50 Books Challenge 2025 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2025, 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.

Who's in for this year?

Of thread legends I read 84CC long before joining as it was one of mum's favourites (suspect it played a role in our moving to the UK from the US in fact) but don't love Hanff's other books, including The Duchess of Bloomsbury.

TTOD is on my TBR for 19th C ship/science reasons rather than peril. The prevailing taste for adventure (esp of the snowy mountainous variety) is one of the thread's most endearing quirks, but not one I share😁
#teamnothinghappens #teambloodyboring
Although currently midway through last year's #1 bold When the Dust Settles and loving it!

I hope people like Clear as least as much as I did! Influence goes both ways so thanks to noodle et al. I'll skip the last Brookmyre and jump on The Cracked Mirror

It’s television, but I just want to recommend Alan Bennett:90 Years On, the recent Arena programme. Wry and touching.

This is funny 😁 👏

Turns out at actually finished book 1 last night so I am just on track!

1. Odyssey - Stephen Fry.

The third in the Greek mythology series written by Stephen Fry. I did enjoy this but nowhere near as much as I enjoyed the others. On this occasion I think I found the jocular, conversational style of writing a bit forced and slightly irritating. I also wonder if I have now read so many books retelling the same stories with slightly different variations that I start taking some umbrage.it was ok. A fairly gentle start really

I therefore decided to get stuck back into Hogfather given that I am half way through and likely to finish by the end of the week. Weirdly I enjoyed today’s listening more than I have enjoyed any other so far. I absolutely love the Death character in the Discworld books. Lines like these make me wonder if I don’t empathise with Death just slightly too much:

Death lived in a black world, where nothing was alive and everything was dark and his great library only had dust and cobwebs because he’d created them for effect and there was never any sun in the sky and the air never moved and he had an umbrella stand. And a pair of silver-backed hairbrushes by his bed. He wanted to be something more than just a bony apparition. He tried to create these flashes of personality but somehow they betrayed themselves, they tried too hard, like an adolescent boy going out wearing an after-shave called “Rampant.

The only Chris Brookmyre I’ve ever read is the island one and I was disappointed. Sounds like I should give him another chance.

I’d like to read the Discworld books. Where should I start? (my friend said not at the beginning but I can’t remember which one she recommended)

I'd pick one of the story threads within the discworld and start there.

In order of my preference...

Mort for the Death series.
Equal Rites for the Witches.

Guards Guards for the Night Watch.

Or The Light Fantastic for the Wizards. (The series actually starts with the Colour of Magic, but it's not the best).

There are a few one-off books that you could read, like Pyramids. But the world building and some in-jokes develop through the books, which you might not appreciate if you jump in later on.

Thank you!

I am looking at 84 Charing Cross Road on Amazon and it doesn't appear to be on Kindle, is that right?

I can buy it in paperback obviously but feeling a bit stupid that I can't find it!

I am considering a Discworld read through once I complete my Stephen King read through. However I feel I should mix it up with a female writer. I've got several years left to contemplate that dilemma I think!

I started with Guards Guards @InWithThePlums then went to Small Gods and one of the witches ones I think. I then went back and started with Colour of Magic* and read in publication order.

I an a huge fan of Christopher Brookmyre and really enjoyed Cracked Mirror. I got to a certain point in the book and thought “aaaah!! Now I get it!!” And it was more like reading Brookmyre of old. Not quite Jack Parlabane or Bedlam levels of chaos but creative and really well done. I also really enjoy his Ambrose Parry books and am looking forward to the next one. I thought The Cut was fine. I bought it for 99p on kindle and it kept me busy. A bit ordinary for an author who is usually anything but

Oh and Small Gods is probably one of my favourite books ever. I absolutely love it and read it 3 times last year

Excellent example!

Yep, 84CRR has never been available on Kindle. All a bit crazy.

