2017 Mount TBR Challenge

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:

1. Salt to the Seas by Ruta Sepetys
2. City of Thieves by David Benioff
3. The Mothers by Britt Bennett
4. My Last Lament by James William Brown
5. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
6. Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
7. Lawyer Games by Dep Kirkland
8. Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Nix by Nathan Hill
10. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
11. Blood Defense by Marcia Clark
12. We Are Unprepared by Meg Little Reilly
13. Little Deaths by Emma Flint
14. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
15. Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
16. In the Clearing by Robert Dugroni
17. Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
18. Blood and Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant
19. The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner
20. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
21. Lilly and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
22. You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
23. Cambodia Noir by Nicholas Seeley
24. 300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson

Wish me luck!