A Blogger's TBR Challenge for 2010

14 years ago

Found this entry on the blog "Age 30+ - A Lifetime of reading" and thought it was interesting... Here is the actual description of the challenge... Obviously, we're one month behind, but with most of us being voracious readers, I don't think that will be a problem.

** Pick 12 books Â one for each month of the year - that youÂve been wanting to read (that have been on your "To Be Read" list) for 6 months or longer, but havenÂt gotten around to.

** OPTIONAL: Create a list of 12 "Alternates" (books you could substitute for your challenge books, given that a particular one doesnÂt grab you at the time)

** Then, starting January 1, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31. )

(for more information, please read the challenge FAQs)

By the end of the year you shouldÂve knocked 12 books off of your TBR list! (of course, if youÂre anything like me, youÂll have added *at LEAST* 12 more to the ever-growing pile by then! LOL).

The good news is, though, that youÂll be making some progress! ;o)

Additional rules/guidelines for this challenge:

* the challenge is to read 12 TBR books in 12 months Â you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you wanna do it.

* you should have a list posted somewhere for others to see

* you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, of the current year!!!

* you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list).

* audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed

* re-reads are NOT allowed, as they arenÂt TRUE "TBRs"

* you CAN overlap with other challenges

I am going to be thinking about this today at work, and then get my list of 12/12 books tonight when I can peruse my book shelves. This looks like a good way to get some TBRs off the pile as they been there FAR TOO LONG!

Anyone else interested?

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to actual blog

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Comments (21)

veronicae
14 years ago
I'm going to list my 12 here after creating it in word.
veronicae
14 years ago
Wedding of the Waters (Bernstein)
Intruder in the Dust (Faulkner)
The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
The Rising Tide (Shaara)
Mayflower (Philbrick)
Bleak House (Dickens)
That Old Ace in the Hole (Proulx)
All the Laws But One (Rehnquist)
Unkn()wn Quantity A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra (Derbyshire)
Death on a Friday Afternoon (Neuhaus)
Abigail and John (Gelles)
Mr./ PopperÂs Penguins (Atwater)

Alternate List:

Cape Cold itÂs Peoples and their History (Kittredge)
Talk to the Hand (Truss)
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (Weaver)
The Widow of the South (Hicks)
God, Evil and Suffering (Thiel)
Inferno (Dante)
Angels in the Whirlwind (Benson)
The Complete Stories (Flannery OÂConnor)
Good Wives (Ulrich)
A MidwifeÂs Tale (Ulrich)
Codes, Puzzles and Conspiracies (Shasha)
Almost a Miracle (Ferling)
The Judas Field (Bahr)
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lemonhead101
Original Author
14 years ago
Interesting list, Veronicae... A good mix of old and new... Did you just go along and pick out what looked good from your book shelves or is there a plan of some kind behind your picks (besides the actual challenge, I mean)?
veronicae
14 years ago
I actually trudged upstairs and looked at my TBR shelf and thought about which ones I really felt that I wanted to read the most. A couple I have started and been distracted from. At one point I figured if I read a book a week, I could clean off that shelf in about 2 years (given that some books might take 2 weeks!) Several are gifts from my kids, and I feel guilty I haven't read them (they were either gifts from my Amazon wish list, or books they did a great job of picking based on my interests). Oh, Mr. Popper's Penguins I bought for myself after I got it last year for my Grandson's birthday - he tells me I have to read it.
veronicae
14 years ago
Oh my, I just noticed a couple of serious typos on that list. My apologies to all.
lemonhead101
Original Author
14 years ago
Here is my list of 12 first-choice TBR books (in no particular order):

* Tell Me Where it Hurts - Dr. Nick Trout
* Finding Manana - Mirta Ojito
* Journey Through Britain - John Hilleby
* And Ladies of the Club - Santemeyer
* The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
* New Grub Street - Gissing (Hi PAM!)
* Mapp & Lucia - EF Benson
* The Road to Wellness - TC Boyle
* Writing Home - Alan Bennett
* The Great Mortality - John Kelly
* The Knife Man - Wendy Moore
* Moscow Stories - Graham

Alternate List:
* Kim - Rudyard Kipling
* Watership Down - Richard Adams
* Under an English Heaven - Robert Radcliffe
* Divisidaro - Michael Ondaatje
* Cross Country with Grandma - Karen Testa
* An Imaginative Experience - Mary Wesley
* Night - Elie Wiesel
* A Ship of Paper -- Scott Spencer
* Waterland - Graham Swift
* Stillmeadow Sampler - Taber
* Wuthering Heights - Bronte
* Cry, Beloved Country - Alan Paton

That should keep me occupado for a while. Plus I also want to finish the Barchester Chronicles which I am enjoying and then there's the movie to watch... :-)

My goodness - work does get in the way of things, doesn't it?
Chris_in_the_Valley
14 years ago
I'm game. Will you allow me two novels that have long been on my TBR list that I really have already read this year?

The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman is a regional novel of high repute about life in the western North Carolina hills during and after the Civil War. It has always been on my list, but one of those "good for you" novels that the inner child avoids. The local library was having a talk by a poet who knew Dykeman and so I rushed to read in 2 days a book that's been on my mother's shelves for 50 years.

The Guernsey Literary.... by Barrows and Shaffer. I was rushing here to read the discussion now that I've finished and saw your thread first.

Now I must come up with the next 10. My books are still boxed so I'll have to think about it more than a little.
elliottb
14 years ago
My TBR list:

* The Dead Beat (Marilyn Johnson)
* Provenance (Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo)
* Charlie Wilson's War (George Crile)
* Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008
* Verbatim (Erin McKean, editor)
* Word Freak (Stefan Fatsis)
* Donnie Brasco
* Bridge of Birds (Barry Hughart)
* Traveling Mercies (Anne Lamott)
* The Science of Sherlock Holmes (E.J. Wagner)
* The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)
* The Accidental Masterpiece (Michael Kimmelman)

Alternates:

* Kim (Rudyard Kipling)
* Up in the Old Hotel (Joseph Mitchell)
* The Aztec Treasure House (Evan S. Connell)
* The Shadow Divers (Robert Kurston)
* The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)
* The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)
* A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)
* A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)
* The Habit of Being (Flannery O'Connor)
* Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks)
* On the Shoulders of Giants (Robert K. Merton)
* Dry Storage Room No. 1 (Richard Fortey)
netla
14 years ago
I tried to do a similar challenge last year, using books I had owned unread for over a year. I drew up a list of 50 books that I wanted to read and managed to finish something like 20 before the list became a chore and I never felt like reading the books that were left on it. I ended up deciding to change the challenge and read a minimum of 5 TBR-for-over-a-year books per month for what remained of the year, and found that a much better arrangement.
lemonhead101
Original Author
14 years ago
Managed to cross two of the TBRs off the list:

* Tell me where it hurts (not bad in the end)
* Finding Manana - really really good

Next up - not sure...
lemonhead101
Original Author
14 years ago
Read and thoroughly enjoyed "Journey Through Britain" by John Hillaby. Written in 1968, the author walks mostly avoiding roads when possible, from one of Britain (Land's End) to the other (John O'Groats in Scotland). Witty in a lot of places, he's rather like a more scholarly Bill Bryson in how he presents his material... Very enjoyable.

Veronica, Chris/Valley and Elliot - how are your yearly challenges going?
veronicae
14 years ago
I am laboriously enjoying Intruder in the Dust. The fact that I find re-reading the last page to page and a half helps me get back into reading the book fluently and not working at it, is lengthening the reading time. I am about 40pages into it, and not wanting to stop, although it is certainly a harder read than most of the books I have read lately.

Since it is Lent, I am also reading Death on a Friday Afternoon. More of a meditative read, it is going slowly, but is an effective book for a Lenten project.

Nothing finished, but well on the way and enjoying both of them.
Chris_in_the_Valley
14 years ago
1. The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman DONE
1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Barrows and Shaffer DONE
2. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
3. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
4. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
5. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
6. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
7. Hyperion by Dan Simmons DONE
8. The Leopard by Giuseppi di Lampedusa
9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
10. Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
11. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Still need a list of alternates, but thought I'd go ahead and post my list.
elliottb
14 years ago
I'm in the process of reading "Charlie Wilson's War" and it is quite good. I saw the movie with Tom Hanks that was based on the book and liked it, but as usual the book is better than the movie.

I haven't read any others off my list.
lemonhead101
Original Author
14 years ago
* Tell Me Where it Hurts - Dr. Nick Trout - DONE
* Finding Manana - Mirta Ojito - DONE
* Journey Through Britain - John Hilleby - DONE
* And Ladies of the Club - Santemeyer
* The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
* New Grub Street - Gissing (Hi PAM!)
* Mapp & Lucia - EF Benson
* The Road to Wellness - TC Boyle - DONE
* Writing Home - Alan Bennett
* The Great Mortality - John Kelly
* The Knife Man - Wendy Moore
* Moscow Stories - Graham

This is working out quite nicely for me... How's it going for you other guys? I am thinking "Mapp and Lucia" might be next...
lemonhead101
Original Author
14 years ago
* Tell Me Where it Hurts - Dr. Nick Trout - DONE
* Finding Manana - Mirta Ojito - DONE
* Journey Through Britain - John Hilleby - DONE
* And Ladies of the Club - Santemeyer
* The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
* New Grub Street - Gissing (Hi PAM!)
* Mapp & Lucia - EF Benson - DONE
* The Road to Wellness - TC Boyle - DONE
* Writing Home - Alan Bennett
* The Great Mortality - John Kelly
* The Knife Man - Wendy Moore
* Moscow Stories - Graham

This is working out quite nicely for me and I am enjoying the sort of "directed" reading side of it. How are you others doing? Is it fun or a grind for you?
lemonhead101
Original Author
13 years ago
Here is my list of 12 first-choice TBR books and how I did with this challenge:

* Tell Me Where it Hurts - Dr. Nick Trout - Read
* Finding Manana - Mirta Ojito - Read
* Journey Through Britain - John Hilleby - Read
* And Ladies of the Club - Santemeyer - Didn't Finish
* The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
* New Grub Street - Gissing (Hi PAM!)
* Mapp & Lucia - EF Benson - Read
* The Road to Wellness - TC Boyle - Read
* Writing Home - Alan Bennett
* The Great Mortality - John Kelly - Read
* The Knife Man - Wendy Moore
* Moscow Stories - Graham

Alternate List:
* Kim - Rudyard Kipling - Didn't Finish
* Watership Down - Richard Adams
* Under an English Heaven - Robert Radcliffe - Read
* Divisidaro - Michael Ondaatje - Read
* Cross Country with Grandma - Karen Testa
* An Imaginative Experience - Mary Wesley
* Night - Elie Wiesel - Read
* A Ship of Paper -- Scott Spencer
* Waterland - Graham Swift - Read
* Stillmeadow Sampler - Taber
* Wuthering Heights - Bronte - Read
* Cry, Beloved Country - Alan Paton

So, I was quite happy with that. Some of these titles have rolled over to the 2011 TBR list, so we'll see if this year can get them completed.

Elliot, Chris and Veronica - how did you fare?
veronicae
13 years ago
OK - so I am almost finished with my first one!

Bad news...I didn't do a very good job.

Good news...I won't have to make a new list this year.

My plan: to alternate new books with these. Also. to avoid the library reservation system. It's so easy to put a book on reserve, pick it up and read it. However, since the time allowed to read it is limited, the other books get put on the back burner. So I have purchased a small quality note book, in which I am listing books I would like to get from the library - and will use the old fashioned search the shelves method for selecting library books.
twobigdogs
13 years ago
I missed this challenge last year. It sounds like great fun. Lemon, please try New Grub Street! It is GREAT, one of the best books I've ever ever read.

PAM
veronicae
13 years ago
OK - Into 2011, and I have finished one book on the list! Abigail and John is done.
lemonhead101
Original Author
13 years ago
Veronicae - Yeay! Good job...

PAM - I will do my best to read Gissing this year, so I can then see what you perhaps like about him... :-)

A Blogger's TBR Challenge for 2010

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