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TBR Shelf, 2019
For a few years there I was keeping up on a TBR shelf posting pretty regularly, but the last couple years I fell off badly. However, inspired by
1. an ever-growing TBR shelf (againstillalways)
2. an EMBARRASSINGLY low number of books read last year, and
3. a conversation with a friendI have decided to declare 2019 the Year Of Clearing The TBR Shelf.
I may also declare it the Year of Re-Reads, as I really want to re-read John Lee’s Unicorn Saga to see if I still need to be carrying those books around in print (not that I can find them available in e-book). Same with Julie Dean Smith’s Caithan Crusade, which ARE available in e-books (with lovely covers, too!), and…well, I’d like to re-read Michelle Sagara’s whole Cast series, but perhaps I shouldn’t be overly ambitious right now. :)
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To Be Read 2015
I am declaring 2015 to be Read Books By People I Know. Realistically I will, of course, read books by people I don’t know, so to make this work I think I’ll have to make every other book one by Somebody I Know.
It may take 2 years to clear my TBR shelves of books by people I know, at that rate (and that’s assuming I don’t buy any more…), but it’d be a start. :) (oh, there’s 35 of them at the moment, not counting whichever ones I’ve missed. I *could* in theory read all of those this year. Although there are several cases, like with Juliet’s books, where I want to re-read the first book before going on to read the rest of the trilogy, or where I currently only own the first book and will want to read the rest of the series when I’m done with it…okay, it’s gonna take two years… :))
The really important question here is whether interacting with people on Twitter and LJ counts as knowing them, or if I have to have met them in real life. Granted, that affects…perhaps two…of the authors on my shelves at this point, so maybe it doesn’t matter.
I’m going to try to pick up with my GGK re-read, too. It turned out the book that stopped me wasn’t the one that I hadn’t cared for 20 years ago, but the one with the ending I hate. I tried it two or three times and never got past the first few sentences, because I was pre-emptively pissed off at the finale. I can’t decide if I should just skip it now or try one more time.
I declared a moratorium on book buying in 2014 and it was a terrible failure. This year I’m out of shelf space so I might be a little more successful. Or try harder. :)
Behind the cut lies the almost inevitably incomplete To Be Read list. Books with a star beside them are first-in-series and are being moved to the end of the list so I don’t buy even more books for my TBR this *year*, anyway; books in parentheses are books I, uh, bought this year. O.O
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TBR shelf doom
I’m afraid the TBR shelf has gotten totally out of control again, and I have two SFF conventions coming up. This cannot bode well. But it’s not my fault! We went to America, where there are thousands of different titles you can’t find here! I found Barbara
HamblyHamilton’s Abigail Adams murder mystery series! I got Michelle Sagara’s CAST IN FLAME (which is my new favourite of the series, OMG, the action! OMG, the end!)! I got new Jack Campbell books (I love them. they do exactly what they say on the tin)! I got a new Lawrence Watt-Evans book, and then I learned he’ll be at Shamrokon so I can get him to SIGN it (and more importantly, also my 25 year old beat up copies of the Misenchanted books!!!!)! I got Carol Berg’s new book (which has a glowing cover quote from some CE Murphy person)! I got–I got a whole bunch of cosy mysteries (in the name of research, NOT THAT I’M STARTING A COSY MYSTERY SERIES DARN IT) and I took pictures of literally dozens more because I couldn’t possibly buy them all or remember their titles but I might want to later! :)
Also, ever so slightly in my defence, Mom gave me several of her already-read mystery novels so those have been added to the stack too, even though I didn’t technically buy them myself. :)
Next year I really *am* going to have to limit myself to reading only books by people I know personally, just as a way to get through the backlist. The question then becomes whether people I’ve interacted with on Twitter count…
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updating the TBR list
for my own benefit, so i can find it again. i tell you what, though, i’m reading a lot more than is geting stricken off this list. i’m afraid that might mean i’m still buying books… o.o (sequels! they’re all sequels! they’re…well, some of them are sequels…)
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2014 Thinks To Do
Okay, so big plans for 2014 include:
– rewatching the Ron Perlman/Linda Hamilton Beauty and the Beast as part of a year-long thing with Stephen Aryan and Liz de Jager. We might even have a weekly Discussion Blog about that week’s show. Anybody who wants to can join in!
– (re)reading all the Guy Gavriel Kay novels, of which there are now 12, one a month in publication order, again with weekly discussion. We’ll be starting with THE SUMMER TREE in January, with a goal of reading 4 chapters a week. The first discussion post will be here on January 7!
– perhaps (re)reading the Barbara Hambly Benjamin January series, of which I now have all the books (in hardback no less! squee!) and which are among some of the best books I’ve ever read. I don’t know if I’ll start this in January, but I think I’ll do it.
– working my way through the To Be Read Shelf, with the goal of reducing it by about 70% before buying any new books.
Of course, I have no idea when I’ll write, with all that stuff to read and watch… :)