What books do you plan to read this year? My next three are:

  • Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (~½ through this one)
  • Goodbye Mr. Chips
  • War & Peace (really :slightly_smiling_face:)

Others on a short list:

  • The Collapse of Parenting
  • Why You Think the Way You do
3 Likes

Funny enough my wife put Goodbye Mr Chips on my desk recently. I saw the films years ago of course and sort of remember the story.

2 Likes

I started to say I liked “the” movie, then looked it up on IMDB. I saw the 1969 version with Peter O’Toole. Turns out the original movie was released in 1939. And it was made into a mini-series in 1984, a TV movie in 2002, and another movie in 2021. Who said Hollywood can’t come up with anything original? :grinning:


But to answer the question, I just finished “Your Face Belongs to Us” and am starting “Praying like Monks, Living Like Fools”. And will probably follow that with either “The Genesis Machine” or “Daughter of the Morning Star”.

And I’m listening to the Audible version of “Shogun” on my walks.

3 Likes

In the last 2 years I set myself a reading challenge after fits and starts in reading previously.

As a kid I used to read a lot, but it dropped off and holidays became the only time I did read reliably.

I’m aiming to read 40 books in 2024 having completed 3 already.

  • Josh Widdicombe - Biography
  • Neil Gaiman - American Gods (Audio Book)
  • Jennifer Saunders - Bonks

I’m now reading Footballer Gary Pallister’s biography Pally (Physical Book), On the side I’m picking my way through Paul McCartney’s Lyrics book, and on the Kindle Timothy Zahn - Thrawn Alliances (I usually have 2 or 3 books on the go in one form or another)

The next two books are about Footballers Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Juan Mata.

I have a pile of about a dozen Paper books to be read and about the same on Kindle, but I like to mix and match between Fiction, Auto/biographies, Historical non fiction and anything in between.

1 Like

Would you recommend it Wayne?

I recently read Breaking Twitter by Ben Mezrich and enjoyed it as a fictionalised version of the Twitter meltdown in the same way that Accidental Millionaires was a fictionalised story based on reality about Mark Zuckerberg.

Great thread, thanks @Bmosbacker

I got a couple of books for Christmas, so I’m reading those:

  1. God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens
  2. Rambling Man - Billy Connolly
  3. TBD

I have a couple of long reports to read (Royal Commissions ~ 1000pp) - do they count? :wink:

1 Like

Despite being a long time sci-fi and fantasy fan, I’d never read Asimov. This last year I’ve been working my way through the Foundation series.

Outside of reading for work, I usually have at least one fiction and one non-fiction book going. Current reads (I’m still near the beginning of each) are:

  1. Asimov, Prelude to Foundation
  2. Fitzgerald, The Evangelicals

The next read will be:

  1. Lackey, Valdemar

It’s the third in her The Founding of Valdemar series. I’m just waiting my turn for the e-book from one of the libraries I belong to.

The book is part detective story and part the story of a company that has created the technology I’ve been wanting for years. The ability to look at someone’s face and tell me who it is.

I would take a pair of Meta’s Ray-bans powered by Clearview.AI over the Vision Pro every time. But the technology is limited to law enforcement and government.

I enjoyed the book. Nilay Patel’s interview of Kashmir Hill for Decoder should give you a good idea what you can expect.

I’m on the last published book of the Slough House series (the inspiration behind Apple’s Slow Horses series). Not sure what my next fiction book will be.

Non fiction will be Show Me The Bodies, about the Grenfell fire.

Debating on changing my reading methods this year - last year I did all my ebook reading on my Kobo, but found reading and making notes on it for non fiction wasn’t the easiest, so think of going back to the Kindle and Kindle app. The syncing of notes is helpful.

Massive Asimov fan here. Even wrote to him as a kid and he was kind enough to write back. Not a fan of the TV series but probably because it doesn’t fit my memory of an 8y.o.'s vivid imagination. :roll_eyes:

Just finished enjoying season 2 of the tv series so looking to delve into the books. I assume you recommend them?

1 Like

I’ve actually enjoyed the TV series quite a bit, and it’s what pushed me to finally start reading Asimov.

They’re vastly different in some ways, but I’ve very much been enjoying both the books and the series — each for what it is.

1 Like
  • The Best Minds: A story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions - Jonathan Rosen (non-fiction)
  • Prequel: An American fight against fascism - Rachel Maddow (non-fiction)
  • Eastbound - Maylis De Kerangal - Translated from French by Jessica Moore (fiction)

I read lots of mysteries. I’m currently reading How The Light Gets In by Louise Penny. Next up is Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Others in the queue (library waiting list or purchased and not yet read):

  • The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
  • The Penguin Who Know Too Much by Donna Andrews
  • The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Almost all my pleasure reading are Kindle ebooks.

I begin every year plowing through as much of The Tournament of Books shortlist as I can manage before the tourney begins. (The ToB is the book nerd’s version of March Madness, complete with a bracket and a play-in round.) The real draw is the community that joins in the comments section of each day’s judgment: the discussion is lively, but friendly and caring. Plus, pet photos. Anyway, the challenge of trying to get through the list keeps me focused on reading books rather than skimming the internet.

As described by the organizers:

Every March, the Tournament of Books is a month-long battle royale among the year’s best novels. But it’s not really a contest. We’re not even sure it’s a “tournament.” What the ToB has been and will be, as long as we’re putting it on, is a month-long conversation about novels and reading and writing and art that takes place on weekdays in March.

This year’s shortlist:

  1. American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
  2. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
  3. Blackouts by Justin Torres
  4. Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky
  5. Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt
  6. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  7. Cold People by Tom Rob Smith
  8. Dayswork by Chris Bachelder
  9. Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
  10. Open Throat by Henry Hoke
  11. The Auburn Conference by Tom Piazza
  12. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
  13. The Guest by Emma Cline
  14. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
  15. The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
  16. The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling
  17. The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo
  18. What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

I’m not sure that every title on each year’s shortlist qualifies as one the year’s “best novels,” but even the ones that seem to come out of left field are worth checking out, and there’s rarely a book on the list that everyone hates. If you like reading current fiction, consider checking it out.

So far, I’ve read seven of the novels on the shortlist (Number 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11). Only eleven more to go! :grimacing:

1 Like

It’s one of my favorite books! I’ve re-read it more than once. (Really :blush:)

I’m genuinely impressed! This is my first attempt at War & Peace. :slightly_smiling_face: I hope I’m more successful than my attempt to read Moby Dick. I did not like it so stopped half through. I found it ponderous.

Currently reading the third of the Three Bidy Problem trilogy, The Dark Forest. Cixin Liu is a fantastic writer. And it’s fun to get a peek at the work of China’s top scifi writer.

Next up John Grisham’s latest, The Exchange.

Then, The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli. This is a reread via the print version of the book which I listened to on Audible. It’s about recent discoveries that give new insights into how time works. Mind-blowing stuff.

I saw the movie Moby Dick when I was a boy so Gregory Peck was still Ahab when I read the book. I’ve almost purchased the Audible version of War & Peace a couple of times, but am still unable to commit to 61 hours. My hat’s off to you.

Keep your hat on until I’ve read it. :joy:

1 Like

I don’t know if audiobooks are your thing, but I find that they make those big ol’ classic doorstops much less formidable, especially with a good narrator.

I’m a huge Melville fangirl, but even I think Moby Dick goes down easier as an audiobook.

PS: I’m the oddball who really likes all the battles scenes in War and Peace.

1 Like