Mount TBR 2019 discussion

January 2019 will kick off the eighth year for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and, despite the intentions behind developing this challenge in the first place, I don't seem to be getting those mountains moved at all. Regardless of the fact that I hope to have knocked a little over 100 books off of my 2018 Mount TBR by the end of December, there are still whole mountain ranges lined up and down my hallway and in my back room waiting to be conquered. As fast as I read 'em and get 'em off the stacks, my bookaholic ways help me replace them. [Per usual I visited the community Hoosier Hills Food Bank Book Sale in October and I brought home 59 new-to-me books.]

So, once again, I plan to concentrate on reading primarily from my own books in the coming year. I always hope to plant my flag on Mount Olympus (even though I seem to hike slower and slower every year...), but I will most likely claim Mount Everest as my goal. And you're invited to join me in knocking out some of those books that have been waiting in the wings for weeks....months...even years.

I have revised a couple of the rules--so be sure to check them over carefully. And, please, introduce yourself--if only to chime in with me to say "I'm a book-a-holic and I really need to read these books I keep accumulating!"

Hi, I'm Natalia and I'm a bookaholic! This is my fourth year doing this challenge, and although I have decreased my ever-growing pile...well, they are ever-growing. There are a lot of new releases or books I've marked as to-read her on GR but I don't own that I keep accumulating, either on my Kindle or on my shelves. This year I had to buy a new shelf to accomodate all my books, even though I had unhauled some of them. My go-to mountain seems to be Mt. Kilimanjaro, because I never seem to get past it (I only briefly strolled thorugh El Toro, but never reached the top *sigh*), but I'm hoping that 2019 is the year to do it!

My main goal, beyond just knocking off some books off my pile, is to finish all my started-but-never-finished series. I seem to have a problem with saying goodbye to characters/world and therefore am always starting new book duologies/trilogies/series, but never manage to finish them all. Let's hope I can do that this next year!

Hi, I'm Jessika! This will be my 6th year participating. I'll be attempting Mt. Kilimanjaro again. Thanks for hosting us, Bev!

Thanks for your kind invitation, once again Bev (I am a member since 2012)!

Hi all :-) I did the challenge for a couple of years and then my reading habits changed and it fell by the wayside.......But I am back and determined to clear some of this backlog! I am also working my way through the Guardian's 1000 best novels and have accumulated a fair few so I'm hoping this is is a way of killing two birds with one stone!

Welcome--to all the regulars and welcome back to Fay! Hope you all have a good climb in 2019.

Hello Everyone: I'm back for 2019! I think I've been participating since 2014, so 5 years. 2018 has been a complete loss for my reading: I started my own business and that has taken SO MUCH time. But, I see my life settling down, and I'm ready to get back into it. I will be attempting to climb Mount Everest, and will be thrilled with myself if I make it. But, even if I reach a smaller peak, it's all books off the tops of TBR piles, right? (I also plan to read along with Bev's virtual TBR as well, so perhaps I can clear ALOT of those pesky TBR'S! Thanks, Jenn

I am back as well! I do need this challenge otherwise I will go off the rails and the mountain may do me in. LOL The last two years I've started to do a bit better, but I need to keep going, maybe even try one of those tall peaks. I mean I do own around 1,000 unread books! YIKES! For 2019 I'm going to start about mid-way at Mt.Ararat again as it can be a stretch to just get 48 done in a year. I'm going to focus on print and audio, but one of these days those eBooks need to be tackled too! How will I ever tame this mountain?

Good luck everyone on taming their mountain!

Hello, I'm Karen and I'm a bookaholic! This is going to be my third year attempting Mt Kilimanjaro. I am so excited by the rule change allowing certain re-reads. I have been wanting to re-read some of my Elizabeth Chadwick and Sharon Penman novels and now they will fit for this challenge. So happy! And the same goes for Dante's Purgatory and Paradise. I read the Inferno at university and have never quite got round the other two. I can think of loads of my books that will now count. Maybe I can go higher than Kilimanjaro! (Or maybe I will just end up reading loads of library books)! :-)

As you can see I am book obsessed. It is so nice to see some familiar faces on this list. I look forward to climbing with you all - and I wish a year of happy reading for everyone in 2019!

Many thanks for the invite Bev.

Hi, I'm Adrian and I like books, there I've said it, such a weight of my mind :)

Seriously I love challenges and have a TBR about a few thousand strong (see some of my profile photos), so this is right up my street, so thanks again Bev and I will post my challenge soon.

Yes, I'm a bookaholic and cannot seem to refrain from replacing the books off my stack with others. Hence, I'm back again to work on the pile and enjoy the fun of being part of the challenge.

I'm Sophia and I'm challenging myself to reach Mt. Everest.

Cheering you all on. :)

Hey y’all! I can’t believe how many familiar faces I’m seeing 😊

Fay wrote: "Hey y’all! I can’t believe how many familiar faces I’m seeing 😊"

Yup, lots of regulars! I can't believe how long I've been participating!

Jessika wrote: "Fay wrote: "Hey y’all! I can’t believe how many familiar faces I’m seeing 😊"

Yup, lots of regulars! I can't believe how long I've been participating!"

Yeah...we just don't seem to be able to get over our book addiction. Not that I think that's a bad thing. :-)

I haven't done this challenge in awhile, but I'm back in 2019. Should be fun.

Hello everyone! This will be my second year doing the challenge. I'm finishing this years challenge and I'm excited about this one. I didn't count but I have more than 200 unread books at home and I wanna finish the year with 150 unread books max. I'll be attempting Mt. Kilimanjaro :-)

Petra wrote: "Hello everyone! This will be my second year doing the challenge. I'm finishing this years challenge and I'm excited about this one. I didn't count but I have more than 200 unread books at home and ..."

Welcome back, Petra!

Hello! I don't mind having a bunch of unread books on my shelves, but in the last few years I've almost only picked up library books even if I'm super excited about the books I buy (since you know, I bought them). I'm going for 60 books this year which is way above my tiny 10 books for this year.

Here I go again climbing Mt TBR! My goal is making a dent in the mountain. Hope to have one less mountain range by the end of the year.

Hi! First time participating! I've come to realize recently that my "owned TBR" pile is a lot bigger than I thought it was! Can't wait to get started!

Lynn wrote: "Hello! I'm new to this challenge and having realized some time ago how long a life I'd have to live to read the books I own at my current reading rate, I'm hoping this will step up my game. Thanks ..."

Welcome, Lynn! So glad you're joining us for the 2019 climb.

Lindsay wrote: "Hi! First time participating! I've come to realize recently that my "owned TBR" pile is a lot bigger than I thought it was! Can't wait to get started!"

Hi, Lindsay! Thanks for joining us in 2019!

Hey! My first time participating. I am going to be brave and aim for Mt Kilamanjaro in the hopes I can see some floor space at the end of the challenge!

Kind wrote: "Hey! My first time participating. I am going to be brave and aim for Mt Kilamanjaro in the hopes I can see some floor space at the end of the challenge!"

Welcome!!

qark wrote: "Hello, so I was in search for a reading challenge that would encourage reading itself rather than make people pick random books based on whether they do or do not meet obscure criteria (such as 'a ..."

Welcome! I, too, find those "a book with the letters Q, C, and F in the title" type challenges to be tedious and not to my liking. I have enough to read without fitting some obscure description! Best wishes on your climb!

qark wrote: "Hello, so I was in search for a reading challenge that would encourage reading itself rather than make people pick random books based on whether they do or do not meet obscure criteria (such as 'a ..."

Glad you found us! And glad you like the format. I thought just trying to keep focused on reading our books was enough for the challenge here. Though I will admit that I also enjoy doing challenges with a little more "scavenger hunt" quality to them (as evidenced on my blog and the number of challenges I sign up for there....).

I like the scavenger hunt type as well and I LOVE making lists (so obviously I sign up for a lot of those), and it's fun trying to fill the prompts, but I found that I can't commit all the way to those because I stick to the previously selected books for a while and then begin to go astray. So, I'm currently going with the flow and it's been much easier and enjoyable! Just clearing my piles is enough for me.

Good luck with your challenge!

Hello I'm Tom. This is my second year doing the challenge. Last year (well I guess this year still) life went completely sideways on me. I was like "I'm going to knock down some of my to read pile" and life just laughed in my face. Hopefully, this time around I can climb higher. I can always start low and go higher if I'm able to. As far as being a bookaholic (guilty!), I just tell myself there are worse problems to have and "too many" books is pretty low on the list.

TR wrote: "Hello I'm Tom. This is my second year doing the challenge. Last year (well I guess this year still) life went completely sideways on me. I was like "I'm going to knock down some of my to read pile"..."

Welcome back, Tom! Hope life cooperates with you in 2019 and you can climb high.

qark wrote: "Bev, maybe I should've added not all scavenger hunts are evil. :) I actually love to explore books written by authors from exotic countries, or books of interesting composition (e. g. journal entri..."

Oh, definitely there are some weird ones out there. And there are several that I can't do just because I'm trying so hard to read from my mountain range and I just don't have some of the categories they come up with. :-)

I use scavenger hunt challenges as a fun way to read books in my TBR mountain.

