50 Book Challenge for 2011

[Annu]

7. Consolation by Anna Gavalda
Love this! I needed to travel by train few times last 30 days and this was my travelling companion. And it was even better then I remembered. This is story about finding something meaningful in life.. maybe love story too but somehow writing and whole story just works so amazingly well for me. Well, I love Gavalda's writing but this time she really worked.. I don't know what else to say, but this book makes me really happy and smiling, that's something great I think.

I have troubles finish my library books, I think I have started three.. and then I went my local book store which have books almost free and I couldn't stop myself to buying some. Like I need any more books.

 

[tigerrouge]

At the moment I'm reading about four books at once - one for when I'm on the train, some for work, some at home - so I'm not getting to the end of anything fast, but I did manage to finish...

16: Stuff Matters: Genius, Risk and the Secret of Capitalism by Harry Bingham

It was a book that - despite the title - didn't actually pretend to have the answers, it was a light and readable wander through a range of economic philosophies from the perspective of someone who used to work in the financial sector.

 

[from: sophia]

Ok so way behind. And I dont have internet so I couldn't update
3. The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Killing Yourself to Live Chuck Klosterman

Hopefully I can read a lot more in the coming months. Also I have still have not decided on my next book.

 

[Annu]

^Killing yourself to live sounds interesting book..

8. the Gun seller by Hugh Laurie
My sister gave this to me. I don't usually read this kind of books or even read other's favorites but the first part of this book was so funny. Too bad that the second part was little bit less funny, and I must lost some part because plot seemed little too twisted for me in the end but maybe if re-read.. that may happen some day.

 

[cloudyshambles]

^Hugh Laurie? as in Dr. House Hugh Laurie?

 

[Lola Montès]

Yes, it's the same Hugh Laurie! ;-)
The book was a best seller - at least in France - when it came out 1 or 2 years ago. haven't read it though

I'm still on my fourth book, Vineland by Thomas Pynchon...
I'll never make it to 50

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ You just need some easy reads

Finished #8, Maeve Binchy's Minding Frankie.

 

[Belowen]

Finished my tenth book, now onto the number eleven...

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

​

 

[Dora]

Long time no read except my master thesis - something like 50 times....

It doesn't count, does it????

 

[sobriquet87]

I wish I could to do this, but Nursing school takes up all my time.

 

[Susann]

I hope its still ok to join in....had exams in early febuary, so no time to read up till then

1. Sadie Jones: The Outcast

now reading 2. Fred Vargas: Dans le bois eternels

Im so slow never make it up to 50...but I will try!

 

[Annu]

9. The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
Booring. I just kept reading if it getting any better, but it didn't. I think our local market sucks because the most of translated literature is some kind of award winning or best selling (I guess those are easier to sell) but it seems that awards mean nothing. At least for me and my taste. Or then it is just lost in translation.

50 books a year seem very hard to achive

 

[cloudyshambles]

I still have to write term papers which really slows me down in my reading... Lately I've only been reading before going to bed and after two pages I fall asleep

 

[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

After plodding through and not really enjoying The Orchard Keeper I felt like I needed some lighter fare that would help me catch up a bit, so I've started on the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series... so far so good! Much quicker, entertaining read
I expect I'll be on to the next book in the series in a day or so...

 

[saann]

I love Margaret Atwood. She's one of my favourite writers. The Blind Assassin is my favourite of her books that I've read. I also highly recommend The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye and The Robber Bride.
​

Have you read Oryx and Crake? I have it at home and I'm thinking about starting reading either that or The lovely bones next

Can I join? I'm a bit late but here are the books I've finished so far this year (not in order)

1. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
2. Never let me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
3. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
4. the Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Pop Co - Scarlett Thomas
6. jPod - Douglas Coupland
7. Freakonomics - Stephen D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner (does this count? it's not exactly fiction)
8. The bell jar - Sylvia Plath

9. Now I'm deciding on either Oryx and Crake or the Lovely Bones

 

[ChrissyM]

definitely join in! the more the merrier!

 

[saann]

yay! This will definitely motivate me to catch up on my reading

 

[rox_yr_sox]

1. Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath
2. Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours by Princess Michael of Kent
3. Haiku: Poetry Ancient and Modern: An Anthology by Jackie Hardy [Ed]
4. Art of the Soviets: Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in a One-Party State, 1917-1992 by Bown & Taylor [Eds]
5. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
6. Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two by Vladimir Paperny
7. The Edifice Complex: how the rich and powerful shape the world by Deyan Sudjic
8. God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
9. Plans, pragmatism and People: The legacy of Soviet planning for today's cities by R. Antony French
10. Quicksilver (Vol.1 in the Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson
11. The Confusion (Vol.2 in the Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson
12. The System of the World (Vol.3 in the Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson
13. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas
14. The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
15. Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England by Alison Weir
16. Tete-a-Tete: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley
17. Pandora by Anne Rice
18. The Executioner by Joseph de Maistre
19. Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova

 

[kate_is_goddess]

Studying has taken over with full force, the only time I can read is late at night and then I'm tired in the morning So I'm gonna have to cut down a bit...
Finally finished Invisible Monsters yesterday. Don't know yet what to start next...

 

[Year Zero]

I'll try, but generally i can only rattle through one per month. I usually crash & burn, and fall asleep after 20 pages or so.

So far.

1. Blackwater: details the rise of, and unethical practices used by the for-hire military firm Blackwater. Heavy handed in parts, in particular the origin of the Prince Family, but it offers great insight into the incident in Fallujah.

2. Killing Pablo [Escobar]: written by the author of Black Hawk Down. Should be a screenplay, as it plays out at a frenetic pace.

3. The Reapers, by John Connolly: a fiction novel that delves into the mysticism & intrigue of the assassins' trade. I've read most of Connolly's efforts. This was a solid effort and as always his writing is poetic at times, but overall it's not up there with the 'Black Angel', 'Bad Men' and 'Every Dead Thing'.

4. Day By Day:Armageddon by JL Bourne: i bought this one off ebay after viewing the series The Walking Dead. It reads like a survival guide amidst a zombie outbreak or apocalypse, in diary form through through the eyes of an AWOL military serviceman. It's pretty minimalist as you would expect from something presented in diary form, and at times roughly scrawled diagrams & drawings are utilised to help display what the book's subject/s are up against. But it does paint a vivid portrait of the end of civilisation as we know it. A touch under 200 pages which is a bonus, complete with a cliffhanger ending as a lead-up to the sequel.