the grand 2015 reading challenge 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

 

[Me76]

1/50 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
2/50 The Child Thief, Dan Smith
3/50 Wanted, Nick Stephenson
4/50 The Graft, Martina Cole
5/50 Stardust, Neil Gaiman

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/27 The Universe in a Single Atom -- The Dalai Lama
2/27 The Last President -- John Barnes
3/27 Walden -- Henry David Thoreau

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/50 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club.

 

[spartacus mills]

01 Nikola Mihov: Forget Your Past: Communist-Era Monuments in Bulgaria
02 Bohumil Hrabal: Closely Observed Trains
03 Joe R Lansdale: Mucho Mojo
04 Andrew Lanyon: Circular Walks Around Rowley Hall
05 Ismail Kadare: The File on H
06 Slavoj Zizek: Trouble in Paradise – From the End of History to the End of Capitalism

 

[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

my insomnia is killing me but it's helped me achieve highly so far this month.

 

[MrSki]

1. The Widow's Secret - Brian Thompson
2. The Sacred Art of Stealing - Christopher Brookmyre
3. Pandaemonium - Christopher Brookmyre
4. Bertie's Guide to Life & Mothers - Alexander McCall Smith

 

[rich!]

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron
12. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 2.
13. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare

14. Midnight at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
15. Exiles at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker

 

[toggle]

my insomnia is killing me but it's helped me achieve highly so far this month.

works for me. only the occasional night at this time of year. i'd get so much more done if i was running about heading towards borderline manic all 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

 

[Manter]

1. Leaving Berlin, Joseph Kanon.
2. The child thief, Dan Smith.
3. Foxglove summer, Ben Aaronovich. The premise of the series is great. But this is not a brilliant book. Diverting enough, but I missed London and the London characters....

 

[tufty79]

1. The Girl With All The Gifts - M. R. Carey
2. Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves
3. The Millionaire's Death Club - Mike Hockney

4. The Child Thief - Dan Smith

 

[districtline]

Hans Fallada - Alone in Berlin (2/50)
Thomas Bernhard - Die Ursache (3/50)

 

[billy_bob]

5/20. Lucia Berlin - Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-1998

A really underappreciated writer. If you're a fan of short stories she's worth a look. The best of these are little un-adorned snapshots of hard lives, in the vein of Chekhov, Raymond Carver, Annie Proulx, Lorrie Moore.

 

[moon]

1. The Girl With All The Gifts - M. R. Carey

Good isnt it? The ending was so bitter sweet..

 

[rich!]

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron
12. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 2.
13. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
14. Midnight at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
15. Exiles at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker

16. Never Alone, Never Again, Bored Beyond Belief (f/f)

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*

4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker

 

[Signal 11]

3/15 - Renegade: The Lives And Tales Of Mark E. Smith

 

[billy_bob]

3/15 - Renegade: The Lives And Tales Of Mark E. Smith

Have you got the new one by Steve Hanley? Not a flattering portrayal of MES apparently... who'd have guessed?

 

[8115]

1/20 We are all completely beside ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler.
2/20 Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin wall, Anna Funder.

 

[Me76]

1/20 We are all completely beside ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler.
2/20 Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin wall, Anna Funder.

What did you think of Completely Beside Ourselves? I haven't been able to talk about it since I read it.

 

[Manter]

1. Leaving Berlin, Joseph Kanon.
2. The child thief, Dan Smith.
3. Foxglove summer, Ben Aaronovich.
4. The beating of his wings, Paul Hoffman. Wish I hadn't bothered.

 

[8115]

What did you think of Completely Beside Ourselves? I haven't been able to talk about it since I read it.

Spoiler: plot

I loved it as a novel, I found it completely gripping, I loved the incidental characters like Harlow and I also thought it was a very good exploration of the one of the central issues about man's relationship with primates/ primate research without obviously being about that, or biased towards one side of it. What did you think?

 

[Me76]

Spoiler: plot

I loved it as a novel, I found it completely gripping, I loved the incidental characters like Harlow and I also thought it was a very good exploration of the one of the central issues about man's relationship with primates/ primate research without obviously being about that, or biased towards one side of it. What did you think?

Loved it. For the reasons you said and also just the emotional, life stuff.
Thanks.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/27 The Universe in a Single Atom -- The Dalai Lama
2/27 The Last President -- John Barnes
3/27 Walden -- Henry David Thoreau
4/27 Walden on Wheels -- Ken Ilgunas
5/27 Walk to the End of the Word -- Suzy Charnas

 

[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 (not at all going to extremes here)

 

[ringo]

I'm rereading the child thief. I want to figure out how he ramps it up so much with such spare prose. I want to write like that....

Got given a £20 Amazon token so I just bought this after all the recommendations on here. I wouldn't normally go near anything involving murdered/kidnapped/abused/injured children, too much parent worst fear business, but it does look good.

Also grabbed Once You Break A Knuckle by D W Wilson, a collection of short stories in the Breece D'J Pancake mould.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/18/once-break-knuckle-dw-wilson-review

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Got given a £20 Amazon token so I just bought this after all the recommendations on here. I wouldn't normally go near anything involving murdered/kidnapped/abused/injured children, too much parent worst fear business, but it does look good.

I used to love home improvement shows on tv. Then I bought a house.... Watching them dig into a wall and say "Well, Tom there's bad termite damage here. Its going to cost the homeowner an extra $20,000" is the stuff of nightmares.

 

[Signal 11]

Have you got the new one by Steve Hanley? Not a flattering portrayal of MES apparently... who'd have guessed?

No. Never been that big a follower of them really. Just always thought MES was interesting and recently decided to read and listen to some more.

 

[rich!]

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron
12. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 2.
13. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
14. Midnight at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
15. Exiles at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
16. Never Alone, Never Again, Bored Beyond Belief (f/f)

17.Quest for the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker.