out. I couldn't manage to read another book for a while after. To elicit such feelings of her readers through her work means she is a great writer but I don't think I'd be able to revisit her work. Are all her books that dark and mentally draining?

Did you like it? I detested it! Really wanted to love it.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I also absolutely loved Madonna in a Fur Coat.

Apologies for the lack of punctuation. I hadn't checked it after editing it. 💐

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I am going to restart my Read what you Own challenge on 6th Jan- once the 12 days of kindle ends so I’ll be a little behind you. I reached 19 the last time. Hoping to make it to at least 31 more to get the 50. My plan is to try to avoid buying until the release of the Women’s Prize longlists (and I’ve hoarded some Waterstones vouchers and plus points for that eventuality)

these limericks are killing me
In a good way of course, Fortuna :)

I loved Madonna @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie @AgualusasLover
I thought it was very atmospheric.
I loved the retrospective story. As soon as the narrator started reading from the notebook, I was hooked.
There was an introduction in my edition that I found useful too.

@LuckyMauveReader Ariel is poetry. And yes it is just as draining! There was some interesting discussion in the module I have done about whether her use of world atrocities to describe her personal feelings was offensive or legitimate (or possibly both). She uses quite a lot of Nazi terminology and some holocaust imagery to describe her own suffering... which is challenging. She is also racially offensive in a way that has often been excused as being 'of its time' but in reality it was probably unacceptable even within context.

Used to post but now cos of work,
I seem to mostly just lurk,
Many books to read now,
I'm not quite sure how,
But this challenge I cannot shirk.

Happy New Year and thank you for all your posts this year. I've read 55 books and my best recommendations have come from here. (Also have over 170 books that I own and haven't read and you lot are responsible for much of that TBR too!).

@ÚlldemoShúl

I really need to do it. I've got so much on my TBR, if I hit 20 with no buying I'll be pleased!

No reading resolutions here, except to read what I want when I want and to abandon anything that isn’t working for me. No challenges, no counting, no pressure.

I want to be stricter about giving up books that I’m not enjoying, even where I’ve paid quite a bit for them.

My only other resolution is the same one that I make (and fail at) every year which is to try and buy less and clear the massive TBR pile I have!

@elspethmcgillicudddy I've purposely not researched her so I don't pick up any more of her work. I may tread there at some point, but definitely not yet.

What are you studying elspeth?

The Count of Monte Cristo has been delivered today ready for the read-along. Could someone tell me how this works, please?

@LuckyMauveReader It's an OU English Literature module. Purely for fun. I have a science background and no desire for another degree but I always wanted to study English Literature. I planned to do it when I retired but I got bored of waiting.

@elspethmcgillicudddy Oh good for you! I can imagine it's a breath of fresh air when working in the sciences.

I love studying but being Autistic with a possibility of ADHD too, I have had my fair share of challenges at Uni. It's a shame too because once I get settled and stuck in, I do ok.

As long as the DC are successful I can live off their achievements. 😍

@LuckyMauveReader

Instructions Here :

Bienvenue à Marseille | 2025 The Count of Monte Christo, read-a-long http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/5210239-bienvenue-a-marseille-2025-the-count-of-monte-christo-read-a-long

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Thank you for the link. The book is an absolute doorstop. I am quite surprised I wasn't charged for postage/packaging.

The chapter seems manageable so it should be fun as I haven't done anything like this before. I will try to continue reading other books alongside.

sorry that should be chapter per day seems manageable

@LuckyMauveReader

I have form for joining a read a long and dropping out so we will see how I do!