the great urban75 2016 reading challenge thread

[iona]

1/15 Foundation - Isaac Asimov
2/15 Edge of Infinity - ed. Jonathan Strahan
3/15 The Suicide Club - Robert Louis Stevenson
4/15 The Lurking Fear - H. P. Lovecraft
5/15 The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack - various
6/15 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
7/15 Midnight Sun - Jo Nesbo
8/15 20th Century Ghosts - Joe Hill
9/15 The First Science Fiction Megapack - various
10/15 The Death of Grass - John Christopher
11/15 Descent - Ken MacLeod
12/15 Butch is a Noun - S. Bear Bergman
13/15 Wolf - Mo Hayder
14/15 The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz

 

[nogojones]

1/15 Foundation - Isaac Asimov
2/15 Edge of Infinity - ed. Jonathan Strahan
3/15 The Suicide Club - Robert Louis Stevenson
4/15 The Lurking Fear - H. P. Lovecraft
5/15 The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack - various
6/15 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
7/15 Midnight Sun - Jo Nesbo
8/15 20th Century Ghosts - Joe Hill
9/15 The First Science Fiction Megapack - various
10/15 The Death of Grass - John Christopher
11/15 Descent - Ken MacLeod
12/15 Butch is a Noun - S. Bear Bergman
13/15 Wolf - Mo Hayder
14/15 The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz

Is no. 15 really thick?

 

[iona]

Is no. 15 really thick?

Didn't know I was gonna end up unemployed and have loads of time to read when I set that goal at the start of the year

 

[nogojones]

Didn't know I was gonna end up unemployed and have loads of time to read when I set that goal at the start of the year

Oh no, good luck with getting a new job - or enjoy your reading time

 

[billy_bob]

11/50: Steve Aylett - Lint
12/50: George Saunders - Tenth of December


For the numerous SF fans on this thread: Lint, a biography of fictional pulp writer Jeff Lint, is well worth a look. The absurdist humour reminds me of Woody Allen's early prose, but it's also crammed with bizarre images and turns of phrase that aren't quite like anything else I've read. Sample chapter opening:

Lint was ambushed by his second novel - what started as a fairly standard tale of sagging clock ducks grew out of size, provoking Emily Abodon to issue an ultimatum: 'The story, or me.' Baffled, Lint was still waiting for a verb when Abodon slammed from the apartment...

 

[Voley]

1/10 My Story - Steven Gerrard
2/10 Ancient Sites In West Penwith -Cheryl Straffon
3/10 Execution Sites Of Devon And Cornwall - Richard Peirce
4/10 Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights - Salman Rushdie
5/10 Pegasus Descending - James Lee Burke
6/10 The Story Of Kullervo - J.R.R. Tolkein
7/10 Walking The Himalayas - Levison Wood
8/10 Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil

 

[Orang Utan]

11/50: Steve Aylett - Lint
12/50: George Saunders - Tenth of December


For the numerous SF fans on this thread: Lint, a biography of fictional pulp writer Jeff Lint, is well worth a look. The absurdist humour reminds me of Woody Allen's early prose, but it's also crammed with bizarre images and turns of phrase that aren't quite like anything else I've read. Sample chapter opening:

Lint was ambushed by his second novel - what started as a fairly standard tale of sagging clock ducks grew out of size, provoking Emily Abodon to issue an ultimatum: 'The story, or me.' Baffled, Lint was still waiting for a verb when Abodon slammed from the apartment...

Coincidentally I just bought his Complete Accomplice. Looks very odd indeed.

 

[billy_bob]

Coincidentally I just bought his Complete Accomplice. Looks very odd indeed.

Report back! I'm in two minds as to whether I want to read more by him...

 

[pennimania]

1? Room at the Top - John Braine
2 Life at the Top - "
3 Esther - Norah Lofts
4-The Inimitable Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
5 - Just Kids - Patti Smith
6- A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
7 - A Sense of Guilt - Andrea Newman
8 - White Teeth - Sadie Smith
9 - The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds - John Higgs
10 - The Hacienda - how not to run a club - Peter Hook
11 - The Fancy - Monica Dickens
12 - One Pair of Feet - Monica Dickens
13 - My Turn to Make the Tea - Monica Dickens
14 - Cromartie v The God Shiva - Rumer Godden

 

[ringo]

1/45 An American Outlaw - John Stonehouse
2/45 George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
3/45 Cry, The Beloved Country - Alan Paton
4/45 Killer In The Rain - Raymond Chandler
5/45 Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
6/45 Woken Furies - Richard K Morgan

 

[Voley]

9 - The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds - John Higgs

Any good penni? Quite fancy reading a book about them.

 

[marty21]

1/60 The Lost Starship - Vaughn Heppner.
2/60 The Lost Command - Vaughn Heppner
3/60 The Lost Destroyer - Vaughn Heppner
4/60 The Lost Colony - Vaughan Heppner
5/60 Why it is still Kicking Off Everywhere - Paul Mason
6/60 The Lady From Zagreb - Philip Kerr
7/60 Anzio - Wynford Vaughan Thomas

 

[pennimania]

Any good penni? Quite fancy reading a book about them.

Yes, kept me quiet for a couple of hours - but now I have a bit of a crush on Bill Drummond

 

[Voley]

Yes, kept me quiet for a couple of hours - but now I have a bit of a crush on Bill Drummond

Will give it a go at some point then, ta.

 

[Voley]

1/10 My Story - Steven Gerrard
2/10 Ancient Sites In West Penwith -Cheryl Straffon
3/10 Execution Sites Of Devon And Cornwall - Richard Peirce
4/10 Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights - Salman Rushdie
5/10 Pegasus Descending - James Lee Burke
6/10 The Story Of Kullervo - J.R.R. Tolkein
7/10 Walking The Himalayas - Levison Wood
8/10 Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil
9/10 The Doors Of Perception - Aldous Huxley

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "11.22.63" - Stephen King
2. "Blind Eye" - Stuart MacBride

3. "The Inspector and Silence" - Hakan Nesser. Nor sure what to make of this really. It's good but I felt distanced from it

 

[D'wards]

1/20 - Peter Straub - Ghost Story
2/20 - Duncan Falcolner - First Into Action
3/20 - William Gibson - Neuromancer
4/20 - Paul Trynka - Starman: David Bowie - The Definitive Biography

 

[colbhoy]

1/20 - The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
2/20 - The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins
3/20 - The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
4/20 - Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane

 

[chainsawjob]

1/35 Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Healy
2/35 Demetia Essentials – Jan Hall
3/35 The Moonlit Garden – Corina Bomann

4/35 The Selfish Pig's Guide to Caring - Hugh Marriot

 

[ringo]

1/45 An American Outlaw - John Stonehouse
2/45 George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
3/45 Cry, The Beloved Country - Alan Paton
4/45 Killer In The Rain - Raymond Chandler
5/45 Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
6/45 Woken Furies - Richard K Morgan
7/45 The Wall Jumper - Peter Schneider

 

[May Kasahara]

1/50 Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation
2/50 Justin Cronin - The Twelve
3/50 Neil Oliver - A History of Ancient Britain
4/50 Jeff Vandermeer - Authority

5/50 Jeff Vandermeer - Acceptance

Just finished it now...think I need a few days for it to percolate properly. I feel like my mind is still too deep in Area X!

 

[Biddlybee]

Bit late in the year, but I've never been on one of these threads before.

I miss reading. I commute by bike and don't get much time to stop, sit and read... I was quite impressed I managed two books last year!

I'm going to try and find time and aim for 10.

