One Day

I got really into David Nicholls' One Day. Really easy read and enjoyed the story. Brilliantly observational, with loads of quirky and amusing characteristics that were rather too easy to relate to at times (I won't specify which ones rang true for me!). The realism to the writing made the characters seem far less fantastical than a lot of fiction, and I thought the pace of the book reflected the lightening speed at which life really does seem to fly past. The trouble is (and I suppose this is part of the problem in reading a book that's had so much hype) I read so many reviews of this being an incredible, moving, heart-breaking book that I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't blown away. My tissue box remains untouched, and I haven't spent any time sobbing into my pillow. And being a typical woman I definitely love a bit of drama in my life so any book that can draw the tears is a winner for me... Still, a good start to the reading challenge. On with To Kill a Mockingbird now. I have actually read this one before, but it seems like a good excuse to enjoy a few of the classics again. I'm going to have to try and pick up the pace a bit though. Fine line between getting through as many of these as possible and actually enjoying the books as I read them!

The challenge...

It's a really bad idea to ever say the world 'challenge' to me. I can't help but bite. And so when I was browsing Twitter for the latest updates and saw that the World Book Night top 100 had been announced, closely followed by the setup of a #WBN100readingchallenge hashtag I was bound to get on board. So here it is, the start of a somewhat impossible task of reading all 100 of the shortlisted books. Have a look at the list http://www.worldbooknight.org/your-books/the-wbn-top-100-books
The idea is to get through them all before World Book Night, which occurs on the 23rd April 2012, but that would give me roughly two days per book(!) so while I'm willing to have a bash at reading them all, I'll be making a few allowances for having a full time job, writing this blog, having something of a life etc. and be aiming to read as many of the 100 as possible... Better to start with a bit of realism ;)
In light of the likely impossibility of getting through all of them, I'm going to start with making my way through all the ones I've never read before. That makes the list a little less daunting. I'll post the amended list to this soon, feel free to make recommendations of which ones I should go for first. I'm thinking alternate the easy reads with the heavy subjects and tough writing - all motivating comments will be really welcome!
And before we get into too much geek-bashing - yes I love books, yes I use Twitter, yes I live alone, no I do not have cats or smell of wee. Yet.
So, onwards with David Nicholls' One Day since it's in every bookshop window in sight at the moment...