soylentgreen23's 50 books for 2009

1. The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein
A nice easy start to the year - or rather, that's what it was supposed to be. It took me a lot longer to read this slim volume than it really should have done.

2. Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
Another Gide novel - last year I read The Immoralist and frankly I loved it; this one is great too, although the quotes from French poetry, without translation!, were a little hard to bear.

Hi, Chris,
Nice to see you here at the 50 book challenge. I look forward to seeing all the books that you are reading this year. :) I never did get Brighton Rock read, but I continue to get positive comments on it, so I do hope to read it this year. Good luck with your challenge and have a great day!
--BJ

3. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
4. Drohobycz, Drohobycz by Henryk Grynberg

Ok, so it's nearly June and I've read 4 books - but I think I've still got a chance to get to 50!

5. A History of the Sciences by Stephen F. Mason

6. Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away by Richard Brautigan

Shame that number 6 is an omnibus edition, so I can only count it at as one...

7. Little Birds by Anais Nin

8. The Devil Tree by Jerzy Kosinski

9. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

11. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

12. Exterminate all the brutes by Sven Lindqvist

13. Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens

14. The Penguin History of Europe by J. M. Roberts

15. Candide by Voltaire

16. The Drought by J. G. Ballard

17. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

18. The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene

Wow - at the start of May I'd read 2 books for the year so far; a month and a bit I'm up to 18! Granted, I'd already started a couple of the books since finished, but I think it's pretty impressive all the same.

19. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
20. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

And having worked so hard to make up some ground, I see myself slipping back. I've got four months to go, and need to read 30 books, in that time; in other words, two books a week, more or less. Might prove difficult...

21. Gai-jin by James Clavell

I might not be quite up to speed on the year's reading, but I have at least read some epic tomes, like this one and Les Miserables, as well as a few dense pieces of non-fiction. It's been a good year so far, and not over yet.

22. The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark

23. The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Thuy Le

24. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

25. The Finishing School by Muriel Spark

26. Lost Japan by Alex Kerr

27. Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

28. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I'd always been put off this one because it was said to be so difficult, but it wasn't at all - it was a very rewarding read, in fact.

29. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

30. Embers by Sandor Marai

31. Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost

32. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

33. White Fang and The Call of the Wild by Jack London

34. The Outcast by Sadie Jones

35. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

36. King Rat by James Clavell

35 books in, and still half of October, all of November, and all of December to go. I think I'm in with a shout for the third year running :)

37. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

38. Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden

39. Silas Marner by George Eliot

Just visited your thread for the first time. That's a really great year of reading so far!

rocketjk - thanks! It's been a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to hit my target too.

40. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

41. On Writing Well by William Zinsser

42. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

43. Junky by William S. Burroughs

Closing in on the target now!

44. The Easter Parade by Richard Yates

45. Billy Budd by Herman Melville

46. Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty

47. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
48. Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga

49. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

50. Mademoiselle Fifi and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant

Fifty books! And it's only half-way through November - which means I've got another month and a half to push towards 60.

51. Being Dead by Jim Crace

52. Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq

53. Quantum of Solace by Ian Fleming

54. Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux

55. The Whales in Lake Tanganyika by Lennart Hagerfors

56. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

57. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

58. Port Out, Starboard Home by Michael Quinion

59. The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker

60. The Ghost Road by Pat Barker

61. Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham

62. First Person Singular by W. Somerset Maugham

63. The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham

64. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

65. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

66. Collages by Anais Nin