I've gone to 3 library book sales this year and my bookshelf is overflowing into a pile on my floor, time to read them all and donate them back!

Nell wrote: "I use scavenger hunt challenges as a fun way to read books in my TBR mountain."

Me too!

Hi again, everyone! This'll be my fourth year, I think, with two successes and this year's massive failure. I've had a horrible year*, though, so while I did an enormous cull early on (enough to push me up to Everest if I'd been counting them), I've stress bought books. A lot of them. But since I apparently made better choices this time around, I have no idea how I'm going to start reading them down...


*Short version: I got laid off in March, didn't find a new job until August, it was an awful job. But I'm in a good one now! My reading just hasn't caught back up.

Alanna wrote: "Hi again, everyone! This'll be my fourth year, I think, with two successes and this year's massive failure. I've had a horrible year*, though, so while I did an enormous cull early on (enough to pu..."

Alanna, I'm so sorry about the horrible year! But very glad you've found a good job now. High hopes for a great reading year--and a great year all around for you in 2019.

Hi, I'm Caidyn! I love reading and, currently, I'm in grad school. I really love the idea of this, so I think I'm going to give it a try on one of the lower levels! Reading is a huge part of my self-care, but I know that I can easily get swallowed up in life, so I'm going to keep it a low goal.

Caidyn (SEMI-HIATUS; BW Reviews; he/him/his) wrote: "Hi, I'm Caidyn! I love reading and, currently, I'm in grad school. I really love the idea of this, so I think I'm going to give it a try on one of the lower levels! Reading is a huge part of my sel..."

Hi, Caidyn! Welcome to the challenge. I'm a grad program admin assistant. Good luck with your climb (and with grad school!).

Hey All, I'm back again for another try at my mountain of books! I think that I'm going to go for 60 books again and maybe I'll make it.

Hi, I am looking forward to this challenge. My mountain of books is out of hand and grows far faster than it ever diminishes. I hope to make a significant dent in it in 2019.

GrandmommyD wrote: "Hi, I am looking forward to this challenge. My mountain of books is out of hand and grows far faster than it ever diminishes. I hope to make a significant dent in it in 2019."

Welcome to the 2019 challenge!

Lynn wrote: "Hey All, I'm back again for another try at my mountain of books! I think that I'm going to go for 60 books again and maybe I'll make it."

You can do it!

Hello! Came across this group and this sounds AWESOME. I'm a chronic re-reader with a TBR list a mile long, so I'm hoping this will help me get it under control! I'm going for the first level (12 books) just to see if I can actually do it haha.

Breanna wrote: "Hello! Came across this group and this sounds AWESOME. I'm a chronic re-reader with a TBR list a mile long, so I'm hoping this will help me get it under control! I'm going for the first level (12 b..."

Welcome, Breanna! So glad you found us. Good luck with your climb.

Hello! I'm back for a fourth year of climbing. Despite everything, my piles are larger than ever and I'd love to fit my books on the shelf by the end of the year. HAHAHAHA!

Sarah wrote: "Hello! I'm back for a fourth year of climbing. Despite everything, my piles are larger than ever and I'd love to fit my books on the shelf by the end of the year. HAHAHAHA!"

Welcome Back! I know exactly what you mean...this challenge was supposed to help me shrink my mountain range. It just barely keeps me from adding a whole new mountain to the group.... :-)

Hi! I'm Erin, and I'm a bookaholic!

Since joining Book of the Month Club, my physical TBR pile keeps growing! I'm also a teacher, so I have a large classroom library, and it's important for me to read books my kids will be reading, too. My challenge will include half books from my classroom library and half ones from my own bookshelf <3

(Note: I'm still in BotM and I will still get some things from the library, so I'm coming in at a lower level for this challenge!)

Hi everyone!
I'm Liz, and this is my first year doing this challenge. I think I'm going to go for Mount Vancouver since I do BOTM and am in a few book clubs, so for those I'll most likely be reading books I don't already own.
I'm excited to get started!

Erin wrote: "Hi! I'm Erin, and I'm a bookaholic!

Since joining Book of the Month Club, my physical TBR pile keeps growing! I'm also a teacher, so I have a large classroom library, and it's important for me to ..."

Welcome to the 2019 Challenge, Erin!

I'm Brave (in name only xD) and this will be my second year tackling my mountainous TBR. This year did a number on my reading life (I've read almost nothing since July), so I'm looking forward to getting a huge piece of myself back through reading! Starting small, because I did also become mom to four boys through foster care this year, and I'm trying to keep it realistic.

Hi everyone.
I’m Darci, and I’m a bookaholic!
This is my first year doing this, and I'm so excited for this challenge!