Once more unto the book dear friends: 2024 reading challenge thread

[rich!]

On me phone so:

17. Empire of the Feast, Bendi Barrett - queer space empire
18. Glitches and stitches - Nicole givens Kurtz, detectives, robots, weird biotech.
19. Northwest of Earth - C.L. Moore, collection of shorts, very pulp, entertaining in a cosmic horror sleeve swashbuckling way.

 

[Chilli.s]

1 The Long Good-Bye : Raymond Chandler
2 The Last Coyote : Michael Connelly
3 Suttree : Cormac McCarthy (reread)
4 The Christmas Gift : Ernest Hemingway
5 Outback : Patricia Wolf
6 The Medici Murders : David Hewson
7 Light in August : William Faulkner

 

[CNT36]

1/19 Yanis Varoufakis - Technofeudalism: What killed capitalism?
2/19 Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
3/19 Gary Russell - Doctor Who: The Star Beast
4/19 Maz Evans - Oh Maya God's.
5/19 Storm Dunlop and Will Tirion - Night Sky Almanac: A stargazers guide to 2024

 

[May Kasahara]

1. Leon Uris - Armageddon.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/45 Karl Stock - Comic Book Punks: How a Generation of Brits Reinvented Pop Culture
2/45 John Wagner, Alan Grant - Judge Dredd: the Complete Case Files vol 07
3/45 Terry Pratchett - The Carpet People
4/45 Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory (reread)
5/45 Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby - Survival Geeks
6/45 Paul Baker - Fabulousa!: the Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language
7/45 Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
8/45 Louisa May Alcott - Little Women
9/45 Neil Gaiman - Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
10/45 Pat Mills, Gerry Finley-Day - Dan Dare: the 2000AD Years - vol 1
11/45 Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

12/45 Ian Edginton, Leigh Gallagher - Kingmaker

 

[rich!]

On me phone so:

17. Empire of the Feast, Bendi Barrett - queer space empire
18. Glitches and stitches - Nicole givens Kurtz, detectives, robots, weird biotech.
19. Northwest of Earth - C.L. Moore, collection of shorts, very pulp, entertaining in a cosmic horror sleeve swashbuckling way.

20. Katherine Addison, Mélusine. Rare I think a book should have a trigger warning but male abuse in a fantasy magic setting. Book one of a series and I'll probably read the rest but yeah tough first 50 pages.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

FFS, decided to start the year with a nearly 800 page novel, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, I'm only a third of the way through and not enjoying it.

I might fuck it off.

Is it acceptable to DNF here? Obvs it won't count towards my total.

 

[nogojones]

1/45 Connie Willis - The Best of...
2/45 Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman
3/45 Tony Horwitz - Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
4/45 Abbie Hoffman - Steal This Urine Test
5/45 Susanna Clarke - Piranesi
6/45 K.J. Parker - How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
7/45 Naomi Klein - Doppelganger
8/45 John Williams (Ed.) - Wales Half Welsh
9/45 Issac Asimov - Nightfall and Other Stories

10/45 Norman Wybron - The Chartists of Blaenau Gwent

Well, this is a pamphlet really, but I'm sure Pickman's model said "as long as it has an ISBN". I don't make the rules.

An OK history of the Newport rising, but you can just tell Wybron has much more time for moral force chartism.

 

[nogojones]

FFS, decided to start the year with a nearly 800 page novel, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, I'm only a third of the way through and not enjoying it.

I might fuck it off.

Is it acceptable to DNF here? Obvs it won't count towards my total.

Shame. That's in my pile to read

 

[imposs1904]

"as long as it has an ISBN"

 

[Me76]

FFS, decided to start the year with a nearly 800 page novel, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, I'm only a third of the way through and not enjoying it.

I might fuck it off.

Is it acceptable to DNF here? Obvs it won't count towards my total.

I have loads of books I abandon if I'm not enjoying them. I dint list them here though.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/52 - Liz Nugent - Strange Sally Diamond
2/52 - Zadie Smith - NW
3/52 - Val McDermid - Past Lying
4/52 - S.A. Cosby - Blacktop Wasteland
5/52 - Doris Lessing - Martha Quest
6/52 - Elly Griffiths - A Room Full of Bones

7/52 - Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible

 

[PursuedByBears]

FFS, decided to start the year with a nearly 800 page novel, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, I'm only a third of the way through and not enjoying it.

I might fuck it off.

Is it acceptable to DNF here? Obvs it won't count towards my total.

Yeah I don't think there's any point persevering with a book you don't enjoy/is crap. I've just abandoned a Jane Austen for this reason.

 

[ruffneck23]

So far this year.

Books: Those who were dancing by Mark Sleigh
Graphic novels:
Green lantern - Blackest night omnibus
Joker volumes 1,2 &3
Joker : The man who stopped laughing
Batman & Joker The deadly Duo
Dark souls Graphic novel collection

Just about to start (When it arrives today)

Deadpool kills the marvel universe.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/45 Karl Stock - Comic Book Punks: How a Generation of Brits Reinvented Pop Culture
2/45 John Wagner, Alan Grant - Judge Dredd: the Complete Case Files vol 07
3/45 Terry Pratchett - The Carpet People
4/45 Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory (reread)
5/45 Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby - Survival Geeks
6/45 Paul Baker - Fabulousa!: the Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language
7/45 Rachel Joyce - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
8/45 Louisa May Alcott - Little Women
9/45 Neil Gaiman - Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
10/45 Pat Mills, Gerry Finley-Day - Dan Dare: the 2000AD Years - vol 1
11/45 Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
12/45 Ian Edginton, Leigh Gallagher - Kingmaker

13/45 Iain Banks - Walking on Glass

Not read this one before. Not his best, not terrible either.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

Yeah I don't think there's any point persevering with a book you don't enjoy/is crap. I've just abandoned a Jane Austen for this reason.

Yay!
Thanks for that.

 

[rich!]

20. Katherine Addison, Mélusine. Rare I think a book should have a trigger warning but male abuse in a fantasy magic setting. Book one of a series and I'll probably read the rest but yeah tough first 50 pages.

21. Annalee Newitz, Terraformers, really enjoyed this far future "uplifted species do planetary engineering and deal with evil corporation"

 

[imposs1904]

1/36 Diaries 1980–1988: Halfway to Hollywood – The Film Years by Michael Palin

2/36 The Bingo Hall Detectives by Jonathan Whitelaw

 

[nogojones]

1/45 Connie Willis - The Best of...
2/45 Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman
3/45 Tony Horwitz - Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
4/45 Abbie Hoffman - Steal This Urine Test
5/45 Susanna Clarke - Piranesi
6/45 K.J. Parker - How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
7/45 Naomi Klein - Doppelganger
8/45 John Williams (Ed.) - Wales Half Welsh
9/45 Issac Asimov - Nightfall and Other Stories
10/45 Norman Wybron - The Chartists of Blaenau Gwent

11/45 Deborah Madison - Vegetable Literacy

A fairly comprehensive lump of a book about veg/cookbook. The asides are fine, but the recipes are very boring.

12/45 Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon

 

[pseudonarcissus]

FFS, decided to start the year with a nearly 800 page novel, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, I'm only a third of the way through and not enjoying it.

I might fuck it off.

Is it acceptable to DNF here? Obvs it won't count towards my total.

I think it's OK to give up. I'm less than half way through A S Byatt's Possession at the moment and I'm struggling...

 

[pseudonarcissus]

7/29 Crush – Richard Siken
An interesting poetry collection

6/29 And Then He Sang a Lullaby – Ani Kayode Somtochukwu
5/29 Iracema – José de Alencar
4/29 The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
3/29 Where I Was From – Joan Didion
2/29 The Whale Tattoo – Jon Ransom
1/29 There Are More Things – Yara Rodrigues Fowler

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

I have loads of books I abandon if I'm not enjoying them. I dint list them here though.

If they are bad enough start a thread. My wheel of time thread still gets posts.


And still there luring me with its dark siren call...

 

[Biddlybee]

1/30 - 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak
2/30 - Leonard and Hungry Paul - Rónán Hession
3/30 - The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

 

[Me76]

hc - hard copy
dl - dens library
k - kindle
g - google

1/50 Face, Benjamin Zephaniah- hc
2/50 My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Otessa Moshfegh - dl
3/50 Tin Toys Trilogy, Ursula Holden - g
4/50 Famished, Meghan O'Flynn - g
5/50 Mystery Girl, Kenneth Rosenberg - k

This last one was free from kindle thriller and was ridiculous and quite badly written but I finished it because I wanted to see what would happen.

 

[colbhoy]

1/9 - Ring Around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner by Ring Lardner
2/9 - The Fear Index by Robert Harris

 

[kalmatthew]

I got a bit distracted from this so a bulk update coming, and a shift to the more common format on the thread.

01/60 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoniex - JK Rowling
02/60 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling
03/60 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
04/60 The Ethos Effect - LE Moddesit Jr
05/60 the hand maidens tale - Margaret Attwood
06/60 Fairhaven Rising - LE Moddesit Jr
07/60 The Soprano Sorceress - LE Moddesit Jr
08/60 The Spellsong war - LE Moddesit Jr
09/60 From the Forest - LE Moddesit Jr

10/60 Darksong Rising - LE Moddessit JR
11/60 Scarlet - Genevieve Cogman
12/60 The Angle of Crows - Katherine Addison
13/60 The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison

Eta: missed a book, added and renumbered

 

[belboid]

1/30 - Lexie Conyngham - Tomb for an Eagle
2/30 - Michael Eaton - B*llocks -A Word on Trial
3/30 - Paul Simpson - Revolutionary Spirit

4/30 - Joe Thomas - Red Menace

As mentioned above, its the second part of JT's United Kingdom 'spycops' trilogy, this time moving on from the ANL and murder of Colin Roach, to Live Aid, the murder of Cynthia Jarrett and the Wapping dispute. The names quoted aren't quite as familiar as in the previous novel, but there are still quite a few SWP stalwarts knocking about that I recognise and some people who are absolutely definitely not based on anyone specific at all, oh no sirree. A good lefty read.

5/30 - Daniel Clowes - Monica

From the author of Ghost World and Eightball, amongst others, last years graphic novel highlight, the odd and bewildering life story of Monica, daughter of a fucked up hippy who joins a cult and...... Excellent stuff with a most surprising ending.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I've not started it yet, but IU have just taken possession of Red Menace, the second part of Joe Thomas' United Kingdom trilogy about police spies, anti-fascists and punk in Hackney. Were you interviewed for this one as well, Fozzie Bear ?

3/24 Joe Thomas: Red Menace

OK I am biased, but enjoyed this. The first book commenced with the 1979 Rock Against Racism carnival in Victoria Park. This second in the trilogy begins with Live Aid, as the book covers 1985-1987 and continues with the same themes and characters. Main events this time are the Wapping dispute, Broadwater Farm riot and the redevelopment of Docklands. There is also the creeping intensification of police involvement in the drugs trade in Stoke Newington and the various spycops and grasses that are increasingly compromised and fucked up.

As with the first book, there is a lot of factual source material used which will warm the heart of any London radical history nerd. Plus there is quite a lot about music (although mainly The Style Council ), Red Wedge and Thatcher. If any of that has piqued your interest I'd recommend it.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "Wrong Place Wrong Time" - Gillian McAllister.
2. "The Scarlet Papers" - Matthew Richardson
3. "The Year of the Locust" - Terry Hayes

4. "Kill for Me: Kill for You" - Steve Cavanagh. Twisty, enjoyable easy to read thriller

 

[Fozzie Bear]

oh snap belboid yes the bit at the end where he says "The xyz Corporation corruptly redeveloping Docklands is definitely fictional and not the abc Docklands Redevelopment Corporation" was quite funny too.