50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Two

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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.

The first thread of the year is

Thank you! I was wracking my brains wondering how I'd heard the story of Tunnel 29 without reading the book!

Clearly I'm a bit slow because once I'd dismissed 'in the Guardian Weekend magazine or something' my mind didn't immediately turn to podcasts.

I didn’t watch it, because I couldn’t see how the creative swearing would transpose across 😀

@Tarragon123 The Long Call is 99p on Kindle at the moment... :D

16 Hex - Jennie Fagan

This is a short and is one of the Darkland Tales. I didn't enjoy it as much as Rizzio, possibly because I am not familiar with the story of Geillis Duncan (other than that Diana Gabaldon borrowed the name for her most witchy character).

Iris is a witch in modern times and has projected herself back through time to be with the 15 year old Geillis Duncan on the night before her hanging for witchcraft. The men around Geillis have accused her for venal reasons, and have raped and tortured her into false confessions. The story is eerie, as Iris gets drawn further into Geillis's world, endangering her grip on her own modern day life.

Is anyone actually sticking to the rule about reading only what you own? I’m trying to do so but a book that has been on my wishlist for years(Rabid:A Cultural History of The World’s Most Diabolical Virus) is 99p today and I couldn’t resist.

Some people have their own rules, but there aren’t any for all on the thread.

Honestly, I've bought so many books since deciding to only read what I own, it's slightly embarrassing. I thought I had more restraint than that. But in my defence, they were almost all 99p. And I've now cancelled KU, so hopefully I will actually make some headway!

I am trying and failing :)

But I am trying to make sure old ones get to the front page of my Kindle library so that some of them are being ticked off, at least.

@ShelfObsessed a few of it we’re just doing it to challenge ourselves rather than as a thread thing- I think we’ve all failed miserably- I know I have! Full admiration to anyone who’s still going!

I’m relieved to hear that I’m not the only one who is failing miserably! That makes me feel better.

I have culled a few hundred free books from my Kindle to make it easier to choose books and also a few purchased ones that I know I won’t read. Some have been on my Kindle for close to a decade. I should really make the oldest a priority.

I was one of a couple of people who said they were doing Read What You Own. I did do one 99p deal but I've stuck to it way more than I thought I would. I think you have to make an exception for The Deals, because of stuff on your wishlist coming up.

I thought the 'Read what you own' idea sounded like a worthy ambition, since there are so many unread books in my house. And I was mentally congratulating myself just now on not really having bought any new books in January. Then I realised that I've actually bought five. But one was for my book group meeting, because my library reservation didn't arrive in time, so that one didn't count! And two were for the MN Count of Monte Cristo read-along, so obviously those didn't count! And the final two were in French, and reading in French is virtuous (plus French books can be harder to get from the library) so those didn't count either.

In short I'm doing great at the challenge because I've convinced myself that none of my book purchases count as actual purchases 😂🙄

No, it's not logical, but it makes sense to me!

I'm a bit like cassandre. I have bought books for book groups on Kindle. I have read two from my Kindle archive and one off my shelf. So, not too shabby.

I am trying a 'Read what you own challenge' but I am aiming to read 9 books that I own, before giving myself a virtual 'credit' for a new book. Doing this I have read 30 books that I owned already, and since I have only bought 6 books, I only owe myself 3 new book credits!

I'm doing more of a No Buy than RWYO and built in a lot of leeway so I've technically only broken it for the Handheld Press closing down sale. Yesterday was my first 99p deal of the year (Monty Lyman pain nonfic) but it was on my wishlist so allowed.

However, I'm still abusing my various libraries😅and had a haul from my mum's bookshelves yesterday, mostly of Korean books including the latest Han Kang, some Austen-related nonfic, and Andrew Motion's Larkin bio, which I'm hoping to skim for Jill-related goss before the Rather Dated chat 😇

@inaptonym The Larkin biography is brilliant.

Oh yes. I forgot that I also bought the Monty Lyman book too because it was also on my wish list. 😳

I’m glad to hear though that we mostly agree that buying wish list books is acceptable.

I love to hear everyone’s tips on RWYO. I’ll have to try some of them myself.

@SheilaFentiman – ha ha! I am going to be strong and resist!

@ShelfObsessed – so far, that’s almost a month. I’m not counting two pre orders from 2024, one that dropped in January and the second due in March, I think. But, like others, I’m getting books from the library.

16 Rivals – Jilly Cooper. Hmm, a reread for me. I’d forgotten large chunks. The usual fat shaming. I don’t think that there is one character is this book that is likeable. I’m too much of a prude for all the affairs. That said, I loved it, but not a bold.

The thing that bugs me the most about Jilly Cooper and I said this in my review of Tackle, is that she forgets about about family members. I’d completely forgotten about Taggie’s sister Caitlin and brother Patrick. Where have they been for the past 20 years? Bah. I'm going to leave Jilly there. No moving on to Polo or TMWMHJ.

I’m down to 26 books on my Kindle, which I’m delighted about.

Cassandre, that's the kind of logic we like!

I've bought 4 this year but 3 were on my wish list anyway and one I'm hoping will be useful for family stuff so it's all good. As long as I end up with a deficit at year end.

Well maybe a mini haul during an inspection and a couple of daily deals aren’t too bad then 😊Anyway, I’ve decided not to feel guilty- I’ll be glad to have a stockpile of reading for when I retire some day!

11 . The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey - in a bid to read what you own and working through 'The Complete Books of Inspector Alan Grant' to get to the one I really want to read, I'm now on book 3. This was an improvement on the first one, the focus was not on Alan Grant but on a solicitor Robert Blair and a visit he received from Marion Sharpe about the alleged kidnapping that she was supposed to have taken part in committing with her mother of a war orphan. All things pointed in the direction of them being guilty, but there is a twist. This had enough about it to keep me interested and was quite sweet in places, but from a feminist perspective they haven't aged well. There seems to be condoning of a married man having sex with a 15 year old girl because 'she was asking for it'. She was the villain rather than the pedophile!

If we had a thread rule that we could only read what we own I'd be kicked off the thread! 99% of my books are ones I read for review purposes, some pre-publication.

I'd ace a no-buy rule though. The benefit of reading for reviews is the books are free.

I wanted to read more of what I own but have purchased more from charity shops while on holiday. It's ok though, because the Airbnb has a book shelf, and I reckon I can finish two, if not three and leave them on the shelf so they never even make it home. So they definitely don't count.

Abide With Me - Elizabeth Strout

Tyler is a minister in the same bit of Maine that Stephen King often sets his books in (very confusing for me at times!) and is struggling after losing his young wife. I love Strouts writing, some of it is beautiful, but I just didn't care about the characters. I know she gets a lot of love here, but I am going to leave her alone for a bit, I've read three and had a hit, a miss and a meh. (Amy and Isabelle was the hit, Lucy Barton was a miss, I just didn't connect with her and Abide With Me is meh, 3 stars overall).

21. Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley

This was definitely a part of Read What You Own, I've had it years. Because it was Kindle I didn't know beforehand it was only 166 pages so I've polished it off within an hour and a half.

It's a short horror about a creepy little boy and a demonic hare and I thought it was really good for the length of it. Sparse. Lots of nature imagery, a sense of foreboding. Good closing image. Yes, really liked it, possible bold. IIRC Remus also enjoyed this?

Starve Acre is one of my favourites @EineReiseDurchDieZeit . All his books are set in landscapes very familiar to me (he lives not far away too) and are nicely ambiguous. The recent film doesn’t do it justice, however - it has gorgeous scenery and a crackingly eerie soundscape but Matt Smith eats waaaay too much scenery and the Creature has got to be a Hartley Hare that someone took out of a studio store cupboard and dusted off.