50 Book Challenge 2013 AKA Anna Will Kick Your Arse Again!

[Callan]

I think we have a serious contest on our hands this year. Who will win?

Clinton is cheating and reading kids' books.

Hmmm ... if he's reading them to the mini-Huxleys, then they don't count IMHO.

If he's reading them for his own benefit, then they count, but on the other hand ...

Sordid, ain't it?

[anna09]

I just bought a dozen books and a case of wine. Game on.

[Callan]

1. Kitchen Diaries 2 - Nigel Slater. (Annoying little turd.)
2. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler. (Interesting premise but it was stretched out too long.)
3. The White Queen - Philippa Gregory. (Historical fiction about Elizabeth Woodville - undemanding.)
4. The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories - E. A. Poe. (Dupin is the forerunner of Holmes - but less exciting.)
5. Master and God - Lindsey Davis (Superior historical fiction set in the reign of Domitian)
6. Lemon Meringue Pie Murder - Joanne Fluke (Might have been more thrilling had the eponymous pie been the murder weapon)
7. Bess of Hardwick - Mary S. Lovell. (Lively and scholarly biography.)
8. The Mating Season - P.G. Wodehouse. (Jeeves and Wooster in full effect.)
9. The Anglo-Saxons - ed. James Campbell (dry, dry, dry )
10. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - trans. Simon Armitage (should have read it 25 years ago, better late than never)
11. The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal (Potter chases netsuke - delightful)
12. Manon Lescault - Abbé Prévost (What a silly pair! Unpleasant, too)
13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (Surprisingly readable)
14. The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics - Jessica Porter (A lot of very useful nutrition advice behind the hippy woo)
15. A Street Cat Named Bob - James Bowen (Cat redeems addict)
16. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles - trans. Anne Savage (Still bloody tedious - maybe I'm just not interested in Anglo-Saxon history?)
17. Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch (Supernatural murders beneath modern London. Spiffing!)
18. Beowulf - trans. Seamus Heaney (Fantastic translation.)
19. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (The rise of Thomas Cromwell. So wonderful you don't even notice how long it is.)
20. Treasures of Tutankhamun - Howard Carter (Abridged - NOT the 3-volume excavation report!)
21. Food and Healing - Annemarie Colbin (Food as medicine, medicine as food - illuminating)
22. A Feast of True Fandangles - Patrick Campbell (Still funny after all these years...)
23. Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss (The grammar Nazi's bible - delicious.)
24. Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock (Satire on Gothic novels and sensibility)

[anna09]

1. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin- Masha Gessen
2. Pnin- Vladimir Nabokov
3. Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Daydreamer- Ian McEwan
5. Free Will- Sam Harris
6. The Drinker- Hans Fallada
7. The Victim- Saul Bellow
8. Dubliners- James Joyce
9. Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro (Very good but so sad! )
10. The Moral Landscape- Sam Harris (I've been rereading some books to see what I can use for my senior thesis).
11. The Bell- Iris Murdoch
12. The Comfort of Strangers- Ian McEwan (re-read)
13. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood (So good! Definitely a new favourite.)
14. Clockwork Angels- Kevin J. Anderson
15. Everyman- Philip Roth
16. Selected Tales- Edgar Allen Poe
17. Marry Me- John Updike
18. Cyrano de Bergerac- Edmund Rostand
19. Mother Night- Kurt Vonnegut
20. The Sea, The Sea- Iris Murdoch
21. The Trial- Kafka
22. A Man Without a Country- Kurt Vonnegut
23. A Severed Head- Iris Murdoch

[Callan]