 

[marty21]

1/60 The Lost Starship - Vaughn Heppner.
2/60 The Lost Command - Vaughn Heppner
3/60 The Lost Destroyer - Vaughn Heppner
4/60 The Lost Colony - Vaughan Heppner
5/60 Why it is still Kicking Off Everywhere - Paul Mason
6/60 The Lady From Zagreb - Philip Kerr
7/60 Anzio - Wynford Vaughan Thomas
8/60 Extinction Point : Genesis - Paul Antony Jones

 

[Pickman's model]

6/50 david kilcullen, 'blood year'

7/50 tim powers, 'medusa's web'

 

[Greebo]

1/31 Wie man Deutscher wird in 50 einfachen Schritten - Adam Fletcher
2/31 Goblin Fruit - Laini Taylor
3/31 Just Kids - Patti Smith
4/31 Hydrofracked? One Man's Mystery Leads to a Backlask Against Natural Gas Drilling - Abrahm Lustgarten
5/31 The Cleaner - Mark Dawson
6/31 Saint Death - Mark Dawson
7/31 The Warrior Princess Submissive - Michael Makai
8/31 Unfinished Business - The Politics of Class War - Class War
9/31 How to Build the Perfect Rake - Kate Harper
10/31 The Driver - Mark Dawson
11/31 UR - Stephen King
12/31 Ghosts - Mark Dawson
13/31 The Sword of God - Mark Dawson
14/31 Salvation Row - Mark Dawson
15/31 The Loney - Andrew Michael Hurley
16/31 1,000 yards - Mark Dawson
17/31 Tarantula - Mark Dawson

 

[Me76]

1/50 A Heat of the Moment Thing, Maggie Le Page
2/50 How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran
3/50 The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide
4/50 The Fire, John A Heldt
5/50 The Worst Day of my Life, So Far, MA Harper
6/50 Alive and Killing, Jeff Carson
7/50 Persuasion, Jane Austen
8/50 The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen - really liked this. It was a free book from Amazon when I bought another one. Very immersive. Totally flawed characters, all very human. A family dealing with life.

 

[Greebo]

1/31 Wie man Deutscher wird in 50 einfachen Schritten - Adam Fletcher
2/31 Goblin Fruit - Laini Taylor
3/31 Just Kids - Patti Smith
4/31 Hydrofracked? One Man's Mystery Leads to a Backlask Against Natural Gas Drilling - Abrahm Lustgarten
5/31 The Cleaner - Mark Dawson
6/31 Saint Death - Mark Dawson
7/31 The Warrior Princess Submissive - Michael Makai
8/31 Unfinished Business - The Politics of Class War - Class War
9/31 How to Build the Perfect Rake - Kate Harper
10/31 The Driver - Mark Dawson
11/31 UR - Stephen King
12/31 Ghosts - Mark Dawson
13/31 The Sword of God - Mark Dawson
14/31 Salvation Row - Mark Dawson
15/31 The Loney - Andrew Michael Hurley
16/31 1,000 yards - Mark Dawson
17/31 Tarantula - Mark Dawson
18/31 Explaining the Explicit - Julian Barnes

 

[BoatieBird]

I downloaded The Corrections as a freebie too Me76, sounds like it's worth a read

 

[BoatieBird]

1/75 - Belinda Bauer - The Facts of Life and Death
2/75 - Stuart MacBride - Broken Skin
3/75 - David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
4/75 - Daniel Woodrell - Winter's Bone
5/75 - Kate Atkinson - Case Histories
6/75 - Margaret Atwood - Lady Oracle
7/75 - Jon Ronson - So You've Been Publicly Shamed
8/75 - Kate Atkinson - One Good Turn
9/75 - Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
10/75 - Iain Banks - Espedair Street

11/75 - John Steinbeck - East of Eden

 

[crossthebreeze]

1/12 - The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
2/12 Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune by Kristin Ross
3/12 Eric by Shaun Tan

4/12 - Orange is the new Black by Piper Kerman
Very different from the TV series - Piper stays true to Larry for a start. It was very readable though, with many engaging stories of the mutual aid and friendship between women prisoners, but some things seem a bit glossed over, and for a memoir I didn't feel like Kerman gave much away about herself. In the afterword Kerman says she's on the board of a charity that helps ex-inmates, and campaigns for prison reform - and that seemed to be why she wrote the book, maybe trying to appeal to a liberal audience meant using a certain narrative.