Mount TBR 2019 discussion

Hi, this is my fourth climb, but the TBR mountains still loom. I’m also doing the Virtual TBR climb. One thing I like about climbing repeatedly is that I’ve learned some things about my book buying habits. For instance, I tend to stockpile books by authors I like, and last year, I aimed at reducing the backlog to one pending book per author—I made some progress, but will keep working on it this year: Tana French, Penelope Fitzgerald, Becky Masterman, Kent Haruf, and Peter Lovesey—I’m looking at you ;).

Welcome back, Susan! So glad you're climbing with me again.

I just found this poem which perfectly describes the reader’s dilemma:

Of Modern Books
BY CAROLYN WELLS
(A Pantoum)

Of making many books there is no end,
Though myriads have to deep oblivion gone;
Each day new manuscripts are being penned,
And still the ceaseless tide of ink flows on.

Though myriads have to deep oblivion gone,
New volumes daily issue from the press;
And still the ceaseless tide of ink flows on—
The prospect is disheartening, I confess.

New volumes daily issue from the press;
My pile of unread books I view aghast.
The prospect is disheartening, I confess;
Why will these modern authors write so fast?

My pile of unread books I view aghast—
Of course I must keep fairly up to date—
Why will these modern authors write so fast?
They seem to get ahead of me of late.

Of course I must keep fairly up to date;
The books of special merit I must read;
They seem to get ahead of me of late,
Although I skim them very fast indeed.

The books of special merit I must read;
And then the magazines come round again;
Although I skim them very fast indeed,
I can’t get through with more than eight or ten.

And then the magazines come round again!
How can we stem this tide of printer’s ink?
I can’t get through with more than eight or ten—
It is appalling when I stop to think.

How can we stem this tide of printer’s ink?
Of making many books there is no end.
It is appalling when I stop to think
Each day new manuscripts are being penned!

Perfect poem Susan! And good luck with your mountain of reading and taming for 2019!

I thought it was perfect,too, as the TBR pile seems to be growing...Good luck with your climb in 2019! See you on the slopes

Susan wrote: "I just found this poem which perfectly describes the reader’s dilemma:

Of Modern Books
BY CAROLYN WELLS
(A Pantoum)

Of making many books there is no end,
Though myriads have to deep oblivion g..."

Love it! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Happy climbing!

Good luck with your climbs, Bev and Jessika!

That poem is so perfect! I’m going to save it, will print it out and share it with some librarian friends who are, as Anne Shirley would say, “kindred spirits” with overwhelming TBR piles

E wrote: "That poem is so perfect! I’m going to save it, will print it out and share it with some librarian friends who are, as Anne Shirley would say, “kindred spirits” with overwhelming TBR piles"

Isn’t it fun? I’m tickled to hear you are passing it on to some “kindred spirits”.

Books Climbed

1) Cop to Corpse, Peter Lovesey
2) Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne (audiobook)
3) Regeneration, Pat Barker
4) Moominland Midwinter, Tove Jansson
5) Medicine Wheel, Kelly Running (Kindle)
6) HHhH, Laurent Binet
7) Not My Blood, Barbara Cleverly
8) The Truro Bear And Other Adventures, Mary Oliver
9) Post Captain, Patrick O’Brian (audiobook)
10) The Haunting of Lamb House, Joan Aiken (audiobook)
11) Letters to a Friend, Diana Athill
12) Phantastes, George MacDonald (Kindle)
13) The Birds, Camille Paglia
14) Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
15) In a Summer Season, Elizabeth Taylor
16) The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister
17) The Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook)
18) His Last Bow, Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook)
19) Vinegar Girl, Anne Tyler
20) The Late Show, Michael Connelly
21) A Dream of Summer: Poems for the Sensuous Season, ed. Robert Atwan
22) The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines
23) The Wedding Group, Elizabeth Taylor
24) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
25) A Country Life: At Home In the English Countryside, Roy Strong
26) Dept of Speculation, Jenny Offill
27) OxCrimes, ed. Mark Ellingham and Peter Florence
28) The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
29) The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller (Kindle)
30) The Tooth Tattoo, Peter Lovesey
31) Stone in a Landslide, Maria Barbal
32) Just Kids, Patti Smith (Kindle)
33) The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems, Billy Collins
34) The Stone Wife, Peter Lovesey
35) Blaming, Elizabeth Taylor (Kindle)
36) The Robber Bridegroom, Eudora Welty
37) The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
38) High Wages, Dorothy Whipple
39) The Murder of Halland, Pia Juul (Kindle)
40) A Reckoning, May Sarton
41) Poems of Akhmatova, translated Stanley Kunitz with Max Hayward
42) Finnegans Wake, James Joyce — DNF
43) Dark Sacred Night, Michael Connelly
44) Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
45) Down Among the Dead Men, Peter Lovesey
46) Gilgamesh, translated Stephen Mitchell
47) The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
48) Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh edited by Irving Stone with Jean Stone

Bev wrote: "Susan wrote: "I just found this poem which perfectly describes the reader’s dilemma:

Of Modern Books
BY CAROLYN WELLS
(A Pantoum)

Of making many books there is no end,
Though myriads have to d..."

If I may, this is a part of a longer parody poem, that almost exactly gets this group if not all of Good Reads:

I, connoisseur of good reading, friend of connoisseurs of good reading everywhere,
I, not obligated to take any specific number of books, free to reject any volume, perfectly free to reject Montaigne, Erasmus, Milton,
I, in perfect health except for a slight cold, pressed for time, having only a few more years to live,
Now celebrate this opportunity.
Come, I will make the club indissoluble,
I will read the most splendid books the sun ever shone upon,
I will start divine magnetic groups,
With the love of comrades,
With the life-long love of distinguished committees.
I strike up for an Old Book.
Long the best-read figure in America, my dues paid, sitter in armchairs everywhere, wanderer in populous cities, weeping with Hecuba and with the late William Lyon Phelps,
Free to cancel my membership whenever I wish,
Turbulent, fleshy, sensible,
Never tiring of clublife,
Always ready to read another masterpiece provided it has the approval of my president, Walter J. Black,
Me imperturbe, standing at ease among writers,
Rais'd by a perfect mother and now belonging to a perfect book club,
Bearded, sunburnt, gray-neck'd, astigmatic,
Loving the masters and the masters only
(I am mad for them to be in contact with me),
My arm around Pearl S. Buck, only American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature,
I celebrate this opportunity.
And I will not read a book nor the least part of a book but has the approval of the Committee,

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/class...
A Classic Waits for Me
by Elwyn Brooks White

Phrodrick wrote:

******

Thanks for sharing, Phrodrick! IIRC this E B White poem was originally inspired by the Book of the Month club, but your quote fits Goodreads to a tee ;)

And I've climbed Mount Ararat and am looking around for unicorns....

Congratulations!

Bev wrote: "Congratulations!

" Thanks, Bev! Love the picture!

Congrats on reaching your goal!

Thanks, Leslie! Good luck with your mountain too