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52 Weeks: 52 Books. 2016 Reading Challenge

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Original post by minimarshmallow
Agreed on The Night Circus. I was left with this feeling of mystery afterwards, it was really good.


I third this - The Night Circus was really good. Agree that the two main characters could be annoying, though. The instalove was strong in that one.
Original post by acupofgreentea
I third this - The Night Circus was really good. Agree that the two main characters could be annoying, though. The instalove was strong in that one.


Thank goodness I'm not the only one that thinks this :lol:

What book are you currently reading? :smile:

Spoiler



@minimarshmallow How do you read so much so fast?
Books three and four have bitten the dust this week. I'm going to look to review the month's books at the end of the month, so I'll just keep counting and rating for now.

3. Lasting Damage - Sophie Hannah - 4 Stars
4. Dark Place to Hide - A.J. Waines - 3 Stars.

All of my books so far this year have been written by women. That was not intentional, but will continue because I'm back to another Sophie Hannah as my currently reading as well - this one is Kind of Cruel.
Original post by Black Rose

Spoiler



@minimarshmallow How do you read so much so fast?


There's always stuff rattling around in my head. It also helps to keep coming back to book series, like books 1, 3 and 5 (5 is currently reading) have all been part of a series.
Last year I read 8 books (not including academic/comic/manga books) which is absolutely pathetic and my target was 52... :colondollar:

I'll definitely put in a conscious effort to read more daily this year and my target is 52 again. I used to read before I went to sleep as a kid and it was really relaxing. Nowadays netflix has taken over. :shakecane:

I'm currently reading:

1. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
2. It by Stephen King
3. 1984 by George Orwell
Weekly update :awesome:


Currently Reading

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Heard a lot of good things about this book and the movie for it (coming out this year) is directed by Tim Burton (My all time favourite director...:eek3: )


Read

The museum of extraordinary things By Alice Hoffman.

Spoiler

(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by StrawbAri
Weekly update :awesome:


Currently Reading

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Heard a lot of good things about this book and the movie for it (coming out this year) is directed by Tim Burton (My all time favourite director...:eek3: )


Read

The museum of extraordinary things By Alice Hoffman.

Spoiler



I really want to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I should have put it in my latest Wordery order. Never mind *skips off to Wordery*
Update:

What I've read so far:

- Finnegans Wake (only the latter half of it post new year - 5/5)
- The Wright Brothers (4/5)
- The Girl on the Train (4/5)

What I'm reading now:

- Make Me by Lee Child (Jack Reacher series).
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by TheDefiniteArticle
In. Not going to hit 52 because a lot of my 'reading' consists of hefty tomes called things like Principles of Modern Company Law and Microeconomics (I couldn't really afford to do post-graduate study but I want to keep learning in a semi-formal manner). Apart from that, I mostly read non-fiction.

Read - including late last year

1.

Jeremy Blachman, The Anonymous Lawyer - kinda drivel but it was pleasant enough. Like a lukewarm bath.

2.

Owen Jones, The Establishment - And How They Get Away With It - quite good. At times his rhetoric is incisive, but sometimes he relies too much on what is ultimately anecdotal evidence to make his points.

3.

Presh Tallwalkar, The Joy of Game Theory - didn't get much out of this, it was a bit more entry-level than I was expecting. Still, nicely written prose for a mathematician.

4.

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? - a compilation of questions and answers from New Scientist



Reading

1.

Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan

2.

Paul Krugman, The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008



To read:

•

Ivars Peterson, The Jungles of Randomness

•

Will Tipton, Expert Heads Up No Limit Hold'em (vols 1 & 2)

•

Rageh Omar, Only Half of Me - British and Muslim: The Conflict Within

•

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

•

Anthony Holden, Bigger Deal

•

Al Alvarez, The Biggest Game in Town

•

Francis Fukuyama, State Building

•

JAG Griffith, The Politics of the Judiciary

•

John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

•

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

•

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged



Just finished the bolded. My review:

One has to have an astoundingly inquisitive mind to be interested by all the subject-matter here, and the sorting into subjects is only moderately helpful - personally, I found myself interested by most of the physics-oriented questions and few of the biological ones; but while one could understand that the 'Our Bodies' section would be largely biology-based, it wasn't a perfect divide. Further, letters and emails sent into New Scientist are barely where one would expect to find exceptional writing, and, for the most part, this holds true. The format also lends itself to a superficial discussion of a good number of topics, and very little more than the surface is scratched.

Thus, while I feel I know more for having read Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?, if one asked me what specifically I felt I knew more about, I'd struggle to answer; nor do I feel as though it was a book I particularly enjoyed reading.
(edited 8 years ago)
Week update! I'll just quote the next few books that I plan to read, will update my first post as I go along :h:

Original post by Pellucid

Books read so far:
3. F in Exams: The Best Test Paper Blunders by Richard Benson [4/5]
4. Crashland (Twinmaker #2) by Sean Williams [2/5]
5. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran [4/5]
6. The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West [3/5]

Currently reading:
- Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
- Hollowgirl (Twinmaker #3) by Sean Williams
- The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss
- Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1) by Gena Showalter

To read*:
- The Rule of Thoughts (The Mortality Doctrine #2) by James Dashner
- The Game of Lives (The Mortality Doctrine #3) by James Dashner
- The May Bride by Suzannah Dunn
Read - including late last year

1.