1. Kitchen Diaries 2 - Nigel Slater. (Annoying little turd.)
2. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler. (Interesting premise but it was stretched out too long.)
3. The White Queen - Philippa Gregory. (Historical fiction about Elizabeth Woodville - undemanding.)
4. The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories - E. A. Poe. (Dupin is the forerunner of Holmes - but less exciting.)
5. Master and God - Lindsey Davis (Superior historical fiction set in the reign of Domitian)
6. Lemon Meringue Pie Murder - Joanne Fluke (Might have been more thrilling had the eponymous pie been the murder weapon)
7. Bess of Hardwick - Mary S. Lovell. (Lively and scholarly biography.)
8. The Mating Season - P.G. Wodehouse. (Jeeves and Wooster in full effect.)
9. The Anglo-Saxons - ed. James Campbell (dry, dry, dry )
10. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - trans. Simon Armitage (should have read it 25 years ago, better late than never)
11. The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal (Potter chases netsuke - delightful)
12. Manon Lescault - Abbé Prévost (What a silly pair! Unpleasant, too)
13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (Surprisingly readable)
14. The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics - Jessica Porter (A lot of very useful nutrition advice behind the hippy woo)
15. A Street Cat Named Bob - James Bowen (Cat redeems addict)
16. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles - trans. Anne Savage (Still bloody tedious - maybe I'm just not interested in Anglo-Saxon history?)
17. Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch (Supernatural murders beneath modern London. Spiffing!)
18. Beowulf - trans. Seamus Heaney (Fantastic translation.)
19. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (The rise of Thomas Cromwell. So wonderful you don't even notice how long it is.)
20. Treasures of Tutankhamun - Howard Carter (Abridged - NOT the 3-volume excavation report!)
21. Food and Healing - Annemarie Colbin (Food as medicine, medicine as food - illuminating)
22. A Feast of True Fandangles - Patrick Campbell (Still funny after all these years...)
23. Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss (The grammar Nazi's bible - delicious.)
24. Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock (Satire on Gothic novels and sensibility)
25. 666 Charing Cross road - Paul Magrs (Jolly vampire romp - clever and funny)

26. The Secret History - Procopius (Acerbic observations live and direct from imperial Byzantium)

[klr]

...
26. The Secret History - Procopius (Acerbic observations live and direct from imperial Byzantium)

Doubtless dishing out all the dirt on Theodora.

[Callan]

...
26. The Secret History - Procopius (Acerbic observations live and direct from imperial Byzantium)

Doubtless dishing out all the dirt on Theodora.

Dirt??

My dear, I was shocked.

Shocked!!




And that Justinian was no better than he ought to be!

[klr]

...
26. The Secret History - Procopius (Acerbic observations live and direct from imperial Byzantium)

Doubtless dishing out all the dirt on Theodora.

Dirt??

My dear, I was shocked.

Shocked!!




And that Justinian was no better than he ought to be!

For one minute, I thought you were going to say that you were scandalized!

[anna09]

1. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin- Masha Gessen
2. Pnin- Vladimir Nabokov
3. Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Daydreamer- Ian McEwan
5. Free Will- Sam Harris
6. The Drinker- Hans Fallada
7. The Victim- Saul Bellow
8. Dubliners- James Joyce
9. Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro (Very good but so sad! )
10. The Moral Landscape- Sam Harris (I've been rereading some books to see what I can use for my senior thesis).
11. The Bell- Iris Murdoch
12. The Comfort of Strangers- Ian McEwan (re-read)
13. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood (So good! Definitely a new favourite.)
14. Clockwork Angels- Kevin J. Anderson
15. Everyman- Philip Roth
16. Selected Tales- Edgar Allen Poe
17. Marry Me- John Updike
18. Cyrano de Bergerac- Edmund Rostand
19. Mother Night- Kurt Vonnegut
20. The Sea, The Sea- Iris Murdoch
21. The Trial- Kafka
22. A Man Without a Country- Kurt Vonnegut
23. A Severed Head- Iris Murdoch
24. The Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes

[Bella Fortuna]

Just fuckin' stop it!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Stickied this thread and unstickied last year's version.

[Clinton Huxley]

1) Earthworms And Their Allies by F.E. Beddard
2) Otter Country by Miriam Darlington
3) The Horses Of St. Marks by Charles Freeman
4) Everest ed. Peter Gillman
5) Five On A Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
6) Map Addict by Mike Parker
7) The Art Of Travel by Alain De Botton
8) The Spiderwick Chronicles Book Two: The Seeing Stone by DiTerlizzi and Black.
9) First Life by David Attenborough and Matt Kaplan.
10) A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeves
11) Mia The Bridesmaid Fairy by Daisy Meadows
12) Ottoline And The Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell
13) South: The Story Of Shackleton's 1914-1917 Expedition by Ernest Shackleton
14) Caesar by Adrian Goldsworthy
15) On The Origin Of Species by Charles Darwin
16) Stargazing With Binoculars by Robin Scagell and David Frydman
17) Survivors by Richard Fortey
18) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
19) The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
20) Captain Cooks Journal During The First Voyage Around The World by Cpt. James Cook
21) The Spiderwicke Chronincles book 3: Lucinda's Secret by DiTerlizzi and Black
22) Coco's Story by Sarah Hawkins.
23) The A-Z of Whisky by Gavin D. Smith
24) The Borgias by Christoper Hibbert
25) The Darwinian Hypothesis by T.H. Huxley
26) Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie
27) Flatland by Edwin Abbott

[Clinton Huxley]

I think we have a serious contest on our hands this year. Who will win?

