Mount TBR 2019 discussion

I've moved up from my climb up Mt Blanc as I've been doing quite well so far this year - see here. I began the year with the intention to restrict the challenge to physical books but I am going to include Kindle/ebooks for the second half of the year. I will edit this message with my progress throughout the year.

Currently reading

Finished Reading
1. At Terror Street And Agony Way by Charles Bukowski. Started reading on 08Jan19. Finished 14Jan19
2. Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin. Started on 09Jan19. Finished 19Jan19
3. Sombrero Fallout A Japanese Novel by Richard Brautigan. Started on 27Jan19. Finished 28Jan19
4. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates. Started on 29Jan19. Finished 01Feb19
5. The Yellow Meads Of Asphodel by H.E. Bates. Started on 02Feb19. Finished 02Feb19
6. Love Bites: Caricatures by James Gillray by Todd Porterfield. Started on 03Feb19. Finished 03Feb19
7. A Woman's Life by Guy de Maupassant. Started on 12Feb19. Finished 16Feb19
8. After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys. Started on 25Feb19. Finished 28Feb19
9. The Mabinogion. Started reading on 02Mar19. Finished 12Mar19
10-12. Eustace And Hilda: A Trilogy by L. P. Hartley. Consists of three novels: The Shrimp and the Anemone, The Sixth Heaven and Eustace And Hilda. Started reading 14Mar19. Finished 30Mar19
13. Indian Paintings from Oxford Collections by Andrew Topsfield. Started reading on 28Apr19. Finished 28Apr19
14. We Need to Talk About Kelvin: What everyday things tell us about the universe by Marcus Chown. Started on 30Apr19. Finished 05May19
15. 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal. Started on 05May19. Finished 10May19
16. Original Bliss by A. L. Kennedy. Started on 12May19. Finished 16May19
17. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter. Started on 18May19. Finished 23May19
18. A Night at the Majestic by Richard Davenport-Hines. Started on 25May19. Finished 01Jun19
19. Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Started on 22Jun19. Finished 29Jun19
20. Good as Gold by Joseph Heller. Started reading on 30Jun19. Finished 07Jul19
21. Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson. Started reading on 21Jul19. Finished 03Aug19
22. Jane And Prudence by Barbara Pym. Started on 12Aug19. Finished 17Aug19
23. Rameau's Nephew / D'Alembert's Dream by Denis Diderot. Started on 18Aug19. Finished 21Aug19
24. Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec. Started on 25Aug19. Finished 02Sep19
25. The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. Started reading on 03Sep19. Finished 07Sep19
26-30. The Pop Larkin Chronicles by H.E. Bates. Omnibus edition consists of five novellas: The Darling Buds of May, A Breath of French Air, When the Green Woods Laugh, Oh! to be in England & A Little of What You Fancy. Started on 22Sep19. Finished 06Oct19
31. The Books in My Life by Henry Miller. Started on 13Oct19. Finished 26Oct19
32. Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti. Started on 05Nov19. Finished 01Dec19
33. Witiko by Adalbert Stifter. Started on 02Nov19. Finished 06Dec19
34. Words by Jean-Paul Sartre. Started reading on 14Dec19. Finished 17Dec19
35. The Moon and the Bonfire by Cesare Pavese. Started reading on 18Dec19. Finished 21Dec19
36. 13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything by John Gribbin. Started on 23Dec19. Finished 27Dec19

I started by Joseph Heller today. I've only read two others (Catch 22, of course, and Something Happened) by Heller before this one. Good as Gold is pretty good so far—as proof, here's a quote:

Gold's father was five feet two and subject to unexpected attacks of wisdom. 'Make money!' he might shout suddenly, apropos of nothing, and his stepmother would add liturgically, 'You should all listen to your father.'

Finished Good as Gold! It started well, but just became a bit too silly by the end.

Anyway, I'm halfway to the top of Mt Vancouver!

Started Barbara Pym's Jane And Prudence which is my third Pym—my first this year though.

Started Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec today. It's entertaining at 50 pages but not too sure about the next 450—we'll see.

Got so close to finishing Life A User's Manual today....but not quite. Only 32 pages to go. It's fun but I want to finish it.

I'm having one of those days where I can't decide what to read next. One from the stack! One from the stack!....Yes, but which one? I have no idea whether I want to read fiction or non-fiction, nice or nasty, short or long book, 18th, 19th, 20th or 21st Century...or from some other period...experimental or....no, I don't want to read anything experimental....there...I'm getting somewhere...I think...

I started The Pop Larkin Chronicles by H.E. Bates today; it's better-known as The Darling Buds of May. I watched the T.V. series when it first came out and watched it again a year or so ago. I've also read some of Bates's short stories and essays but never the Larkin books—until now. I must say from what I've read so far the T.V. series kept pretty close to the original material. The only downside is that it only counts as one off of my TBR pile even though it consists of five novellas.

Two out of five volumes read so far: The Darling Buds of May and A Breath of French Air. When the Green Woods Laugh is next.

Fourth volume of The Pop Larkin Chronicles read. One to go, A Little of What You Fancy. Good stuff.

The Pop Larkin Chronicles —Finished! Great stuff! as expected from H.E.B. I'm now only a month behind.

ICYMI. In the past, Bev has ruled that for omnibus editions, if the individual books were published separately originally, you can count them separately here. If not, not. Just wanted to mention in case it applied here....Good climbing!

Thanks Susan, that's useful to know. Earlier in the year I read a trilogy, and the Bates book was five novellas; in total that would mean an extra six. I may keep them as one book for each omnibus but I'll think about it.

Ok, so I've changed the 'Eustace & Hilda' trilogy and the 'Pop Larkin' omnibus edition to include the individual volumes, as they were all originally published as separate volumes—yay! I've read 30 books now! Thanks Susan.

Glad it worked for you! Good luck with your climbing

What a working week. I started The Books in My Life on Sunday; here we are on Friday and I only managed to read 100 pages which is less than half of what I would have expected in a normal week. Crazy!

Phew! It took a while but I enjoyed reading The Books in My Life by Henry Miller. Now, what to read next!

I started a huge book today, Witiko by Adalbert Stifter. I mean it's 'only' 600 pages long, but they're big pages. I think I'll have to limit my reading of it to the weekends as I don't want to lug it to and from work.

I forgot to include Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti. I've read it before but many years ago. I have been meaning to re-read it for ages.

Two-thirds of the way through Witiko and it's becoming a real slog. It's 600 pages but it's a big book and more like 900 pages of a normal-sized book. And it's quite dull.

It was originally published in three separate volumes so will probably count it as three.

You're doing great!!

Witiko by Adalbert Stifter finished. Probably the most boring book in the world.

Yay! I finished 13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything by John Gribbin, making the total off my TBR pile to 36!

BTW I have bought 70 books (so far) this year.

Physical books: 27 — 6 of those I read this year and one (a gift) I have already read. New physical TBR 20

Kindle/ebooks: 43 — 4 of those I read this year and 12 I have already read (I bought them as cheap 99p offers). New kindle TBR 27

I don't think I'll read any more books this year from my TBR pile as I have a stack of library books to read. And I've completed my goal as well.

Here's a photo of the books I read in the second-half of the year:

n.b. the kindle represents the book(s) I read on my kindle—only one I think. There were quite a few chunky books in the second-half though the H.E. Bates one counted as five. The Witiko book could have counted as three as it was originally published in three volumes in German—but only as a single volume in English so I counted it as one book.

And just as a reminder here's a photo of those I read in the first half of the year: