December Reading Goals

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November beginning TBR: 349

November ending TBR: 367

Next year I really got to work on that TBR. Oh well, at least this includes books for a lot of the challenges I’ve signed up for in 2024. But more about that next month. For now I’m working on finishing up a few challenges, some seasonal reads, and a re-read or two for December.

Here’s what I plan to read:

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Key Lime Crime

March

Five Winters

Homecoming

The Hidden Staircase

One of my ARCs

The Dark

Last Christmas In Paris

Jayber Crow

The House Without A Christmas Tree

Prey

Nora Webster

The Haunting Season

An Unfortunate Christmas Murder

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

The Bear and the Nightingale

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November 2023 Reading Goals

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October beginning TBR: 332

October ending TBR: 349

I thought that number would have gone down since I read so much last month, but I guess I’m still adding faster than I read.

My goals for November are to read two ARCs, take part in #NonfictionNovember, make progress on my #ReadingUSA challenge, and to keep up with a Don Quixote and A Glass Of Blessings buddy reads.

Here’s my reading plan for the month:

One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith

From Beer To Eternity by Sherry Harris

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

High by Erika Fatland

President Garfield by CW Goodyear

Blood From A Stone by Adam McHugh

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Collaboration is the New Competition by Priscilla McKinney

The Mystery of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

The Bill of Obligations by Richard Haass

The Ice at the End of the World by Jon Gertner

The Suspect by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen

My Life In France by Julia Child

Moontiger by Penelope Lively

Don Quixote (Part 1) by Miguel de Cervantes

A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym

Llama Drama by Anna McNuff

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

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March Reading Stats

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Mabry Mill

Mabry Mill

March was a great reading month. We had a few days that were perfect for reading outside, plenty of audiogardening, and a short road trip that supported my reading habits. I noticed I was quick to bail on books that didn’t grab me right away. I have mixed feelings about bailing on books, but overall I do think it allows me to read more books that I like.

Total Read: 17 books read - 6 audio and 11 print. As I mentioned I bailed on five others.

TBR: Started at 849 and ended at 852. Could I have really added 26 books to my TBR? I guess so. I really need a month off to read.

Challenges: Reading Asia -1 (Nepal), Food and Lit - 1 (Ethiopia), Bookspin Bingo - 5 Bingos!, Reading Canada - 1, Chunkster Challenge - 52% done with Les Miserables

April should mean warmer weather for gardening and reading outside, but it also means spring sports for the kids so we’ll see. I have some good books planned for the month, so that should keep me motivated!

The Saga of my TBR

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My main bookish goal from 2017 was to reduce the size of my TBR list from 363 to 300. It looked like I was going to do it too. I read a lot of books this year, and weeded out the books from my TBR that I figured were never going to get read. Then I really started using the Litsy app, and discovered a search function on my library's website that showed which books were getting a lot of holds. A few 2018 book challenges, and going through my bookshelves and finding a stack of books I own, but have never read...

Today I forced myself to do a year end accounting, and tallied up all of the books I had on my to read list on Litsy, and on my holds list at the library, and added them in to my LibraryThing TBR. 

I'm up to 427 books on my TBR.

So, I very enthusiastically failed my reading goal this year. The good news is I have 427 books to choose from in 2018. My goal remains the same as in 2017- get my TBR back under 300 books.

The 20 oldest books on my TBR

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I started using Library Thing in 2014 to track the books I've read, and to track the books I want to read. This makes me sound like Angela from The Office, but I find Goodreads to be a bit too flashy for my tastes.

Today I was shuffling through my TBR and realized I had books on there that dated from the inception of my account in 2014. That inspired a new reading challenge. If I don't read these 20 books by the end of 2016 I'm taking them off my list.

I'm going to post the covers here. If you want the amazon.com description click on the cover.

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Books that make me want to read other books

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Everything I've read about Mary Karr's The Art of Memoir has been positive, but I've put off reading it because someone said it would cause me to add dozens more books to my TBR. Since my list usually hovers around 400 books, I'm a little scared to read a book that will add to it. So, I'm putting that one off until I can get my list down to 375 or so.

It wouldn't be the first time a book forced me to add to my TBR. It was Kelly Corrigan's Glitter and Glue that got me to try My Antonia, and Katherine Reay's books always have me tempted to spend my whole paycheck on Barnes & Noble Classics. So, it's not a bad thing that a book will cause me to read other books. I just need to put it off for a while. For the sake of my family. And my future employment prospects.

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