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?

I DNF Hamnet after three attempts. I can’t bring myself to read the last Shardlake, I loved the rest of them.
Not got off to a very good start this year. I think I was 4 books in by this time last year. I am enjoying Rue Tatin which @Terpsichore recommended last year so fingers crossed will finish something soon.

I really liked Hamnet (including the fleas 😄); don’t fancy The Marriage Portrait; and have Instructions for a Heatwave on my TBR pile thanks to this thread - looking forward to getting to it soon!

in the meantime, I have finished 4 One of the Good Guys - Araminta Hall. I got this on BorrowBox after a recommendation somewhere - quite possibly here, in which case apologies to whoever recommended it but I absolutely hated it. Unsubtle as a brick, utterly unconvincing attempt at the main male character’s inner thoughts, dreadful plot…I could go on. I’m clearly in a minority based on the Goodreads reviews but I just thought it was awful. It read like an extended creative writing exercise. Definitely won’t be reading anything more by this author! I’m genuinely annoyed with myself for wasting time finishing it, although it was so lightweight that I was able to whizz through it in one evening (small mercies…).

I’ve seen it twice. Brilliant. Would happily watch it once a week forever.

The funny thing is that I read Hamnet and I recall loving it. But literally the only part of the plot I can remember is the twin swapping part. I have a vivid recollection of sitting parked in the car listening and thinking “this is bullshit” but thinking it in a cheerful and fairly pleased way like I was happy to overlook the nonsense as I enjoyed the rest of it.

Generally speaking if I make it to the end of the book by the time I have ended I would find it hard to rate is less than 4 stars. I think I develop some sort of literary Stockholm syndrome

DuPain Soz it was me! It was a cracking book for a book club as there's loads to discuss. The "twist" annoyed me though. Possibly down to the audiobook narrator, but the main character had me raging at how much of a sanctimonious twonk he was.

I loved Hamnet and it was my fave fiction in a year where I am, I am, I am was one of my favourite non-fictions. I liked Instructions for a Heatwave and This Must Be The Place and I have The Marriage Portrait on TBR mountain.

Also loved the Shardlake books, although the last one was my least favourite and was way overlong.

Just popped on to look for this thread, as I’m determined to do it this year, and it’s already at 700 odd posts! I’m still on my first 2025 book (Our Hideous Progeny - quite like it overall but the author needed to do more research about how the people she’s writing about would have spoken) but am away on a non-reading holiday at the moment. Going to go back and read the thread now to catch up with what everyone else is doing!

I dnf the last Shardlake - it was very dull. I also found Lamentation too long and really quite boring. It’s such a shame, as the first five books were great.

Mort is a good one to start with too. There are various ways to read them - I started with the ‘death’ books, agree with pp that he’s the best character. Mort is the first death book. You can do the same thing with the witches, or the night watch, etc.

The Colour of Magic is ok, but it could put some people off the series - it feels like the literary equivalent of the male gaze in places.

My unpopular book opinions: the Discworld books never quite hit the mark for me, The Marriage Portrait was more engaging than Hamnet and anyone who was around last year will know I have very mixed views on Nigel.

The first Pratchet I read was The Colour of Magic and I thought it was dreadful. Somebody then lent me The Hogfather asking me to just give him one more chance before I decided he was crap. Enjoyed that and ended up reading lots. My favourites are Mort, Reaper Man and the Sam Vines series. I don’t like the witches, or Tiffany whatshername.

The only Pratchett I’ve ever finished was Diggers - read with a child. I’ve started Colour of Magic a couple of times but always been distracted by something else

@weareallcats I’m intrigued by “non reading holiday”! A couple of times I have done what Julia Cameron calls a Reading Deprivation Week - is it something like that? Or have you just forgotten to take a book with you? 😉

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I concur re The Salt Path which I read in 2023 and was very disappointed with. Last year I read Strayed's Wild and thoroughly enjoyed it. Have you read any of Strayed's other books? Was thinking of using an audible credit...

Glad I'm not the only one who's not a Discworld fan. Or maybe it's Pratchett's writing style in general. Huge swathes of text (about the sun rise, and the elephants and turtles) copied & pasted into every book. I know it's done so that every book can be read individually and make sense, but it feels lazy. And I find the footnotes annoying, they totally disrupt the flow and make it impossible to read aloud with a child.

@nowanearlyNicemum I didn’t like Wild - it seemed to be largely focused on Cheryl really wanting a shag, as far as I recall.

2. Midsummer House by Rachel Lucas

This is the third book in the Applemore bay series set in a small coastal town in the Scottish Highlands. This one follows the romantic fortunes of Charlotte who is trying to build her holiday rental business.

I'm really enjoying this series and would recommend if you enjoy Jenny Colgan's Scottish books.

I'm a Maggie O'Farrell fan - I think I've read them all! My top three would be After You'd Gone, Hamnet and I Am, I Am, I Am.

I'm not particularly into Pratchett - I find his books mildly amusing rather than hilarious. Never tried Shardlake.

River Cottage is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall so I'm afraid even your parents enjoyable visit there doesn't mitigate your dislike of Nigel Slater's Toast!

@Zippymonkey to put things in bold you put an asterisk * at the beginning and end of the bits you want in bold

@nowanearlyNicemum

Nice to find someone who agrees ! I'm not sure how the film will work

No, I haven't read any further Strayed but I've thought about it

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Jealous, though we did have fantastic seats where we were, but I only go to London sporadically so I doubt I'll see it again!

@Zippymonkey that works,

An alternative is to press the B at the bottom left of the posting box to start bolding or to bold text that you have selected with the cursor.

Me again! I always move fast in January and slump in the summer !

8. The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim

Read in one sitting last night this is going to be tough to properly review in a spoiler free way but I'll try.

Ji-won is struggling in many different ways when her parents suddenly split up. When her mother acquires a boyfriend named George, Ji-won harbours fantasies of maiming him.

This was good, if essentially unbelievable, shades of Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda and none of the depth of say Han Kang, but it was entertaining enough and had that spark of originality to it.

It's delightfully weird so one for those who like something off the wall but it's not going to be a bold I don't think.

Ha! I think I dislike both then.

I'm reading the Discworld chat with interest, I have never got into it but in theory I should love it. I was a huge reader of fantasy in my teens (1980s) and it is always being suggested to me.
I remember reading Colour of magic and not enjoying it compared to some of the other fantasy I was reading at the time. Then more recently I listened to an Audible version of one of them but the narrator was dreadful so I gave up again. I while ago I read something about the Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness which I thought was brilliant and made the resolution to have another go but never have (TBR list too big) - maybe time to try again.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I actually think the film of The Salt Path will be much better than the book - because we'll presumably actually get to see the amazing scenery of the places they walked, which was cruelly missing from the memoir IMOH.

To add to the Maggie O'Farrell chat - I read Hamnet this summer and loved it. Have The Marriage Portrait on my kindle but haven't got round to it yet. I can't remember off the top off my head which other books of hers I've read - apart from I am, I am, I am, which I thought was good but didn't love in the same way many on this thread did.