Reading Challenge 2024

Just finished my first book of 2023, The Things they Carried by Tim Obrien.

Incredible collection of connected short stories about the Vietnam War. I've been meaning to read this since seeing his interviews in the Ken Burns documentary on the war and it didn't disappoint.

I've been accruing a pile of books to read for ages and just really struggled to get back into reading the way I used to, finally forced myself to just sit down for half an hour and in the end did about 250 pages in 3 days.

I'm hoping to do 26 books for the year, I have a few very small ones (The old man and the sea; The invention of Morel; Giovanni's Room) that I'm sure will take a couple of days, and keep me on track if I fall behind and get discouraged.
 
Just finished Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
thought it was going along quite nicely but became a bit condensed at the end in the rush? to finish

might have to have a go at his Brave New World Revisited
 
Currently listening to the accidental Footballer, Pat Nevins bio. If ever a footballer would have loved the opportunity of an academic scholarship on the back of his football it was him. I also think he’d have been great being played as David Silva.

Also reading Ikigai - Japanese secret to a long & happy life.
 
Just finished Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury (started last year). Depressing and fascinating, a lot of the US political system's conventions/processes was above my head but would definitely recommend.

Now onto le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Very good so far.

I hadn't heard of the Library Thing so will have a look, also never set a target for reading before.
 
I use Goodreads a lot. I find it recommends stuff I’ll genuinely enjoy and the annual reading challenge is fun.

I read 39 last year. Almost all non fiction, I read a lot of political / current events non fiction as well as outdoor adventure books and some tech stuff.

I am fussy about fiction. I like some post modern stuff like Don DeLillo and Anthony Burgess, but most of the time when reading a novel I can’t help but think I’d rather be spending my time learning something in a good non fiction book.

Am currently reading mountaineer Brian Hall’s new book ‘High Risk’. A series of essays detailing accounts of the golden age of mountaineering in the 70s and 80s, many of which involve close friends of his who are no longer with us.

I’ve also got George Arbuthnott’s Failures of State on the go, a detailed account of the various ways in which the Johnson government made mistakes during the pandemic. It’s a very grim and very long read.
 
Como Cat said:
Just finished Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury (started last year). Depressing and fascinating, a lot of the US political system's conventions/processes was above my head but would definitely recommend.

Now onto le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Very good so far.

I hadn't heard of the Library Thing so will have a look, also never set a target for reading before.
Click to expand...

Wolff is brilliant. You need to read the full Trump Trilogy. Absolutely gripping.

I’ve read most of the decent Trump exposé’s and Wolff’s are the best.

Michael Cohen’s is pretty fun from an insider perspective, though it’s written like a bad gangster movie script.
 
1. Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10


CunningFolk.jpg

This was a good start to my reading year. I’ve read one book by the author before (Banquet of the Damned) and snapped this up for 99p a few months ago. I don’t read much horror but both this and the previous book were incredibly effective.

On the face of it, the plot may sound familiar: a young couple buys a house for a knockdown price, but when they move in, their problems really start. But as the author notes in an informative note at the end of the book, this is not a haunted house story – it’s about the horror of the people who live next door.

OK, so it’s a supernatural tale, but anybody who has ever had problems with them next door will recognise the mounting anxiety and frustration of the protagonist and his family. This is where the author has made what could have been a bog-standard horror story come to life – some of the incidents you read about really get your insides churning because you may recognise and empathise with the family based on some of your own experiences. The was one particular gruesome scene but in general the plot flies by keeping you turning the pages, and although I realised early on that the book could only have ended in one of two ways (I was right), I thought that is was wrapped up in a satisfying manner.

This probably won’t be the last Adam L.G. Nevill book I read.
 
CTID1977 said:
it might sound strange but it seems i read all the essentials there were to read. if someone's on Goodreads please add me as a friend so I could find something interesting in the books you read. Thanks!

www.goodreads.com

Goodreads

www.goodreads.com
Click to expand...
Hopefully you can find some interesting stuff on this thread and last year's:-

forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk

Reading Challenge 2022

@ob @Paladin @JRockBlues @stoneblue @bennyboy It's a new year. so let's have a new thread. For one reason or another, I didn't read over Christmas but started a new book yesterday. A few of us enjoyed contributing to the reading thread last year - sharing our good and bad reading experiences...
forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk
 
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