2013 Reading Challenge Thread

[BoatieBird]

1/100 Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter
2/100 Ramones by Nicholas Rombes
3/100 The Train by Georges Simenon
4/100 Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
5/100 Physical Resistance: A Hundred Years of Anti-Fascism by Dave Hann
6/100 Walking With Ghosts by John Baker
7/100 Cupid's Dart by David Nobbs
8/100 The Pale Criminal by Phillip Kerr

9/100 The Roar of the Butterflies by Reginald Hill

The last of the Joe Sixsmith's novels. I wish the late Reginald Hill had written ten more.

I've read (and enjoyed) quite a few of his Dalziel and Pascoe novels, but I didn't know about the Joe Sixsmith ones - I'll keep an eye out for them.

 

[belboid]

1: Peter May - The Blackhouse.
2: Kim Cooper - 33 1/3 Series: In the Aeroplane over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.
3: Ben Thompson (Ed.) - Ban This Filth! The Mary Whitehouse Letters.
4: Paul D Gilbert - The Annals of Sherlock Holmes.
5/30 - ?? - The Secret Footballer.
6/30 - Hilary Mantel - Bring Up The Bodies.
7/30: K Marx - The Civil War in France.
8/30 - Pat Long - The History of the NME

9/30 - Iain Banks - Stonemouth. His best for a while I think, coherent, proper ending, only a couple of bits where you go 'oh come, on, just get the fuck out of there!'
10/30 - 30 Rock and Philosophy: We Want To Go There. Entertaining stuff, if a very simplistic reading of Marx, and a few other thinkers. Not as good as the Battlestar Galactica one. I cant believe they havent got a Breaking Bad one anywhere in the offing - maybe they know they've got to wait for it to have finished before they can really say anything about its philosophy.

 

[Belushi]

Sebastian Faulks 'Birdsong' (1/20)
Colin Thubron 'Shadow of the Silk Road' (2/20)
Philip Larkin 'High Windows' (3/20)
Sally Brampton 'Shoot the Damn Dog' (4/20)
Hans Fallada 'Alone in Berlin' (5/20)

 

[ilovebush&blair]

1/51-100 Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (776 pages)
2/51-100 Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1) by Marcel Proust, Lydia Davis (Translator) (496 pages)
3/51-100 The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, John E. Woods (translator) (854 pages)
4/51-100 J R by William Gaddis (726 pages)
5/50-100 The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (1130 pages)

 

[Ceej]

8/51-100 Anniversary Man - RJ Elroy - superb
9/51-100 Cutting Crew - Steve Mosby - also superb
10/51-100 Rachels Holiday - Marian Keyes - re-read after seeing it on Me76's list
11/51-100 Angels - Marian Keyes - hey, I've been ill...
12/51-100 Divine Justice - David Baldacci
13/51-100 Scared to Live - Stephen Booth - dull.

 

[imposs1904]

1/100 Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter
2/100 Ramones by Nicholas Rombes
3/100 The Train by Georges Simenon
4/100 Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
5/100 Physical Resistance: A Hundred Years of Anti-Fascism by Dave Hann
6/100 Walking With Ghosts by John Baker
7/100 Cupid's Dart by David Nobbs
8/100 The Pale Criminal by Phillip Kerr
9/100 The Roar of the Butterflies by Reginald Hill

10/100 Pack Men by Alan Bissett

 

[ringo]

1/30 The Room Of Lost Things - Stella Duffy
2/30 At Hell's Gate: A Soldiers Journey From War To Peace - Claude Anshin Thomas
3/30 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
4/30 Altered Carbon - Richard K Morgan
5/30 The Chinese Potter: A Practical History Of Chinese Ceramics - Margaret Medley
6/30 Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel >>>>Bloody hell she's good, an amazing piece of writing, one of the best I've ever read. Can't wait to read Bring Up The Bodies, though I'll leave it a while to make sure I don't start speaking in medieval idioms

 

[toggle]

1. Destined to be wives, Barbera Caine
2. The making of modern british politics, Martin Pugh
3. Speaking for the People, Gareth Steadman Jones
4. Gladstone, Eugenio Biagini
5. The Liberal Unionists, Ian Cawood
6. Prostitution in Victorian society, Judith Walkowitz
7. Imagined communities, Benedict Anderson
8. England's case against home rule. AV Dicey
9. state and society, martin pugh
10. the consertvative party from peel to churchill, robert blake
11. irish home rule, Alan O'day

 

[marty21]

1/50- City of Gold - Len Deighton
2/50- Outside- Shalini Bolan
3/50- Deep Black - Stephen Coonts and Jim Defelice
4/50- Before They Are Hanged - Joe Abercombie
5/50 - Last Arguments of Kings - Joe Abercrombie
6/50 - The Horse At The Gates - DC Alden
7/50 - Shakespeare's Local - Pete Brown
8/50 - Ash - James Herbert
9/50 - Capital - John Lanchester
10/50 - Covert Reich - A K Alexander
11/50 - The American West - Dee Brown
12/50 - Dark Winter - David Mark

 

[ringo]

1/30 The Room Of Lost Things - Stella Duffy
2/30 At Hell's Gate: A Soldiers Journey From War To Peace - Claude Anshin Thomas
3/30 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
4/30 Altered Carbon - Richard K Morgan
5/30 The Chinese Potter: A Practical History Of Chinese Ceramics - Margaret Medley
6/30 Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
7/30 The Old Man Of The Sea - Ernest Hemingway

 

[BoatieBird]

1/50 - Grits, Niall Griffiths
2/50 - Suicide Hill, James Ellroy
3/50 - Children of Men, P D James
4/50 - Worlds of English, Module guide
5/50 - Whit, Iain Banks
6/50 - Paula Spencer, Roddy Doyle
7/50 - Harm Done, Ruth Rendell

8/50 - The News Where You Are, Catherine O'Flynn

I got this as a Christmas present because it was on my Amazon wishlist.
I couldn't quite remember how it had ended up on my wishlist but I had a vague recollection of someone on Urban recommending it.

A search has told me it was Frances Lengel in the Best Book of 2012 thread, so thank you Frances
What a wonderful, moving, funny read, I can't remember the last time a book has made me both laugh out loud and cry.
Looking forward to reading more of her stuff.

 

[braindancer]

1/30 Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
2/30 More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
3/30 Bottle Factory Outing - Beryl Bainbridge
4/30 Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West
5/30 Mister Johnson - Joyce Carey
6/30 The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave
7/30 The Room of Lost Things - Stella Duffy
8/30 The Hustler - Walter Tevis
9/30 On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
10/30 The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood

 

[petee]

4/20 a review of the testimony against elias hicks (lewis)

5/30 the jewish annotated new testament (levine ed.)

 

[Red Storm]

1/30 Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
2/30 More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
3/30 Bottle Factory Outing - Beryl Bainbridge
4/30 Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West
5/30 Mister Johnson - Joyce Carey
6/30 The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave
7/30 The Room of Lost Things - Stella Duffy
8/30 The Hustler - Walter Tevis
9/30 On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
10/30 The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood

How did you find The Handmaids Tale?

 

[ilovebush&blair]

1/51-100 Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (776 pages)
2/51-100 Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1) by Marcel Proust, Lydia Davis (Translator) (496 pages)
3/51-100 The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, John E. Woods (translator) (854 pages)
4/51-100 J R by William Gaddis (726 pages)
5/50-100 The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (1130 pages)
6/50-100 The Illiad by Homer, Robert Fagles (translator) (683 pages)

Average pages per book 777.5

 

[imposs1904]

1/100 Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter
2/100 Ramones by Nicholas Rombes
3/100 The Train by Georges Simenon
4/100 Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
5/100 Physical Resistance: A Hundred Years of Anti-Fascism by Dave Hann
6/100 Walking With Ghosts by John Baker
7/100 Cupid's Dart by David Nobbs
8/100 The Pale Criminal by Phillip Kerr
9/100 The Roar of the Butterflies by Reginald Hill
10/100 Pack Men by Alan Bissett

11/100 Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina

Magic. Better than Rankin.

 

[Pickman's model]

raylan
4-100

Quartered safe out here
in darkest london
lair of the white worm
7-100

 

[TruXta]

1/50. Grass - Sheri Tepper
2/50. The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson
3/50. Emphyrio - Jack Vance
4/50. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
5/50. Nightwatch - Terry Pratchett
6/50. Industry and Empire - Eric Hobsbawm. It's been sat on my shelf for yonks, and I could do with something a bit more meaty again.
I can't find the bloody thing now! So instead I read
6/50. Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely. Great introduction to behavioural economics and the new frontiers of decision-making sciences.

 

[districtline]

Alfred Andersch - Flight to Afar (3/50)
Joseph Roth - Weights and Measures (4/50)

 

[el-ahrairah]

15. Purple Homicide; Fear And Loathing On Knutsford Heath, by John Sweeney. A rather amusing diary of Martin Bell's campaign for Tatton in 1997.

been off this thread a while but done some good reading. I read Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, which I think is a must-read, both as a historical document and as a study of early liberalism. It can get a bit much at times though, lots of similar stories of woe combined with stats. After that I read a space marine novel to give my brain a break, and then The Ladies Of Grace Adieu, a collection of stort stories by Susanna Clarke, which also gave my brain a break but in a much better way. I love her whimsical-but-dark style. And now I am back on something hard-work from my To Read pile:

19. Tom Wolfe, A Man In Full. It's very good but basically the same but different as Bonfire Of The Vanities. There's probably too much of it though, I'm five hundred pages in and we've only just got to the meat, as it were.

 

[Pickman's model]

been off this thread a while but done some good reading. I read Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, which I think is a must-read, both as a historical document and as a study of early liberalism. It can get a bit much at times though, lots of similar stories of woe combined with stats. After that I read a space marine novel to give my brain a break, and then The Ladies Of Grace Adieu, a collection of stort stories by Susanna Clarke, which also gave my brain a break but in a much better way. I love her whimsical-but-dark style. And now I am back on something hard-work from my To Read pile:

19. Tom Wolfe, A Man In Full. It's very good but basically the same but different as Bonfire Of The Vanities. There's probably too much of it though, I'm five hundred pages in and we've only just got to the meat, as it were.

how many pages is it in total?

 

[el-ahrairah]

how many pages is it in total?

742. there's a lot of waffle, it seems. well-written waffle, but it remains to be seen how necessary it is!

 

[Pickman's model]

Quartered safe out here
in darkest london
lair of the white worm
7-100

The chill 8-100

 

[Miss-Shelf]

still only 15% through les miserables but its picking up a bit of pace
in between has been sandwiched a lot of work related chapters so they dont count

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1."Standing in Another Man's Grave" - Ian Rankin
2. "Child 44" - Tom Rob Smith
3. "The Leopard" - Jo Nesbo.
4. "Blood Money" - Chris Collett
5. "The Siege" - Simon Kernick

6. The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler - another good Scandinavian thriller

 

[Me76]

1/50 Rachels Holiday, Marian Keyes
2/50 Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
3/50 Life, Death and Vanilla Slices, Jenny Eclair
4/50 Pushed Too Far, Ann Voss Peterson
5/50 Born Weird, Andrew Kaufman
6/50 The People of the Abyss, Jack London
7/50 Gray Justice, Alan McDermott
8/50 Gone Tomorrow, Lee Child

 

[Belushi]

Sebastian Faulks 'Birdsong' (1/20)
Colin Thubron 'Shadow of the Silk Road' (2/20)
Philip Larkin 'High Windows' (3/20)
Sally Brampton 'Shoot the Damn Dog' (4/20)
Hans Fallada 'Alone in Berlin' (5/20)
Robert Bartlett 'The Making of Europe 950 - 1350' (6/20)

 

[el-ahrairah]

19. Tom Wolfe, A Man In Full. It's very good but basically the same but different as Bonfire Of The Vanities. There's probably too much of it though, I'm five hundred pages in and we've only just got to the meat, as it were.

that was alright i guess. to be honest, i don't think i'd recommend it. it's one of those books where you don't know if you liked it or not. i think it was all build up and the payoff was rushed.

Just started:

20. Arturs Barea, The Clash. Again, a book that has been on my To Read pile for years, i remember starting it in about 2005 but don't seem to recognise any of it. Like many anarchists I have a slight lob on for the Spanish Civil War, so I'm hoping it will be good. Two chapters in and I'm suspecting the contents will be better than the storytelling, IYSWIM.

 

[Pickman's model]

The chill 8-100

The galton case 9%

 

[BoatieBird]

1/50 - Grits, Niall Griffiths
2/50 - Suicide Hill, James Ellroy
3/50 - Children of Men, P D James
4/50 - Worlds of English, Module guide
5/50 - Whit, Iain Banks
6/50 - Paula Spencer, Roddy Doyle
7/50 - Harm Done, Ruth Rendell
8/50 - The News Where You Are, Catherine O'Flynn

9/50 - Birdman, Mo Hayder