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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

10/40 - Iain M. Banks - Transition
11/40 - Andri Snær Magnason - Bonus Poetry
 
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

********
16/76 The Adulterants - Joe Dunthorne
 
1/25 Blood Sympathy by Reginald Hill (Reread)
2/25 Men in White Suits: Liverpool FC in the 1990s - The Players' Stories by Simon Hughes
3/25 The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War by David Lebedoff
4/25 "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt
5/25 Ruth And Martin's Album Club by Martin Fitzgerald

6/25 Murphy's Mob by Michael Saunders
 
1/30 Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot
2/30 Cyrus Bozorgmehr - Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: The Untold Story of Wu-Tang Clan's Million Dollar Secret Album, the Devaluation of Music, and America's New Public Enemy No. 1
3/30 Gary Budden - Hollow Shores
4/30 Chris Kraus - After Kathy Acker: A Biography
5/30 Victor Pelevin - Omon Ra
6/30 Stefan Szczelkun - Improvisation Rites: From John Cage's Songbooks to The Scratch Orchestra's Nature Study Notes - collective practises 2011-2017
7/30 Sol Yurick - Metatron
8/30 p.m. - bolo'bolo
9/30 Elizabeth Carola - Hot and other stories
10/30 Jean Richards - I Haven't Had So Much Fun Since My Leg Fell Off: The North London Civil Servants Strike 1987/88

11/30 Emma Goldman - Living My Life
 
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)
7/26 - Books of Blood Volume 4 by Clive Barker
 
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.
7/25 So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. Definitely worth a read.
 
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
10/30 William Shakespeare - Macbeth
 
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
12/40 The Motel Life - Willy Vlautin
 
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
16/76 The Adulterants - Joe Dunthorne

*******
17/76 The Playboy of The Western World - JM Synge
 
1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
2/25 A Life for the Stars - James Blish
3/25 The Triumph of Time - James Blish
4/25 A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin
5/25 A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin
6/25 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
7/25 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
8/25 The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
9/25 The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
10/25 King Rat - China Miéville
11/25 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
12/25 A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
13/25 Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
14/25 Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
15/25 MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood
16/25 The Woman in Blue - Elly Griffiths
17/25 The Chalk Pit - Elly Griffiths
18/25 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George R. R. Martin
19/25 In the Cold Dark Ground - Stuart MacBride
20/25 Smoke and Mirrors - Elly Griffiths
21/25 Call for the Dead - John le Carré
 
1/50 Naturally Gifted, Lisa M Hawkins
2/50 Cold Lake, Jeff Carson
3/50 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
4/50 Someone to Save You, Paul Pilkington
5/50 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
6/50 The Godfather, Mario Puzo
7/50 Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
8/50 Lost and Found, Amy Shojai
9/50 The Wall, Jen Minkman

10/50 Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury - can't say I enjoyed this much. But it's ticked the first of my two classics a year box.
 
1/39 High/Perchard (Eds) - The Deindustrialized World;
2/39 Jameson, Fredric - Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism;
3/39 Gest, Justin - The new minority: White working class poliics in an age of immigration and inequality;
4/39 Hall, David - Working Lives: the forgotten voices of Britain's post war working class;
5/39 Katznelson, Ira - City Trenches: Urban politics and the patterning of class in the US;
6/39 Goodhart, David - The Road to Somewhere: the New Tribes Shaping British Politics;
7/39 Dudley, Kathryn - The End of the Line: Lost Jobs, New Lives in Postindustrial America;
8/39 Spencer, K (& others) - Crisis in the Industrial Heartland: A Study of the West Midlands
9/39 Hall, Stuart - Cultural Representations and Signifying Practises (Culture, Media and Identity)
10/39 - Strangleman, Tim - Work and Society: Sociological Approaches, Themes and Methods
11/39 - Cowie, Jefferson - Capital Moves: RCA's 70 Year Quest for Cheap Labor
12/39 - Jobson, Richard - Nostalgia and the Post War Labour Party: Prisoners of the Past
 
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
21. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
 
1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
2/25 A Life for the Stars - James Blish
3/25 The Triumph of Time - James Blish
4/25 A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin
5/25 A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin
6/25 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
7/25 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
8/25 The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
9/25 The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
10/25 King Rat - China Miéville
11/25 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
12/25 A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
13/25 Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
14/25 Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
15/25 MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood
16/25 The Woman in Blue - Elly Griffiths
17/25 The Chalk Pit - Elly Griffiths
18/25 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George R. R. Martin
19/25 In the Cold Dark Ground - Stuart MacBride
20/25 Smoke and Mirrors - Elly Griffiths
21/25 Call for the Dead - John le Carré
22/25 Norstrilia - Cordwainer Smith
 
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).
7/25. The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli.
 
1. Tim Ecott - Neutral Buoyancy
2. Susan Cooper - The Dark Is Rising
3. Naoki Higashida - The Reason I Jump
4. Jon Ronson - The Men Who Stare At Goats
5. Sarah Perry - After Me Comes The Flood
6. Joss Whedon and lots of others - Buffy the Vampire Slayer S8 omnibus vol.1

7. Sarah Hendrickx - Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder
8. Ellipsis vol.1 (flash fiction lit mag)
 
1/25 Blood Sympathy by Reginald Hill (Reread)
2/25 Men in White Suits: Liverpool FC in the 1990s - The Players' Stories by Simon Hughes
3/25 The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War by David Lebedoff
4/25 "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt
5/25 Ruth And Martin's Album Club by Martin Fitzgerald
6/25 Murphy's Mob by Michael Saunders

7/25 It's Not a Runner Bean...: Confessions of a Slightly Successful Comedian by Mark Steel (Reread)
 
1/40 Mark Greif - Against Everything
2/40 Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
3/40 Michele Wallace - Invisibility Blues
4/40 Connie Willis - Blackout
5/40 Kathleen Taylor - Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control
6/40 Margaret Atwood - Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
7/40 Usrula K le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea
8/40 Naomi Alderman - The Power
9/40 R. D. Laing - The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise

10/40 Rebecca Solnit - Wanderlust: A History of Walking
11/40 William Gibson - Pattern Recognition

Still well on track for >50% female writers :)
 
1. Calling Major Tom - David M. Barnett
2. The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
3. Going to Sea in a Sieve - Danny Baker
4. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (again)
5. NOFX - Jeff Alulis
6. Made in America - Bill Bryson
7. A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
8. Easily Distracted - Steve Coogan
9. Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
10. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
 
Last edited:
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).
7/25. The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli.
8/25. After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie - Jean Rhys.
 
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)
7/26 - Books of Blood Volume 4 by Clive Barker
8/26 - Books of Blood Volume 5 by Clive Barker
 
Always meant to give that a go and one of my 'rules' this year is to read a classic. Any good?

It is quite good. It's shorter than you'd expect, and there's debate over what Machiavelli actually meant by what he was writing - was he in favour of despotic princes or free republics? Quite a lot going on, and still applicable to politics today, for better or worse.
 
1. Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness
2. Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
3. Olivia Laing - The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
4. Albert Camus - A Happy Death
5. Orlando Figes - A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924
6. Larry McMurtry - Comanche Moon
7. Hans Fallada - Alone In Berlin

 
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
10/30 William Shakespeare - Macbeth
11/30 George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying
 
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

23/65 - Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
 
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
10/40 - Iain M. Banks - Transition
11/40 - Andri Snær Magnason - Bonus Poetry

12/40 - Karl Marx - The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
13/40 - Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales
 
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)
7/26 - Books of Blood Volume 4 by Clive Barker
8/26 - Books of Blood Volume 5 by Clive Barker
9/26 - Books of Blood Volume 6 by Clive Barker
 
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