Friday 1 February 2013

52 books in 52 weeks - part one

I'm giving myself another challenge this year and it is to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I do read a lot so it is something I think I can achieve. I do have weeks where I don't read anything at all and weeks where I will read a book a day (I'm a fast reader!) March and April will be slow book reading months as I will be panicking about attending BCTF and hopefully the weeks afterwards I will be busy with orders :) I still think I can read 52 within the year though - fingers crossed!

I will probably end up at the start of each month listing the books I have read in the previous month but I may do this once a quarter instead - depends on how I am feeling! I do have a board set up on Pinterest that will be updated as soon as I have finished a book so you can see how I am getting on with the challenge on a book by book basis! I'm not very good at reviewing books (although I have to write a review of the book I'm reading at the moment for Waterstones!) so I will probably only say a few words about each book and leave it at that.




The first three books of 2013 are my favourite books ever. I first read them when I was in my first year at university (a friends dad was an English teacher and was reading them with his kids) and I have read them every year since* I love them and no matter how many times I read them I still find I love them. The first one can be hard to get into but read 100 pages and you will be hooked!


Again, 1984 is one of my favourite books although when I read it this time it didn't seem quite as harrowing as the first few times I read it. It could be that as I was reading it, our current government and it's leaders sprung to mind a few times! We are not quite at Big Brother ruling us yet but some things really struck a cord with what is going on now in the UK!



I saw this book when it first came out but didn't buy it until Matt saw it in a charity shop recently :) It's another young adults/older kids book and I loved it! Very well written with a good plot line that draws you in - the main character is fully believable too which sometimes doesn't happen in this kind of book.


I buy a lot of books from my local Post Office as they sell books for a local charity for 50p (paperbacks) or £1 (hardbacks) and it's great to browse the shelves as you are standing in the queue! I like thrillers and say that they make up about 50% of the books on our shelves. This one was good, easy to read and the plot was very twisty turny. When you thought you'd got a grip on the plot something would happen and you'd realise you'd got it wrong! It didn't happen enough though to put you off finding out what happens at the end as can happen in some thrillers.

So, they are the books I've read in January and I'm already halfway through my next book :) I found this challenge over on The Sewing Directory so if you too want to join in then leave a comment over there!

6/52 - only 46 more books to read! Do you have any book recommendations? I have thousands of books (literally!) but I am always looking for more!


*except for last year when I was only allowed to read books that I hadn't read before. I missed reading them though so that is why they were the first books of 2013!

7 comments:

Anna said...

If you haven't read any Jasper Fforde I'd recommend The Eyre Affair, which has many sequels if you enjoy it! Also he wrote a book called Shades of Grey which is very good and nothing like that other book with the similar title.

Swirlyarts said...

How spooky - Shades of Grey is next to my bedside at this very moment! It was going to be my next book but then the book I have to review for Waterstones arrived and as it needs to be read and reviewed by March (and with BCTF looming) I thought I'd better crack on with that one instead! Matt loves The Eyre Affair (and sequels) so they too are on my list.

Ann said...

Oh hello fellow book worm, I to am documenting my reading on pintrest this year, have a look here http://pinterest.com/annnoble/books-worth-reading/
I to would recommend Jasper Fforde, excellent writer also Ben Aaronovitch always make me smile his first book is Rivers of London

Chantal Hanna said...

You've read 6 books since the beginning of the year?? Wowzers, you are a fast reader. I loved the Philip Pullman ones. I am currently reading (and have been reading for some months now) The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, it's the second in a triology and it is out of this world amazing. I'm loving it.In my defence of how long it's taking to read, its 1008 pages....but still maybe I should be quicker!

dropstitch said...

Is that book by THE Simon Mayo??? I am not managing to read AT ALL right now. Boo. But I was thinking of doing a blog post with some book recommendations for others, so keep your peepers peeled.

Daisie said...

I read hard heavy tomes for research purposes for work and study so tend to read mindless trash (no offence meant in that) in the evenings or on a rare spare hour during the weekend, I manage about a book a week; the big charity shop in Padiham has loads of books and they are 3 for £1 :) I go and get them on a saturday morning and then return them after reading. Worth a look. A book I have read many many times is Tully by Paulina Simons, very good indeed. I get something different from it everytime I read it. HAppy reading x

Sewing Directory said...

Glad you've decided to join the challenge. And you started with my favourite 3 books ever! I don't re-read books apart from those 3 which I have read twice - a sign of how good they are.

I'm going to struggle to fit any books in over the next couple of weeks but hopefully will catch up over Easter :-)