2024 & 2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Aiming for 50 books this year though I suspect that I will probably go over that now that I no longer have university essay writing to eat into my reading time.

Read in 2015:
1-50





51+

3.
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

I love Jasper Fforde but it has been so long since I picked up a Thursday Next book that I was a bit lost to begin with. Spent the first few chapters wracking my memory for what had happened in the previous books, but once I got into it it was fine. Not as good as the earlier books - I prefer the ones where Thursday herself is more prominent and they are set a bit more in the 'real' world. Definitely fun - but not one to pick up without familiarity with the series. Will not wait quite so long again before reading the next book.

Good luck with your challenge, Louise! Do you recommend the Thursday Next series? I've been wanting to read a Jasper Fforde book and I don't quite know where to start with him.

I do! Fforde is a very strange author but I think he's hilarious and brilliant.

Thursday Next would definitely be my recommended starting point (failing that I'd say his YA series The Last Dragonslayer). The first book The Eyre Affair is, in my opinion, amazing. It's also a much more straight forward narrative than the sequels or some of his other series (also great) so it's a good introduction to Fforde without being too overwhelming. From book two things get progressively battier (in a good way!) but it's easy enough to follow if you read in order (and don't wait too many years between books).

The Last Dragonslayer would be my other 'starting on' point - it's a very Jasper Fforde take/subversion of ye olde dragonslaying stories with sorcerers and knights and trolls. But with modern technology and set in a fantasy version of the UK - the 'Ununited Kingdom'. Aimed at children/YA it's a lot less meta and more straightforward than some of the Thurdsday Next books but still with a lot of the humour found in them. It's got, unless he extends it, just one more book left to go in the series so it's mostly complete too.

The Nursery Crime series is, I think, his weakest (though still enjoyable) so I wouldn't start there (it also is best read after about book three of Thursday Next anyways). While Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron is a pretty great dystopian novel with a much more serious tone than his other books, and less typically 'Ffordian'. Though I'm not even sure the planned sequel/prequel is even coming anymore, it's been so long.

Wow, thank you for all of the recommendations! I'll definitely put The Eyre Affair on my list for this year.

Good plan. Thursday Next is the original and the best.

4.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang
A very sweet short novel/novelette about a caged hen called Sprout who longs to hatch an egg of her own and after she escapes culling, her quest to do so. An animal morality tale along the same vein as 'the ugly ducking' and Aesop's fables (though less heavy handed) it's a book I can easily see becoming a similar children's classic, but (like those were originally) is currently marketed at adults. A nice little read for any age group. I always have been fond of talking-animal books - I blame the Animals of Farthing Wood.

Also ticks off my first book for #readwomen2015 woo! And my first translated fiction of the year.

5.
The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor
First non-fiction book of 2015! And it's a very good one. A christmas present from my dad, who knows I love both mythology and women who kick arse. It's an examination of the historical basis for the Amazons in Greek mythology. It argues pretty convincingly that the Amazons are not made up as a symbolic 'anti-Greek' but were strongly based on real women from nomadic steppe tribes in the area the Greeks called Scythia. Mix of archaeology, examination of ancient sources, close reading of myths and legends, and linguistics. Could have done with one more chapter just to wrap things all up together and conclude them, but I really enjoyed it. And I learnt a lot.

6.
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Loved loved loved this book. Took a little bit of time to get into it but once it did, I was hooked. A liiiitle disappointed with how short the chapters got at the end but overall thought this was a brilliant read. Very tightly plotted. Have been picking up and putting down this book for over a year now and am very glad I finally got around to reading it properly. And it counts towards my #readwomen count too!

7.
The Evil Empire by Steven A. Grasse
A dreadful dreadful 'humour book'. Inaccurate, homophobic, sexist and poorly written. The deluded ravings of a man who sincerely believes that invading Iraq to avenge 9/11 (his stated reason, not mine!) is the best most noble move America ever made and that Harry Potter is 'paganist propaganda' designed as the latest attempt to lure good monotheists into British druidic cults.

