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it's the all-singing all-dancing 2018 reading challenge thread

how many books do you anticipate reading in 2018?


  • Total voters
    56
1/40 - Catherynne Valente - Deathless
2/40 - Robert Louis Wilken - The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity
3/40 - Chester Himes - Cotton Comes to Harlem
4/40 - Zadie Smith - White Teeth
5/40 - Geronimo - Fire & Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement
6/40 - Barbara Bloomfield, Raphael Samuel - The Enemy Within: Pit villages & the miners strike of 84/5
7/40 - Jonathan Crary - 24/7: Late capitalism & the end of sleep

8/40 - Kuwasi Balagoon - A Soldiers Story
9/40 - Albert Camus - The Fall
 
1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box
17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons
18/65 - Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness
19/65 - Ruth Rendell - Harm Done

20/65 - Willy Vlautin - Don't Skip Out on Me
 
49. The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went To War Against Its Own Citizens - Bernard E. Harcourt

This is passionately written but I really expected a great deal more from this, especially given Harcourt's involvement, knowledge, and intellectual engagement with some of the key issues involved. Theoretically it doesn't offer anything new, being a riff on familiar themes that do not greatly build upon or extend the work of key figures - most especially Foucault. There is the odd reference to Butler, Agamben, Arendt and Benjamin, but it is clearly written to appeal to a wide audience.

:(
 
01/10 - Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
02/10 - The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
03/10 - A Day in the Bleachers by Arnold Hano
04/10 - The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais
 
1. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
2. The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin
3. The Brothers Ashkenazi - I. J. Singer
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View- Ellen Meiksins Wood
6. ‎ Burial Rights- Hannah Kent
7. ‎ Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
8. ‎ With the End in Mind- Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial - Kathryn Mannix
9. ‎Hillbilly Eligy - J. D. Vance
10. ‎ The Golden Age- John C. Wright
11. ‎ American Pastoral- Philip Roth
12. ‎ Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker
13. ‎The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem
14. The Phoenix Exultant - John C. Wright
15. ‎We - Yevgeni Zamyatin
16. ‎Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
 
1/26 - Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend (reread)
2/26 - The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (reread)
3/26 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4/26 - 11.22.63 by Stephen King
5/26 - The Kenneth Williams Diaries edited by Russell Davies
6/26 - Adrian Mole: The Lost Years by Sue Townsend (reread)
 
1/25 A Horse Walks Into A Bar by David Grossman
2/25 Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
3/25 The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam
4/25 Stop Walking On Eggshells by Paul T Mason and Randi Kreger
5/25 Everywoman by Jess Phillips.
6/25 Montaigne by Stefan Zweig.
 
1/40 Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
2/40 The High Window - Raymond Chandler
3/40 An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
4/40 The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan
5/40 Simulacrum - Ken Liu
6/40 Here Comes The Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
7/40 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
8/40 Voyage In The Dark - Jean Rhys
9/40 The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
10/40 The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
 
Joseph Roth - Confession of a Murderer (1/30)
Günter Grass - Cat and Mouse (2/30)
Peter Schneider - Lenz (3/30)
Joseph Roth - Die Erzählungen (4/30) - a collection of (all) his short stories :)

German fiction is the theme of the winter...
 
1. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
2. The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin
3. The Brothers Ashkenazi - I. J. Singer
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View- Ellen Meiksins Wood
6. ‎ Burial Rights- Hannah Kent
7. ‎ Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
8. ‎ With the End in Mind- Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial - Kathryn Mannix
9. ‎Hillbilly Eligy - J. D. Vance
10. ‎ The Golden Age- John C. Wright
11. ‎ American Pastoral- Philip Roth
12. ‎ Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker
13. ‎The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem
14. The Phoenix Exultant - John C. Wright
15. ‎We - Yevgeni Zamyatin
16. ‎Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
17. ‎Commonwealth - Anne Patchett
 
I've completely lost my reading mojo by being on strike, all i seem to be able to read is twitter :(

:(

It's gone the other way for me!
Except I wasted a day's reading on a second attempt at David Mitchell''s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet before concluding that I definitely had no interest in finishing it.
 
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1/30 Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2/30 China Miéville - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
3/30 Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
4/30 Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines
5/30 David Peace - Red Riding 1974
6/30 William Wordsworth - Selected Poems (ed. Stephen Logan)
7/30 Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer
8/30 Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree

9/30 William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing

I really enjoyed reading that, I think I'll read more Shakespeare. Haven't tried since A levels.
 
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1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box
17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons
18/65 - Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness
19/65 - Ruth Rendell - Harm Done
20/65 - Willy Vlautin - Don't Skip Out on Me

21/65 - Hector & Malcolm MacLeod - Peter Manuel, Serial Killer
 
1. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
2. The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin
3. The Brothers Ashkenazi - I. J. Singer
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View- Ellen Meiksins Wood
6. ‎ Burial Rights- Hannah Kent
7. ‎ Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
8. ‎ With the End in Mind- Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial - Kathryn Mannix
9. ‎Hillbilly Eligy - J. D. Vance
10. ‎ The Golden Age- John C. Wright
11. ‎ American Pastoral- Philip Roth
12. ‎ Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker
13. ‎The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem
14. The Phoenix Exultant - John C. Wright
15. ‎We - Yevgeni Zamyatin
16. ‎Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
17. ‎Commonwealth - Anne Patchett
18. ‎The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
 
1. "The Last 10 Seconds" - Simon Kernick.
2. "Why Did You Lie" - Yrsa Sigurdardottir

3. "The Collini Case" - Ferdinand von Schirach. Interesting, understated exploration of legality
 
1) Wolff - Fire and Fury
2) Feigenbaum - Tear Gas - pleasently surprised. Very much enjoyed
3) Mark Fisher - The Weird and the Eerie
4) Kilcullen - Blood Year: Islamic State and the failures of the war on terror
5) JG Ballard - The Drowned World
6) Geoff Manaugh - A Burglar's Guide to the City
7) Graham - Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers - Really excellent. His Cities under Siege book is probably the best thing I've read on the 'militarisation' of cities. This is as good. He also has the comedy distinction of being arreseted vandalising cars with polite graffiti whilst in his pants
Jesmond professor Stephen Graham shamed by conviction
8) Lefebvre - Rhythmanalysis (re-read)
 
1/25. L'Assommoir - Émile Zola.
2/25. La Bête humaine - Émile Zola.
3/25. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert.
4/25. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë.
5/25. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë.
6/25. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James (re-read).

I read this years ago for university, but had more or less forgotten the entire plot. Some of the run-on sentences were torturous, but otherwise it was a neat little ghost story.
 
1/40 Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
2/40 The High Window - Raymond Chandler
3/40 An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
4/40 The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan
5/40 Simulacrum - Ken Liu
6/40 Here Comes The Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
7/40 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
8/40 Voyage In The Dark - Jean Rhys
9/40 The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
10/40 The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
11/40 Nothing But The Night - John Blackburn
 
01/20. Nomad - Alan Partridge
02/20. Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey
03/20. Caliban's War - - James S. A. Corey
04/20. Abaddon's Gate. - James S. A. Corey
05/20. The Hotwells horror and Other Stories. - Chris Halliday, Thomas David Parker, Pete Sutton.
06/20. Cibola Burn. - James S. A. Corey
 
1/76 The Thirst - Jo Nesbo
2/76 Alt-America : The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. David Neiwert
3/76 Pursuit of Honour - Vince Flynn
4/76 American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5/76 Ardennes 1944 - Anthony Beevor
6/76 The Last Nazi - Andrew Turpin
7/76 The Old Bridge - Andrew Turpin
8/76 Surviving the Evacuation : Book 12 Britain's End . - Frank Tayell.
9/76 The Late Show - Michael Connelly
10/76 Kill Shot- Vince Flynn
11/76 The Last Man - Vince Flynn
12/76 Order to Kill - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills
13/76 Nucleus - Rory Clements
14/76 The Survivor - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills

*******
15/76 East of Eden - John Steinbeck
 
1. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
2. The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin
3. The Brothers Ashkenazi - I. J. Singer
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View- Ellen Meiksins Wood
6. ‎ Burial Rights- Hannah Kent
7. ‎ Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
8. ‎ With the End in Mind- Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial - Kathryn Mannix
9. ‎Hillbilly Eligy - J. D. Vance
10. ‎ The Golden Age- John C. Wright
11. ‎ American Pastoral- Philip Roth
12. ‎ Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker
13. ‎The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem
14. The Phoenix Exultant - John C. Wright
15. ‎We - Yevgeni Zamyatin
16. ‎Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
17. ‎Commonwealth - Anne Patchett
18. ‎The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
19. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
20. Pachinko - by Min Jin Lee
 
1/20 The Lake of Darkness - Ruth Rendell
2/20 The Face of Tresspass - Ruth Rendell
3/20 A Demon in my View -Ruth Rendell
4/20 Make Death Love Me -Ruth Rendell
5/20 Dark Corners - Ruth Rendell
 
01/10 - Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
02/10 - The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
03/10 - A Day in the Bleachers by Arnold Hano
04/10 - The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais
05/10 - The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told edited by Jeff Silvermann
 
1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box
17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons
18/65 - Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness
19/65 - Ruth Rendell - Harm Done
20/65 - Willy Vlautin - Don't Skip Out on Me
21/65 - Hector & Malcolm MacLeod - Peter Manuel, Serial Killer

22/65 - Ruth Rendell - A Sight For Sore Eyes
 
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