the great urban75 2016 reading challenge thread

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I need two classics to read this year(although checking last year's list I only did one ). I always try and make sure one of them is one I haven't read before. I have had the Scarlet Letter on my Kindle for ages but haven't ever been able to get past page 10.

Any other suggestions?

my recomendation is to have such a shit job (but one where you can wear earbuds) that it's really, really fascinating in comparison to the job.

in other words, it's my current audio book that i listen to at work.

did uncle tom's cabin the same way. but i know the subject matter she was writing about. and went to a lecture that was in part on her reaction to britain's reaction to the civil war. and she is incredibly snarky.

 

[Me76]

I have real trouble with audio books. I just tune out and don't pay attention. I'm the same with people reading to me, I need to see the words to get the meaning.

 

[toggle]

I have real trouble with audio books. I just tune out and don't pay attention. I'm the same with people reading to me, I need to see the words to get the meaning.

that';s why i only listen to them when i am doing other stuff. cause then i tune out of that and into the book.

but took a little getting used to. starting with stuff that really gripped me really helped.

 

[BoatieBird]

Did you enjoy it?

Loved it. Devoured it in a couple of days.
Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[Manter]

Loved it. Devoured it in a couple of days.
Looking forward to reading the rest.

I love her writing so I am always really pleased to hear someone else likes it. I devoured it too

 

[8115]

1. We need new names, NoViolet Bulawayo.

 

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5 books I've owned more than 3 years -8 - 9 - 10 -15 - 23 - 24-
5 books i buy during the year -17 -
5 books that are 2 inch thick hardbacks that challenge me to look at them -
5 local history books -13 -
5 local fiction books -
5 fiction books not set within anglo/anglicised culture -
5 books that are about teaching myself new skills -
5 biogs/autobiogs - 25 -
5 translated fiction books -
5 of himself's books -12 -
10 pre 20th century fiction books -16 -20 -
10 books I'd need for the lit review when i get off my arse and pick the bloody project -21 -
5 books for the other thing I've got planned -14 - 26 - 27 -
10 books that i got the idea to read on this thread (or last years) -4 - 5- 18 -
5 non fiction books that aren't history - 1- 2
10 audio-books -3 - 11

1. Lynne Truss - eats shoots and leaves.
2. tansy Hoskins - stitched up
3. marie kondo- the magic art of tidying up
4. marie brennan - a natural history of dragons
5. joe abercrombie - half a war
6. octavia butler - parable of the sower
7. octavia butler - parable of the talents
8. cj cherryh - merchanters luck
9. cj cherryh - rimrunners
10. cj cherryh - cuckoo's egg
11. neal stevenson - cryptonomicon
12. paul wady - guerilla aspies
13. atkinson - mining sites in cornwall
14. margaret fuller - women in the 19th century
15. peter f hamilton - fallen dragon
16. harriet beecher stowe - uncle toms cabin
17. alice walker - the colour purple
18. marie brennan - the tropic of serpents
19. gail dines - pornland
20. jane austen - pride and prejudice
21. jeffrey klaehn - filtering the news
22. tyler stoddard smith - whore stories
23. robin hobb -sharman's crossing
24. robin hobb - forrest mage
25. amy poehlr - yes please
26. selma james - strangers and sisters
27. edmond and flemming - all work and no pay

 

[May Kasahara]

1/50 Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation
2/50 Justin Cronin - The Twelve

 

[belboid]

1/32 - Arnaldur Indriðason - Tainted Blood (aka Jar City)
2/32 - Timur Vermes - Look Who's Back

 

[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

 

[iona]

1/15 Foundation - Isaac Asimov
2/15 Edge of Infinity - ed. Jonathan Strahan

Realised the last few times I've stalled halfway through a book it's been because my memory's shit and I can't actually remember enough about the plot so far to care what happens. Short stories are much easier.

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 Autobiography by Mother Jones

2/52 Maigret and the Loner by Georges Simenon

 

[BoatieBird]

1/15 Foundation - Isaac Asimov
2/15 Edge of Infinity - ed. Jonathan Strahan

Realised the last few times I've stalled halfway through a book it's been because my memory's shit and I can't actually remember enough about the plot so far to care what happens. Short stories are much easier.

If you're looking for some more short stories I can recommend Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts.

 

[Voley]

3/31 Just Kids - Patti Smith

Never heard of that before, Greebo. Sounds right up my street. Any good?

 

[Voley]

Realised the last few times I've stalled halfway through a book it's been because my memory's shit and I can't actually remember enough about the plot so far to care what happens.

Could be worse iona. I've just rejoined my local library because of this thread - last time I was a member was pre-Internet days - so I had an amusing half hour going through my reading history online from about 10 years ago last night. There were at least 5 books on there that I have absolutely no recollection of reading whatsoever.

 

[Manter]

Just 5?!

 

[iona]

Could be worse iona. I've just rejoined my local library because of this thread - last time I was a member was pre-Internet days - so I had an amusing half hour going through my reading history online from about 10 years ago last night. There were at least 5 books on there that I have absolutely no recollection of reading whatsoever.

If I did that with my library list from 3 years ago it'd be more like 90% - I used to return books and then borrow them again two weeks later because I'd already forgotten reading them, then not realise until a few hundred pages in.

 

[iona]

If you're looking for some more short stories I can recommend Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts.

Thanks, I'll look out for that. Don't read much horror usually but a change might be good.

 

[ringo]

Loved it. Devoured it in a couple of days.
Looking forward to reading the rest.

I'm in the middle of it too, really enjoying it.

 

[iona]

1/15 Foundation - Isaac Asimov
2/15 Edge of Infinity - ed. Jonathan Strahan
3/15 The Suicide Club - Robert Louis Stevenson

 

[idumea]

I reached 70 books last year, but I a big chunk of them were finished while bored in hospital. I'm hoping for an optimistic 52 this year.

1/52 Winter's Bone, Daniel Woodrell

 

[Greebo]

Never heard of that before, Greebo. Sounds right up my street. Any good?

Yes, and you can have my (2nd hand paperback) copy if you like (PM address and I'll lob it in the post). Not just for the written autobiography, but also IMHO for the photos and the artwork of both Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.

 

[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

 

[Voley]

Yes, and you can have my (2nd hand paperback) copy if you like (PM address and I'll lob it in the post). Not just for the written autobiography, but also IMHO for the photos and the artwork of both Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.

That's very kind but I've ordered it from the library so you might as well save the postage. Ta for the offer, though. It does sound good.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/50 The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Provence -- Martin Gayford
2/50 The Boxcar Children -- Gertrude Warner
3/50 The Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and their Food -- John Dickie

4/50 Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X -- Deborah Davis.

 

[Sea Star]

1/50 Special Deluxe - Neil Young
2/50 The Edible woman - Margaret Atwood
3/50 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald -
Just finished 4/50 Sacrilege - S.J. Parris which was entertaining but dumb. Probably just what I needed in the past week and a half.

now - number 5/50 Easily Distracted - Steve Coogan

 

[Sea Star]

3/31 Just Kids - Patti Smith

I have this one lined up and ready .

 

[belboid]

I have this one lined up and ready .

I've had it lined up and ready for two years!

 

[Sea Star]

I have real trouble with audio books. I just tune out and don't pay attention. I'm the same with people reading to me, I need to see the words to get the meaning.

After about 3 years of persisting and practising mindfulness techniques I'm just getting the hang of these things now - my last 5 or 6 have been audio books and I've mostly been fine. though I still tune out from time to time, but at least its easy to go back.

 

[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