Weekend Books & A New Challenge

Published on by Margaret

This weekend I’ve been reading:

  • The Private Patient by P D James. I finished this yesterday and I’ll be writing about it for the next Crime Fiction Alphabet post this week.
  • The Blood Detective by Dan Waddell. I started this a few days ago.

I see that José Ignacio from The Game’s Afoot has found an interesting challenge and it is indeed a challenge:

2011 Challenge ‘Do not Accumulate, Read!!’

The rules are simple, before you buy another book, make a list of six from your TBR pile and read them. Once done you can go ahead, buy the book and, of course, read it. At the same time make another list of six books before buying the next one, and so on and so forth.

This will be difficult as this last week I’ve acquired nine books (bought and borrowed) and so I should make nine lists (and read 54 books) before I buy/acquire any more. That is some challenge, so I’m going to start the challenge from today and read 6 of my to-be-read books before I buy any more!

The new to me books this week are:

  • Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffennegger. I’ve previously borrowed a copy from the library but took it back unread. It hadn’t appealed at the time, but when I saw it on a secondhand bookstall selling in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust I wondered if the time was right to give it another go.
  • The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann. This is my local book group choice for May. We chose a romance due to the Royal Wedding this month.
  • Small Island by Andrea Levy – borrowed from a friend because I enjoyed The Long Song so much and she said this one is better.

Then two watercolour painting books to help me paint flowers:

I hope these will help me to paint like this. (Click on image to enlarge it.)

I’ve also recently downloaded these onto my Kindle:

  • Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi – because I no longer have a printed version
  • THE COMPLETE FATHER BROWN MYSTERIES COLLECTION by G K Chesterton
  • The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
  • Gently Does It (Inspector George Gently 1) by Alan Hunter

I’m not sure what I’m going to read next, apart from The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann, because that’s the May book group book, but they will all be from my to-be-read books.

10 thoughts on “Weekend Books & A New Challenge”

  2. What a great idea. It’s not as limiting as some challenges were you never get to buy another book until your TBR books are read
    Thanks for the idea.

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  3. I don´t join challenges unless I think I´ll be able to succeed, but after April I definitely OUGHT to try this one. And I will, but not officially.

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  4. Wow, I’m not sure I could do this challenge, except I’ve been reading from my TBR pile as well as the new books coming in! lol I might try this after my birthday later this month. I wish you luck, and look forward to your reviews. I have The Private Patient on my shelf, waiting to be read.

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  5. Hi Margaret,

    I wonder, with the arrival of ‘Kindle’, or similar devices, whether that rule is going to apply? How easy is it to say, “my kindle will hold 3,000 books” and then keep downloading everything you like the look of, until that too is nearing capacity, with the majority of the downloads, languishing unread!!

    We gave a ‘Kindle’ to my mother-in-law, for an 80th birthday present and she has been busy downloading books, like there is no tomorrow, I wonder how many of them she has actually read?

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    1. Yvonne, I have a feeling I may have to not count Kindle e-books 🙂 It is so easy to add more books, especially if they’re free! Good for your mother-in-law – I’m impressed.

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  6. I don’t normally do challenges, but this is one I ought to consider before my bookshelves actually disintegrate under the weight of unread volumes. I do envy you having ‘Her Fearful Symmetry’ still to read. I think it’s better than ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’.

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    1. I do hope I enjoy Her Fearful Symmetry more than The Time Traveller’s Wife, because, whilst I thought the idea of it was good, it actually irritated me immensely. I didn’t like the use of the first-person perspectives and found it quite confusing plus the character of Henry annoyed me.

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  7. I really should do this too, but while I find it easy to resist book buying it is quite impossible for me to keep out of the library.

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  8. Hi Margaret, you’ve got a great blog here and I’ve bookmarked it to visit often. You’re so right with ‘do not accumulate, read!’ as I have about 100 books on my TBR shelves. I’m currently working through the ones written by authors who’ll be at CrimeFest next week, but I know I won’t come home empty-handed from that.

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