50 Book Challenge for 2011

[iperlchen]

Wow you guys are doing well. I'm doing my best but my goal turns out to be a bit too courageous as I can't make the time. Goodreads tells me I'm 5 books behind.

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) Alain de Botton - Essays on Love

 

[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 // Die Lebenstrinker by Sabina Naber

 

[ChrissyM]

i feel behind too iperlchen... especially when i take into account some of the other books that I want to tackle this year that I know will take some time to get through...

i feel like i might have to blow through a series of easy books to make it, but then that feels like cheating...

i'm getting a little competitive with myself, feeling like i'm not reading fast enough...
but 50 books a year is a tough challenge
even if i don't make the final number goal, i think the motivation to get close to it will definitely have me getting through more books than i might have if i didn't have the goal in mind

 

[Alvedansen]

what makes it difficult for me is, that i love thick and long books, 500 pages are probably the average. i feel like i need to throw in some shorter novels, i'm just not that interested in them. i really need to feel like i'm in for a long journey(if that makes sense)

 

[mint condish]

^ I agree. I spend a lot of money on books, so I will literally buy books that are longer, it has to be around 250 pages plus, so I'm getting more "bang" for the buck I hate buying a book and just blowing right through it. It feels like I'm wasting my money. Obviously, quality counts more, but I'm looking for a longer, quality book. 500 is tough for me though. I read those more rarely.

At this rate I am only getting one book done a month. So I could be done 12 books by the end of the year. I read very fast, and I love reading, I just don't set aside time for it. I used to commute to work, but I don't have to anymore, so if I read, it's because I'm forcing myself to or I really like the book and can't stop.

 

[tigerrouge]

I was thinking about it earlier... 52 weeks in the year, and 50 books to read... that's essentially one a week.

There are weeks when I haven't touched a book, but then there are days when I'm travelling on a bus for almost two hours, so there's plenty of time to rip through a few chapters.

What I tend to do is get 3-4 books out of the library at one time, so as soon as I've finished one, I can go straight into another, with the added encouragement of being up against the deadline of needing to get them back to the library in time.

 

[miss_catherine]

It can be tricky - I'm not sure that I'll get there since I started late and am currently reading a novel that is over 1,000 pages long. It's nice to have something to aim for though!

 

[loonaka]

I just finished Vanity Fair my 3d book..
Now I'm reading Anna Karenina

 

[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

finished the book thief late last night and i have to say i don't remember the last time i had tears streaming down my face like that... wow

and now i'm going to reread the shadow of the wind... which i'm really looking forward to because i loved it the first time around...
first reread of the year

 

[Alvedansen]

01. John Steinbeck - The grapes of wrath
02. Richard Matheson - I am legend
03. Joyce Carol Oates - Big mouth & Ugly girl
04. Ken Follett - The pillars of the earth
05. Haruki Murakami - Afterdark
06. Gayle Forman - If I stay
07. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
08. Patti Smith - Just kids
09. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
10. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The lightning thief
11. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The sea of monsters
12. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The titan's curse
13. Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson - The battle of the labyrinth
14. Stephen Baxter - Ark

now reading The book thief

 

[tigerrouge]

26: Henry and June by Anais Nin

I used to love Anais Nin when I was a teenager, but now her style seems overwrought rather than 'rich and poetic'. Yet, in the end, she still charms me.

I can remember when the film was released in 1990, with Uma Thurman as the dissolute June.

(videowatchdog.blogspot.com)

 

[miss_catherine]

Hm, Richard E Grant wrote about his experiences on the set of the movie (quite entertaining and even a teensy bit salacious or gossipy, from memory) in one of his autobiography/film diary type things. I think it was 'With Nails'. I've never actually read Anais Nin but Henry and June is definitely on my list of things to read.

 

[wild roses]

1. Mistress Pat by L. M. Montgomery
2. The Chimes by Charles Dickens
3. High Spirited Women of the West by Anne Seagraves
4. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. Short Fiction of Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary Wilkins Freeman edited by Barbara H. Solomon
6. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel
7. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek
8. Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot by Jay Mulvaney
9. Anne of Windy Willows by L. M. Montgomery
10. Villette by Charlotte Bronte.
11. Peony in Love by Lisa See
12. Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books by William Kuhn
13. Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda
14. The Windsor Style by Suzy Menkes
15. Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery
16. The Sisters: Babe Mortimer Paley, Betsey Roosevelt Whitney, Minnie Astor Fosburgh: The Lives and Times of the Fabulous Cushing Sisters by David Grafton

"Reading Jackie" sucked. It should have been interesting but it was a hero-worship/shallow gossip drivel of Jackie's career years as an editor. What boggles is that Doubleday, where was at for years, let this book come into print. Shows how much they value her that they would produce a book so cheap and insubstantial.

But the other 5 were good.

Currently reading: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield, Mandy by Julie Edwards, and Lucie Babbage's House by Sylvia Cassidy. Also a collection of Arthurian folklore.

 

[mint condish]

1. Marian Keyes, This Charming Man
2. Lucy Kellaway, In Office Hours
3. Lisa Lutz, The Spellmans Strike Again
4. Lisa Lutz, Revenge of the Spellmans
5. Lisa Lutz and David Hayward, Heads You Lose

Don't get the wrong idea Lisa Lutz is not the most amazing author I've ever read -- her books have just been super easy to read. The first one I read (#3) I thought was really light and fun, my kind of book, but I have to admit I was disappointed greatly by #4. I've already sold it back to the bookstore. #5 was much better, but I have mixed feelings about it.

I am now reading

6. The Gabriel Method by Jon Gabriel
7. Bossypants by Tina Fey

I am really, really enjoying Bossypants so far.

 

[saann]

I finished both books and am now onto a lighter one. Didn't like either of them. Duras takes her self way to seriously

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
8. The bell jar - Sylvia Plath
9. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
10. for one more day - Mitch Albom
11. Prayers for Rain - Dennis Lehane
12. The Sunset Limited - Cormac McCarthy
13. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
14. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
15. the Lover - Marguerite Duras
16. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
17. the Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman

ooh... kerouac's on the road is one of my many books to read...
curious to know what you think

I didn't like at all. It felt like I was listening to an old person telling tales of their younger years, and not in a good way but in the 'you're forced to listen to it politely' way . While it did have some nice moments I felt that overall it was just a recap of everything that had happened instead of a story. But I know that a lot of people enjoy it so you should read it just to get it out of the way.

 

[Alvedansen]

^i tried to read that book once, but it was so so bad, i couldn't get into it at all

 

[mint condish]

I bought The Imperfectionists awhile back... excited to hear some reviews later!

 

[ChrissyM]

oh man.. thanks for the mini review saann and alvedansen...

i'll read it eventually i guess...
just won't give it any high priority

 

[kate_is_goddess]

My latest book was so annoyingly written, I put it down for the moment. Now reading Fred Vargas' "L'Homme à l'envers" (but in German - "Bei Einbruch der Nacht").
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[tigerrouge]

27: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

The story of a couple who travel through Africa in an attempt to patch up their marriage, but a series of decisions based on emotions takes them farther away from their lives than they ever imagined.