Amsa´s BFBs

Here is my list of BFBs in my challenge:

The magic mountain
#The Pickwick papers
Mawson:and the ice men of the heroic age
Brave story
Agaat
Slaktare små
The Queen, a biography of Elisabeth II
The brothers Karamazov
The seeds of earth
Parade´s end
(Existence) - gave up on…don't know if I´ll continue...
Joseph Anton: a memoir
De obotliga optimisternas klubb
The invisible bridge
Ensam i Berlin
#The goldfinch
Aldermann´s arvinge
#Nyckeln
2017
#The worst journey in the world
#The seventh child
#Just one evil act
#The Luminaries
Anarchy

I have decided to start with The Goldfinch although I feel I should start with one that´s been on my shelf longer…

Well, while I´m at it I´ll start another one - I´m going to listen to The Pickwick Papers. Nearly 18 hours of listening so it´ll take a while. I think it´s a good book to listen to. I can imagine it being read to me as it surely will have been to so many others.
I can´t say how many years I´ve had it on my shelf - maybe 20 !?!?…
And, by the way - I really like The Goldfinch!

Please, just so I understand..........
Ann-Marie, what constitutes a BIG FAT BOOK?

Any book over 600 pages in length qualifies.

Hi! Hope you want to join! You don´t have to read a certain number of books. Read one or twenty!

600 pages....................
Okay, count me in! I can't guarantee how many I will read this year but I always read a few of these big tomes.
Off to create my own thread for BIG AZZ BOOKS. Yea!~!

Well, the first one done! I´ve just finished The Pickwick Papers. I must admit that I hurried along a little because mr Dickens uses so many words and sometimes it just gets too much and a bit boring. I also shifted between listening to an audio-book and reading. This is definitely not my favorite Dickens-novel. If I remember correctly this was his first. I´m glad I read it though and there are some memorable characters.

Well done with The Pickwick Papers, one of my favourite Dickens !

Congrats on Pickwick! Off to a fast start!

Congratulations Ann-Marie on completing your first BIG FAT BOOK of the year. And Dickens no less. That's a lot of Dickens! I am afraid that I am going to be quite a bit behind you.

Thank you rainpebble! It feels nice to have a good start but I´m afraid I´ll not be able to keep that pace. There is always so much else one have to, want to or must read…
Happy reading!

The Goldfinch was a bit of a disappointment. I liked it the first 400 pages but then I started to wait for it to be so fantastic as everyone said. But it didn´t happen. I have given it three stars because I did like it, just not so much as i had expected. I have begun to listen to The worst Journey in the world and it is a fantastic book about a fantastic expedition.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

You've read 2 BFB and it's still January!

Yes, I add my congrats. You are kicking it! I have yet to begin my first BFB. I look forward to your comments on The Invisible Bridge. I read it in October & found it to be a wonderful read. I rated it 5 *.

Yes, I´m looking forward to read it. It may be a while since I´m now reading one BFB, one crime-novel, and is soon starting with Canada by Richard Ford which is my book club´s choice for february.

I have read a BFB that wasn´t initially on my list it´s a really good danish novel by Erik Valeur. It´s about a crime but not really a crime novel. I´s in some ways a political thriller - and with a few elements of magical realism. I liked it very much. It was one of those novels you don´t want to put down.

@ rainpebble - I just gave my sister a copy of The invisible Bridge for her birthday! I do hope she´ll like it.

>18 Amsa1959::
Ann Marie, I don't think you could have chosen better if TIB falls into any of the book categories that your sister enjoys. Excellent choice. You ROCK!~!

>17 Amsa1959::
Regarding your BFB by Erik Valeur, I went over to the book page and poor Darcia has written it's only review. She really didn't like it. But I think that with the Scandinavian crime/thriller novels, the reader needs to let the genre do a bit of brain blending before one is hooked. Once that occurs they definitely are hard to put down. They definitely "ain't no average bear." My only issue with myself & them is that sometimes they are a bit graphic for me but I just put them down for a bit until my head is good again. I will have to give your author a try.

The worst journey in the world is one of the best books I´ve ever read. A wonderful language and such an interesting telling of a very tragic expedition.

Now I´ve jumped to a totally different genre - I just started reading Existence by David Brin which I hope is a very good intelligent sf.

Hi Ann-Marie, I hope you enjoy Existence and put a review on when you finish it, it is on my TBR pile, hope you have had a good weekend. I used to have a penfriend from Sundbyberg in the early 1980's but when I got married we lost touch, I wonder what she is doing now.

Hello Ann-Marie. Just a quick fly-by-Hi!
You sci-fi fans are way over my head but I like to read your posts about them.
Cheers,

Well, I gave up on Existence. So disappointing. i really thought I would love it. I know some you have strong feelings about not finishing once you started but there are so many books to read and so little time and sometimes it does´t give any satisfaction at all (at least for the moment). I´ll keep in on my shelf though because I know that sometimes you start reading a book at the wrong time and if you try later on it may be a totally different experience. But for now, bye bye Existence

I hope your next one suits you better at the time Ann-Marie. I know that happens to me as well and has already happened to me in this group. I had to give up on Powell's The Dance of Time. My head just wasn't in the right place.
hugs,

I´m 1/3 in to the Luminaries and enjoying it!

Excellent !

So many and BIG books and SO little time….:((

Oh I know, right??????????

Well I´ve finally had some time to spend reading. I wanted something easy, exciting, mystic and good to read so I chose the third and final part of the Engelsfors trilogy, Nyckeln. This is a series of books about young witches living in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Sweden. It´s a great mix of modern teenager´s problems and old sorcery and an apocalyptic threat.
Here´s a link to a website: http://www.worldofengelsfors.com/the-trilogy/

Sounds like an interesting read, thanks for the link Amsa !

Those do sound interesting. I have begun to read some Y/A and find myself really enjoying most of it. And yes, thank you for the link Ann-Marie.

Oh my, I haven´t been here in a month! (I have been reading your progresses though). Well, The Luminaries is hibernating for a while - I do like it, I just needed to read something else for a while. I´m listening to Just one evil act and I like it a lot. It´s a BFB - her fattest yet I think - 720 pages. The mystery swirls back and forth and surprises you as soon as you think it can´t get any more complicated. Here in Sweden it´s finally getting warmer! We have had such a cold spring. Soon you can sit under a tree reading!

Finished Just one evil act. I liked it. It made me remember why I used to like her novels so much. It´s always nice to read about characters you feel you know and in Elizabeth George´s novels you never know how things will turn out.

Now I´ve finally finished The Luminaries. It´s not one of my favorites. It is very well written and has an interesting story and characters but I just lost interest in it. Don´t know why though. I´m glad to have read it. Now I´m reading Anarchy by James Treadwell. It´s no 2 in the series that started with Advent.

Happy New Year Amsa. I hope we get an opportunity to read our BFBs in 2015. I kind of fell down in the latter part of the year but am really looking forward to this group in the New Year.