Jeremy Blachman, The Anonymous Lawyer - kinda drivel but it was pleasant enough. Like a lukewarm bath.

2.

Owen Jones, The Establishment - And How They Get Away With It - quite good. At times his rhetoric is incisive, but sometimes he relies too much on what is ultimately anecdotal evidence to make his points.

3.

Presh Tallwalkar, The Joy of Game Theory - didn't get much out of this, it was a bit more entry-level than I was expecting. Still, nicely written prose for a mathematician.

4.

Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? - a compilation of questions and answers from New Scientist - pretty dull, poorly structured and not much of merit at all.

5.

Paul Krugman, The Return of Depression Economics - solid, well-reasoned but accessible endorsement of Keynesian principles.



Reading

1.

Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan



To read:

•

Ivars Peterson, The Jungles of Randomness

•

Will Tipton, Expert Heads Up No Limit Hold'em (vols 1 & 2)

•

Rageh Omar, Only Half of Me - British and Muslim: The Conflict Within

•

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

•

Anthony Holden, Bigger Deal

•

Al Alvarez, The Biggest Game in Town

•

Francis Fukuyama, State Building

•

JAG Griffith, The Politics of the Judiciary

•

John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

•

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

•

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged



Just finished reading the bolded. My review:

Krugman's rhetoric here is incisive; while many 'pop-economics' books resort to simply pointing out similarities between various situations and leaving the reader to form associations themselves (sometimes simply a result of superficial treatment - unfortunately more often a display of intellectual dishonesty), The Return of Depression Economics explains why various crises across the world happened, and illustrates how the same reasoning applies to the crisis that was then developing across the world (the 2008 financial crash and its global impact). Indeed, few other books targeted at the mainstream explain Keynesian ideas in a way which is so clear, and the active reader of this book will be able to at least have a crack at a mature critique of the fiscal conservativism adopted by many governments (and indeed, sometimes forced by the IMF) as a response to a collapse in demand.

It must be said, however, that at times it's quite a dry read; although this is likely a necessary evil caused by trying to write in a way which is sufficiently explanatory, it does cause the eyes to gloss over from time to time. Indeed, being caught between the rock and a hard place of writing a bedtime story and a textbook, Krugman definitely exhibits more tendencies of the former, but at times, despite his stated goals of accessible economics (in The Accidental Theorist), those taking this as their first economics book will be sorely tempted to give up. However, perseverance is a virtue. This is really worth reading.
(edited 8 years ago)
Managed to read 52 books last year. Hoping to match it this year or at least beat it by 1 :p:

I like using goodreads because you can set up a challenge and can easily see how you're doing (Set my target to 53 but I'm already 2 books behind :colondollar: )
Can anyone help i'm coming to the end of reading the Boy in the Stripped Pajamas and don't know what book I should read next... looking for something similar, or something like post apocalyptic/ survival book or even a detective novel. Any recommendations of must read books?
Original post by CrazyKittenLady
Can anyone help i'm coming to the end of reading the Boy in the Stripped Pajamas and don't know what book I should read next... looking for something similar, or something like post apocalyptic/ survival book or even a detective novel. Any recommendations of must read books?


If you liked the WW2 stuff, then you could read 'The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz', which is a true story
Original post by *Interrobang*
If you liked the WW2 stuff, then you could read 'The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz', which is a true story


Thanks for the tip, I'm also a big fan of WW2 books!
Read so far...
1. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 8/10
2. Northern Lights 9/10

Currently reading...
3. The Subtle Knife
Original post by Queen Cersei
Read so far...
1. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 8/10
2. Northern Lights 9/10

Currently reading...
3. The Subtle Knife


That's OK :smile: And it's so long since I read the Northern Lights books, but they were so good when I read them
Original post by The.Joker
Last year I read 8 books (not including academic/comic/manga books) which is absolutely pathetic and my target was 52... :colondollar:

I'll definitely put in a conscious effort to read more daily this year and my target is 52 again. I used to read before I went to sleep as a kid and it was really relaxing. Nowadays netflix has taken over. :shakecane:

I'm currently reading:

1. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
2. It by Stephen King
3. 1984 by George Orwell

I have that issue too! I end up watching stuff instead of reading stuff when I'm bored or before sleepytimes!
Unrelated to the challenge itself (although I do need to update my read list), but today, I was reading a book I'd previously started only to push it to the recesses of my TBR pile when I found a book I was much more interested in reading. :laugh:

Anyway, so I'm turning a page and what do you know, I FIND A FIVE POUND NOTE IN BETWEEN THE PAGES.

And that, my friends, is why we should start tackling our TBR pile more seriously. :yep:

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