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

[Badgers]

Calling Major Tom - David M. Barnett

 

[braindancer]

Aimed for 20 last year but read 25 - so this year I'll aim for 25 and hope to exceed it....

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I smashed my target of 25 last year, so I have upped it to 30-39 for 2018.

1/39: High/Perchard (Eds) - The Deindustrialized World
2/39: Fredric Jameson - Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism

 

[DotCommunist]

1/25 The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross

 

[Badgers]

1. Calling Major Tom - David M. Barnett
2. The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams

(had a lot of time on my hands)

 

[Shirl]

I initially voted 10-19, but am going to set a target of 25 - with a bottom of 20.

1/25. L'Assommoir - Émile Zola.

Finished reading this a few minutes ago. Another great Zola novel chronicling alcoholism and poverty among the Parisian working class, with all the
attendant physical and mental cruelty and deprivation; and the origin story of Etienne and Nana from Germinal and Nana respectively.

It's a long time since I read L'Assommoir and it was the first Zola book that I read. Still my favourite of his books and still a favourite book generally.

 

[Shirl]

I'm going for twenty as that's about what I read last year. I would have read more if I hadn't given up on about 5 books after a few chapters. I'm really struggling to find books I want to read and as I only read in bed I'm not optimistic about reading more than last year.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I'm going for twenty as that's about what I read last year. I would have read more if I hadn't given up on about 5 books after a few chapters. I'm really struggling to find books I want to read and as I only read in bed I'm not optimistic about reading more than last year.

What genre are you looking to read?

 

[Badgers]

Does Viz count?
Maybe get 25% of a book for a magazine?
But an annual must be worth 75%?

 

[Pickman's model]

Does Viz count?
Maybe get 25% of a book for a magazine?
But an annual must be worth 75%?

the viz annual would count as a book but an issue of viz is a periodical and therefore not a book as such

 

[Badgers]

the viz annual would count as a book but an issue of viz is a periodical and therefore not a book as such

Thanks for clafiying that captain

 

[Orang Utan]

Does Viz count?
Maybe get 25% of a book for a magazine?
But an annual must be worth 75%?

I counted a bunch of those shite adult Ladybird books that I read, stood up, in a supermarket, whilst waiting for a job interview, as well as several books that I read to my four year old niece.

 

[Pickman's model]

I counted a bunch of those shite adult Ladybird books that I read, stood up, in a supermarket, whilst waiting for a job interview, as well as several books that I read to my four year old niece.

yeh. these are books and not periodicals.

i wouldn't count an issue of scientific american or intelligence & national security as a book as they are periodicals rather than your actual book.

also viz is not as funny as it used to be.

 

[Pickman's model]

Badgers the profanisaurus (any edition) would count as a book.

 

[Badgers]

Badgers the profanisaurus (any edition) would count as a book.

Profanisaurus?

 

[Shirl]

What genre are you looking to read?

I tend to go for crime but not so much police procedure stuff. To be honest when I read something I like I then read other stuff by the same author. I'm working my way through Benjamin Myers now.

 

[gawkrodger]

. I’ve got Adults in the Room staring at me and that ain’t gonna be finished quickly. But I’ll try and keep the thread, erm, posted.

I found it a pretty quick book to read as long as you can put up with Varoufakis' ego

 

[yield]

Read 14 in 2017 when my goal was 10. Think I'll go for 15 this year.

Plan is to read less science fiction and fantasy more non-fiction this year.

 

[butchersapron]

75

1- Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It - Shane Burley

 

[Voley]

1/60 Michael Gillard & Laurie Flynn - Untouchables: Dirty Cops, Bent Justice & Racism in Scotland Yard
(this is excellent by the way - it's almost like reading Ellroy, but in London)

Like the sound of that, will check it out, ta.

1/30 The Bottom Corner - Nige Tassell
Very good book about the joys and endless disappointments of non-league football. He gets non-league in a way that evades most mainstream writers. Good chapter on Dulwich Hamlet for those interested; he sees beyond the 'hipster' tag instantly. Dulwich Mishi is quoted in it, I think. The final word, though, has to go to Nigel of Half Man Half Biscuit on the joys of supporting Tranmere Rovers: ''At times I can wholly appreciate how John McCarthy must have felt when he was tied to that radiator.''

 

[nogojones]

yeh. these are books and not periodicals.

i wouldn't count an issue of ...... intelligence & national security as a book as they are periodicals rather than your actual book.

Just checked these out and there's quite a few papers that look interesting. Thank goodness for sci-hub, though it might cut down on my total of "proper" books for the year

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

 

[Dulwich Mishi]

Like the sound of that, will check it out, ta.

1/30 The Bottom Corner - Nige Tassell
Very good book about the joys and endless disappointments of non-league football. He gets non-league in a way that evades most mainstream writers. Good chapter on Dulwich Hamlet for those interested; he sees beyond the 'hipster' tag instantly. Dulwich Mishi is quoted in it, I think. The final word, though, has to go to Nigel of Half Man Half Biscuit on the joys of supporting Tranmere Rovers: ''At times I can wholly appreciate how John McCarthy must have felt when he was tied to that radiator.''

Indeed...I speak to media/press/whoever as it's all publicity, albeit often in a lazy hipster way, but Nigel Tassell was very honest, and basically quoted what I actually said.

 

[DotCommunist]

1/25 The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross

2/25 The Falls: A Luna Story by Ian McDonald

 

[butchersapron]

2 - The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World - Catherine Nixey

 

[campanula]

60 - fiction (1 a week) non-fiction, 1 per month, allowing for sporadic sessions -

1/60 Tool of War, Paolo Bacigalupi
2/60 Richard Powers, Orfeo
3/60 (ongoing) Aroids, Deni Bowen

Like the numerous garden diaries I begin, I start to fade around March, grinding to a complete halt by May (plus every year is the exact same whine about snails, pigeons and slacker neighbours). Will try to do better.

 

[Dragnet]

1/25 - Lanark - Alasdair Gray

 

[colbhoy]

Pathetically failed my 2017 target of 19, only reading 8. Will aim for 10-19 again this year, with a view to solidly hitting double figures!

 

[iona]

1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin

 

[craigxcraig]

First time on this thread and inspired to give it a go, 15 for me...