50 Book Challenge for 2011

[anarcobitch]

1. If You Liked School, You'll Love Work - Irvine Welsh
2. p*rno - Irvine Welsh
3. The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
4. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (re-read)
5. Devil's Chaplain - Richard Dawkins
6.The Gods Were Astronauts - Erich Von Dankien (re-read)
7. Pulp - Charles Bukowski
8. Mockingbird Wish Me Luck - Charles Bukowski
9. Darwin: the Indelible Stamp - Charles Darwin
10. Cut Number - Nick Tosches
11. Crash - J G Ballard
12. Billennium - J G Ballard
13.Perspective - William F Powell
14. Jesus & Budda - Marcus Borg
15. The Jesus I never knew - Phillip Yancey
16. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (re-read)
17. Murder in Mesopotamia - Agatha Christie
18. Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
19. The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde

I'm laaaaaaate lol

 

[Siennalicious]

1. The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and a Son by David Gilmour
2. Fragments by Marilyn Monroe, Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment
3. Łóżko by Janusz Wiśniewski (Polish writer)
4. Zawód fotograf by Chris Niedenthal
5. Ukrwienia by Janusz Wisniewski
6. Room by Emma Donoghue
7. One Day by David Nicholls
8. Help by Kathryn Stockett
9. Korczak. Próba biografii by Joanna Olczak-Ronikier
10. Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
11. Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
12. The Painted Bird (Kosinski, Jerzy)by Jerzy Kosiński (Malowany ptak)
13. Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
14. Sister by Rosamund Lupton
15. Just Kids by Patti Smith
16. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
17. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I am late too ... but trying to catch up

 

[ChrissyM]

Sookie Stackhouse sounds great Sounds like a good idea to read some shorter stories, I wouldn't bother normally as there are still so many potentially interesting, great books on my to read shelf. Which ones did you like?

I don't know if I really read anything short, just a bunch of stuff that was much quicker and easier... like the sookie books and the percy jackson series...

the sookie books are a fun entertaining read, but i also find myself rolling my eyes all the time at the terrible writing

i really liked the sweetness at the bottom of the pie by alan bradley... it wasn't short but it was a fast, lighthearted, entertaining and engaging read.

 

[Susann]

14: Sous les vents de Neptune by Fred Vargas

and I guess I'll have to change my goal to 30 too

 

[ChrissyM]

1: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
2: Just Kids by Patti Smith
3: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
4: Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy
5: The Monster of Florence: A True Story by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
6: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
7: Little Bee by Chris Cleave
8: The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy
9: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
10: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
11: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
12: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
13: The Last Titan by Rick Riordan
14: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
15: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
16: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
17: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
18: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
19: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
20: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
21: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
22: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
23: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
24: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
25: Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
26: Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
27: Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
28: Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
29: Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
30: Room by Emma Donoghue
31: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
32: All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

I finished Her Fearful Symmetry last night and kind of ended up hating it... or at least strongly disliking it. I'll try to get my act together and write a full review but I was really disappointed because I had really liked The Time Traveler's Wife when I read it so I expected much more.

The book started off just fine and I was tearing right through it but then it just took a totally weird turn that derailed the whole thing for me and made me kind of want to stop reading it. I didn't want to pick it up any more... which is never a good thing. I kept on going to see if it would redeem itself, and though it tried the storyline was too bizarre to come back from.

Back to my trashy Sookie books now

 

[Annu]

^I prefer Her fearful symmetry much better but maybe because I would like her write more about actually time travelling problems than that stupid romance

37. Kuka murhasi rouva Skrofin? by Mika Waltari
38. Komisaario Palmun erehdys by Mika Waltari
39. Hyperion by Dan Simmons

I guess whole crime/detective scene is not that bad, at least if I keep reading books from beginning of last century, there are not so much psychotig, sadistic massmurders with tiny little details back then.

Simmons' world is one of my favorites sci-fi worlds. I even like that whole serie turns little bit cheesy romantic and somekind of salvation story at the end, but this is the first book of serie and we get to know people and worlds and wait more to come

 

[adastra]

1. The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
2. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
4. The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho
5. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
6. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
7. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
8. Persuasion – Jane Austen
9. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
10. The Stranger - Albert Camus
11. On Beauty - Zadie Smith
12. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
13. A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
14. Atonement – Ian McEwan
15. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
16. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
17. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adam
18. The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams
19. Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
20. Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
22. White Teeth – Zadie Smith
23. Veronika Decides to Die – Paulo Coelho
24. Black Dogs – Ian McEwan
25. Emma – Jane Austen

 

[mmBop]

1. The One You Really Want by Jill Mansell
2. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
3. The Secret to Teen Power by Paul Harrington
4. Die Braut sagt leider nein by Kerstin Gier
5. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
6. Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella
7. Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella
8. Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
9. Ein unmoralisches Sonderangebot by Kerstin Gier
10. Fortune by Megan Cole
11. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
12. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
13. The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
14. French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano
15. Last night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger

I won't make it to 50... But I haven't read so many books in years, I just never had time to read.

