the grand 2015 reading challenge thread

[Callie]

East of Eden was the first Steinbeck after hearing lots of people discussing it and how much they enjoyed it. Read it last year too!

 

[billy_bob]

East of Eden was the first Steinbeck after hearing lots of people discussing it and how much they enjoyed it. Read it last year too!

I don't often re-read anything these days (keep seeing the icy hand of Father Time gesturing impatiently at the hundreds of books I haven't got round to yet) - let alone something I've only just read, but I very nearly started that one again at the beginning the moment I'd finished it. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't appear in my list sometime later this year.

 

[Greebo]

1/60 The Cowboy and the Cossack - Clair Huffaker
2/60 Briefe aus dem Gefängnis - Rosa Luxemburg
3/60 Chita: a memory of Last Island - Lafadio Hearn
4/60 Zla miłość - Aleksander Sowa
5/60 Frog Żaba - Colin Hann, Ryszard Bart and Pedro Páramo
6/60 Amexica: War along the borderline - Ed Vulliamy
7/60 Good mother, bad daughter? - Martha Penn
8/60 Czy wiesz, co widzę? - Richárde

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 The In Between Time by Alexander Baron
2/52 King Mob : A Critical Hidden History by David Wise with Stuart Wise & Nick Brandt
3/52 Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
4/52 The Beiderbecke Affair by Alan Plater (Reread)

5/52 The Hour of the Innocents by Robert Paston

 

[rich!]

21. Inside the House of Money, Steven Drobny.
22. Sea of Ghosts, Alan Campbell.

23. Lafayette O'Leary The Time Bender, Keith Laumer

 

[pennimania]

1/50 The Sleep of Reason, C P Snow

 

[Kidda]

1/30 Inferno by Dan Brown
2/30 Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
3/30 Tales of the city by Armistead Maupin
4/30 Rapture by Jd Robb
5/30 Saga Vol 2 by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples

 

[Pickman's model]

2. 'the weiser concise guide to aleister crowley', richard kaczynski
3. 'yeats's golden dawn', george mills harper

4. 'modern ritual magic: the rise of western occultism', francis king

 

[el-ahrairah]

1. Kyme & Priestley, ed. - Tales Of Heresy
2. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - Out Of The Pit
3. Mike Lee - Fallen Angels
4. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain
5. Stella Gibbons - Christmas At Cold Comfort Farm
6. Anne Lecki - Ancillary Justice
7. Rick Pristley - Slaves To Darkness
8. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron
9. Luke Haines - Bad Vibes: Britpop And My Part In its Downfall
10. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron V.2
11. Marc Gascoigne - The Trolltooth Wars
12. Ian Watson - Chaos Child
13. John French - Ahriman Sorcerer

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker
5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts

6/60 - Phillipa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden*

 

[billy_bob]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker
5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts

6/60 - Phillipa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden*

What have I missed - what are the asterisks in aid of?

I love the childrens' adventure story theme going on here though. Can I recommend Children of Green Knowe and the Dark is Rising series?

 

[Kidda]

1/30 Inferno by Dan Brown
2/30 Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
3/30 Tales of the city by Armistead Maupin
4/30 Rapture by Jd Robb
5/30 Saga Vol 2 by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
6/30 Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory

 

[BoatieBird]

What have I missed - what are the asterisks in aid of?

I love the childrens' adventure story theme going on here though. Can I recommend Children of Green Knowe and the Dark is Rising series?

The asterisks denote books I've read for the Children's Literature module I'm doing as part of my OU degree

 

[rich!]

21. Inside the House of Money, Steven Drobny.
22. Sea of Ghosts, Alan Campbell.
23. Lafayette O'Leary The Time Bender, Keith Laumer

24. Art of Hunting, Alan Campbell.

 

[chainsawjob]

1. In the Midst of Life - Jennifer Worth

2. The Eye of the Leopard - Henning Mankell

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 The In Between Time by Alexander Baron
2/52 King Mob : A Critical Hidden History by David Wise with Stuart Wise & Nick Brandt
3/52 Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
4/52 The Beiderbecke Affair by Alan Plater (Reread)
5/52 The Hour of the Innocents by Robert Paston

6/52 The Beiderbecke Tapes by Alan Plater (Reread)

 

[billy_bob]

8/20: Ernest Hemingway - Green Hills of Africa

Always promising myself I'll read more Hemingway. The machismo, patronising of The Natives and exclusive focus on big game hunting ought to put me off completely, but the writing itself wins through somehow.

 

[toggle]

1. Mike Cronin - The failure of British fascism
2. Raymond E Feist - Rides a Dread legion
3. Robin Hobb - Dragon keeper
4. Terry Pratchet - Unseen Academicals
5. Campagna and Campiglio - What are we fighting for?
6. Dunleavy et al. - Voices of the people
7. Conan Doyle - A study in Scarlet
8. Stuart Bell - The conservative party and british politics
9. Robin Hobb - Dragon haven
10. William Morris - News from Nowehere
11. Philippa Gregory - The white Queen
12. Raymond E Feist - Exile's return
13. Catherine Hall - White, male and middle class
14. D. H. lawrence - lady Chatterley's lover
15. Raymond E Feist - Flight of the nighthawks
16. jack London - call of the wild
17. jack london - white fang
18. H Rider haggard - King Solomon's mines
19. Neil gaimin - American gods
20. Rodney Bolt - the impossible life of Mary Benson
21. Gorden marsden - Victorian values
22. Phillipa Gregory - The other Boleyn girl
23. mark Guy pearse - the pretty ways o providence

24. Raymond E Feist - into a dark realm
25. bernard Cornwell - harlquin
26. Bernard Cornwell - vagabond
27. Phillipa Gregory - the boleyn inheritance
28. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's honour
29. bernard Cornwell - sharpe's fury
30. sue townsend - adrian mole, minor to major
31. sue townsend - weapons of mass destruction
32. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's escape
33. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's triumph
34. Phillipa Gregory - lady of the rivers

it's the easy reading, nothing that actually taxes the brain that much. whatever of the new feist that I can find or afford, plus some decent historical fiction from people who actually talk about the major events they inserted a character into (cornwell) or explain which academic historian's theories they based their account on (gregory). cause i loathe historical fiction that just makes up any old shite unless it openly labels itself as a fantasy account, or an alternate vision or whatever.

charity shop in town has some fantasy books for a quid, but at some point i'm going t have to either take the plunge blind, or take names and look up what's worth reading before they all go.

 

[Pickman's model]

24. Raymond E Feist - into a dark realm
25. bernard Cornwell - harlquin
26. Bernard Cornwell - vagabond
27. Phillipa Gregory - the boleyn inheritance
28. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's honour
29. bernard Cornwell - sharpe's fury
30. sue townsend - adrian mole, minor to major
31. sue townsend - weapons of mass destruction
32. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's escape
33. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's triumph
34. Phillipa Gregory - lady of the rivers

are you going for the 365 book challenge?

 

[toggle]

are you going for the 365 book challenge?

told you first page. i'll do shitloads in jan, feb, a few more in april, then resrtat studying at some point and not read a complete book for years. unless i decide the study will involve drowning myself in late victorian and edwardian methodist fiction. cause looking at fiction written by methodist ministers to trace the politics sounds like more fun than digging through doctrine

365 is possible, done it before, insomnia helps. but i'll run out of cornwell before then.

 

[billy_bob]

365 is possible, done it before, insomnia helps. but i'll run out of cornwell before then.

You could try the Spot books, if you just want to keep your count up

That's what I'll be doing by February, anyway.

 

[toggle]

You could try the Spot books, if you just want to keep your count up

That's what I'll be doing by February, anyway.

don't tend to include books i've read to the little'un. but she's more interested now in reading for herself now. oldest is stealing my ian banks, 11 year old is working through the Pratchett and when she's bored of those, i'm planning on starting her on feist

 

[marty21]

1/60 - 'Til Death - Ed McBain
2/60 - How to Connect with Nature - Tristan Gooley
3/60 - The Dead Women of Juarez - Sam Hawken
4/60 - Jericho: Season 3 Civil War - Dan Shotz,Robert Levine,Jason Burns (Graphic Novel)
5/60 - jericho: Season 4 - Kalinda Vazquez (Graphic Novel)
6/60 - The Black Ice - Michael Connelly

I think it could be a Michael Connelly year - got this free via some Amazon credit thing I got - it's a detective series - Harry Bosch - and I really enjoyed it, there are about 20 more in the series I'm still trying to read all the Ed McBain books as well, so more of those will feature as well in the list.

 

[chainsawjob]

it's the easy reading, nothing that actually taxes the brain that much. whatever of the new feist that I can find or afford, plus some decent historical fiction from people who actually talk about the major events they inserted a character into (cornwell) or explain which academic historian's theories they based their account on (gregory). cause i loathe historical fiction that just makes up any old shite unless it openly labels itself as a fantasy account, or an alternate vision or whatever.

Liked for this bit about historical fiction, I've read the same Phillipa Gregory books, I think she does it very well, plus keeps a good pace going.

 

[toggle]

Liked for this bit about historical fiction, I've read the same Phillipa Gregory books, I think she does it very well, plus keeps a good pace going.

do you have any other recomendations?

 

[chainsawjob]

do you have any other recomendations?

Only other historical thing I've read lately that I can remember was Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, set in Iceland in the 18th century, good plot and good on the history/social conditions/religion/working lives/women's lives. Didn't get on with Wolf Hall, although I've liked non-historical ones by Hilary Mantel.

 

[toggle]

Only other historical thing I've read lately that I can remember was Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, set in Iceland in the 18th century, good plot and good on the history/social conditions/religion/working lives/women's lives. Didn't get on with Wolf Hall, although I've liked non-historical ones by Hilary Mantel.

started a new thread

 

[el-ahrairah]

1. Kyme & Priestley, ed. - Tales Of Heresy
2. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - Out Of The Pit
3. Mike Lee - Fallen Angels
4. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain
5. Stella Gibbons - Christmas At Cold Comfort Farm
6. Anne Lecki - Ancillary Justice
7. Rick Pristley - Slaves To Darkness
8. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron
9. Luke Haines - Bad Vibes: Britpop And My Part In its Downfall
10. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron V.2
11. Marc Gascoigne - The Trolltooth Wars
12. Ian Watson - Chaos Child
13. John French - Ahriman Sorcerer
14. Chiang Yee - The Silent Traveller In London

 

[Kidda]

1/30 Inferno by Dan Brown
2/30 Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
3/30 Tales of the city by Armistead Maupin
4/30 Rapture by Jd Robb
5/30 Saga Vol 2 by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
6/30 Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory
7/30 Kick-ass by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

 

[ringo]

1/45 Head On - Julian Cope
2/45 Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff
3/45 The Ladies Of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
4/45 Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel