Like many book bloggers, I have a love-hate relationship with my TBR pile. When I hear about a book I want to read, I get all excited and immediately add at it to the TBR. It doesn’t really matter if it’s an ARC or a back-listed title. It could be a debut or the latest release of a beloved author. It could be a novella or contain over 1000 pages. If I even think I might want to read it, into the pile it goes.
I define my TBR pile as everything on my Goodreads “To Read” shelf, all the physical copies of books I own and haven’t read, everything on my NetGalley shelf, and everything unread in my Kindle. Hundreds of books. And considering that for every one I read, I probably add two, I know I’ll never get completely out from under it. And that’s fine. While it sometimes gives me a little angina, it also means that every time I finish one book, I have lots of options for my next read.
That said, I sometimes get so excited over every brand new book, I don’t make it make to the TBR pile as often as I should. This is very sad because I have some amazing titles in there. I just seemed to get distracted. Like Dory the fish.
But luckily, I’ve discovered the solution to all of my TBR troubles in the form of the 2017 Mount TBR Challenge, hosted by My Reader’s Block. Given the Dory thing, I thought it best to be conservative and sign up at the Mount Blanc level. This means I will read 24 books in my existing TBR pile in 2017. Here they are in no particular order:
- Salt to the Seas by Ruta Sepetys
- City of Thieves by David Benioff
- The Mothers by Britt Bennett
- My Last Lament by James William Brown
- We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
- Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
- Lawyer Games by Dep Kirkland
- Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Nix by Nathan Hill
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- Blood Defense by Marcia Clark
- We Are Unprepared by Meg Little Reilly
- Little Deaths by Emma Flint
- A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
- Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
- In the Clearing by Robert Dugroni
- Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
- Blood and Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant
- The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner
- The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
- Lilly and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
- You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
- Cambodia Noir by Nicholas Seeley
- 300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson
Wish me luck!
Good luck with the tbr – it’s a noble challenge
Thanks, Jill! Let’s see if I can make it happen…
Thanks for joining the 2017 Mount TBR climb! Good luck!
Thanks, Bev, for hosting! And for offering a level I can commit to. 🙂