Mount TBR 2014 Challenge discussion

Hi, I'm new to the group! I know I'm joining the challenge late, so I decided to ease into it with the Pike's Peak level. I have a tendency to buy 5 or 6 books at a time, and then only read 2 or 3 of them. I hope this challenge will encourage me to conquer that TBR pile!

Here are the 12 I picked. This list isn't final, but does include some of the oldest books in my TBR pile.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

It's lovely to meet you, Jessika. I save sci-fi for motion pictures but enjoy fantasy. My favourite genres of all are the paranormal / mystical (including non-fiction!) and mystery. If you know how reading challenges run, other than those that have activities along the way, there's no such thing as starting late. Everything you've read from January 1 onward (in this one) counts towards your tally. I'm Carolyn in Manitoba. The idea isn't about ceasing purchases. A paper book person grabs deals where we find them so that wouldn't make sense. It *is* about encouraging you to read a bunch of what you already have. :-)

Welcome Jessika, nice to meet you. I too am a sci-fi fan but enjoy all kinds of books. I've read two of the books you hope to read, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and My Sister's Keeper. I thought both were excellent. Even though I'm doing this challenge I still can't resist buying books... well they'll do for next year's Mount TBR challenge if I don't read them before. LOL!

Hi, Jessika! So glad you've joined us! Good luck with your climb. And as for buying more books...I just came back from a little book-binge (birthday trip!) and added 28 more to my teetering stacks. I'll just have to find a way to read faster! :-)

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Don't know why I bother selecting my books in advance, because I never stick to the list! Well, ok, I did read one from the above list so far.

1. Acquired in 2011. 3/5 stars. I enjoyed the book, the first in a trilogy. I've seen the movie and I wonder if they condensed the trilogy's overarching plot down to fit into one movie. The premise of the movie was similar to the book, but the movie definitely covered more ground while skimming on the details. I guess I'll see if I'm right when I read the rest of the trilogy.

2. Acquired 10/2013 as a kindle freebie. 2/5 stars. I love memoirs, one of my favorite genres, but this didn't really grab me. It was more of a teaser, I think, to encourage readers to read more of the author's work, but the stories the author selected were just kind of boring. It was super short, so at least it didn't waste too much of my time... Don't think I'll read more from this author.

3. Acquired 5/2013 as a kindle freebie. 3.5/5 stars. Part one of a 4-part episodic story. I really enjoyed this story and bought the other 3 stories today. I like Ted Dekker as an author because he writes interesting thrillers without the gratuitous violence that makes me sick to read.

4. Acquired 8/2013 as a kindle freebie. 3/5 stars. Entertaining read, zombie story, but overall I'm kinda done with the zombie fad. First in the series, but didn't hold my interest enough to make me want to buy the others.

Jessika wrote: "Don't know why I bother selecting my books in advance, because I never stick to the list! Well, ok, I did read one from the above list so far..."

I do the same thing! Once I try to put books at the top of my list they don't look as appealing anymore for some reason and I choose something else, usually at random.

Allison wrote:I do the same thing!"

Obviously I love to read, but when I was in school, I hated assigned reading for the same reason - don't tell me what to read! Only just recently read To Kill a Mockingbird, which everyone else in the world read in middle school. Hehe :)

5. Acquired in 2011. 4/5 stars. 2nd in the trilogy, the story was a lot more interesting than the main character jumping to new places over and over like the 1st book. Not exactly thrilling dialogue, but not bad enough to deter me. After reading the 1st book, I thought that maybe the movie condensed the trilogy into 1 movie, but so far NOTHING from the 2nd book was even close to the movie! Maybe the 3rd book will bring it all back together. Otherwise, the movie took A LOT of artistic license by adding tons of stuff that wasn't even close to the plot of the books... But anyway, liked the book!

Jessika wrote: "I hated assigned reading for the same reason - don't tell me what to read!..."

I wonder if this is related at all to why I had to join this challenge. Purchasing a book is almost like being told you have to read it!

6. Acquired 4/2012 as a kindle freebie. Hard to rate for me... writing quality 5/5 stars, but the story was confusing and the main character was really unlikeable, so I gave it 3/5 stars. I don't know how many times I thought to myself "This book is so frustrating, I should just quit reading it."

7. Acquired 8/2013 as a kindle freebie. Very cute YA, I enjoyed it a lot. 4/5 stars. Went to buy the 2nd book but it isn't out yet! Oh the problems with starting a series that isn't completely written!!

I thanked you for your sweetest words in my new discussion thread. On the subject of series, I'm the opposite. I try many authors who wrote decades before I was born. It's still a long wait to collect the next volumes I need, because I'm real book only and love the quest of finding them! You probably guessed that, by the release years I like showing with my lists. Q;-)= Carolyn.

Carolyn - as a rule, I don't like to start series that aren't completed because I'm so impatient! Maybe I should read some oldie-but-goodies like you!

Thanks for another smile, Jessika, in another way! You might change your mind when you find that many favourites died. Eek! At least living authors will churn out more and that's a happy wait. My favourites today are, like you'll see on my list: Juliet Blackwell, Nancy Atherton, Kate Kingsbury, Annette Blair, Kate Carlisle, Stephen King.... My blog has a menu with all of my reviews in alphabetic order, all years. :) www.CMRiedel.wordpress.com

Wow, you write a lot of reviews! That takes dedication. Do you write a review for every book you read?

Yes. Thank you very much! The only ones I skipped are a couple of 1 or 2 stars. To be sure you differentiated: the menu marked 'guests' are the reviews of my reading challenge participants. The other two, including 'Canadian' are mine. Yes, I review every one. I intend to be an author and identifying why I like and dislike a book is part of my self-training. Plus to keep writing when I'm not doing anything with the actual manuscript-writing. :-) I'm really happy you visited.

That's a good point, reviewing books to specifically articulate what you did or didn't like about a book. I just give the star ratings, and then sometimes go back and think, "Did I really give that 5 stars? What was so great about that book?"

Uh oh, my friend who works at a used bookstore told me today is the last day of their warehouse sale. $3 a bag! Guess I'll be adding to my TBR for next year!

The more the merrier. It ain't hoarding if ya use it and we be readers! ;-)

Well, I got 14 books for $3! Not bad! 6 of them are Sue Grafton mysteries. I've read "C" and "G" and always thought it would be fun to make it through the whole series. I think she only has X, Y and Z left to write, so surely they will be out by the time I'm caught up!

Good haul! I aced recent sales too. I have all of Sue's but never cracked a spine. Volume "A" made it to our bedroom, from our library building, a few months ago. It's a strong possibility this year. I wonder how many shop with lists similar to mine: alphabetized, going by "need" or "already have" depending on what's shortest. GRIN!

8. 3.5/5 stars. No idea when I acquired this book, but I had it when I joined GR in 2011. My love for David Sedaris comes from a middle school teacher of mine who often read his stories (the clean ones, anyway) to us in literature class. I think that may have been the start of my love of memoirs. Enjoyed this one, literally laughed out loud during some parts.

Third Quarter Check-In

1. I've read 8 out of 12 books for Pike's Peak. Not bad, since I started this challenge at the end of July. I've read 5 additional books during that time that don't count for this challenge, so I feel pretty good about that, too.

2A. My favorite character so far has been Davy from the Jumper series. He has the special ability to teleport, but is still a relatable character.

2B. This is cheating, but Jumper and Reflex are the pair I pick because, duh, they are part of the same series! Hehe. Same author, same characters, etc. I still have yet to read the 3rd book in this trilogy.

2C. I think Me Talk Pretty One Day has been on my TBR the longest. My middle school lit teacher read excerpts to me probably close to the time the book first came out (2000), and I've been wanting to read it ever since. Yes, it was worth the wait, because if I read it in middle school, it would have been over my head.

9. Acquired 11/2013 as a kindle freebie. 3/5 stars. Interesting psychological thriller, but the ending was almost too unbelievable, as if the author was stretching to really bring the book together. Kind of ended abruptly without real closure.

10. Acquired 8/2013 as a kindle freebie. 2/5 stars. The tagline is "12 Ways to KEEP Your Marriage Right Side Up" but the real emphasis of this book was more geared toward marriages that are already in trouble. Sure it had some useful information, but nothing that really applied to me at this point in my life.

11. Acquired 8/2013 as a kindle freebie. 3.5/5 stars. A heartwarming coming of age story. Well written and a fast read. Set in Australia, if anyone is looking for an around the world challenge book.

12. Acquired sometime in 2012. 3/5 stars. Pretty funny, interesting to read about her work and outlook on female comedians.

Yay, I climbed to the top of Pike's Peak!! :) Now, on to BIGGER and better things!

New thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...