Mount TBR 2013 Reading Challenge discussion

The failed mountain climber returns. Somehow, last year, joining this group gave me an excuse to buy loads more books - after all, I was reading the older ones too, wasn't I?

And I need to stay in Canada, so I'll shoot higher.

1.Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
2.Dinge, die verschwinden
3.Wolf Hall
4.Consuming Passions
5.The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
6.The Lighthouse
7.Du côté de chez Swann
8.Die Eismalerin
9.Death Comes To Pemberley
10.Red Dog
11.A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs
12.Eine Frau bei 1000°
13.Mario und der Zauberer/Unordnung und frühes Leid
14.The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures
15.The Garden of Evening Mists
16.Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon
17.Le Côté De Guermantes
18.The Bridge of San Luis Rey
19.Der Tod in Venedig
20.Bring Up the Bodies
21.The Spectre of Alexander Wolf
22.Erklärt Pereira
23.Sodom and Gomorrah
24.Nine Lives
25.Swimming Home
26.La Prisonnière
27.Albertine disparue
28.Le Temps retrouvé

Number 1:My review of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.

You can do it :-).

Do what? Miss the target by two books again? (LOL)

Ah, yes, the "I'm reading what I have, so therefore I can buy... a few dozen more.... whoops?" TBR logic. I know it well. MUSH! ONWARD!

Uh, yeah. I have a couple *hundred* I've bought just since October that I haven't bothered logging into GR yet. You guys are NOT alone...

Number 2: my review of Dinge, die verschwinden

It's only 94 pages, so not a huge effort, and I was aided by the fact that I had to wait so long at the doctor's. This would have made a perfect bag book, but I read it at one (painful) sitting.

A biggie under my belt: Wolf Hall. Number 3.

Tally so far: 3 from the TBR.
3 new books bought.

My only excuse is that one of those was for teaching purposes - it's work, I had to have it. But the other 2 were self-indulgent.

Wolf Hall certainly makes up for the 94 pager. Much heavier going. LOL. But for all that, I loved it!

Well, I've given it the full five. I'm still thinking about a review.

It was five stars for me too :-).

Number 4: Consuming Passions.

I did check Bev's rules and my status updates: this one just squeaks in under the wire for 2013.

A couple of reviews:

My review of Wolf Hall

My review of Consuming Passions

Onward!

Karen wrote: "A biggie under my belt: Wolf Hall. Number 3.

Tally so far: 3 from the TBR.
3 new books bought.

My only excuse is that one of those was for teaching purposes - it's work, I had to have it. But th..."


You've only bought 3 new books? That's all? I've read 3 from the TBR and added 20. I don't think that's the way it was supposed to work. :-)

Ha! Bev, storing up for next year?!?

I forgot to do my tally: 4 books read from the TBR pile.

Books bought: 7

I'm gradually going in the wrong direction too!

Karen wrote: "Ha! Bev, storing up for next year?!?"


Storing up for next year? Karen, my dear, I have enough books stacked up in mountain ranges to last for the next decade or so! And---I've now read five and 1/2 books from the TBR stacks and bought five more just today for a nice little total of 25 new books for the New Year. I've got a book-buying habit that just won't quit.

Keep it up Bev, you're making me feel so much better ;-).

Jemidar wrote: "Keep it up Bev, you're making me feel so much better ;-)."

Glad I'm doing something right with all that book-buying. Lol.

Ah well, I suppose we just have to accept that we are book junkies. I' m over with my Mum and Dad right now, and dangerously close to several branches of Waterstones. I will have to remind myself of the strict weight restrictions on my luggage coming back.

You can always post them back instead of packing them in your luggage :-).

Number 5 is The Hare with Amber Eyes. Proper review, link and so on when I get to a computer rather than the little iPod.

I've had taht one on my radar list for eons... look forward to your review.

Interested to see your review...it's in my TBR pile along with Wolf Hall.

I know you're all on tenterhooks, so here it is!

My review of The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss

Gorgeous, gorgeous book. Loved it.

Oh, and I left it with my Mum. She's had a cataract removed, which means she's able to enjoy reading again.

Karen wrote: "I know you're all on tenterhooks, so here it is!

My review of The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss

Gorgeous, gorgeous book. Loved it.

Oh, and I left it with my Mum. She's..."

Good for your Mum! So glad she's able to enjoy reading again. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't.

