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 spent last year lurking on these threads whilst I got my reading mojo back, so I’d love to join you all this year. I managed 40 in 2024 which I was really pleased with.

I’ve got two hours of Wolf Hall on audio left which I didn’t manage to fit in yesterday and I’ve started Stoner by John Williams today.

It's 12 Days Of Christmas at the moment

I have a habit of buying books and not getting round to reading them so hopefully you'll all inspire me to start on my recent purchases today 📚

Happy New Year! I’m in thank you so much.

I got to exactly 50 last year so hoping to treat the effort.

im starting the year with a book club pick Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors which so far is very readable, but probably not to my taste (so much sex and drugs so far)

HNY to 50-Bookers old and new :)

Currently rereading Wolf Hall and listening to Judi Dench’s Shakespeare - both marvellous.

Happy new year every one ❤️

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Think Again by Jacqueline Wilson.

Happy New Year Everyone.

I'm definitely in this year. My plan is to read 52. I have my first 10 ready to go, but will definitely be looking for recommendations as I move along.

Happy New Year and welcome to all newcomers!

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel A cartographer joins her husband working in Jeddah. Despite having lived in a number of African countries previously, she finds her new life stifling and restricted, and experiences a creeping sense of unease over perceived movements in the "empty" flat above. I think Hilary Mantel is a fantastic writer and the first half of the book was gripping; I particularly enjoyed her exploration of cultural differences and the misconceptions prevalent from both sides. I know that HM lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years and I thought she was brilliant at describing the frustrations and limitations of women's lives. However, towards the end I thought events became increasingly fanciful and I found the denouement rather unsatisfactory.

Happy new year 50 bookers. I've finished my first book of the year, although I actually read about 70% of it last year.

1. A New Doctor At Orchard Cottage Hospital. Lizzie Lane.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with Lizzie's books, but this was exactly what you'd expect. Easy to read, not high brow in anyway. But comforting. Set in 1930, Dr Brakespeare moves from London to Somerset to run the Cottage Hospital there. Plot twist... she's a lady doctor. Her fiance was killed in the War, she was adopted from the poorhouse as a baby, and is learning to make her way in, what was definitely, a man's world. I have no idea how accurate it is, but I could absolutely believe that life was like that for "lady doctors". I did learn a little more about the unknown soldier who is interred at Westminster Abbey, namely how they selected a body to be moved there.

Hello! I want to reduce my time on Facebook and mumsnet (other than this thread) and read more. I also want to post and engage on this thread more. Managed 50 last year but only just.

Starting off with Wool by Hugh Howe on audible which I'm enjoying so far and Three Twins at the Crater School which should be right up my street but I'm not massively drawn to keep opening...

Ooh I have Wool on my shelves too but I’m loathe to start a book that is part of a series as I’ll just be tempted to buy the remaining books in the series rather than reading the piles I already have, is it worth reading? 👀

Happy New Year 50 bookers! I am mostly a lurker and my fave thing to do on a Saturday morning is sit in bed with a cup of tea and catch up on this thread, normally adding to my want to read lists. Will aim to join in much more in 2025 as I have taken so much from everyone who actually posts over the years.

Am aiming for 60 books this year and am starting with Small Islands - Andrea Levy which was a Christmas gift.

Happy New Year! New to thread and just about to dive into The Glimpses of the Moon - Edmund Crispin. Looking forward to building up a good reading habit in 2025.

Happy new year everyone and thank you for the thread @Southeastdweller

I bought one of the 99p daily deals as I had a couple of bolds from there last year. I went for Ugly Love - Colleen Hoover as it's well reviewed but omg it is so bad. I'm 11% in and will give it until tomorrow night to warm up (maybe so bad it's good?) but I may have my first DNF not even a day into the New Year!

I’d love to join if that’s ok. I’m likely to be moving this year so hoping to clear some of the many books on my shelf and Kindle and also to read more classics this year.

I’ve just read my first books of the year though the first might be cheating as I read 3/4 of it last year but I’m including it in this year’s tally. I’m absolutely terrible at reviews so apologies for that.

1. Eject! Eject! by John Nichol

This is a history of ejection seats and the many pilots and crew who have been saved by them. It details the making of and the history of various improvements that were made to them over the decades. It then goes on to the stories of the people who had to use them in an emergency and what happened to them during and after ejection, as rescue wasn’t always imminent.

It can be a little repetitive at times which is unavoidable due to the format but each individual story is very much worth reading.

It contains graphic descriptions of torture and injuries throughout so if you’re sensitive to those then you may want to avoid it. There’s also some animal cruelty in it though it’s a very small section of the book and easily skipped over.

I love non-fiction on unusual subjects and I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.

2. Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Set in an Australian girls’ boarding school in 1900, it’s about a group of the school’s girls who go missing during a Valentine’s Day picnic at the titular Hanging Rock.

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to as I generally don’t particularly enjoy books set in Australia but I really loved the beautiful writing. It was much darker and disturbing than I expected but definitely one that I’ll return to in the future.

I’m just about to start book 3 which is The Century Girls by Tessa Dunlop which was written in 2018 to celebrate the centenary of women gaining the right to vote and tells the lives of six women who lived through the changes during that period. It seemed an appropriate choice for New Year’s day.

Happy New Year to 50 bookers old and new! Thanks to south as always for keeping us in order.

Just placemarking for now. My resolutions book wise are to dispose of more than I buy (again!), maybe reread some Jasper Ffordes, and catch up on the Flavia Albia series: I've got the last five waiting in my TBR so no excuse.

@ShelfObsessed If you have a google, you should be able to find the alternate, very strange ending to Picnic at Hanging Rock.

I'd like to join! Rediscovered my love of reading late last year and managed 46 books in total so my goal is to improve on that.
Happy New year to you all 😊

Thanks Remus. I wasn’t aware that existed and I’ll definitely look it up. Also Happy New Year to all MN Bibliophiles!

I picked two random books from my shelves this morning then realised that both of my choices(Picnic) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie were both set in girls schools. I decided against reading both so close together so put the latter back on the shelf. I do like the idea of reading by theme though so I may try to find a somewhat related non-fiction book to accompany Picnic.

Oh, I remember watching Picnic at Hanging Rock on TV years ago, I'd love to read that! I've added it to my list.

Can I ask what the significance of the bold text is, other than book titles? Someone above mentioned they had some bolds, is that want-to-reads?

@Castlerigg it's favourite books from last year; the ones you'd recommend. In the long list, the bolds are the best reads, and any in italics are the ones people didn't like.

I'll join this year. Last year I read 56 books. I track on Goodreads. This year I want to read at least 40 books that I already own. I'm terrible for buying books and not reading them. I have a few library books to finish up as well.

Welcome to the new joiners!

My only book-related resolutions are to keep reading 2 physical books I own per month, and to end the year with fewer unread kindle books (currently on 294).

@TheGodOfSmallPotatoes

I read Wool and the rest of the trilogy Shift and Dust the year before last. I can confirm that it was worth it if you like a dystopia. The series is currently being broadcast as Silo on Apple TV (some changes have been made)

Happy New Year everyone! And thank you for the thread @Southeastdweller 😊

I’m part-way through two books, have another waiting for me on BorrowBox, and need to start the Count - so plenty to be going on with! And a lovely big TBR pile (both physical and digital). Really looking forward to getting stuck in - if only I wasn’t back at work tomorrow!