Mount TBR 2016 discussion

I absolutely love this idea. I'm always banning myself from buying new books and planning to clear off my shelves but then "oh look that book's on sale, and the library just got that new one in, and this one is free to download onto my Kindle!" Hopefully this will give me some accountability :-) Wish me luck.....

Good luck, Fay! Thanks for joining us in 2016.

thank you - you too :-)

Good luck to you Fay and thanks for recommending Ready Player One. :) I have been meaning to read that novel for a few years now.

Good luck! It's definitely the free kindle books that get me!

Have fun with the climb ...see you at the top

Thanks Diane and Jessica :-)

So three days in and one book down. My first step up the mountain was Alex Marwood's The Darkest Secret. Good start to the year as it clears one off my Kindle and one off my Netgalley Shelf and it counts towards my Popsugar 2016 challenge. Happy dance :-)

Happy dance indeed!

Walking Dead book two makes two (and also counts as as Popsugar's graphic novel). I have six of these kicking around digitally and I always put them off because graphic novels "aren't my thing". Totally got hooked on these ones though and moved straight on to the next.

The Twins at St Clare's makes 3 :-)

4) From Dead to Worse

5) First Term at Malory Towers I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to read this with my children. They got bought the first three books a couple of years back and I've been waiting to share it with them.
Is it dated? Yes, but they still loved it. The heart of the Malory Towers series was "character". People strove to do their best and overcome character flaws. They grew relationships and kept on evolving. These things are still relevant today and still very much on the mind of children as they form their own personalities.
People have criticized me in the past for introducing my children to Enid Blyton books. They seem to think that the girls in them were downtrodden and this is a bad message to give. I ardently disagree. The girls at Malory Towers were constantly encouraged to excel at a variety of things and future careers were often discussed with girls aiming high, particularly for that time period.
People who make mistakes and apologize and learn from them are lauded, people who are cruel and spiteful get their just deserts and throughout there is an emphasis on working hard. Who doesn't want their children to get those kind of messages?

6) Armada Armada was added to my Kindle on release after I read and adored Ready Player One, but I kept putting it off. After enjoying his first novel so much I couldn't help but feel that Armada would be a disappointment. When the IGGLE January Challenge was issued as "read a book with aliens in it" this seemed like the perfect opportunity to reach for Armada. I was disappointed.
Now don't get me wrong, Armada is a good book but I couldn't help making comparisons to Ready Player One and it kept falling up short. The plot was very simplistic, the pop culture references were very specialized (gaming and sci-fi movies - I had to google a lot of the gaming references), and the ending was rushed and flat - in comparison, not in general. One of the other downsides was it kept referring to the Ender saga by Orson Scott Card which is another favorite so again I kept comparing and it kept falling up short.
My lack of enjoyment is totally on me. My mind set was skewed from the start. I would recommend this as a novel for sci-fi fans who are willing to laugh at the genre. It's fun and funny and makes sci-fi readers question a lot of what they buy into in a novel in way that shows the author loves these traps too.

7) The Martian Despite an overwhelming desire to read this book I've put it off and put it off for ages. I just didn't think I could cope with the level of anxiety it was sure to cause me. I can't stand "high-octane" thrillers, I'm more of a "lets meander and see how it goes" kind of 'gal. Reading Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void had fueled my desire even more so I suggested it to the IGGLE book group, who selected it as monthly read, and then I had to read it!
Despite the high levels of anxiety Weir's clever pacing and scientific details made it bearable for me. I have to admit I was a bit teary at the end though. And I loved Mark. Such an awesome narrator and all round smart guy. The clever use of the NASA psychologist explaining why Mark had been chosen for the mission made him believable as a person. Just wonderful. And seen as I'm already a little bit in love with Mark and a little bit in love with Matt Damon I can't wait to see the film.

8) Life I loved this. Wished I hadn't put it off for two months.

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed The Martian. It's on my TBR Mountain, as well.

Fay, I love that you read Malory Towers to your kids! I grew up reading the old, beat up editions of my mother, and still love to revisit this world where even the worst problems are solved within some dozen pages.

@Laura, I highly recommend The Martian. Mark's personality really shone through. Have you got any recommendations for me? :-)

@Sam, thanks, I can't believe the amount of online abuse I've had for it. Its unreal what people think they can say to strangers from behind a screen. We love them, including my boy and its so special to me. Have you got any other recommendations to share with them?