8.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Received this as a surprise present from one of my best friends in the mail the other day so bumped it up my reading list. A lovely, touching novel (though it took a few chapters to get into) about a grumpy old man. Slightly similar in style/structure to The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared but a lot more everyday and believable and with much better fleshed-out characters and a hell of a lot more heart.

9.
Animalium by Jenny Broom
A beautifully illustrated quick summary of the main taxonomic groups in Natural History. Lots of gorgeous illustrations, and a good overview of the basics, but very low on in-depth information.

10.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Very strange but rather wonderful. Have been meaning to read this for some years and very glad I finally have. I'm pretty certain that I missed a lot of things though. Probably a book that improves on each reread and is actually benefited by knowing what happens in advance.

11.
The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen
Short quick read. Not sure what to make of it though. The writing is good but it is very very slight on plot and the characters (as seen through the eyes of the child narrator) are only roughly sketched out.

12.
Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
Picked up at the Natural History Museum (London). Author was a research scientist there and the book is a collection of his experiences. Sort of. It's not quite a history of the NHM and it's definitely not an autobiography. It's a bit of a mishmash of explaining/justifying the work of the NMH and what sort of research goes on behind the scenes, and anecdotal titbits of gossip about former scientists, directors, and coworkers. I enjoyed it.

13.
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
So disappointed in this book. So many interesting directions it could have gone in yet it ended up being a real slog; overpopulated by completely flat characters written in really stilled ways doing a hell of a lot of sweet eff all and reacting to everything in ridiculously unrealistic ways.

14.
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
A wonderful biography of Alex Dumas, father of Alexandre Dumas, a brilliant soldier and general of the French Revolution who has been forgotten from history largely because he was mixed race and Napoleon (and many of those who came after) was a racist ****head. Really well written and accessible as well as an amazing story in itself.

15.
Classic Tales of the Macabre selected by David Stuart Davies
I try to read a short story between each novel I read and, normally for me, that tends to mean gothic lit. This is a good little collection with some nice variety and interesting choices. As always with anthologies, some stories are better than others and there's always at least one (Poe) that you've read in another anthology, but I really liked most of the selections and there are at least a couple that will definitely stick with me.

16.
Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
Recommended by a friend. I thought it was brilliant. It's narrated by a woman suffering from dementia who is fixated by the idea that her friend Elizabeth has gone missing and the memories it brings back of her sister's unsolved disappearance when she was a child. I thought it did a brilliant job of capturing the confusion and the strained family dynamics of dealing with dementia.

17.
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
A reread in memory of Terry Pratchett. One of my favourite books from my favourite Discworld subseries.

18.
The Plague by Albert Camus
A fictional account of a city in Algeria that suffers an outbreak of bubonic plague and is put into quarantine. Written in a detached, almost journalistic, style by the mystery narrator, it is more about how society reacts to a seemingly unpreventable tragedy than it is about the plague itself. Very very good.

19.
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Doing a reread of the whole City Watch series. Back where it all started. I had forgotten just how low a position Vimes was in (both professionally and personally) at the beginning.

20.
Men At Arms: by Terry Pratchett
Another reread. Probably one of my favourite discworld books - introducing a lot of the subseries major characters and sets the tone for future books as the City Watch expands and diversifies.

21.
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
An enjoyably sinister take on the 'poor man meets a rich man who looks identical and they swap places' plot device. But of a weak ending compared to the strength of the rest of the novel, but I really enjoyed it.

22.
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
Reread. Adding yet more of my favourite characters and themes. I first read these books by 'whichever was available at the library' so is very interesting to read them in their intended order and see how it all develops over each book. Also lots of Vimes. I love Vimes.

23.
Jingo by Terry Pratchett
Reread. Not the strongest Discworld/City Watch novel, but still solid. As always, I loved Vimes, was mostly the secondary characters pollen that brought it down a little. A little less Vetinari goes a long way.

24.
Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall
Novella based on the true story of a Polish-Jewish woman during WWII. I was surprised by just how pragmatic the protagonist was - it felt way more honest about the reality of fear and oppression than any other holocaust novel I've read - as long as her husband survived, she simply tried not to think about everyone else and did not care to politicise herself and get involved in the underground resistance.

