the great urban75 2016 reading challenge thread

[Sea Star]

Shoot me, but I'm really enjoying that Morrissey autobiography. Laugh out loud, and lots of insight into one of my fave ever bands.

 

[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

6/50 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere. More like mehverwhere, but entertaining enough.

 

[braindancer]

1/30 - In the Shadow of Crows - David Charles Manners
2/30 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K Le Guin
3/30 - The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin
4/30 - The Wind Up Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
5/30 - Plainsong - Kent Haruf
6/30 - Eventide - Kent Haruf

 

[marty21]

1/30 - In the Shadow of Crows - David Charles Manners
2/30 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K Le Guin
3/30 - The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin
4/30 - The Wind Up Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
5/30 - Plainsong - Kent Haruf
6/30 - Eventide - Kent Haruf

I loved that Kent Haruf trilogy, absolutely wonderful writing.

 

[Pickman's model]

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

8/50 jean lartéguy, 'the centurions'

 

[braindancer]

Wholeheartedly agree! Now reading Benediction which is just as good... I think it was probably your recommendation on here that turned me on to these books - so thanks!

 

[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
5/20 - Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers

 

[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

12/75 - Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me

 

[marty21]

Wholeheartedly agree! Now reading Benediction which is just as good... I think it was probably your recommendation on here that turned me on to these books - so thanks!

and I have to thank a woman at work who knew I liked Willy Vlautin and recommended these .

 

[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
12/75 - Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me

13/75 - Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

 

[Sea Star]

back on track I hope:

1/50 Special Deluxe - Neil Young
2/50 The Edible woman - Margaret Atwood
3/50 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
4/50 Sacrilege - S.J. Parris
5/50 Easily Distracted - Steve Coogan
6/50 Autobiography - Morrissey

Maybe I need to get a few short ones under my belt now...

eta... next up... 7/50 The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

6/20 audio books
0/10 kindle books
0/15 paperbacks
0/5 big hardbacks
2/25 books by women
1/5 books by LGBT authors
3/10 non-fiction books
3/5 (auto)/biographies
2/10 books by British authors
1/5 historical novels
0/5 brand new books
0/5 sci fi books

 

[toggle]

It is basically that and is very readable. I like her.

It's quite short though. (I can post you my copy if you like?)

gonna say thanks, but no. cause it will probably only join the large stack of my 'to read' list.

 

[toggle]

5 books I've owned more than 3 years -8 - 9 - 10 -15 - 23 - 24-
5 books i buy during the year -17 -29 -
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 - 28 -
10 books I'd need for the lit review when i get off my arse and pick the bloody project -21 - 32 - 38 -
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 - 43

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
28. nathaniel hawthorne - the scarlet letter
29. robin hobb - renegade's magic
30. helen rogers - green gone wrong
31.james meek - private island
32. daniel trilling - bloody nasty people
33. will bunch - the backlash
34. juliet jaques - trans
35. ian banks - canal dreams
36. ian banks - song of stone
37. terry pratchett - the carpet people
38. nancy matthews - confronting rape
39. gareth pierce - dispa5tches from the dark side
40. peter and mari jo buhle - it started in wisconsin
41. peter cann - adoption
42. robert weitzer - sex for sale
43. virginia woolf - orlando
44. WEB Du bois - the souls of black folk
45. thomas paine - common sence
46. iain banks - whit
47. iain banks - look to windward
48. iain banks - the business
49. iain banks - the crow road
50. christine delpny - seperate and dominate
51. eyal weizman - the least of all possible evils
52. michele wallace - black macho and the myth of the superwoman
53. virginia woolf - a room of one's own
54. iain banks - the wuarry
55. pratchet and baxter - the long mars
56. iain banks - the wasp factory
57. juliet mitchell - woman's estate
58. alain badiou - the rebirth of history

 

[sparkybird]

1/35 Wanting - Richard Flanagan

2/35 Just Kids - Patti Smith

3/35 Granta issue 133 What have we done - Sigrid Rausing

4/35 The Autobiography of an ex-coloured man - James Weldon Johnson

5/35 Goulds Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan

6/35 A Man Lies Dreaming - Lavie Tidhar

I guess I'm just about on target....

 

[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
9/60 Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

 

[Pickman's model]

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
9/60 Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

will you be going forward with the station motif for 'ice station zebra' and 'to the finland station'?