9) Second Form at Malory Towers.

Great start!

@Jessika, thanks, I hope I can keep going. I've kind of just checked out a bunch of library books and had some lent to me by a friend.....

10) War and Peace - yeah I did. I am now an official reader :-)

I'm jealous, you managed to finish War & Peace! This book has been sitting on my shelf for ages and every year I plan to pick it up but never do! I've watched both miniseries, the first one with Clemence Poesy and the new one with Lily James as Natasha and loved both of them, so maybe I'll finally find thr courage to start the book.

@natalia it was my first ever buddy read and it took us three months reading 20 pages a day. I needed the support because unless you're interested in the Napoleonic wars it's very dull. The mini series makes it all about the characters but the book is about 500 pages characters and 1000 war and history and Tolstoy's philosophy about both. Grab a buddy and give it a go :-)

So how does a buddy read work?

@Laura, not sure if everyone does it the same but we both read the same number of allocated pages each day. We read 10 in the Christmas run up and then switched to 20. Then we could talk about it on Twitter or Goodreads. We are so used to it now we have decided to keep go in and read all those books we should have read but haven't. We start Love in the Time of Cholera tomorrow. Please join in if you'd like to :-)

Fay wrote: "@natalia it was my first ever buddy read and it took us three months reading 20 pages a day. I needed the support because unless you're interested in the Napoleonic wars it's very dull. The mini se..."
That is an amazing suggestion, and 20 pages a day seems like a good pace, not too demanding and a sure way to finish! Thank you, I'll surely follow you on the advice!

Well, I definitely learned something new because I had never heard of a buddy read! Thank you for the invite & I may consider it in the future (& wished I could have done a buddy read to get through Unbroken!!!).

11) The Scorch Trials

12) The Death Cure

13) Third Form at Malory Towers

You've made Pike's Peak and half-way to your goal! Way to go!

Bev wrote: "You've made Pike's Peak and half-way to your goal! Way to go!"

Thanks, I'm hoping to complete my reading challenges and review commitments and really focus on clearing the shelves soon :-)

14) Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

Go, Fay, go! Great job!

Thanks Jessika :-)

15) Master of Gifts

16) Upper Fourth at Malory Towers

17) Assassin's Apprentice. This has been on TBR forever. I did like the story-line as a whole and I like the writer's style and pacing. However, by the end of the book I had no sense of the character's at all. It was like an endless stream of events that flowed over the people involved with none of them ever really instigating them. At the moment characterization is something that I'm particularly fond of (as all readers know this preference is subject to change at the drop of a hat) so unfortunately I'd have to give this three stars and say it was only OK. But OK is not bad and seen as I have all the other's a few more will hopefully end up on this list :-)

18) Oryx and Crake. Phenomenal! I've not read much Margaret Attwood. Sometimes I love her, sometimes I find her real preachy. I guess it depends on if her view points merge with yours and also when she wrote the novel. This one was really subtle and could be read on many levels. I will be thinking about this one for a while.

19) Dead and Gone - book 9 of the Southern Vampire Mysteries and my favourite so far

You're almost there!

@Beverley - thanks, it's getting there :-)

20) At the River's Edge (Chesapeake Diaries 7)

I loved Oryx and Crake too! I also really like the too companion books The Year of the Flood andMaddAddam. The whole trilogy was great!

@Kendyle, I will definitely be reading the rest, I just want let the ideas from Oryx and Crake and stew and settle a bit. GM foods and designer genetics aren't things I tend to focus on or worry about in general so I keep finding myself randomly musing about them.....I love when you find a book that does that to you :-) I normally only find a couple a year, this is 2016's first (and if I hadn't been focussed on the tbr pile I would have skipped it!)

GM foods and designer genetics aren't things I tend to focus on or worry about in general so I keep finding myself randomly musing about them...

Apocalyptic fiction is something I love to read and obsess about, and GMO foods are a particular interest since gardening is my other obsession. Which reminds me that I should get back to reading because my ability to climb the TBR mountains drops significantly once the weather warms and the yard beckons!

@kendyle, I love apocalypse and dystopian fiction too. Have you been reading the Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin. I am beside myself waiting for book 3 this summer. Have made a start on our garden today so it's ready to read in come summer :-)