Clinton is cheating and reading kids' books.

Hmmm ... if he's reading them to the mini-Huxleys, then they don't count IMHO.

If he's reading them for his own benefit, then they count, but on the other hand ...

Sordid, ain't it?

Look, if I have to slog through Mia The Bloody Bridesmaid Fairy for the MHs, I'm bloody counting it!
I deserve a medal!

[anna09]

1. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin- Masha Gessen
2. Pnin- Vladimir Nabokov
3. Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Daydreamer- Ian McEwan
5. Free Will- Sam Harris
6. The Drinker- Hans Fallada
7. The Victim- Saul Bellow
8. Dubliners- James Joyce
9. Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro (Very good but so sad! )
10. The Moral Landscape- Sam Harris (I've been rereading some books to see what I can use for my senior thesis).
11. The Bell- Iris Murdoch
12. The Comfort of Strangers- Ian McEwan (re-read)
13. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood (So good! Definitely a new favourite.)
14. Clockwork Angels- Kevin J. Anderson
15. Everyman- Philip Roth
16. Selected Tales- Edgar Allen Poe
17. Marry Me- John Updike
18. Cyrano de Bergerac- Edmund Rostand
19. Mother Night- Kurt Vonnegut
20. The Sea, The Sea- Iris Murdoch
21. The Trial- Kafka
22. A Man Without a Country- Kurt Vonnegut
23. A Severed Head- Iris Murdoch
24. The Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes
25. The Dogs and the Wolves- Irene Nemirovsky

[Callan]

1. Kitchen Diaries 2 - Nigel Slater. (Annoying little turd.)
2. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler. (Interesting premise but it was stretched out too long.)
3. The White Queen - Philippa Gregory. (Historical fiction about Elizabeth Woodville - undemanding.)
4. The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories - E. A. Poe. (Dupin is the forerunner of Holmes - but less exciting.)
5. Master and God - Lindsey Davis (Superior historical fiction set in the reign of Domitian)
6. Lemon Meringue Pie Murder - Joanne Fluke (Might have been more thrilling had the eponymous pie been the murder weapon)
7. Bess of Hardwick - Mary S. Lovell. (Lively and scholarly biography.)
8. The Mating Season - P.G. Wodehouse. (Jeeves and Wooster in full effect.)
9. The Anglo-Saxons - ed. James Campbell (dry, dry, dry )
10. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - trans. Simon Armitage (should have read it 25 years ago, better late than never)
11. The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal (Potter chases netsuke - delightful)
12. Manon Lescault - Abbé Prévost (What a silly pair! Unpleasant, too)
13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (Surprisingly readable)
14. The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics - Jessica Porter (A lot of very useful nutrition advice behind the hippy woo)
15. A Street Cat Named Bob - James Bowen (Cat redeems addict)
16. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles - trans. Anne Savage (Still bloody tedious - maybe I'm just not interested in Anglo-Saxon history?)
17. Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch (Supernatural murders beneath modern London. Spiffing!)
18. Beowulf - trans. Seamus Heaney (Fantastic translation.)
19. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (The rise of Thomas Cromwell. So wonderful you don't even notice how long it is.)
20. Treasures of Tutankhamun - Howard Carter (Abridged - NOT the 3-volume excavation report!)
21. Food and Healing - Annemarie Colbin (Food as medicine, medicine as food - illuminating)
22. A Feast of True Fandangles - Patrick Campbell (Still funny after all these years...)
23. Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss (The grammar Nazi's bible - delicious.)
24. Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock (Satire on Gothic novels and sensibility)
25. 666 Charing Cross Road - Paul Magrs (Jolly vampire romp - clever and funny)

26. The Secret History - Procopius (Acerbic observations live and direct from imperial Byzantium)
27. Very Good, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse (Delightful stuff)
28. The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson (Page-turningly gripping -up until 3am with it!)