 

[marty21]

will you be going forward with the station motif for 'ice station zebra' and 'to the finland station'?

no

Station Eleven is very good actually - 99% of the world die after a flu epidemic, a group of people tour the mid west putting on concerts and Shakespeare plays - whilst a Messiah like figure lurks

 

[Pickman's model]

no

Station Eleven is very good actually - 99% of the world die after a flu epidemic, a group of people tour the mid west putting on concerts and Shakespeare plays - whilst a Messiah like figure lurks

ta

 

[Orang Utan]

no

Station Eleven is very good actually - 99% of the world die after a flu epidemic, a group of people tour the mid west putting on concerts and Shakespeare plays - whilst a Messiah like figure lurks

I thought it was great too. Kinda unusually upbeat and optimistic considering its setting

 

[marty21]

I thought it was great too. Kinda unusually upbeat and optimistic considering its setting

yep, sums it up well.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

1/21 Scott A Wilson (ed) - Music At The Extremes: Essays on Sounds Outside the Mainstream
2/21 Dawn Foster - Lean Out
3/21 Albert Meltzer - The Anarchists In London 1935-55

4/21 Simon Morris - Consumer Guide

 

[Orang Utan]

1/60: Misha Glenny - McMafia
2/60: Chris Hadfield - An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
3/60 Peter Goes - Timeline
4/60 Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation
5/60 Ben Crystal - Shakespeare On Toast
6/60 Claire North - The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August

 

[Orang Utan]

1/60: Misha Glenny - McMafia
2/60: Chris Hadfield - An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
3/60 Peter Goes - Timeline
4/60 Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation
5/60 Ben Crystal - Shakespeare On Toast
6/60 Claire North - The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August
7/60 Jon Ronson - So You've Been Publically Shamed

 

[braindancer]

1/30 - In the Shadow of Crows - David Charles Manners
2/30 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K Le Guin
3/30 - The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin
4/30 - The Wind Up Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
5/30 - Plainsong - Kent Haruf
6/30 - Eventide - Kent Haruf
7/30 - Benedicton - Kent Haruf

 

[spartacus mills]

01 Deidre Holding – Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh
02 Laszlo Krasznahorkai – Seiobo There Below
03 Michelle Higgs – Christmas Cards from the 1840s to 1940s
04 Peter Hames (editor) – The Cinema of Central Europe

 

[nogojones]

Not done this before, but I've been keeping a track of what I've been reading and I guess I was looking at a couple a month, so 25-ish in a year. I guess I'll throw work ones in here as well

1/25 Paul Routledge - Public Servant, Secret Agent: The elusive life and violent Death of Airey Neave
2/25 Maxim Gorky - A Sky Blue Life & Selected Stories
3/25 Ben Hamper - Rivethead
4/25 Spore Liberation Front - Radical Mycology
5/25 William Burroughs - Exterminator
6/25 Jim Thompson - A Hell Of a Woman
7/25 NTA - Routes To Recovery Part 4

 

[Voley]

Shoot me, but I'm really enjoying that Morrissey autobiography. Laugh out loud, and lots of insight into one of my fave ever bands.

I'd forgotten about this, Aunti S, so thanks for reminding me. Have stuck it on me library list, ta.

 

[Voley]

Just added that Neil Young one, too. I liked his first one, rambling as it was. In fact, there's a bit in the first one where -apropos of nothing in particular- he wonders out loud whether he should write a book about all the cars he's had. I'm glad he did it.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm reading a rock autobiography too - well, punk to be more accurate. Viv Albertine's Clothes Music Boys. She's ace!

 

[Sea Star]

I'm reading a rock autobiography too - well, punk to be more accurate. Viv Albertine's Clothes Music Boys. She's ace!

Been meaning to read that for ages, my old flatmate had it but she took it with her when she moved out, dammit.

Just finished a sci fi book - 7/50 "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman who I'd never heard of before.

1/50 Special Deluxe - Neil Young
2/50 The Edible woman - Margaret Atwood
3/50 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
4/50 Sacrilege - S.J. Parris
5/50 Easily Distracted - Steve Coogan
6/50 Autobiography - Morrissey

I'm gradually slipping from achieving my target though, should have read 8 or 9 books by now.