Never mind the virus here's the 2022 reading challenge thread

[belboid]

1/30 Joe Banks - Hawkwind: Days of the Underground. Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia

Other than the title (more than one subtitle should not be allowed), a cracking read about the most revolutionary band of the last fifty five years (ohh yes they were). A good mix of discussion of the band, the music and how they fit into the seventies world (ie, magnificently).

2/30 Lesley Chow - You’re History. The Twelve Strangest Women in Music.

Her definition of ‘strange’ is somewhat surprising - including both Sade and Taylor Swift, for example. But she makes great cases for them, reminding us that the joy of music isn’t really in the magnificent wordplay and smartass allusions or the weird time signatures and showy playing. No, it’s all about the pleasure of odd sounds, the delicious phrasing of odd words, the timbre of a voice, the insurmountable genius of a well placed ‘oh-oh-oh-ohhh’ or a good ‘ch k’

 

[hitmouse]

1/30 Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
2/30 Joan Didion - The White Album (re-read)
It's fucking great. Possibly Didion at her bleakest and arguably most reactionary as well, but also quite funny in places. Just such a good writer. Starting Saidiya Hartman - Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments next.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/45 David Katz - People Funny Boy: the genius of Lee Scratch Perry
2/45 Onjali Q Rauf - The Star Outside My Window

3/45 Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble with Peace

Thoroughly enjoyed that. Funny and bleak.

 

[ginger_syn]

2/9 Knife of Dreams ,The Wheel of Time book 11.

 

[inva]

1/20 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
2/20 Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis
A man falls off a boat and reflects on his life. This was recently republished after being out of print in English for decades, not sure why to be honest it was okay but nothing special. Reminded me a bit of B.S. Johnson.

 

[ginger_syn]

3/9 The Gathering Storm ,book 12 of The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

 

[Saffy]

1/20 Black Eyed Susans.
2/20 Dave Grohl - The Storyteller.

 

[PursuedByBears]

3/9 The Gathering Storm ,book 12 of The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

My re-read has stalled after Winter's Heart, I need to get back on it. The Slog will not defeat me!

 

[Me76]

1/40 Nick Hornby, Just Like You
2/40 Patrick Gale, A Place Called Winter

3/40 Paul Cleave, Blood Men - I think this was a 99p ebook. Good thriller.

 

[ginger_syn]

My re-read has stalled after Winter's Heart, I need to get back on it. The Slog will not defeat me!

I know what you mean I stalled there a bit,and with crossroads of twilight which is why its made this list but the slog was worth it, its been a pleasure to read these book over a couple of months instead of a couple of decades.

 

[hitmouse]

A man falls off a boat and reflects on his life. This was recently republished after being out of print in English for decades, not sure why to be honest it was okay but nothing special. Reminded me a bit of B.S. Johnson.

I'd never heard of BS Johnson until about a week or so ago, and now I've run into mentions of him twice. I realise this is a bit of a vague question, but should I read him?

 

[belboid]

I'd never heard of BS Johnson until about a week or so ago, and now I've run into mentions of him twice. I realise this is a bit of a vague question, but should I read him?

cracking stuff- go for it!

 

[inva]

I'd never heard of BS Johnson until about a week or so ago, and now I've run into mentions of him twice. I realise this is a bit of a vague question, but should I read him?

I just had a look at your list on last years thread and I think you'd probably like him.

 

[ginger_syn]

4/9 Towers of Midnight, book 13 of The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/52 - Sarah Waters - Fingersmith

2/52 - Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These

 

[Smokeandsteam]

1/39 - Mark Andrews: Paint My Name in Black and Gold

Magnificently well researched history of the greatest goff band ever...read it over the holiday and loved the nostalgia and cultural memories.

2/39 - Allan Glenn: Stuart Adamson: Through a Big Country

Lacking input from the main players, not least the remaining band members, and feels a bit cursory.

3/39 - Len McCluskey: Why You Should be a Trade Unionist

A Christmas Present from a well meaning relative who knows that I am 'a bit political', boiled my piss with the posturing exceptionalism and labourist drone as I knew it would before even starting it....

4/39 - Dick Hebidge. (1979). Subculture: The meaning of style

Examining how working class youth cultures challenge the dominant ideas in society, great stuff on the teds, mods, puns and skins.

​

 

[pseudonarcissus]

1/29 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.

The life of a boy growing up in poverty in 80's/early 90's Glasgow with his alcoholic mother. Very good but very grim.

(Not sure if we're meant to say stuff about the books or just list them..? )

Eta I'm a few years older than the author/main character but it really struck me that a lot of the stuff in the book is more like stories my parents would tell of growing up in tenements/schemes in the 40s and 50s than the time it's actually set in and which I grew up in. (Thankfully i didn't grow up in such desperate circumstances mind.)

Time-wise it feels really old fashioned..? I mean if it didn't include dates/mentions of Thatcher/YTSs etc, I'd have placed it in the 50s or 60s.

I read that last year and was unimpressed…I think I’m the same generation and knew people with similar backgrounds at the time…it was utterly humourless…which didn’t feel very Glaswegian.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

1/12 The Shortest History of Germany - James Hawes

A Christmas gift. Very interesting. It makes me realize how little I know about European history..probably history in general.

I lost count last year..Very few as found a couldn’t concentrate during the lockdowns.

Maybe more news tomorrow as I have other books on the go.

I also ordered a new kindle today as the one I inherited from my mother 7 years ago is on its last legs..the battery is always flat when I pick it up

 

[pseudonarcissus]

2/12 The Charterhouse of Parma -Stendhal

Really not worth the effort. I read Thom Gunn’s letters last year and he was enthusiastic about it…I’m not sure why. I have promised myself this is my last foray into french 19th century literature..or 18th century for that matter.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

2/30 Joan Didion - The White Album (re-read)
It's fucking great. Possibly Didion at her bleakest and arguably most reactionary as well, but also quite funny in places. Just such a good writer. Starting Saidiya Hartman - Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments next.

Where do you recommend starting with Didion?

 

[hitmouse]

Where do you recommend starting with Didion?

I reckon I'd probably say Slouching Towards Bethlehem, that's the first one I read of hers back in the day. And it's fairly short, so you can get a taste of if you like her or not?

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I reckon I'd probably say Slouching Towards Bethlehem, that's the first one I read of hers back in the day. And it's fairly short, so you can get a taste of if you like her or not?

Thanks, appreciated. I am going to try Didion

 

[inva]

1/20 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
2/20 Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis
3/20 The Colonel's Wife by Rosa Liksom
Novel about a Finnish fascist at the end of her life recalling the White movement and the war years. Lots of grim subject matter. Can't exactly decide how I feel about this, somehow it didn't quite work but well written and worth reading.

 

[marty21]

1. The Story of England - Michael Wood .
2. Broken Rails : How Privitisation Wrecked Britain's Railways - Christian Wolmar .

 

[pseudonarcissus]

I reckon I'd probably say Slouching Towards Bethlehem, that's the first one I read of hers back in the day. And it's fairly short, so you can get a taste of if you like her or not?

thanks, on the basis of that I've bought it!

 

[marty21]

1/12 The Shortest History of Germany - James Hawes

A Christmas gift. Very interesting. It makes me realize how little I know about European history..probably history in general.

I lost count last year..Very few as found a couldn’t concentrate during the lockdowns.

Maybe more news tomorrow as I have other books on the go.

I also ordered a new kindle today as the one I inherited from my mother 7 years ago is on its last legs..the battery is always flat when I pick it up

I have decided to read more history this year, got a book voucher from my brother for Christmas & it mostly went on history books . I do try and read some history every year anyway , but will read MORE this year.

 

[shifting gears]

1/26 - Michael Moorcock - The Whispering Swarm
2/26 - Albert Camus - The Outsider

3/26 - Douglas Stuart - Shuggie Bain

 

[pseudonarcissus]

3/12 White on Black on White - Coleman Dowell

An extraordinary book about race and sex...another book referenced in Them Gunn's Diaries.

2/12 The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
1/12 The Shortest History of Germany - James Hawes

 

[smmudge]

2/9 A brief history of humankind - Harari. Another book I started ages ago, thought I should finish. Interesting enough though didn't agree with all of it.

 

[Signal 11]

1/10 - Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight - Amy Shira Teitel