2013 Reading Challenge Thread

[imposs1904]

oh! well in the book she refers to herself as a liberal more than once and there isn't much in there that can be described as socialist critique. i guess she's trying to position herself as a liberal so that liberals who are scared of socialism can get the message.

we didn't read the same book. she was writing for an American audience.

 

[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
7. "When We Are Married"
6. "Jar City" - Arnaldur Indriðason - a rather interesting and mournful Icelandic thriller. I enjoyed it.

 

[el-ahrairah]

we didn't read the same book. she was writing for an American audience.

i know. did you like it though? i did, even if i was a bit light on politics-my-style!

 

[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
12/100 The Graduate by Charles Webb
13/100 Backhand by Liza Cody
14/100 Kill Your Friends by John Niven
15/100 Hazell and the Menacing Jester by P.B. Yuill
16/100 Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
17/100 Monkey Wrench by Liza Cody
18/100 True Grit by Charles Portis

19/100 Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vazquez Montalban (reread)

 

[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
13/50 - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
14/50 - Light of the Western Stars- Zane Grey
15/50 -Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey
16/50 - Mission to Paris - Alan Furst
17/50 -The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
18/50 - Acquired for Development By...A Hackney Anthology - Edited by Gary Budden and Kit Caless

a collection of writing about Hackney - interesting in parts.

 

[colbhoy]

1/20 -The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
2/20 - At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill
3/20 - Lullaby Town by Robert Crais

 

[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
12/100 The Graduate by Charles Webb
13/100 Backhand by Liza Cody
14/100 Kill Your Friends by John Niven
15/100 Hazell and the Menacing Jester by P.B. Yuill
16/100 Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
17/100 Monkey Wrench by Liza Cody
18/100 True Grit by Charles Portis
19/100 Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vazquez Montalban (reread)

20/100 A Very Profitable War by Didier Daeninckx (reread)

 

[Miss-Shelf]

11/51-100 The Corrosion of Character: Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism by Richard Sennett

 

[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. Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely. Great introduction to behavioural economics and the new frontiers of decision-making sciences.
7/50. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson. Quite funny and a very easy read.
8/50. Swords and Deviltry - Fritz Leiber. Classic swords and sorcery, much more adult than I had expected.
9/50. Methods of Discovery: Heuristics for the Social Sciences - Andrew Abbott. Probably the best book on social science methods I've ever read. Not very technical
10/50. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett. Re-read.

 

[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
9/50 the Hundred year old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson
10/50 First Murder, Fred Limberg
11/50 Capital, John Lanchester

12/40 An Order of Coffee and Tears, Brian Spangler - girly story about life in a diner with some battered women, murder and dead babies for good measure. Not bad fluff.

 

[petee]

9/30 marx's economics for anarchists (price)

10/30 seventy days in russia: what i saw (pestana)

 

[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
10/50 - Money, Martin Amis
11/50 - The 5:2 Diet Book, Kate Harrison
12/50 - The Treatment, Mo Hayder
13/50 -The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

14/50 - The Little Friend, Donna Tartt

Wow, what an amazing book. Absolutely loved it.
Couldn't put it down and I'm behind on the reading for my course now, but it was worth it.

 

[belboid]

14/50 - The Little Friend, Donna Tartt

Wow, what an amazing book. Absolutely loved it.
Couldn't put it down and I'm behind on the reading for my course now, but it was worth it.

And her third book is actually finally coming out later this year, only five years late.

 

[BoatieBird]

And her third book is actually finally coming out later this year, only five years late.

She seems to write a book per decade!

 

[pennimania]

20/100 The Honour of Dr Shelton. Elizabeth Seifert
21/100 Caterpillage; Reflections on Dutch 17th Century Painting - Harry Berger

Had to reread Caterpilage.

Brilliant if you like that sort of thing

22/100 Love and Work. Gwyneth Cravens

 

[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
11/30 Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
12/30 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
13/30 The Honorary Consul - Graham Greene​

Couple of dodgy ones to add to the list - I was on holiday without a book and these two were in the apartment​

14/30 Slam - Nick Hornby​

15/30 Fatal Remedies - Donna Leon​

 

[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
12/100 The Graduate by Charles Webb
13/100 Backhand by Liza Cody
14/100 Kill Your Friends by John Niven
15/100 Hazell and the Menacing Jester by P.B. Yuill
16/100 Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
17/100 Monkey Wrench by Liza Cody
18/100 True Grit by Charles Portis
19/100 Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vazquez Montalban (reread)
20/100 A Very Profitable War by Didier Daeninckx (reread)

21/100 Musclebound by Liza Cody

 

[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
12/100 The Graduate by Charles Webb
13/100 Backhand by Liza Cody
14/100 Kill Your Friends by John Niven
15/100 Hazell and the Menacing Jester by P.B. Yuill
16/100 Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
17/100 Monkey Wrench by Liza Cody
18/100 True Grit by Charles Portis
19/100 Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vazquez Montalban (reread)
20/100 A Very Profitable War by Didier Daeninckx (reread)
21/100 Musclebound by Liza Cody

22/100 Bitter Blue by Cath Staincliffe

 

[el-ahrairah]

24. Vigil - The Aenead. Translated into prose. still surprisingly hard work. bit of a blowhard. unsure as to whether i will go the distance on this one.

i didn't.

24. Umberto Eco - The Name Of The Rose - fantastic stuff, easily one of the best books i've ever read.

25. Iain M Banks - the State Of The Art

have just started:

26. Edith Wharton - The House Of Mirth - too early to say if i'll bother reading the whole thing.

 

[Stigmata]

1/12 The Mammoth Book of Best New SF vol 25 - ed. Gardner Dozois
2/12 Shakespeare's Local - Pete Brown
3/12 Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy
4/12 I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker
5/12 Beowulf - trans. David Wright

 

[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
13/50 - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
14/50 - Light of the Western Stars- Zane Grey
15/50 -Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey
16/50 - Mission to Paris - Alan Furst
17/50 -The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
18/50 - Acquired for Development By...A Hackney Anthology - Edited by Gary Budden and Kit Caless

a collection of writing about Hackney - interesting in parts.

19/50 Prisoner to the Streets - Robyn Travis

basically about the post code wars, within Hackney, and between Hackney and Tottenham.Enjoyed it, still can't make sense of them though.

 

[Me76]

I finished Catcher in the Rye the other day (will update my official list later).

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about really, although there were times I enjoyed it. Mostly I was just thinking what a whiney brat he was.

Anyway, one of my two classics a year rule* done. I am thinking I might take another run at To Kill a Mocking bird later in the year. I've never got past 50 pages before.

*this is a new rule I have set myself this year.

 

[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
12/100 The Graduate by Charles Webb
13/100 Backhand by Liza Cody
14/100 Kill Your Friends by John Niven
15/100 Hazell and the Menacing Jester by P.B. Yuill
16/100 Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
17/100 Monkey Wrench by Liza Cody
18/100 True Grit by Charles Portis
19/100 Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vazquez Montalban (reread)
20/100 A Very Profitable War by Didier Daeninckx (reread)
21/100 Musclebound by Liza Cody
22/100 Bitter Blue by Cath Staincliffe

23/100 All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen

 

[Red Storm]

1/20 - A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
2/20 - A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
3/20 - Physical Resistance by Dave Hann
4/20 - Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
5/20 - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
6/20 - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley -- pretty good (4/5 stars) little bit difficult to follow and I wasn't overly impressed by the ending

7/20 - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- great book (5/5 stars), better than Brave New World but not as good as 1984. Left the dystopian future more to the imagination whereas Brave New World gets pretty detailed.

 

[ringo]

I finished Catcher in the Rye the other day (will update my official list later).

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about really, although there were times I enjoyed it. Mostly I was just thinking what a whiney brat he was.

Anyway, one of my two classics a year rule* done. I am thinking I might take another run at To Kill a Mocking bird later in the year. I've never got past 50 pages before.

*this is a new rule I have set myself this year.

Much as I love American literature I agree CITR is a little over rated, having little sympathy for the main character might have something to do with it.

I haven't read To Kill a Mocking Bird since school, but while making reading suggestions to my 9 year old she came up with this, so I've just put it on her Kindle Fire for her. I reckon I'll read it again so that I can talk to her about it so I've loaded it to mine too. Might be very good for a discussion about racial tolerance etc, but not sure I fancy telling her about rape.

I can't read enough classics at the mo, it's still opening my eyes to new styles and genres I otherwise wouldn't have picked up. Classics are classics for a reason.

 

[el-ahrairah]

I finished Catcher in the Rye the other day (will update my official list later).

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about really, although there were times I enjoyed it. Mostly I was just thinking what a whiney brat he was.

i think you need to read it when you're a teenager. i read it in my twenties and felt the same as you.

 

[el-ahrairah]

26. Edith Wharton - The House Of Mirth - too early to say if i'll bother reading the whole thing.

i'm sure it's very good but it just bored me. didn't even last 60 pages.

so...

26. Ursula le Guin - Rohannon's World. Great stuff, going to read some more of hers I think.

 

[marty21]

i think you need to read it when you're a teenager. i read it in my twenties and felt the same as you.

I read it when i was about 20, loved it - I think I'd find him annoying now

 

[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
12/100 The Graduate by Charles Webb
13/100 Backhand by Liza Cody
14/100 Kill Your Friends by John Niven
15/100 Hazell and the Menacing Jester by P.B. Yuill
16/100 Bucket Nut by Liza Cody
17/100 Monkey Wrench by Liza Cody
18/100 True Grit by Charles Portis
19/100 Murder in the Central Committee by Manuel Vazquez Montalban (reread)
20/100 A Very Profitable War by Didier Daeninckx (reread)
21/100 Musclebound by Liza Cody
22/100 Bitter Blue by Cath Staincliffe
23/100 All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen

24/100 Sideswipe By Charles Willeford

 

[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
10/50 - Money, Martin Amis
11/50 - The 5:2 Diet Book, Kate Harrison
12/50 - The Treatment, Mo Hayder
13/50 -The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
14/50 - The Little Friend, Donna Tartt

15/50 - What Was lost, Catherine O'Flynn
16/50 - Stonemouth, Iain Banks