Attacking the TBR Tome Challenge – result

Published on by Margaret

Emily’s challenge Attacking the TBR Tome is coming to an end. The challenge was to read or attempt to read 20 books from your TBR pile and to post on each one. And it was also not to buy any new books, or borrow any books from the library until you had read the 20 TBR books. I knew at the outset that I couldn’t do that and I didn’t.

I did, however, read  25 books during the year, all of which I owned before December 1st 2009. I only read two of the books on my original list (the first two listed below), but I did give myself the option of reading other books from my TBR piles and I read the following books. I’ve written about all of them except the last one, which I only finished reading yesterday.

  1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
  2. Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
  3. Drood by Dan Simmons
  4. Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin
  5. Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
  6. The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
  7. Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey €“ see also here
  8. The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin
  9. The Warrior’s Princess by Barbara Erskine
  10. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
  11. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie
  12. Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig
  13. Faithful Unto Death by Caroline Graham
  14. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
  15. The Falls by Ian Rankin
  16. Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
  17. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
  18. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
  19. Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett
  20. Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin
  21. The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin
  22. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
  23. Exit Music by Ian Rankin
  24. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
  25. Reflex by Dick Francis

I’ve signed up for a few challenges for next year that should help me reduce my TBR piles even further – except, of course, that I have added more books to the piles this last year.

6 thoughts on “Attacking the TBR Tome Challenge – result”

  2. I’ve been enjoying hearing about how well people have done with this challenge. I want to read more of my own books next year and have made my own little list to read from!

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  3. Hi Margaret,

    No way can I think about a challenge that prohibits me from adding to my TBR pile, or buying more books!!!!

    My TBR pile does need some urgent attention, but I have tried to convince myself that this can be achieved by reading more books…. convinced?

    I notice all the Ian Rankin titles in your list and know that I have many of them buried deep within. I am longing to get at them, but who knows when that will be!!!

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  4. In 2009, around October, I did an inventory of my TBR piles and found 166 books. I then created a list, followed by my blog created to help me journey through them (http://curlupandread.wordpress.com/).

    Those original stacks are now down to 100, meaning I carved 66 off those piles. Of course, I added new books (to my secondary TBR); I have read 138 books so far this year, which means that fewer than half of the books read came from those TBRs! But I am making some progress.

    I did keep track of books bought, too, and bought 43 books. That’s not too bad, considering my usual buying is what got my stacks so huge!

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  6. It’s great that you read so many from your TBR piles — good job! Even with all the reading I did from mine, my TBR piles aren’t any smaller because I keep buying books. Oh, well.

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