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

[Fozzie Bear]

4/24 Rosa Schling - Peace! Books! Freedom! The secret history of a radical London building.

An excellent social history of 5 Caledonian Road, which is best known as Housmans Bookshop, but has also been home to Peace News, Gay Switchboard, London Greenpeace and the McLibel campaign. Lots of people quoted and it looks great with lots of photos and reproductions of leaflets and stuff. Just the right level of reflection and criticism for an easy read too.

 

[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
14/45 David Lodge - Changing Places
15/45 Gerry Finley-Day, Alan Davis - Harry 20 on the High Rock
16/45 CLR James, Nik Watts, Sakina Karimjee - Toussaint Louverture: the Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History

17/45 David Lodge - Small World

 

[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
12/45 Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon

13/45 Devon Price - Laziness Does Not Exist
14/45 Alice Walker - The Colour Purple
15/45 Emma Goldman - Anarchism and Other Essays

 

[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
8/52 - Jeanine Cummins - American Dirt (BC)
9/52 - Graham Norton - Holding

10/52 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

 

[Me76]

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
8/52 - Jeanine Cummins - American Dirt (BC)
9/52 - Graham Norton - Holding

10/52 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

What did you think of that Boatie? It's been on my list for a while and my sister said she really enjoyed it.

 

[BoatieBird]

What did you think of that Boatie? It's been on my list for a while and my sister said she really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed it too, I was sad it wasn't longer!

 

[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
8/52 - Jeanine Cummins - American Dirt (BC)
9/52 - Graham Norton - Holding
10/52 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

11/52 - Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

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
8/52 - Jeanine Cummins - American Dirt (BC)
9/52 - Graham Norton - Holding
10/52 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

11/52 - Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

I read Oranges many moons ago. I wonder if it has stood the test of time. There was a good TV adaptation too back in the day.

 

[BoatieBird]

I read Oranges many moons ago. I wonder if it has stood the test of time. There was a good TV adaptation too back in the day.

I remember the TV adaptation, but I'd never got round to reading the book.
I'd say it has stood the test of time.

 

[YouSir]

1/25 Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence - Dan McQuillan
2/25 Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks
3/25 Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
4/25 Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power - Tiziano Bonini & Emiliano Trere

 

[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
12/45 Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
13/45 Devon Price - Laziness Does Not Exist
14/45 Alice Walker - The Colour Purple
15/45 Emma Goldman - Anarchism and Other Essays

16/45 Octavia E. Butler - Parable of the Sower

Nothing like a cheerful, uplifting book to brighten your day and this is nothing like one. Good, but grim

 

[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
5"The One" - John Marrs
6. "Her Last Move" - John Marrs

7. "Rock, Paper, Scissors" -Alice Fenney. Excellent thriller that was quite shiver inducing at times. Really enjoyed it.

 

[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
6/19 Thomas S Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
7/19 Isaac Asimov - Foundation
Good story but ironically very much its time or possibly an earlier one. Set in the far future at a time where even what planet humans evolved on is disputed and a galactic empire that has held things together for thousands of years is crumbling. Don't panic: there are still housewives and one of them, the wife of a planet's ruler, is even allowed to speak.

 

[hitmouse]

1/25 Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence - Dan McQuillan
2/25 Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks
3/25 Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
4/25 Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power - Tiziano Bonini & Emiliano Trere

Think I'm starting to spot a theme emerging here!

Anyway,
1/3 Mario Tronti - Workers and Capital (First Hypotheses)
1/45 John Fowles - The Collector
2/3 Mario Tronti - Workers and Capital (Marx, Labour-Power, Working Class)
2/45 Claire Dederer - Monsters
3/3-3/45 Mario Tronti - Workers and Capital (Postscript and Appendix)
4/45 Josh Davidson and Eric King (eds) - Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners
5/45 Charlie Squire - Slouching: A Field Guide to Art and (Un-) Belonging in Europe

6/45 Alasdair Gray - 1982, Janine

Quite some time ago, I was in a fairly long and committed relationship with someone who was a huge Alasdair Gray fan. She was sufficiently into Alasdair Gray, and our lives were intertwined enough, that in retrospect it's amazing that I never read Gray at the time. I'm pretty sure we agreed that she was going to lend me either Lanark or Janine but then never got around to it. Although that's not why we broke up. Anyway, the point of this is that it was impossible for me to read 1982, Janine without being reminded of my ex, and anyone who's read it will appreciate that is a very funny state of affairs, so congratulations to God or whoever for setting that one up. Good book, though. Going to have to spend the next few days resisting the temptation to narrativise my life in the voice of a suicidally depressed horny Glaswegian.
Next, starting:

7/45 Isaac Rose - The Rentier City

Manchester's housing and property market examined as an case study of neoliberal urban development policy. Written by someone who definitely knows what he's talking about, will have to wait and see whether it contains any sadistic sexual fantasies interrupted by the voice of God though.

 

[kalmatthew]

7/19 Isaac Asimov - Foundation
Good story but ironically very much its time or possibly an earlier one. Set in the far future at a time where even what planet humans evolved on is disputed and a galactic empire that has held things together for thousands of years is crumbling. Don't panic: there are still housewives and one of them, the wife of a planet's ruler, is even allowed to speak.

I haven't read any of the foundation books in ages but your mentioning them has bumped them up my to read list. I really enjoyed them at the time.

 

[YouSir]

Think I'm starting to spot a theme emerging here!

Hopefully a long running one, starting a PhD later this year (funding allowing) so it should all be AI for a while to come

 

[YouSir]

I haven't read any of the foundation books in ages but your mentioning them has bumped them up my to read list. I really enjoyed them at the time.

I reread a few of them last year for the first time in 20~ years, worth revisiting but did seem less epic than it did last time. As mentioned the '1950s IN SPACE' stuff was a bit more noticable

 

[rich!]

26. Kyle Harper, The Fate of Rome. Uses modern insights into historical climate change and disease patterns to rewrite the history of Rome post 0AD. Some fascinating insights. It came out just pre-COVID but there are parallels to draw.
26. (GN) Lady Mechanika vol 1. Image Comics, steampunk, light entertainment.

that should have been 27 obv

28. RJ Barker, The Bone Ships. Reread because I finally got the other two and found the first one. Enjoyed. Very fantasy navy.

 

[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
6/19 Thomas S Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
7/19 Isaac Asimov - Foundation
8/19 Robert Dallek - Nixon and Kissinger
An account of the Nixon Presidency focusing on Dick and Henry's adventures on foreign policy. Quite informative and good on their personal qualities and failings in policy this is very much in the context of Americas standing in the world. Those killed by their actions particularly civilians get but a few sentences.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

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
6/19 Thomas S Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
7/19 Isaac Asimov - Foundation
8/19 Robert Dallek - Nixon and Kissinger
An account of the Nixon Presidency focusing on Dick and Henry's adventures on foreign policy. Quite informative and good on their personal qualities and failings in policy this is very much in the context of Americas standing in the world. Those killed by their actions particularly civilians get but a few sentences.

Never trust anyone whose surname is Dalek.

 

[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
14/45 David Lodge - Changing Places
15/45 Gerry Finley-Day, Alan Davis - Harry 20 on the High Rock
16/45 CLR James, Nik Watts, Sakina Karimjee - Toussaint Louverture: the Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History
17/45 David Lodge - Small World

18/45 David Lodge - Nice Work

The last in the Campus Trilogy. I work in a university and a lot of these characters are familiar, I think this was the best of the three.

 

[marty21]

1/60 Silent Prey - John Sandford.
2/60 Sudden Prey - John Sandford
3/60 Easy Prey - John Sandford
4/60 Wolves of Winter - Dan Jones
5/60 Normandy '44 : D-Day And The Battle For France - James Holland

 

[zedr]

1/24 Radicalized - Cory Doctorow
2/24 The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - Ilan Pappe (audio book)

3/24 Ray Bradbury - We'll Always Have Paris (audio book)
Fun set of short stories, largely based around the theme of unreliable narrators. A few misses but mostly interesting little vignettes and ideas and satisfying twists.

4/24 The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin (reread, audio book)
Its a great story and concept, tho on rereading/listening I found myself getting annoyed that he didn't seem to be doing much to actually play the game and progress through the levels. Compared with Iain M Banks' Player of Games which felt like it had a well fleshed out games system. A v minor thing and didn't really take away from any enjoyment.

 

[Signal 11]

1/10 - The Making of the English Working Class - E. P. Thompson

 

[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
8/52 - Jeanine Cummins - American Dirt (BC)
9/52 - Graham Norton - Holding
10/52 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
11/52 - Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

12/52 - Ann Patchett - Tom Lake

 

[nogojones]

Hopefully a long running one, starting a PhD later this year (funding allowing) so it should all be AI for a while to come

Smart move getting the AI to write it for you.

Smarter not harder

 

[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
14/45 David Lodge - Changing Places
15/45 Gerry Finley-Day, Alan Davis - Harry 20 on the High Rock
16/45 CLR James, Nik Watts, Sakina Karimjee - Toussaint Louverture: the Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History
17/45 David Lodge - Small World
18/45 David Lodge - Nice Work

19/45 Jah Wobble - Dark Luminosity: Memoirs of a Geezer, the expanded edition

 

[inva]

1/50 The State of Capitalism by Costas Lapavitsas and the EReNSEP Writing Collective
2/50 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
3/50 The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
4/50 Army of Lovers by K.M. Soehnlein
5/50 Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü
6/50 Sanditon by Jane Austen
7/50 Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
8/50 Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman
9/50 A Long Time Dead by Samara Berger
Starts fairly well for about the first 3rd, loses its way after that and never really recovers.
10/50 Asia’s Unknown Uprisings Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century by George Katsiaficas
I went into this knowing nothing about Korean history, luckily Katsiaficas does a good job of providing some background. I think I vaguely knew it was a dictatorship for a lot of the post war era but I didn't know how recently it was or the scope and depth of the movement against it, really fascinating book. Little bit of shoehorning academic gimmicks but not too objectionable.
11/50 Maigret at Picratt’s by Georges Simenon
Bit of an ultra refined Maigret this one as the principle criminal barely features at all and seems like an afterthought tacked on at the end. Unfortunately the world of the rest of the novel is not as well realised as in most of the other Simenons I’ve read.

 

[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
14/45 David Lodge - Changing Places
15/45 Gerry Finley-Day, Alan Davis - Harry 20 on the High Rock
16/45 CLR James, Nik Watts, Sakina Karimjee - Toussaint Louverture: the Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History
17/45 David Lodge - Small World
18/45 David Lodge - Nice Work
19/45 Jah Wobble - Dark Luminosity: Memoirs of a Geezer, the expanded edition

20/45 Alan McKenzie, John Ridgway - The Journal of Luke Kirby
21/45 Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls

 

[rich!]

that should have been 27 obv

28. RJ Barker, The Bone Ships. Reread because I finally got the other two and found the first one. Enjoyed. Very fantasy navy.

29. Call of the Bone Ships
30. The Bone Ship's Wake

Second and third of the trilogy. Definitely entertaining