Note: TBRs are books I’ve owned before 1 January 2014.

This year I’m taking part in the 2014 Mount TBR Reading Challenge, which is aimed at reading as many of your own books as you can during the year, and also during January to the end of March I’m doing the TBR Triple Dog Dare, which dares you to read only books already in your TBR pile or those you’ve already reserved at the library (with allowed exceptions).

The TBR Triple Dog Dare doesn’t mean you have to stop acquiring books €“ you just have to resist reading them until after March 31st, but I rashly decided that I was going to try not buying books too. The important word there is ‘try’ – and I have tried. But imposing a ban on buying books is like deciding to go on a diet, which immediately means craving for the food you love but is not allowed on the diet!

I resisted until 5th February when I bought Testament of a Witch by Douglas Watt. I’d enjoyed Watt’s first book, Death of a Chief, so when I saw that this, his second book was a Kindle Daily Deal for 99p I just had to buy it. And today I bought Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver, another Kindle Deal for 99p. I’ve read conflicting views of this book but I thought it was worth risking 99p on this book. So my self-imposed ban on buying books is over.

I don’t count exchanging books at Barter Books as ‘buying’ books and in January I exchanged some books and yesterday as we were passing Alnwick we called in and I exchanged some more. I haven’t read any of them yet, so I’m still sticking to the Dare, but these books are tempting me to read them very soon:

They are

• The Journeying Boy by Michael Innes – because I read and enjoyed his book Death at the President’s Lodging. This book, first published in 1949, is another Inspector Appleby book involving murder and kidnapping.
• The Big Four by Agatha Christie – one of her Poirot books. Each time I go to Barter books I check to see if there are any I haven’t read. Yesterday there were several books on the shelves, but this was the only one I haven’t read – it was televised last year. It was first published in 1927.
• Moving on to more modern books with The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill. This is the sixth Simon Serrailler book. I’m behind in reading this series so, it’ll be a while before I get round to this book.
• The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. I was pleased to find this book in Barter Books as it’s one Alex had read and enjoyed and I’d added it to my list of books to look out for, described on the cover as ‘a triumphant novel of lives shadowed by war and redeemed by love.’ 
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell – because after all I did like his Cloud Atlas. This book is set in Japan in 1799 where Jacob de Zoet, a Dutch clerk encounters an adventure ‘of duplicity, love, guilt, faith and murder.’
• Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson Wright – another book I seen on another blog, this time Cath’s, and thought I’d like to read sometime. I was surprised and pleased to find it so easily at Barter Books. It’s her autobiography. I always enjoyed her cookery programme, The Two Fat Ladies, even if I wasn’t inspired to cook any of their recipes. She’s had a colourful life.

My book buying habit is fuelled by reading other book blogs as well as browsing the actual shelves at Barter Books and online at Amazon. I’m sure I’d get through my TBRs much quicker if I didn’t check out these sources – but what a lot I’d miss!

And will I hold out until April 1 to read one or more of these books?