20 day book challenge
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
4/20
#booksky
#20books20days
#bookchallenge
#20daybookchallenge
20 day book challenge
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
4/20
#booksky
#20books20days
#bookchallenge
#20daybookchallenge
20 day book challenge
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
3/20
#booksky
#20books20days
#bookchallenge
#20daybookchallenge
20 day book challenge
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
2/20
#booksky
#20books20days
#bookchallenge
#20daybookchallenge
20 day book challenge
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
1/20
#booksky
#20books20days
#bookchallenge
#20daybookchallenge
That’s all that really matters!
Incredible autumn sunset at the end of the garden tonight. Tomorrow tropical cyclone Vaianu is due make landfall just up the coast. #nationalemergency #civildefence
Going to blame @causticcovercritic.bsky.social for recommending this. Slightly disappointed with the cover on the UK version!
Finally got a copy of Evil Genius into the country! Thank you @poingu.bsky.social for writing some real gems!
New Arrival! ‘The Palm House’ from Gwendoline Riley landed today. If it is anywhere near as good as ‘My Phantoms’ then I will be very happy. #booksky #bookpost
Book no19 of 2026. Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire (ex-poet laureate of NZ). My favourite poem of the year so far: “No one should come to the door dressed like that.” Leave everything else to the imagination. Lots of fun and nostalgia from a poet not afraid to have multiple first persons. #booksky
Book no18 of 2026. The Interview Rose by Elizabeth Smither. 52 short poems where we meet swimming cows, garden frogs, a robot vacuum cleaner, Marie Antoinette, and brush the cat a hundred times. Some lovely observations on life and a poetic critique of Jane Austin’s Emma. #booksky
This is an absolute gem, one of my favourite books of 2024. The three part story Threat is fantastic - an expert in blood splatter, what are the chances?
Title seems to match the photo. The hair is certainly wild. Loved both books as well.
Sounds excellent - went looking for a copy online, but initially only found this…
Thank you - had never seen the view from above before now.
Book no17 of 2026. My Bourgeois Apocalypse by Helen Rickerby. 41 prose poems consisting of random sentences from journals, lists, plans, dreams, conversations, emails, and everything else, including Italian lessons. Often like a series of non sequiturs. Why, I wonder? #booksky
Book no16 of 2026. Queen by Birgitta Trotzig. This was very bleak. Set in southern Sweden in the 1930s, written in the 60s, the story of a farming family that is eventually run by the daughter, Judit, when father and brothers fail in the job. Very little fun, but great cover! #booksky
Book no15 of 2026. Vigil by George Saunders. A version of ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ repackaged for the era of climate consciousness. Oil tycoon is supposed to be helped gently into the next life but lots of spirits turn up with objections to his lack of remorse. #booksky
Book no14 of 2026. Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman. A realtor shows a disgraced professor around an idyllic house. Helen, who used to live there is manifested to give advice to the prof about his wife. I thought it would be better. #booksky
Begins with a ‘C’ and rhymes with ‘eye’?
Love the Canongate Myths series. I’ve cobbled together quite a few over the years. Early on they had Donna Tartt down for a volume, but I guess her 10 year novel cycle meant it wouldn’t be ready until 2037.
I agree!
Somehow I will get a copy of this to the far side of the world…
Book no13 of 2026. The Black Monk by Charlotte Grimshaw. A work of meta fiction where NZ writer Grimshaw fictionalises her own dysfunctional family, including her father CK Stead. The monk that appear to central character Alice is called Anton, and seems to be her way into writing fiction. #booksky
True - a good way to escape a missed deadline at the publishers.
Don’t be like T.E. Lawrence who lost the 250,000 word first draft of ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ at Reading station and had to rewrite from scratch (and memory because he burnt his notes after finishing the draft!).
Book no12 of 2026 The Silver Book by Olivia Laing. Great mix of genres; gay love story, noir thriller and Italian cinema. Great sense of being behind the scenes on 1970s film sets. Perhaps doesn’t go far enough to parallel the fascists who were behind the death of Pasolini and events today. #booksky
Here on the other side of the world it’s not the coastline that’s eroding but the land itself, as we suffer another few days of heavy rain (due to warmer oceans and climate change) bringing more landslides.
Book no11 of 2026 The Black Monk by Anton Chekhov. A short story which inspired a book I’m about to read. A haunting monk makes the life of Andrey Kovrin wonderful, then everyone thinks he’s mad talking to empty chairs. Everyone dies; all very sad and Russian. What else did I expect? #booksky