Sounds great. If The Hare with Amber Eyes is like Sebald, I'm not going to be able to resist :) ....

Another one:

My review of The Lighthouse

I've got to get ahead as there is going to be a time soon when I have to read up lots for a new course I'm teaching, and those are all newly bought tomes.

Tally for the year so far: 6 from the TBR. 13 new.

Karen wrote: "My review of The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss

Gorgeous, gorgeous book. Loved it."

Perfect review... I think I will splurge and buy this one for my self, in paper and everything.

PS: which Sebald did you mean? or did you mean in general?

Just in general really, the idea of a journey taking you as much to places in your own mind as on a map, a journey as meditation/memoir/musing. De Waal had to visit the real houses of the people he was writing about to get a sense of their lives, and we see him crossing the road and taking the walk to school that his great-uncle took, that kind of thing. And also because it's not easy to categorise. It's part history, part memoir, part travel.......

Number 7 is another really meaty one: Du côté de chez Swann.

I know re-reads don't count, but I don't think I ever managed more than the section called Combray before, far less than half, so it's going in there.

What can you say about Proust?

Not much.

Karen wrote: "Number 7 is another really meaty one: Du côté de chez Swann.

I know re-reads don't count, but I don't think I ever managed more than the section called Combray before, far less than half, so it's ..."

I want to read this one too but I'm intimidated...

It does have a bit of a reputation doesn't it?

I'm reading it with the Year of Reading Proust group here at GR:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/7...

which is a huge help. And taking time over it. And in fact there are unsuspected rewards, it is a lot funnier than I had remembered. Really - social satire, some very tart observations.

Ufff.
Finished number 8: a book from Iceland, read in German(!)
Not terribly enjoyable.

Die Eismalerin

Review to follow.

Review following: not very enthusiastic

Number 9.

My review of Death Comes To Pemberley

Two months in to the year, and I'm a quarter of the way through, this is looking good at the moment. It will never last.

Enjoy the view from up there! Looking forward to reading your review of Death Comes to Pemberly. This is another book that's on my tbr pile, too. I was more enthusiastic about reading it when I bought it...funny how that happens :)

Very mixed reviews from my friends and acquaintances so I am looking forward to your review too.

Review is up.

I reckon it's a book that's bound to disappoint: Austen fans don't like the death plot, and James fans will find the setting and pace curious.

By the way: That is 9 out of 16 so far thus far. But I'm afraid I've rather lost count of how many new ones bought:-(

And number ten: a very short one, but it counts too.

I had to take a couple of days off with a stinking cold and vomiting, only just getting back into reading again.

My review of Red Dog

Hope you feel better soon!

Jemidar wrote: "Hope you feel better soon!"

Thanks, J, I'm well on the mend. Just a cold, and am eating again to make up for lost ground.

There are some nasty bugs going around.

PHEEEEEEEEEW! Great long sigh of pride and relief at the same time; I finished the next volume of Proust! Tada!

I don't know if I'm going to review it. There's nothing to say that hasn't already been said.

Hi Karen! What do you mean 'staying in Canada'? That's my home. I see you're in Germany, also my heritage. If you look at the photo in my thread (Carolyn, level 4); I too love buying books in bulk! I'm going to a sale this week. heeheehee

Hi there! Well, last year, I just fell short of the challenge which was, if I remember right, Pike's Peak, a Canadian mountain. SO I decided I needed to stay in Canada and go for another Canadian one.
Can't really say why except that Canada almost feels like home too - a very close connection in that our younger daughter married a Canadian last year and is now living in Toronto.

I thought you might mean mountains (in the west and nowhere near Manitoba) or you were sampling Canadian authors.

Congratulations to your daughter! Toronto is nice. Make sure she visits more. Just like Berlin doesn't represent the rest of Germany, nor is London anything like the rest of England; she must experience her new country. :)

Foolhardy of me perhaps, but I made the bold move and reviewed Vol 2 of In Search of Lost Time:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

And finished number 12 too, thank goodness. It was annoying me, glad to get it over and done with. That's me one third of the way through, and am also spot-on target with having half the books I read come off the TBR shelf.

My review of

Number 13 at last! I'm slipping back a little, here we are at the end of May. I need to read 3 per month to stay on track, only 1 is not going to get me to the top.

My review of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures