Some years ago a friend gave me a copy of the bio of Emma Darwin by Edna Healey, It has lain unread and yellowing among my various TBR piles. I started it a couple of weeks ago and, though no fast-paced or galloping tale I am finding it a gentle read . . . suitable for last thing at night.

I took six tbr to my book club last night to choose our next book. I now know I will at get through one of them in the next month!

PAM

Reader_in_Transit, TBR books are books I acquired and planned to read, but stacked up unread for an extended time. Based on that criterion, Y is for Yesterday is not really a TBR book. Although if I had not sat down and read it for a while, it would have turned into one!

How are they different from other books I read? They are mostly books by authors I already know and enjoy, or books I greatly anticipated reading for some reason. Then for some other reason (laziness? distraction?) I "saved" them for a later time.

Rosefolly, well said!

PAM

I have had Janet Evanovich's "Top Secret Twenty-One" on my TBR pile for a long time. I paid top dollar for it on the day it arrived at the local bookshop rather than pick it up cheaply later at a supermarket, then I never managed to read it. I have started a few times but had something else arrive from the library which took precedence.

But, would you credit this, I borrowed and finished the next one in the series! I just seem unable to get into No. 21 for some reason.

Annpan, thank you for your Heyer suggestions. One of these days...

Kathy, you are welcome. it is hard for me to pick a favourite or even several!

I have enjoyed most of her work. Not the medieval ones so much, although apparently she loved writing about those times. I found it hard to relate to the characters.

Last night I finally opened and started reading Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett, which has been TBR since it was published (I always pre-ordered his books and occasionally received them before the official publication date). I was disappointed by the last Pratchett book I read (Snuff) and at the same time I have been dreading finishing all of his books, but I figured I had to read it some time or other or let it go. It has started out well and I'm looking forward to coming home from work tonight and continuing the read. It will probably be a long time until I can bring myself to crank open The Shepherd's Crown, the final book

Great, Kathy.

I'm reading the latest Jeanne M. Dams book set on Mont Saint Michel, The Missing Masterpiece. All the Dorothy Martin books are similar, but I like them. She is a nosy former American teacher living in a cathedral close and married to a retired police detective, and in many of the books they travel to interesting places.

I've found that one danger of diving into the TBR pile is that if I like one of the books I've finally gotten around to reading and it has a sequel or sequels .... ack! I just bought four more books this week. However, they will be read immediately and won't add to the TBR pile. (Kathy's chart is exactly right!)

OK - I have officially read one of my TBR list. It was a biography of Dave Allen. It was quite entertaining, but reminded me to go onto Youtube and look up a few of his old shows. He was a very funny man - if a little irreverent... :)

Now onto a book called A Brief History of Everyone who Ever Lived. It's by Adam Rutherford, and it's about genes. Interesting so far.

Martin, I remember Dave Allen. We used to view his show in Australia late on Friday nights, usually munching on pizzas we had delivered for supper. So one memory goes with another!

He liked to make jokes about his missing finger if I recall correctly?

We also used to love Dave Allen and his 'irreverent' jokes. He had a good line in priests/bishops/vicars . . . and I especially enjoyed the one about the nun outside the pub. :-)

Dave Allen but NOT the nun & pub joke

Yes, I love the one about the nun outside the pub too :)

I've seen him do his live show on stage on two occasions. He used to start by saying "If any of you don't know what I do in these shows, I just walk around and talk - and I'd be very obliged if you would refrain from doing the same!"

And annpan - yes - at every show he would say "People ask me - are you the comedian with half a finger? And I say - no - I'm the comedian with nine and a half fingers!"

He was quite brilliant.

"People ask me, what religion are you? I tell them, I'm an atheist, thank God!"

I've found the nun outside the pub joke! First one in this series.

Dave Allen - Nun outside the pub joke (and others!)

Thanks Martin. Always good to start the morning with a laugh.

Thanks Martin; I thoroughly enjoyed that!

Finished TBR#5, Morning Star by Pierce Brown, the third in a trilogy. For some reason I had the worst time reading it. Finally done, and it wasn't a bad book. If I'd read it right after the first two it probably would have flowed better for me,

Right now I'm reading a nonfiction book on roses to take a break before I go back to my TBR attack plan.

Alison Weir's "The Lady in the Tower" was on my TBR pile for months. I finally got around to it, am half-way finished, but I fear I may not be able to read it to the bitter end. We all know what happened to the unfortunate Ann Bolyn. Weir is making the case that she was flirtacious, but innocent of all the charges of adultery. I am convinced Weir is correct by her meticulous scholarship, but I just don't think I can get through all the gory details. So little time; so many books....

Two more TBR books nearly finished: Mary Roach's Grunt (the science of going to war - very interesting!) and an old Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There. I'm enjoying them both, and I actually have a visible gap (OK, it is perhaps a book and a half wide ...) in the TBR bookcase.

Sheri - A visible gap is impressive, no matter how narrow. <smile>

I had a TBR mini-disaster. One of my dogs decided, for the first time ever, that she needed to counter-surf because she missed me. She is quite young, just past her first birthday. We adopted her as a pup from some very sad circumstances. And she has developed separation anxiety as a result of being well-treated (okay, spoiled rotten) here with me. So, back to the books... she had, unfortunately, pulled down (and shredded) five TBRs. I am now feeling guilty because I am a wee bit relieved to be able to avoid those five stinkers that had been haunting me. The dog, alas, is fine. I believe she feels very little remorse.

PAM

PAM - That sounds suspiciously like the age-old "the dog ate my homework" excuse. (Except I believe you!)

My D's dog did the same thing, chewing a book, when my D went away for a few days. D says she thinks it is the glue that attracts them!

Sheri, I need to get my hands on Grunt. I enjoy Mary Roach's writing and she is so good at finding interesting angles for exploring the subjects she writes about. I recently read her Packing for Mars, and I am already eager for more.

Pam, it sounds like the dog did you a favour ;-)

Since pets have been mentioned: my cockatiels were always nibbling at my books and while they have both gone to the great roost in the sky, I will be reminded of them for as long as I own the books they marked.

I started reading The Devil in the White City, which has been TBR for a while. I'm only on chapter 1, so the 50-page readability test isn't done, but I like the writing so far and I love a good history book, so I expect I will finish it.

I culled several books from my TBR stack and a few of my other books, and made room in my book-case for a new influx of TBR books. I find I am moving away from buying romances and crime novels and buying more fantasy/urban fantasy and non-fiction, especially popular science and history books, possibly because I realised that I am more likely to keep those after I have read them. I am working myself up to do a major cull of my cookbooks, because I have all but stopped using them and instead turn to the Internet when I need a recipe.

Pam, re dogs eating books--- been there, done that. My male Samoyed devoured a paperback and the female Sami ate a hardcover art book. (I agree it was the smell of the glue). Both survived and lived long and happy lives, despite all the other goods of leather and cloth that they digested.

We have bookshelves under the windows of the dining part of our kitchen. It's where we keep cookbooks and assorted non-fiction. When we realized our terriers were never going to outgrow chewing paper and fabric, we had doors with wire inserts put on them. They are actually very pretty, and you can still see the books, so I really like them

Sounds pretty, Rosefolly. I have the same but without pets or the wire inserts.

I've now read Neil Gaiman's "The Anansi Boys" which is sort of a followup to "American Gods". I've tried it three or four times, and never really got into it. But I finally finished it. It's not too bad - but not anywhere near as good as American Gods.

Still reading "A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived". It's interesting, but a bit dense...

Martin, would you say one has to have recently read American Gods to fully enjoy Anansi Boys? I read the former several years ago and the latter is in my TBR pile and I'm wondering whether or not to reread American Gods before I tackle Anansi Boys.

One more out of the TBR pile. I read The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys (recommended here, though I can't recall who did -- Rosefolly, perhaps?). It was a lovely little book.

I also have Anansi Boys in my TBR pile. I know I read American Gods at some point, but I remember very little of it, so I have the same question as Netla.

I read American Gods years ago and enjoyed it, then later read Anansi Boys and did not like it nearly as well. I plan to re-read American Gods at some point but won't bother to re-read the other novel.

An amazing thing happened with my TBR pile. Despite having read several of the books in it, it is now at least twice the size it was before I started this project. I can't blame my Christmas presents, because most of them were cookbooks and they don't count.

Mysterious are the ways of books.

Didn't you know they multiply in the night, Rose? Otherwise, why are all the bookcases in my house stuffed full?

Ah, that explains it! And like cuckoos, they push the DVDs from the shelves onto the floor, I notice!

The pile of books on my nightstand was frustrating me. No room for my glasses, charging cell phone, box of tissues, glass of water, and other assorted night time necessities. I decided to keep only the book I am currently reading on the stand, and moved the rest of the pile to a nearby shelf on the bedroom bookcase.

Bedroom bookcase, you ask? Of course there is a bedroom bookcase. That is where I keep my very most favorite books.

My bedroom bookcase is where I keep books I haven't read yet, including those from the library, my small notebooks of books I have read, and my precious travel guides. My daughter and I are off to Scandinavia, ending with a couple of nights in St. Petersburg, this summer. I haven't got that guide yet, but I did get two Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas.

Oh, and a vase of bookmarks on top of the bookcase.

I like it that you keep your bookmarks there. Perhaps I will move mine!

Also like you, I keep my travel books on that bookcase. They qualify as favorites, don't you think? Tom and I are just back from our third trip to New Zealand. We are thinking of a trip to Croatia and Slovenia next year. We thought that it was time to expand our horizons.

Do you go on trips by yourself or use tours? We have done both and have combined one with the other at times. I think bringing my daughter home from Hawaii at 2-1/2 months old on an Army transport ship must have done something to her. I like to travel, but she is far worse than I am. She likes to work away from home and fly home on alternate weekends. She likes to read, too. Marked for life.

Rick Steves' book on Eastern Europe was excellent for Prague, Cesky Krumlov, and Vienna, after which we joined a tour of Croatia and Slovenia that ended in Budapest. I confess to being inwardly amused when a rather snooty woman asked me where I got a pretty embroidered tablecloth and I answered Budapest. She said "Oh."

Love that story.

We usually have a tour as a base but then add on a few days on our own, or an additional destination. If we go to Europe we often add a few days in England to visit friends there.

Me again. I went book shopping today. I buy many of my books online or at a chain bookstore, but make a point to go to a local independent a few times a year, just to keep them around. I came home three books richer and $$$ poorer. My TBR pile now approaches two dozen lovely and intriguing hardback books.

I need to get back to work!

Hi Rosefully - Just wanted to ask how your TBR challenge went (or was going)? ... :-)

I've actually set it aside for now and am reading different books. We are considering moving to a new location in a different state, though we have run into some difficulties that may prevent it from happening. In any case I thought that if I end up having my books packed for an extended period of time, I might be happy to have a couple dozen or so that I have not yet read, that I could keep by me until we were all settled.

The problem we ran into is Tom's hobby, amateur radio, AKA ham radio. It involves using a large antenna tower. While the FCC decrees that by law towers can not be banned, many communities put so many barriers in the way that it is actually impossible despite the law. Personally I can understand restricting them on small lots where they are in your neighbor's face, but surely if you have an acre or more, they ought to be permitted. He actually has two at our current home and we are in the middle of a densely populated area, Silicon Valley.

We fell in love with a house and were actually in the process of making an offer when the city told us No Antenna. Now we are starting all over in a different community. I must admit to being deeply discouraged. Personally I don't care beans about ham radio, but Tom has always fully supported my activities, and I support his.

If we do succeed, I'll let everyone know our new location.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, my late BiL was a ham radio enthusiast.

This network was the main means of communication when a cyclone hit the city of Darwin. In a vast country like Australia, this can be vital. I don't recall any objections to his tower, even though he lived in a suburban housing estate.

My father was a ham radio operator, and thus I have always had a soft spot for those who practice this hobby which does, in fact, perform a vital service. There is a network here in Maine that is considered to be a first line defense in case of natural (or other) disasters.

I hope you find a new dream home!

My husband is also ham radio operator, though he hasn't done much with it lately. We recently moved and haven't put the antenna up yet. We're still in the same town, and had a tower antenna and a good-sized roof antenna at the prior house without incident. I'm not anticipating any complaints in the new neighborhood as we have a good bit of woods around us and a full acre (fingers crossed).

Good luck with your house search Rosefolly, I hope you find something wonderful!

I'll keep you posted. The first town we explored was adamantly against it, much to our dismay because we fell in love with a house there. We are now looking at another town which also is resistant to radio towers, but it seems that we may be able to live in the county just outside the town and have a tower. We are exploring the possibility. Fingers crossed! There is a house we like there as well.

R

Rosefolly, I mentioned this to my husband and he suggested contacting the ARRL. They have been known to take up cases like yours pro bono and have sometimes sued in order for the federal law allowing the ham radio towers to be upheld. Might be more hassle than it's worth, but it is an option. Good luck!

It is a good suggestion, but I think Tom does not want to engage in a bitter fight. If it comes to that, we'll stay where we live how, where he already has two towers.

I've always though it was very Tolkienesque.

To any who are curious, Tom and I have decided not to move after all, and will spruce up our present home instead. This releases those TBR books for me to start reading. That is, once I get caught up on the garden work I have been neglecting in favor of the now-abandoned house hunt. We've had a warm winter with almost no rain, so the garden is acting as though it were spring already. Not a good thing, for a number of reasons.