3 Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel

Second of the unsurpassable Wolf Hall trilogy, and much darker than book 1 as Anne Boleyn’s fate is sealed by her failure to present the king with a male heir. Cromwell is at the peak of his powers, but storm clouds are starting to amass on the horizon. Sadly there’s a two week wait for book 3 on Libby so will have to find something to keep me going in the mean time!

Definitely give him another chance @ChessieFL!

You could start with Quite Ugly One Morning, the first in the Jack Parlabane series (if you have a strong stomach - it's a wee bit disgusting in places) but my favourite is One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night. A boy who wasn't popular at school has made some money, bought an old oil rig and turned it into a holiday resort. He invites his former classmates to come and test it out for free - he wants to show off his business success basically - and the book starts with a bunch of people who have rarely seen one another since they were teenagers, having this bizarre school reunion on a coach heading for a dreadful version of a luxury holiday. And it all goes horribly wrong ...

I love One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night! That and A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away were my Brookmyre gateway drugs books. I also love All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye.

@RazorstormUnicorn I found this slightly odd looking kindle edition of 84 Charing Cross Road if that's any help? I have the Virago 30th anniversary edition which is a thing of beauty but doesn't seem to be easily available any more.

I suppose as 84 CCR is about second hand books and bookshops then issuing it on Kindle would be wrong somehow?

Just looking at this, and embarrassingly I hadn't realised 84CCR is non-fiction...

I’ve added One Fine Day and Cracked Mirror to my wishlist!

Glamorous Notions by Megan Chance

This was one of my Amazon First Read freebies and was surprisingly good. Set in the 1950s in LA our main character is Elsie who leaves her husband and manages to get into art school and then get an internship in Rome. Unfortunately she naively falls in with some dodgy people while there and has to return to LA and reinvent herself. She manages to get a job doing costumes at a movie studio but is constantly worried her past will catch up with her. I liked Elsie and I liked reading about the Cold War from this perspective, and learned a few things I didn’t know about.

The Mitford Trial by Jessica Fellowes

The fourth in The Mitford Murders series, this one focused on Unity. A murder happens on board a ship they’re on and our main character, family maid Louisa Cannon, once again gets dragged into solving it while also trying to keep an eye on who Unity is making friends with. This series is always slightly ridiculous but I still quite enjoy them and I’ll read anything featuring the Mitfords. Two more left to go in this series which I’ll probably read quite soon.

TToD isn’t peril - it’s ships and Darwin and relationships and 19th century Englishness and God and sadness and brilliance.

I hadn't realised 84CC was non-fiction either!

Ok, it's not just me, it's not (properly) kindle. Noodle thanks for the link, but I don't think I'll risk an odd version. Imagine if it changed the book and I didn't like it and was kicked off the thread 😮😁

I shall hunt down a paperback copy. Sounds like the kind of thing I should go and order from the local indie book shop.

I generally enjoy Brookmyre, but wasn't particularly taken with The Cracked Mirror
It's a bit hard to say too much without spoilers, but I thought the twist was rather heavily signaled, & overall he thought he was being terribly clever but the framing story didn't really live up to this.
I'd say my favourites are the early more political ones like Boiling a Frog but not sure how dated they'd feel now.

I also spotted the twist quite early. If read a book with a similar twist randomly just beforehand - I won't say which for spoilers. But I still thought Brookmyre's was quite fun.

One Fine Day and All Fun and Games are very good from Brookmyre.

I would also recommend the Angelique di Xavier trio: A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, The Sacred Art of Stealing and A Snowball’s Chance In Hell.

David Tenant reads Quite Ugly One Morning on Audible, which is both disgusting and hilarious (and, I think, the best early Parlabane).

My Kindle has now stopped acknowledging "Read" books as read, unless I click into each one from the library and then back out. On the laptop, Amazon lists them as Read so it has the info, it's just not syncing it correctly where it did before.

Has anyone else had this? It's annoying because I filter by Downloaded, Unread in an attempt to tackle the TBR pile!