The 50 Book Challenge (2012)

[ChrissyM]

Has anyone read 50 Shades of Grey? what did you think? I´ve read reviews that gave it from 1 to 5 stars so I really don´t know what to think... the plot doesnt seem that interesting though.

i haven't read it or looked into it, but my boss keeps mentioning it saying that "everyone" is reading it, meaning all of her 50-something friends...
i guess it's supposed to be kind of a sexy book?

 

[MissKateCherie]

1)The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Shadow Souls by L. J. Smith
2)La tete du chat by Βασίλης Αλεξάκης
3)The shadow of August by Sue Welford
4)The Runaways by Kristin Butcher
5)Gossip Girl: You know You Love me by Cecily von Ziegesar
6)The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Midnight by L. J. Smith
7)Gossip Girl: All I want is Everything by Cecily von Ziegesar
8)Desert Flower by Waris Dirie Cathleen Miller
9)The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
10)Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
11)Mockinjay by Suzanne Collins
12)The Clique by Lisi Harrison
13)Extras by Scott Westerfeld
14)Η ελπίδα πεθαίνει πάντα τελευταία by Ελπίδα Ισμαήλ
15)Fallen: Passion by Lauren Kate
16)Η γυναίκα στους μακρινούς πολιτισμούς by Θεόδωρος Καρζής
17)Vamire Academy: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
18)The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries, Origins based on the novels by L.J. Smith

 

[kokobombon]

i haven't read it or looked into it, but my boss keeps mentioning it saying that "everyone" is reading it, meaning all of her 50-something friends...
i guess it's supposed to be kind of a sexy book?

More sexual than sexy I think...
Thanks Chrissy, maybe if it´s something 50 yos are reading I could give it a try
hopefully they´re not all 50 something housewives. I wonder if there´s a blonde long haired man on the cover

 

[Hazel]

Has anyone read 50 Shades of Grey? what did you think? I´ve read reviews that gave it from 1 to 5 stars so I really don´t know what to think... the plot doesnt seem that interesting though.

i haven't read it or looked into it, but my boss keeps mentioning it saying that "everyone" is reading it, meaning all of her 50-something friends...
i guess it's supposed to be kind of a sexy book?

I find it a little bit embarrassing that a former twilight fan fiction, which was just bad as a fan fiction (yeah, I might have read bits of it, because it was getting ridiculous amounts of attention even as a ff and I was just curious), is getting such enormous attention as a book. But I attribute all the fuss about it to sex. If it is as explicit in the book as it was in the ff, then, yeah, people may get hooked. Sex is easy to sell. But all in all, I don’t think it has much literary value , it’s most probably a quick read.

 

[TanyaKiller]

01. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon - [**]
02. Wild Swans by Jung Chang - [*****]
03. The Black Book of Psychoanalysis by Catherine Meyer - [***]
04. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - [****]
05. Here Comes Trouble by Michael Moore - [****]
06. I Killed Scheherazade by Joumana Haddad - [***]
07. Ímpio by Fábio Marton - [***]
08. Tete-a-tete by Hazel Rowley - [****]
09. Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton - [**]
10. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin - [****]
11. The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal - [***]
12. The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick

Yay! I finally discovered the compatibility mode!
And here is my profile at goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6337464

 

[Karen0193]

I find it a little bit embarrassing that a former twilight fan fiction, which was just bad as a fan fiction (yeah, I might have read bits of it, because it was getting ridiculous amounts of attention even as a ff and I was just curious), is getting such enormous attention as a book. But I attribute all the fuss about it to sex. If it is as explicit in the book as it was in the ff, then, yeah, people may get hooked. Sex is easy to sell. But all in all, I don’t think it has much literary value , it’s most probably a quick read.

That's not a very good recomendation for me then. I wouldn't buy a book just to read sex scenes, for that I'd just read a ff

 

[ChrissyM]

what are fan fictions??

 

[Karen0193]

what are fan fictions??

fan fictions are stories that are written by fans of a certian book, tv series, band, anime or whatever... They take the characters but they create their own story, they tent to over-use sex scenes Some of them are very good, others are just godd3mn dreadfull. It's my guilty pleasure to read them

 

[Hazel]

It's my guilty pleasure to read them

Haha, mine too . Everybody needs something light to read. But then, some of fan fiction stories are asctually better written than regular books... and some (or rather maaany) are just porns without plot like Fifty Shades.
All in all, thanks to fan fiction I started reading in English, so I cannot diss it too much .

Here you have a pretty funny summary of what you can find in Fifty Shades - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10818853-fifty-shades-of-grey.

And speaking about goodreads, my profile - http://www.goodreads.com/hazeldaresyou

 

[rox_yr_sox]

1. On Cats by Doris Lessing
2. Mastiff by Tamora Pierce
3. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
4. Medea and other plays by Euripides
5. Eating Fire: Selected Poetry, 1965-1995 by Margaret Atwood
6. A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander
7. Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled his Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk
8. Evaluation Research by Alan Clarke
9. Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson
10. The Lamp of Memory/Cambridge School of Art Inaugural Address/Of Kings' Treasures/Traffic (Penguin Great Ideas Compendium) by John Ruskin
11. Useful Work v. Useless Toil/Gothic Architecture/The Lesser Arts/How I Became a Socialist (Penguin Great Ideas Compendium) by William Morris
12. Annabel: an unconventional life by Annabel Goldsmith
13. In Tearing Haste by Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
14. Fourth Generation Evaluation by Egon G Guba and Yvonna S Lincoln
15. The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars by Annelise Freisenbruch
16. History of Madness by Michel Foucault (currently reading)
17. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
18. The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche
19. Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia by Matthew Dennison (currently reading)

 

[TanyaKiller]

01. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon - [**]
02. Wild Swans by Jung Chang - [*****]
03. The Black Book of Psychoanalysis by Catherine Meyer - [***]
04. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - [****]
05. Here Comes Trouble by Michael Moore - [****]
06. I Killed Scheherazade by Joumana Haddad - [***]
07. Ímpio by Fábio Marton - [***]
08. Tete-a-tete by Hazel Rowley - [****]
09. Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton - [**]
10. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin - [****]
11. The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal - [***]
12. The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick [****]
13. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I feel like reading something fun!

 

[Belowen]

01: No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
02: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
03: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
04: Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace
05: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
06: The Art Of Travel by Alain De Botton
07: The Beach by Alex Garland
08: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
09: A Dead Man's Memoir (A Theatrical Novel) by Mikhail Bulgakov
10: I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
11: Genesis by Bernard Beckett
12: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
13: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
14: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
15: The Long Walk by Stephen King
16: True Grit by Charles Portis
17: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

 

[kokobombon]

About 50 shades, I didn´t know it was fanfic about Twilight (don´t know how it fits with the book´s theme though...)
I rather download the fanfic for free than spend money on a book... but the thing with those Goodreads´reviews is that there are a lot of 1 star and 5 star ratings so I don´t know what to think is it worth reading even if it´s about sex or is it a book for horny housewives?

 

[Teja]

Ooh.. I don't know how many times I have read that but it was one of those books in my teens.

I loved it too! So well written and sad.

5/30
1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. What Is Globalization by Ulrich Beck
3. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction by Immanuel Wallerstein
4. Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher
5. Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy

Currently reading:
6. Oil and water by Tomo Križnar

 

[ChrissyM]

About 50 shades, I didn´t know it was fanfic about Twilight (don´t know how it fits with the book´s theme though...)
I rather download the fanfic for free than spend money on a book... but the thing with those Goodreads´reviews is that there are a lot of 1 star and 5 star ratings so I don´t know what to think is it worth reading even if it´s about sex or is it a book for horny housewives?

just from reading the plot description i know it's not worth picking up for me...

I know I'd be rolling my eyes so much that it would take forever to actually keep them on the page and get through the book...

definitely sounds like it should have a bare-chested manly man on the cover

 

[Karen0193]

Haha, mine too . Everybody needs something light to read. But then, some of fan fiction stories are asctually better written than regular books... and some (or rather maaany) are just porns without plot like Fifty Shades.
All in all, thanks to fan fiction I started reading in English, so I cannot diss it too much .

Here you have a pretty funny summary of what you can find in Fifty Shades - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10818853-fifty-shades-of-grey.

And speaking about goodreads, my profile - http://www.goodreads.com/hazeldaresyou

added you
Yeah, some fan fictions are truly great! the Fifty Shades of Grey summaries are the funniest thing I've read in a while. Some girl wrote that we actually deserve the apocalypse because of it
I'd probably download it for free, I wouldn't buy it knowing it has so many sexual content. What if my mum or brother read them

 

[kate_is_goddess]

01 > Das böse Mädchen (The Bad Girl) < Mario Vargas Llosa
02 > The Crossing < Cormac McCarthy
03 > Schachnovelle (Chess Story) < Stefan Zweig
04 > Op. non cit. < Alan Isler
05 > Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close < Jonathan Safran Foer (reread)
06 > Der Schwarm (The Swarm) < Frank Schätzing
07 > Player One < Douglas Coupland
08 > Generation X < Douglas Coupland (reread)
09 > The Gum Thief < Douglas Coupland (reread)
10 > Girlfriend in a Coma < Douglas Coupland
11 > The Calling of the Grave < Simon Beckett


Girlfriend in a Coma: It's really hard to describe the book without giving too much away, so excuse me if this is a little confusing.
As I've said earlier, the book is kinda depressing. But also because it hits somewhat close to home- it basically criticizes the way the world and the people changed towards a perspectiveless and gloomy future (the future in this case is 1997). Everythings faster paced and more money-driven, nobody just lives carelessly from day to day anymore.
This change is observed by a girl who lies in coma for more than 17 years- she is able to objectively see the difference between now and then.
The story is mainly focused on her group of friends trying to cope with her being in a coma and then with her waking up again. It gets a little weird towards the end but he does make some valid points and everything that's happening is supposed to be a metaphor more or less anyway. [3/5]

The Calling of the Grave: The fourth David Hunter novel. Beckett's story telling gets really repetitive if you know the first three and his style doesn't help either. He uses the same words & phrases over and over again. Plus it's really predictable the way the story always turns around- he tries too hard to be surprising and unexpected. [2/5]

 

[TanyaKiller]

01. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon - [**]
02. Wild Swans by Jung Chang - [*****]
03. The Black Book of Psychoanalysis by Catherine Meyer - [***]
04. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - [****]
05. Here Comes Trouble by Michael Moore - [****]
06. I Killed Scheherazade by Joumana Haddad - [***]
07. Ímpio by Fábio Marton - [***]
08. Tete-a-tete by Hazel Rowley - [****]
09. Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton - [**]
10. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin - [****]
11. The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal - [***]
12. The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick [****]
13. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins [***]
14. Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton

I'm not ready to read something like Consolations of Philosophy yet, but what the heck,
there's nothing else for me to read now... I really want to read something fun. Don't know what exactly.
Mockingjay was so disappointing. It was anticlimatic most of the time.
Katniss was barely there when an important event happened. There was no action in this book but too much drama. Hunger Games was the best out of
this irregular series. Even the romance wasn't convincing. Most of the time I thought Katniss was asexual or maybe a sadic, because the only time she ever felt attracted to Peeta or Gale was when they were vulnerable and in pain.
I wish the author developed better her personality, she became such a weak heroine in the end.
Fortunately, the ending paid off. Even though I didn't love this book, it was a gripping read anyway.

 

[Annu]

^I was actually happy that the most of time she wasn't center of action. Come on, it always weird that some teen seems to be power of revolution in movies and books. They needed her as symbol more than warrior.

But yeah.. I have same feelings after.. I needed some funnier so I read Potters again.

 

[Hazel]

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
2. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
3. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
4. Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
5. The Paris Wife - Paula McLain
6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
7. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
8. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Currently reading:
9. Child of God - Cormac McCarthy