25.
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
Another reread. Hitting the TP pretty hard. One of my faves. Vimes is on top form. Interesting how much I misremembered though. I thought there was far more werewolf stuff than there actually was.

26.
The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names by John Wright
Non fiction. Do love my natural history. An interesting look at the origins and rules of the 'latin' naming conventions. Pretty accsessable and easy to read/understand. Though doesn't always focus on the bits I'm more interested in, fails to mention A.F. Wallace when discussing Darwin and evolution, and is a little obsessed with fungi (understandable given it's the author's field, but I'm a zoology sort of girl).

27.
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Hungarian classic. A not very sympathetic man 'accidentally' loses his wife by taking the wrong train while honeymooning in Italy after an old friend from his teenage days in Budapest turns up. Some beautiful writing and lovely quotes but all a bit introspective for my liking. Wanted a bit more to happen.

28.
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Reread. Another one of my faves. Lots of Vimes. Lots of Detritus. And plenty of Lady Sibyl and Vimes' family life.

29.
The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi
A strange, sometimes beautiful, occasionally frustrating novel from Taiwan. A mix of magical realism, human drama, and environmentalism. A boy from the untouched island of Wayo Wayo is cast out onto the sea as part of a ritual sacrifice to the sea god but finds himself washed up on an island of floating trash heading for collision with Taiwan and the modern world.

I see your reading the discworld books. I've just read the first one and want to read the others. Do I need to read them in order or can I just read them messed up? What would be easier for me?

If you've read the first one (The Color of Magic) You'll probably want to read The Light Fantastic next. the first two books are the only two in the series that flow directly on from each other with the first ending on a cliffhanger.

Personally though, I think the early books are the weakest. Luckily, most Discworld books are only very closely connected to each other, with several subseries (Death/Susan, the City Watch, the Witches, Moist von Lipwig, and the Wizards/Rincewind) and several standalones (Small Gods, The Truth etc. etc.). When I first read discworld I was just reading whatever the library had in stock at the time so read it completely jumbled up and out of order and I don't think it damaged my enjoyment at all. In fact, this current reread is the first time I've read one of the subseries in the correct order (and even then I screwed up slightly)

My recommendation, once you're done with The Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic combo (if that's what you're doing) would be to pick either an early standalone book or the starting book to one of the subseries (my favourites are the City Watch (start with Guards! Guards!) and the Witches (book 2, Wyrd Sisters is probably best starting point there). After that I would pretty much read the books in whatever order you want. You probably want to read each subseries in the right order to get the character progressions (though it doesn't matter too much if you don't), but you can totally mix up your reading between the City Watch/Witches/Death etc. rather than reading each series to the end and then starting the next.

Thanks! I have read The Color of Magic. I have Mort on my nook. That's why I was asking. I will get The Light Fantastic from the library or borrow it then. I'll have to do some research on what books are in what subseries but I bet I can find that somewhere. Thanks for the info!

Mort's a good one. It's also the start of the Death subseries. And Death is one of the best characters.

It's the very first Discworld I read too.

30.
Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik
6th book in the series. Not my favourite entry but I didn't hate it as much as some of the fans seem to. Probably because I don't have very high expectations for the writing in the first place. It's gone way away from the initial premise of 'Napoleonic War with dragons' and turned into fantasy-moralising a travelogue exploring how different cultures interact with dragons. But it's still just the sort of light don't-think-too-hard fluff I like to read after getting through much heavier novels.

31.
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen (writer) and Jamie McKelvie (artist)
Comic book. My friend really recommended this one to me but... while the art is absolutely gorgeous and the concept could be great, I thought the writing was pretty weak. Will read the next volume at some point but if it doesn't improve I'm probably out.

32.
Fables, Vol. 20: Camelot by Bill Willingham (writer), Mark Buckingham (artist) and others
Another comic book, this time the latest entry in a series I've been following for years. Quality has been seriously dipping recently but this was almost a return to form in some places. I do wonder though, given that the series has only two more volumes to run before it finishes for good, if the writer isn't introducing just a bit too much stuff quite late in the game, and how he's going to wrap it all up effectively.

