Reading TBRs & The TBR Pile Challenge: May Checkpoint

Published on by Margaret

In the context of this challenge and also the Mount TBR Challenge TBRs are books that have a publication date before 1/1/2014 (ie any book published in the year 2013 or earlier qualifies, as long as it has been on your TBR pile). It does not include all the books you’ve acquired since 1/1/204 even though they are, of course To Be Read books too!

official tbr challengeIt’s time for the MAY Check-in for the  2015 TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader! We’re now almost half-way into the challenge, which is to identify and to read 12 books during 2015!

Question of the Month: If you could go back and edit your list to make ONE change, what do you think you would have done differently? A book or author that you wish you had included? A book that you wish you hadn’t bothered with?

First of all  this is my answer to Adam’s question – I wish I hadn’t included The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower, which I have put back one of the books on my shelves, at least for the time being, as I found it so confusing and I don’t like the fact that  it’s written in the third person present tense, which I find awkward. I bought this book 7 years ago and like to think that I am more careful now in choosing books and would avoid books written in that tense.

My Progress: 2 of 12 Completed – I am way behind! I’ve read The Burning by Jane Casey and The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. The books for this challenge are shown in the sidebar to the right.

So, why am I behind when the books on the list are ones I’ve identified as ones I have owned for a while and want to read? One of the reasons is that I’m a great believer that there is a right time to read a book and often these books are not the right books this time. But there are other reasons too:

  • I start reading one of the books from the TBR Pile and find it difficult to read because it’s in a small font, or it’s very heavy/bulky to hold, so I read something else.
  • Or it’s very long and I fancy reading something shorter.
  • I keep reading about interesting books on other book blogs and want to read those now, so I either borrow them from the library, which means I have to read those first in case I can’t renew them, or I buy them and start reading them straight away.
  • Then there are books I read for my local book group which I have to fit in each month.

I’ll have to overcome these reasons if I’m ever going to read those books!

10 thoughts on “Reading TBRs & The TBR Pile Challenge: May Checkpoint”

  1. You state many of the reasons why my TBR pile grows. I didn’t participate in this challenge, I don’t remember which books I acquired when, many from blog posting refereals.

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    1. Irene, I think I’d like to be less concerned about when I acquired books and then it wouldn’t bother me so much that I haven’t got round to reading some of them and be happily reading the ‘newer’ books. 🙂

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  4. I couldn’t agree with you more, Margaret, that there’s a right time to read a given book and a wrong time. I’ve often picked up a book and put it back again after deciding it wasn’t the right time. I always like to give those books at least one more go before I decide the book’s not for me.

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  6. Your reasons for not starting a book from your TBR pile are exactly the same as my reasons!
    I’ve decided that i will prepare a TBR list of “new” books. So every time i read a great review of a new book, instead of placing a hold on it from my local library, i will add it to my list instead.
    Hopefully this will allow me to read the ones i already own.
    My book clubs still present a problem, but perhaps i’ll attend every other month to give myself some “reading” room.

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  7. I’ve only read 2 of my list too, and it’s already May. My problem is that #3 is quite long (over 700 pages) and I can’t read too much of it at a time, so it’s taking awhile.

    I think TBR challenges are good because I’m starting to use them to winnow out books I got because I thought I should read them rather than I really wanted to. I’m getting better about making lists, and I totally agree about right book/right time phenomenon.

    Good luck with tacking the rest of your list!

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  8. Marina – thank you, ‘haunt’ is the right word!
    Margot, I’m always reluctant to give up on a book too.
    Jessica, thank you.
    Icewineanne – I do have a TBr list of books I read on other blogs – the trouble is whenever I go to Barter Books (a huge used bookshop where you can ‘barter’ books) I take the list with me – I’m going today and I’m hoping to find some off the list to replace the ones I’m returning. This does not reduce my pile of TBRs, I know 🙂
    Jane, you make me feel better about only reading two, and about winnowing out books too!

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