50 Book Challenge for 2011

[1karina1]

I finished my 3rd book 'One Day' by David Nicholls last night. I have to say this is not a book I would normally read, I'm usually sceptical of books that have a lot of hype and are pretty mainstream but a friend urged me to read it...and I have to say it was a disappointment.

The premise of the book is certainly unique in which we follow the lives of two friends over the course of twenty years on the same day every year, St Swithin's Day. However this is the only interesting hook - the characters are dull and irritating and lack depth or realism. It constantly felt like GroundHog Day - the situations may have changed from year to year but the characters never changed and had the same self-absorbed worries.

Many people I know in their 30's and 40's who read this book couldn't stop raving about it, saying that it really chimed with them - some women even admitted to crying...so maybe you have to be middle-aged to appreciate it and the bittersweet way life turns out...or maybe I'm just being too generous...Unsurprisingly it's now being turned into a film with Anne Hathaway..this may be a rare instance in which the film will be better than the book it's adapted from

So to reclaim the braincells I wasted reading One Day and as a palate cleanser I'm now getting stuck into Justice: What's the Right Thing to do? by Michael Sandel. Sandel is an Americal polictical philsopher that teaches at Harvard and I managed to catch a programme he made about Justice on BBC 4 the other night. It was the most thought provoking programme I've seen on TV in a long time - exploring how philosophy by Aristotle, Kant and Benham can be applied not only to politics but also to modern day life, in our day to day decisions...very much in the same vain as Alain de Botton in making philosophy more accesible and easier to understand. Really looking forward to this

List so far..

1 > Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century - Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger

2 > Sculpting in Time - Andrey Tarkovsky

3 > One Day - David Nicholls


4 > Justice: What's the Right Thing to do? by Michael Sandel
​

 

[1karina1]

^ scratch that!

Amazon has let me down! My new book was meant to arrive today but hasn't so I'm going to move onto something I've had for a few months but haven't read yet...Purple Hibiscus by Chiamamanda Ngozi Adichie.

 

[Womanolo]

^^^I think that 'I am Legend' was written in a sort of old style. I was a 1950s book I think wasn't it? I remember reading another book, post apocalyptic, written in the 1950s and it too left me cold. I wish I could remember the book. It was one of my dad's, I don't think it was in German (my dad's Swiss) because I remember a couple of phrases from it, so it may have been American. If any one knows it please let me have the title. The narrator in it is about 40 or 50, living in his old house and gathering a community around him. The chapter I remember is about a newcomer who starts to fancy a girl with learning difficulties and the guy is suspected to have an STD so they get rid of him before he can infect her! Quite heavy stuff, but it was still a stilted storytelling style which I didn't quite get into.

 

[Annu]

5. Nora Ephron: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman
This are collection of thoughts as promised, such as telling about her cooking, aging, losing friends, and this is actually very nice book. I bought this because of the cover, it was bright yellow and very appealing so I'm happy that it was interesting inside too. I'm not always like her movie scripts but I guess I need to check her work more now.

 

[kito09]

Unto my fourth book.

01. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
02. What Happened to Anna. K by Irina Reyn
03. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
04. The Seamstress by Frances De Pontes Peebles

 

[myown]

I just finished a book. now reading the gift
3 books within 4 weeks. I have never been that good.

 

[ChrissyM]

Unto my fourth book.

01. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
02. What Happened to Anna. K by Irina Reyn
03. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
04. The Seamstress by Frances De Pontes Peebles

how was the postmistress? i feel like amazon may have recommended that one to me...

 

[Lala787]

Can I still join? I have been a member on the forum for a while, but I was never active. Now I wanted to change this. I would really like to participate on the challenge, because I love to read.

 

[e-v-elina]

of course, everyone's welcome to join! =D

 

[tigerrouge]

06: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

I didn't see it as a story of true emotions thwarted by social convention, more a tale of deeper traits in human nature, of "a man sick with unsatisfied love" deluding himself that love is the answer to an unsatisfactory life, and not bothering to truly act or think beyond that, because at heart, he's a dilettante, and social convention is his excuse, and in a way, also his saving grace.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Finished #5, Georgette Heyer's The Convenient Marriage. Perfect escapist read for the weekend ...

 

[xerq]

1.No Safe Place- Deborah Ellis
2. Quicksilver- Neal Stephenson
3.Still Midnight-Denise Mina
4.The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafón

 

[e-v-elina]

1. the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck
2. water for elephants by sara gruen
3. the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers

just finished "the heart is a lonely hunter"; loved most parts of the book, some i didn't care for in all honesty. but overall, it was a beautiful book!

gonna start reading "never let me go" tomorrow!

 

[Ziegfeld Girl]

^ Never Let Me Go is a great book. I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Lola Montès]

So far, I read :

1- Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
2 - Man in the dark by Paul Auster
3- The Body Artist by Don DeLillo

I just finished The Body Artist. I'll post reviews later in the other thread.

I'll begin the Ramayana by Valmiki tonight. It's a looooong epic poem (around 1500 pages to read). I think it will take at least a month to read (and I'm optimistic).
Wish me good luck !

 

[Womanolo]

I've finished 'The girl who chased the moon' and liked it . It was a cheerful book, even though the main character aged 17 had only just suffered the death of her mum and gone to live with her, on the face of it, scary grandfather. Turns out there was another main character, or maybe two, or three. I was interested in the plot for the human life, rather than the supernatual mysteries that were presented. The mysteries did intrigue me though, and I wish the auther had explained why the others, than the genetic, had happened and why all in one place?
I am now on Peter Ackroyd's 'The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein' and once again wishing I'd not bothered reading one of his books, other than the fact I have too as he has a surname beginning with 'A'. The last one of his I read was 'The Fall of Troy'. His style of writing is too sonerous and self-important for my own personal liking. He imbues that value in his characters, so we're supposed to think that is how they would write, but really it's just Peter Ackroyd doing it in that way. If anyone knows of a good book by him, please let me know. I'll grab it. Maybe.

 

[kate_is_goddess]

1 // Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
2 // Limit by Frank Schätzing
3 // Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
4 // The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5 // Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

 

[ChrissyM]

^^ Cat's Cradle is one of my next books to read... one of the ones i bought in '08 and haven't gotten to yet
have you read any vonnegut before?
i haven't....

 

[kate_is_goddess]

^haha, nice! no, I haven't either, but I since I am a big fan of Douglas Coupland and I read somewhere that he is the Vonnegut of our time, I thought I'd give it a try I also bought Slapstick! or Lonesome no more because it sounded so fantastically crazy

 

[ChrissyM]

definitely curious to hear what you think of it...
i've heard good things about vonnegut