33.
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
One of my friend's favourite books that she lent me months ago. Was putting off reading it cause I found the author's First Law trilogy really really underwhelming but actually I did enjoy this one a lot more. Still contains a lot of the things I didn't care for or got tired of in his earlier books but overall it worked a lot better. Probably won't read another of his books unless it has Monza in it though.

34.
The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Last book of the series! Ending felt perhaps a little anticlimactic in places, but still great. Nico chapters! Reyna chapters! And Ive even grown to love Piper despite finding her irritating as hell in book one. Basically though just love Rick Riordan and his modern day Greek/Roman mythology mash-up.

35.
Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods by Rick Riordan
Companion book to Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus. Percy Jackson tells an assortment of myths and legends about the Greek Gods. Most of the well known stories are all here, but also a lot of more obscure ones as well. And, as always, Percy's narration is absolutely hilarious as well as pretty dang feminist in places.

36.
Unseemly Science by Rod Duncan
Second in The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire Series. Crossdressing Steampunk Alternate-History goodness! I love this series so much. The setting is brilliant, the main character is great, and I am all over the realistically adversarial (not cliched slap-slap-kiss) relationship with the love interest. Plot isn't quite as tight as the first book and a bit slower to make sense of, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I need book three like now.

37.
The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan
Forgot to add this one. Collection of short stories and little series extras for the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series. Bit of a mixed bag (not a big fan of the Leo story) and definitely served as a reminder that these are children's books with all the super simple bonus crosswords and puzzles. But liked the Luke story a lot.

38.
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
Very odd historical fiction novel set during/after the Norman invasion of 1066 and write in a 'shadow version' of Old English. So lots of funny spellings and barely and punctuation. An interesting read with a massively unsympathetic protagonist but the language it was written in turned out to be a lot more interesting than the actual plot, where not much really happened.

39.
The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan
Reread following the release of the first sequel earlier this year. One of my surprise favourite reads last year and appreciated it even more on the reread. Sometimes I just need some escapist crossdressing steampunk fun. Still a bit sad the love story isn't the lesbian one I was hoping for first read through, but second book made me fall in love with the straight romance so it's all ok in the end.

40.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A book I've been meaning to read for ever but had been a bit terrified that I would find it one of those overrated books beloved by people who seem to love only crappy books (eg. The Time traveller's Wife). Now I didn't quite fall in love with it the way some readers have, but I did think it was very good and utterly magical.

41.
The Face in the Glass and Other Gothic Tales and Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Picked up from The British Library's exhibition on the history of gothic literature earlier this year. Another collection of gothic short stories that I've been reading in between novels. Only one author this time so more consistent in tone, but still some I preferred to others. Enjoyed the one about the lion tamer.

42.
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Comic book by a writer who's comics I've been wanting to pick up for a while. Basically a print run of her webcomic (which is no longer available online) started before she got comics-famous. Also a nice self-contained story so I'm not tied into a new series. Really really enjoyed, great art and a great story. Look forward to the animated film that's just been announced.

43.
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Serviceable steampunk plot but the flattest characters I have read for a very very long time. Really clunky writing in places and a perspective that kept shifting from paragraph to paragraph.

44.
How To Be Both by Ali Smith
This year's Baileys Prize winner so I thought I'd make it the inaugural read for my new 'Read Women' goodreads group. And I liked it a lot. But probably one of those books that's more interesting when you're talking or thinking about it than it necessarily is while you're reading.

45.
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse
Very enjoyable, but lacking a certain something found in the best Jeeves & Wooster novels. Not quite as laugh out loud funny. More of an occasional chortle. Good to see Jeeves back with Bertie where he belongs though. Bertie, not Jeeves, should always be the main attraction, and the more time the two spend together playing off each other, the better.

46.
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
My first Virginia Woolf! Will definitely be reading her again, I think, even though I didn't love this book. The experimental narration style took me quite a while to get into but I did get into it in the end and actually found myself enjoying it a lot. A very beautifully written novel - but not always that easy to understand.

47.
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Really enjoyable (though quite longwinded) read. No likable characters at all - everyone's either nasty and self-centred or nice yet insipid. But a great satire of your usual classics with a wonderfully scheming 'heroine' in Rebecca Sharp.