 

[tigerrouge]

33: The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

I'm predisposed to dislike Updike on account of his being so lionised as a giant of American literature. Sometimes reputations take on a momentum that stops matching the actual talent, because inspiration has run out, but everyone still buys into the conversational shorthand of calling someone a legend.

I found this a mundane story interspersed with moments of stunning prose – set pieces that almost stand apart as mini-chapters, pages devoted to a series of thoughts, one person's impressions of a moment in time. But a great novel is more than a string of set pieces... this book, as a whole, was in no way a work of genius, and I suspect the adapted screenplay for the film would have made a more entertaining read.

 

[ChrissyM]

1: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
2: Just Kids by Patti Smith
3: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
4: Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy
5: The Monster of Florence: A True Story by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
6: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
7: Little Bee by Chris Cleave
8: The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy
9: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
10: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
11: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
12: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
13: The Last Titan by Rick Riordan
14: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
15: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
16: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
17: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
18: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
19: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
20: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
21: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
22: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
23: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
24: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
25: Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
26: Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
27: Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
28: Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
29: Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
30: Room by Emma Donoghue
31: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
32: All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
33: From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
34: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

I'm also about halfway through Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace... I think I'm just not suited to read belletristic writing.
i feel like every page I get through is a small victory

I'm determined to get through it this year though and I'm going to make a concerted effort to read bigger chunks of it between books.

 

[iperlchen]

01) Victor Pelevin - The Life of Insects
02) Albert Camus - The Stranger
03) Valerio Evangelisti - Magus, Il Presagio
04) Alain de Botton - Kiss & Tell
05) Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
06) Alain de Botton - How Proust Can Change Your Life
07) Joost Zwagerman - Duel
08) Alain de Botton - The Romantic Movement
09) Alain de Botton - The Art of Travel
10) Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
11) John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
12) Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy
13) Simon van Booy - The Secret Lives of People In Love
14) Alain de Botton - Essays on Love
15) J.M. Coetzee - Disgrace (one of my favorite books I read this year)
16) Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
17) Joris Luyendijk - Hello Everybody: One Journalist's Search for Truth in the Middle East
18) Dick Swaab - We Are Our Brain: from ovary to Alzheimer
19) Pol Craeynest - Social Psychology (textbook but just adding it to the mix)
20) Charles Darwin - The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals

 

[MissKateCherie]

Too bad I didn't have an acount here on 2009...I read 70 books during that summer 'cause I moved into a house just next to a public library so I didn't do anything else than read books all summer

This year I didn't go bad either: I have read at least 30 books...I guess I'll just participate next year!

 

[Dora]

A Dry White Season - Andre Brink

Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down - Sherrilyn Kenyon

 

[ChrissyM]

Too bad I didn't have an acount here on 2009...I read 70 books during that summer 'cause I moved into a house just next to a public library so I didn't do anything else than read books all summer

This year I didn't go bad either: I have read at least 30 books...I guess I'll just participate next year!

it's not too late to make a list of them and join the challenge
there are still a few months left

 

[MissKateCherie]

it's not too late to make a list of them and join the challenge
there are still a few months left

it'll be kind of hard to remember all the books I read this year but maybe I'll try!

and I have 2 questions: do books that I just reread count? and I'm 15 years old, so I read mostly teen and young adult books, is that a problem???

 

[kate_is_goddess]

^every book counts! Reading = reading
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[ChrissyM]

^every book counts! Reading = reading
Posted via Mobile Device

agreed! i've got a book that i reread on my list and a bunch of young adult books (and stuff that really can't qualify as literature ) but i've been reading a ton and it all counts

 

[Belowen]

01: American Subversive by David Goodwillie
02: The Collector by John Fowles
03: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
04: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
05: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
06: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
07: Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
08: The Forest Of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan
09: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
10: The Odyssey by Homer
11: The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
12: The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
13: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
14: Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal

15: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton​

16: The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham

17: Bossypants by Tina Fey​

18: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

19: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins​

20: Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

21: Cell by Stephen King​

22: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
23: The Gradual Demise of Phillipa Finch by Emma Magenta
24: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
25: Divergent by Veronica Roth
26: If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino
27: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

 

[Teja]

01. Burned Alive by Souad
02. Figures De Poupe by Marcel Marien
03. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
04. Notes From The Underbelly by Risa Green
05. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
06. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
07. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
08. Night by Elie Wiesel
09. Animal Farm by George Orwell
10. Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

 

[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
6 // Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
7 // The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8 // The Collector by John Fowles
9 // The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett
10 // Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
11 // Slapstick! or Lonesome No More by Kurt Vonnegut
12 // Bei Einbruch der Nacht (L'Homme à l'envers) by Fred Vargas
13 // A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
14 // To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
15 // The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
16 // Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
17 // Written in Bone by Simon Beckett
18 // Whispers of the Dead by Simon Beckett
19 // My Booky Wook by Russell Brand
20 // The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
21 // Der Meister und Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
22 // All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland
23 // Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland
24 // Deadly Décisions by Kathy Reichs
25 // Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
26 // Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
27 // Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk
28 // A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer
29 // Der Brenner und der liebe Gott by Wolf Haas
30 // Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
31 // Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis