the wonderful world of reading 2020 reading challenge thread

[marty21]

1/75 The Girl Who Lived Twice - David Lagercrantz
2/75 Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls
3/75 Mortal Prey - John Sandford
4/75 The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
5/75 Borderlands - L J Ross
6/75 Three Weeks to say goodbye - C J Box
7/75 Blue Heaven - C J Box
8/75 Hard Shot - J B Turner
9/75 Surviving The Evacuation: There We Stood - Frank Tayell
10/75 Back of Beyond - C J Box
11/75 The Secret War : Spies,Codes & Guerrillas 1939-45 . Max Hastings
12/75 Sunset Express - Robert Crais
13/75 Requiem - J B Turner
14/75 Reckoning - J B Turner
15/75 Zone One - Colson Whitehead
16/75 Long Range - C J Box
17/75 The Wanted - Robert Crais
18/75 Night Prey - John Sandford
19/75 Dark of the moon - John Sandford
20/75 No One Home - Tim Weaver
21/75 Lockdown - Peter May
22/75 Rough Country - John Sandford
23/75 Life Moves Pretty Fast : The Lessons We Learned From 80s Movies - Hadley Freeman
24/75 Fast Times And Excellent Adventures: The Surprising History of The 80s Teen Movie. - James King
25/75 In A House Of Lies - Ian Rankin
26/75 The Shrine - LJ Ross
27/75 Rogue - James Swallow.
28/75 Zone War - John Conroe
29/75 Borough of Bones - John Conroe
30/75 Web of Extinction - John Conroe
31/75 Exile - James Swallow
32/75 Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 - Max Hastings
33/75 Lethal Agent - Kyle Mills
34/75. Ghost - James Swallow
35/75 Wildfire - Robin Crumby
36/75 Harbinger- Robin Crumby
37/75 The Highway - C J Box
38/75 Badlands - C J Box

*****

39/75 Paradise Valley - C J Box

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Shirley Jackson - The Bird's Nest
2/70 - Annie Proulx - Accordion Crimes (re-read)
3/70 - Liz Nugent - Unravelling Oliver
4/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Anything is Possible
5/70 - Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
6/70 - Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me (re-read)
7/70 - Michael Farris Smith - Rivers
8/70 - Malcolm Pryce - Last Tango in Aberystwyth
9/70 - Stephen King - Elevation
10/70 - Liz Nugent - Lying in Wait
11/70 - Donald Ray Pollock - Knockemstiff
12/70 - John Irving - Avenue of Mysteries
13/70 - Liz Nugent - Skin Deep
14/70 - Annie Proulx - The Shipping News (re-read)
15/70 - Val McDermid - How The Dead Speak
16/70 - Patricia Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley
17/70 - Sally Rooney - Conversations With Friends
18/70 - John Green - An Abundance of Katherines
19/70 - Minette Walters - The Shape of Snakes
20/70 - Kazuo Ishiguro - Nocturnes
21/70 - Stephen King - Under The Dome (re-read)
22/70 - Denise Mina - Conviction
23/70 - William Boyd - Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay
24/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - The Long Walk (re-read)
25/70 - Michael Morpurgo - Born to Run
26/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - Roadwork
27/70 - William Boyd - The Vanishing Game
28/70 - Anthony Doerr - All The Light we Cannot See
29/70 - Stephen King - If It Bleeds
30/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley Under Ground
31/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - The Running Man (re-read)
32/70 - Minette Walters - Acid Row
33/70 - Liz Nugent - Our Little Cruelties
34/70 - Anne Tyler - A Spool of Blue Thread
35/70 - Stephen King - Dreamcatcher
36/70 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - Daisy Jones and The Six
37/70 - Ruth Rendell - Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (re-read)
38/70 - Harlan Coben - Run Away
39/70 - Susan Hill - The Various Haunts of Men
40/70 - Julian Barnes - Arthur and George
41/70 - Stephen King - Cujo (re-read)
42/70 - Susan Hill - The Pure in Heart
43/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley's Game
44/70 - Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
45/70 - P D James - The Part Time Job
46/70 - Marilynne Robinson - Gilead
47/70 - Wally Lamb - I Know This Much is True
48/70 - Mick Herron - Slow Horses
49/70 - Patricia Highsmith - The Boy Who Followed Ripley
50/70 - David Mitchell - Utopia Avenue
51/70 - Ruth Rendell - The Copper Peacock
52/70 - Minette Walters - Disordered Minds
53/70 - Jane Harper - The Lost Man (BC)
54/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Olive, Again
55/70 - Richard Bachman - The Regulators
56/70 - Susan Hill - The Risk of Darkness
57/70 - Stephen King - Desperation
58/70 - Peter James - Find Them Dead
59/70 - John Grisham - The Pelican Brief (BC)
60/70 - R D Wingfield - Frost at Christmas
61/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley Under Water

62/70 - William Boyd - Stars and Bars

 

[Ptolemy]

Any good?

If you can get it cheap, it's worth a read - slim pickings in both length and content, but I learned quite a bit about the Trump family background - particularly Donald's dad, Fred Trump Sr.

 

[StanleyBlack]

1/20? Dickens, Charles (2004) David Copperfield. Revised/Penguin Classics edition. Paperback edition. London: Penguin Books. (0140439447) Finished 12/4/20
2/20? Hensher, Philip (2020) A small revolution in Germany. Hardback edition. London: 4th Estate. (9780008323073) Finished 4/5/20
3/20? Townsend, Sue (2010) Adrian Mole: the prostrate years. Paperback edition. London: Penguin Books. (9780141034737) Finished 11/9/20

To sum up: despite, supposedly, having more time to do 'stuff' I think this is the least I've ever read in a year. I've started lots of books but the general 'atmosphere', inertia and stupidity of 2020 has defeated me every time. 2020 hasn't given me anything, it's just made me unhappy!

 

[xenon]

Did not do so well last year, concentration a bit shot.

01/20: The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin, - translation by Ken Liu
02/20: Jack Glass - Adam Roberts
03/20: Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
04/20: A Little Bit of Hatred - Joe Abercrombie
05/20: Persian Fire - Tom Holland
06/20: Ramble Book - Adam Buxton
07/20: Thirteen - Richard Morgan
08/20: Thin Air - Richard Morgan
09/20: The Hydrogen Sonata - Iain M Banks
(reread)10/20: The Player of Games - Iain M Banks
11/20: Inversions - Iain M Banks (reread)
12/20: The Trouble With Peace - Joe Abercrombie
13/20: The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
14/20: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

 

[hattie]

I haven't read an actual book for two years (been poorly), and I have felt sad about this, and frustrated with myself.

So I'm going to aim for 4 books in this year of recovery.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks so I will write those down too, but 4 real 'look at with my eyes' books will be my challenge

I surpassed myself
(but forgot to write down audiobooks)

1/4 The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
2/4 Normal People - Sally Rooney
3/4 The Three Button Trick and Other Stories - Nicola Barker
4/4 Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo
5/4 Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami

 

[billy_bob]

1/40 Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White
2/40 Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter
3/40 Hans Rosling - Factfulness
4/40 Alastair Bonnett - Off the Map
5/40 Anna Burns - The Milkman
6/40 Charles Fernyhough - Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory
7/40 Julia Leigh - The Hunter
8/40 John Higgs - William Blake Now: Why He Matters More Than Ever
9/40 Ammon Shea - Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation
10/40 Donald D. Cohen - Depression Folk: Grassroots Music and Left-Wing Politics in 1930s America
11/40 Daniel Rachel - Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge
12/40 Shalom Auslander - Hope: A Tragedy
13/40 Reinhard Kleist - Nick Cave: Mercy on Me
14/40 James Joyce - Ulysses
15/40 Shirley Jackson - Dark Tales
16/40 Charles Fernyhough, ed. - Others
17/40 Sally Rooney - Conversations with Friends
18/40 Hannah Fry - Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine
19/40 Sally Rooney - Conversations with Friends
20/40 Holly Muller - My Own Dear Brother
21/40 Sarah Perry - Melmoth
22/40 Samanta Schwebelin - Mouthful of Birds
23/40 Denis Johnson - The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
24/40 Eva Meijer - Animal Languages
25/40 George Saunders - Pastoralia
26/40 Zoe Turner - The Book of Newcastle
27/40 Pete Brown - The Story of Craft Beer
*28/40 Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls
29/40 George Saunders - In Persuasion Nation
30/40 George Saunders - CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
31/40 Shirley Jackson - The Lottery and Other Stories
32/40 Catherine Bradley - Dogs: A Literary Anthology
33/40 Jon Wiederhorn - Ministry: The Lost Gospels according to Al Jourgensen
34/40 Vikram Seth - Two Lives
35/40 Shirley Jackson - Just an Ordinary Day
36/40 Mark Kermode - It's Only a Movie
37/40 David Foenkinos - The Mystery of Henri Pick
38/40 Gretchen McCulloch - Because Internet: Understanding How Language is Changing
39/40 Robert Macfarlane - Underland
40/40 Kim Gordon - Girl in a Band
41/40 Kevin Barry - City of Bohane
42/40 Seth Stephens-Davidowitz - Everybody Lies: What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
43/40 Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle

44/40 Simon Sebag Montefiore - Jerusalem: A Biography
45/40 Nikesh Shukla - The Good Immigrant
46/40 Dan Richards - Outpost


I realised I'd failed to update this towards the end of last year for ... reasons. These are the three I can remember. There were others, but I guess it doesn't matter, as I'm already over my projection for the year, and that was including Ulysses

 

[DaveCinzano]

14/52: The Million Pound Bus Fare by David Weldon - absolute stinker of a pulp novel, with no redeemable qualities. The gist is that a small group of gun-wielding hard men hijack a bus near Heathrow, and demand a ransom (ONE MILLION POUNDS!), but this is all a front for some shady Deep State shenanigans involving a false flag attack in some tiny protectorate in the Arabian peninsula. Characters are lucky if they're given two whole dimensions. It's a bit like a cheap British version of Die Hard, but unfolding entirely from the perspective of the terrorists (the rapey one, the nervous Irish one, the one who's always banging on about how he's ‘a hitman for the Mafia’ etc).

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I'm currently reading John Godey's The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, and it's clear that Weldon thieved not just the basic premise but large chunks of - and I use the word loosely - characterisation and specific plot points from that novel, which aren't immediately obvious from just watching the famous screen adaptation. Shameless!