Have yourself a merry little readmas 2019 reading challenge thread

[StanleyBlack]

1/20? Bythell, Shaun (2018). The diary of a bookseller. Paperback edition. London: Profile Books. Finished 8/1/19
2/20? Melville, Herman (2010). Bartleby the scrivener. New York: Melville House. Finished 10/1/19
3/20? Northup, Solomon (2012). Twelve years a slave. Penguin Classics. Kindle edition. New York: Penguin Books. (9781101614679) Finished 26/2/19
4/20? Dickens, Charles (2003). Little Dorrit. Penguin Classics. Kindle edition. London: Penguin Books. (9780141900292) Finished 25/5/19
5/20? Collins, Matthew (2019). Nazi terrorist: the story of National Action. Paperback edition. London: HOPE not Hate. (9781999320522) Finished 8/6/19
6/20? Wells, Tim (2019). Moonstomp. Paperback edition. London: Unbound. (9781789650457) Finished 20/8/19
7/20? Lewis, C. S. (2001). The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Paperback edition. London: HarperCollins Children’s Books. (000711561X) Finished 12/9/19
8/20? Murray, Douglas (2019). The madness of crowds: gender, race and identity. Hardback edition. London: Bloomsbury Continuum. (9781472959959) Finished 1/10/19
9/20? Dinnerstein, Leonard (1987) The Leo Frank case. Paperback edition. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press. (0820309656) Finished 14/10/19
10/20? Brent, Linda (1861) Incidents in the life of a slave girl. From: Louis Gates Jr, Henry, Ed. (1987) The classic slave narratives. Paperback edition. New York: A Mentor Book/New American Library (0451627261) Finished w/b 21/10/19
11/20? Hayes, Mark (2019) The trouble with National Action. Paperback edition. London: Freedom Press. (9781904491347) Finished 28/10/19
12/20? Houellebecq, Michel (2019) Serotonin. Hardback edition. London: William Heinemann. (9781785152238) Finished 9/11/19
13/20? Pullman, Philip (2001) Northern Lights. Paperback Edition. London: Scholastic Press. (0439994128) Finished 1/12/19
14/20? Spark, Muriel (Published 1960, 1970 reprint) The Ballard of Peckham Rye. Hardback edition. London: Macmillan. (No ISBN) Finished 10/12/19
15/20? Orwell, George (1989) Nineteen eighty-four. Paperback edition. London: Penguin Books, in association with Martin Secker & Warburg. (014027877X) Finished 19/12/19

16/20? Cowan, Clare (2019) My Search for Revolution and How We Brought Down an Abusive Leader. Paperback edition. Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador. (9781838590987) Finished 26/12/19

That's it for this year's 'challenge'. Read 16 of an anticipated 20, which is fine, after all it's not a competition, is it? I've enjoyed taking part, if that makes sense, as it's encouraged me to focus my reading a bit more and not 'give up' on titles I started but got bogged down with (i.e. Dickens). I've also enjoyed seeing everyone else's lists, some of which provided me with further reading.

Finally, I would recommend the above book to anyone interested in the WRP split and Gerry Healey's expulsion in 1985. Written by an ex party worker who worked with others to reveal Healey's sexual exploitation of female members it shows how the split was initiated not by a fraction or the rank and file but by 'none political' party workers (some of whom were also victims). The financial mismanagement and 'theoretical' manoeuvres of the Political Committee are quite something and, unsurprisingly, the Redgraves come out of it quite badly (Corin in particular, to quote, "if this [i.e. the work of the WRP] is the work of a rapist, let's recruit more rapists"). It also made me think again about how individual members of organisations like this who don't come from moneyed backgrounds deal with the fallout of events like these when they've given their entire life's energy and resources to the 'party'. Clare Cowan was/is from a wealthy South African mining family and after buying property for, and 'renting' it back to, the WRP ended up as one of its creditors so probably had something to show for it at the end but what about the bus drivers and postal workers?

 

[braindancer]

1/25 - The Children Act - Ian McEwan
2/25 - Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
3/25 - A Place Called Winter - Patrick Gale
4/25 - Sweet Tooth - Ian McEwan
5/25 - How to stop time - Matt Haig
6/25 - The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy
7/25 - The Perfect Spy - John Le Carre
8/25 - Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie
9/25 - Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurty
10/25 - Streets of Laredo - Larry McMurty
11/25 - Dead Man's Walk - Larry McMurty
12/25 - Comanche Moon - Larry McMurty
13/25 - Leaving Cheyenne - Larry McMurty
14/25 - Horseman Pass By - Larry McMurty
15/25 - The Catcher in The Rye - J.D. Salinger
16/25 - The Shootist - Glendon Swarthout
17/25 - Ready Player One - Eric Cline
18/25 - The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage - Philip Pullman
19/25 - Newtons Wake - Ken MacLeod
20/25 - Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
21/25 - I am Legend - Richard Matheson
22/25 - Normal People - Sally Rooney
23/25 - Rule of the Bone - Russell Banks
24/25 - The Stars Like Dust - Isaac Asimov
25/25 - Naked Pueblo - Mark Poirier

Hurrah - target hit...

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Didn't actually set a target, but read 36 books this year. Favourite was A Little Life. Worst was probably the fourth in the Dragon Tattoo series, as I didn't even remember reading it when I looked back through my Goodreads list.

 

[gawkrodger]

Been really slow with my reading since September - combination of work, having to do a qualification for work, RWC and election

1) Calder - Raw Concrete: The beauty of Brutalism
2) Owen Hatherley - A guide to the new ruins of Great Britain
3) China Mieville - King Rat
4) Ben Aaronovitch - Rivers of London
5) Ben Aaronovitch - Moon over Soho
6) Ben Aaronovitch - Whispers Underground
7) Ben Aaronovitch - Foxglove Summer
8) Ben Aaronovitch - The Hanging Tree
9) Iain Sinclair - Swimming to Heaven: The lost rivers of London
10) Ben Aaronovitch - The Furthest Station
11) John Berger - Understanding a Photograph
12) Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - The Leopard
13) Douglas Murphy - Last Futures: Nature, Technology and the end of Architecture
14) Neil Gaiman - Norse Mythology - great fun. I've never read any of his novels - any recommendations?
15) Adam Greenfield - Radical Technologies
16) Keir Milburn - Generation Left
17) Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards! - wanted a quick and easy bank holiday read. Have to say, not as good as I remembered from my early teenage years, but then, what is?
18) Wallace-Wells - The Unhabitable Earth: A story of the future - excellent. This century's Silent Spring?
19) Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms
20) Terry Pratchett - Feet of Clay
21) Pierce Brown - Red Rising
22) Pierce Brown - Golden Son
23) Pierce Brown - Morning Star
24) Madin - John Madin Architect & Planner: An illustrated record
25) Ken MacLeod - Learning the World
26) Pierce Brown - Iron Gold
27) Christian Parenti - Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence
28) Justin McGuirk - Radical Cities
29) Terry Pratchett - Jingo
30) Terry Eagleton - Radical Sacrifice
31) Terry Pratchett - The Fifth Elephant
32) Terry Prarchett - Night Watch
33) Ben Aaronovitch - The October Man
34) Jamie Woodcock - Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, controllers and class struggle
35) Richard Seymour - The Twittering Machine - really enjoyed this. Would very much recommend
36) Tronti - Workers and Capital (well, chapters of)
37) Tom Nancollas - Seashaken Houses: A lighthouse history from Eddystone to Fastnet
38) Revelli - The New Populism
39) Marazzi - The Violence of Finanical Capitalism (new ed.) - re-read
40) Grace Blakely - Stolen: How to save the world from financialisation

 

[pennimania]

Well I've failed, will set myself a more realistic target in 2020

 

[Ptolemy]

1/30. The Atheist's Mass - Honoré de Balzac.
2/30. The Labour Party - William Glenvil Hall.
3/30. L'Argent (Money) - Émile Zola.
4/30. Le Rêve (The Dream) - Émile Zola.
5/30. The Conquest of Plassans - Émile Zola.
6/30. Tao Te Ching - Laozi (re-read).
7/30. Four Major Plays - Henrik Ibsen.
8/30. Soul on Ice - Eldridge Cleaver.
9/30. The Lost Gospel Q - Marcus J. Borg.
10/30. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin.
11/30. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy.
12/30. The Diary of Lady Murasaki - Murasaki Shikibu.
13/30. Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Paradise) - Émile Zola.
14/30. La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (The Sin of Abbé Mouret) - Émile Zola.
15/30. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley.
16/30. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott.
17/30. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk.
18/30. Une page d'amour (A Love Story) - Émile Zola.
19/30. The Rubaiyyat - Omar Khayaam (translated by Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah)
20/30. Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) - Émile Zola.
21/30. Tarantula - Bob Dylan.
22/30. A Room with a View - E.M. Forster.
23/30. La joie de vivre (The Joy of Living/The Bright Side of Life) - Émile Zola.
24/30. The Last Days of Socrates - Plato.
25/30. L'œuvre (The Masterpiece) - Émile Zola.
26/30. Autobiography - Morrissey.
27/30. Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse.
28/30. The Establishment - Owen Jones.
29/30. Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas (re-read).
30/30. La Terre (The Earth) - Émile Zola.
31/30. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote.
32/30. The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House - Audre Lorde.
33/30. The Debacle - Émile Zola.
34/30. Ecclesiastes - Anonymous.
35/30. Bring on the Empty Horses - David Niven.
36/30. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote (re-read).
37/30. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood.
38/30. The Men Who Would Be King: Suitors to Queen Elizabeth I - Josephine Ross.
39/30. Moominland Midwinter - Tove Jansson.
40/30. Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata.
41/30. Thousand Cranes - Yasunari Kawabata.
42/30. Carry On, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse.
43/30. Doctor Pascal - Émile Zola.
44/30. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain.
45/30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (re-read).
46/30. My Childhood - Maxim Gorky.
47/30. Old Man Goriot - Honoré de Balzac.
48/30. Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In - Bernie Sanders.
49/30. I, Robot - Isaac Asimov.
50/30. De Profundis and Other Writings - Oscar Wilde.
51/30. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair.
52/30. Emma - Jane Austen.
53/30. A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov.
54/30. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks.
55/30. The Code of the Woosters - P.G. Wodehouse.
56/30. Right Ho, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse.
57/30. Jeeves in the Offing - P.G. Wodehouse.
58/30. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury.
59/30. The Iliad - Homer (translated by E.V. Rieu).
60/30. The Theban Plays - Sophocles.
61/30. The Pot of Gold and Other Plays - Plautus.
62/30. The Moon's a Balloon - David Niven.
63/30. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens.
64/30. The Odyssey - Homer (translated by E.V. Rieu et al).
65/30. The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made - Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell.
66/30. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - The Gawain Poet (translated by Brian Stone).

I finished this a little while before midnight. 16,000 pages on from this time last year, I'm ready for an easier-going 2020!

 

[Shirl]

1/25 Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz
2/25 Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham
3/25 Polishing and Finishing for Jewellers and Silversmiths - Stephen M Goldsmith
4/25 The Chestnut Man - Soren Sveistrup
5/25 Scaredy Cat - Mark Billingham
6/25 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
7/25 One-hit Wonder - Lisa Jewell
8/25 Portobello - Ruth Rendell
9/25 I Am Watching You - Teresa Driscoll
10/25 The Guilty One - Lisa Ballantyne
11/25 Vince and Joy- Lisa Jewell
12/25 Big Skye - Kate Atkinson
13/25 The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell
14/25 The word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz
!5/25 The Sentence is Death - Anthony Horowitz
16/25 The Body in the Dales - J R Ellis
17/25 The Burning - Jane Casey
18/25 The Reckoning - Jane Casey
19/25 The Quartet Murders - J R Ellis (rubbish but an easy distraction that I needed)
20/25 The Crocodile Bird - Ruth Rendell
21/25 Going Wrong - Ruth Rendell
22/25 The Last Girl - Jane Casey
23/25 Having a Lovely Time - Jenny Eclair
24/25 Skin Deep - Liz Nugent
25/25 Inheritance - Jenny Eclair
26/25 Lullaby - Leila Slimani
27/25 Life, Death and Vanilla Slices - Jenny Eclair
28/25 Lying in Wait - Liz Nugent (this book reminded me so much of Patricia Highsmith's writing. I'm going to read all her books now)
29/ Moving - Jenny Eclair
30/25 Unravelling Oliver - Liz Nugent
31/25 The Water's Lovely - Ruth Rendell
32/25 Tigerlily's Orchids - Ruth Rendell
33/25 A Man with One of Those faces - Caimh McDonnell
34/25 Edith's Diary - Patricia Highsmith
35/25 Notes Made at The Time: The Diaries of a Yorkshire Town Bobby - Martin Langan. Only bought and read because he used to be my next door neighbour.
36/25 A Friend of the family - lisa Jewell
37/25 31 Dream Street - Lisa Jewell

Quite impressed with myself this year. I have had much more time to read though.

 

[xenon]

01/20: Music habits - The mental game of electronic music production. Jason Timothy.
02/20: Nightflyers and Other Stories - George R R Martin
03/20: Piercing - Ryu Murakami
04/20: A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James
05/20: Fight Club -Chuck Palahniuk
06/20: What's Expected of Us - Ted Chang
07/20: Forever War - Joe Haldeman
08/20: Kill Them All - John Niven
09/20: Worst. Person. Ever. - Douglas Coupland
10/20: The Second Coming. - John Nivon
11/20: The Catcher in the Rye: J. D. Salinger
12/20: I Am Legend. - Richard Matheson
13/20: Water Land. Graham Swift
14/20: Last Orders: Graham Swift
15/20: Invisible Monsters: Chuck Palahniuk
16/20: Rant: Chuck Palahniuk
17/20: Choke: Chuck Palahniuk

Didn't do so well this yearCouple of other books started but I'll stick them in 2020 as I'm not finishing them this weekend.

 

[lizzieloo]

1/70 - Minette Walters - The Ice House
2/70 - Joe Hill - Strange Weather
3/70 - Donna Tartt - The Little Friend (re-read)
4/70 - Joe Hill - 20th Century Ghosts (re-read)
5/70 - P.D.James - Unnatural Causes
6/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Olive Kitteridge
7/70 - Donald Ray Pollock - The Heavenly Table
8/70 - Minette Walters - The Echo
9/70 - Gavin Extence - The Mirror World of Melody Black
10/70 - Elizabeth Strout - The Burgess Boys
11/70 - P.D. James - Shroud For a Nightingale
12/70 - Carson McCullers - The Member of the Wedding
13/70 - Val McDermid - Broken Ground
14/70 - James M Cain - The Cocktail Waitress
15/70 - Gillian Flynn - The Grownup
16/70 - P.D. James - The Black Tower
17/70 - Dennis Lehane - Mystic River
18/70 - Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice
19/70 - Adrian R. Magnuson - Taking Flight
20/70 - P.D. James - Death of an Expert Witness (re-read)
21/70 - Annie Proulx - Postcards (re-read)
22/70 - Minette Walters - The Breaker
23/70 - Elizabeth Strout - My Name is Lucy Barton
24/70 - Irvine Welsh - Skagboys (re-read)
25/70 - P D James - A Taste for Death
26/70 - Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island
27/70 - Jon McGregor - Even the Dogs
28/70 - Stephen King - The Dead Zone
29/70 - P D James - Devices and Desires (re-read)
30/70 - Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
31/70 - Ann Cleeves - A Lesson in Dying
32/70 - C J Tudor - The Chalk Man
33/70 - P D James - Original Sin
34/70 - Joanna Cannon - Three Things About Elsie
35/70 - Sally Rooney - Normal People
36/70 - P D James - A Certain Justice (re-read)
37/70 - Kate Atkinson - Transcription
38/70 - Wally Lamb - She's Come Undone
39/70 - Kate Atkinson - Not The End of The World
40/70 - Deborah Levy - Hot Milk
41/70 - Kate Atkinson - Big Sky
42/70 - C J Tudor - The Taking of Annie Thorne
43/70 - Peter James - Dead at First Sight
45/70 - Annie Proulx - That Old Ace in The Hole (re-read)
46/70 - Patrick Gale - A Place Called Winter
47/70 - Ruth Rendell - One Across, Two Down (re-read)
48/70 - Tim Winton - Cloud Street
49/70 - P D James - Death in Holy Orders (re-read)
50/70 - Paul Beatty - The Sellout
51/70 - Stephen King - The Institute
52/70 - Malcolm Pryce - Aberystwyth Mon Amour
53/70 - William Boyd - Love is Blind
54/70 - Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, the Serial Killer
55/70 - Michael Farris Smith - Desperation Road
56/70 - P D James - The Murder Room (re-read)
57/70 - James Sallis - Sarah Jane
58/70 - Zadie Smith - Swing Time
59/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Edith's Diary
60/70 - Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games
61/70 - Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire
62/70 - Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay
63/70 - P D James - The Lighthouse (re-read)
64/70 - Haruki Murakami - Desire
65/70 - Julian Barnes - Before She Met Me
66/70 - P D James - The Private Patient (re-read)
67/70 - Joseph Heller - Work
68/70 - Patricia Highsmith - A Suspension of Mercy

69/70 - Sarah Ladipo Manyika - Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to The Sun

I just popped in to see if you did read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Hairy Maclary at the end of the year.