Mount TBR 2021 discussion

January 2021 kicks off the tenth year for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and, despite climbing like mad and conquering Mount Everest on the regular each year, I still have mountain ranges to climb. And miles of bookcases to read before I sleep (or something like that). I just can't resist a good old fashioned used bookstore (though they are become rarer and rarer) or the community Hoosier Hills Food Bank Book Sale which adds to the mountains as fast as I knock books off. And, somehow, despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has cancelled both my trips to my favorite used bookstore and the community book sale, my mountain range seems to be just as vast as ever.

So, once again, I plan to concentrate on reading primarily from my own books in the coming year. Perhaps this year I will actually plant a flag on Mount Olympus...but my declared goal will remain Mount Everest. Please join me in knocking out some of those books that have been waiting for attention for weeks...months...even years.

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!"

Reading is Life and Sanity!

I'm a book-a-holic and I really need to read these books I keep accumulating!

I have not updated my shelves for this month yet, and am also the world's worst record keeper, but I have approx. 725 never read books and a further 615 on my Kindle. The piles keep growing because I want to read (almost) everything ever written. And I blame lockdown because I spent most of my non-working-from-home-time buying things on Amazon and went back to my must-acquire-kindle-freebies days. Oh well.

Happy reading to everyone tackling those mountains of books!

Thanks for creating this and the Virtual TBR challenge Bev.

Reading Reindeer Cobwebbed wrote: "Reading is Life and Sanity!"

It is indeed!

Karen wrote: "I'm a book-a-holic and I really need to read these books I keep accumulating!

I have not updated my shelves for this month yet, and am also the world's worst record keeper, but I have approx. 725 ..."

Good luck with your climb!

Hi everyone! My name is Leslie and 2021 will be my 7th year climbing Mt. TBR.

Though my mountain of unread books is still way too big, this challenge has helped me whittle away at it. I continue to obtain lots of new books (77 so far in 2020), though nowadays they are mostly ebooks & digital audiobooks which don't take up the physical space in my home, and I am still making my way through the boxes and boxes of books I got from my folks when they moved to a smaller home in 2009. I don't see my mountain ever being completely conquered but I'll keep on trying!

Leslie wrote: "Hi everyone! My name is Leslie and 2021 will be my 7th year climbing Mt. TBR.

Though my mountain of unread books is still way too big, this challenge has helped me whittle away at it. I continue ..."

Welcome back, Leslie! I'm so glad the challenge has helped knock those mountains down a bit.

Hí! I'm Sheri and this will be my third year participating in this challenge. I am choosing a shorter mountain this year, but am planning on knocking off some of the longer books on my TBR list and allowing myself a little more space for reading new releases by favorite authors. I also want to revisit some of my favorites (yes, I am aware that re-reads count), but several of them are longer books also.

Sheri wrote: "Hí! I'm Sheri and this will be my third year participating in this challenge. I am choosing a shorter mountain this year, but am planning on knocking off some of the longer books on my TBR list and..."

Welcome back, Sheri!

Hi there, I'm Natalia, and 2021 will be year...I don't even know how many years I've been doing this challenge (6 or 7, if I have to guess), but I do know I still have 700+ books on my TBR (less than when I first started climbing all those years ago, but still A LOT) and many mountains to climb for years to come.
I'll stick to my faithful Mt. Kilimanjaro again and I have a few other reading goals for the next year, but we'll see how it goes.

Natália wrote: "Hi there, I'm Natalia, and 2021 will be year...I don't even know how many years I've been doing this challenge (6 or 7, if I have to guess), but I do know I still have 700+ books on my TBR (less th..."

Welcome back, Natália!

Hello! I'm Lianne, and I've been doing this challenge since the beginning, so this will be my tenth year of trying to shrink my TBR pile. 2020 is, I think, the first time it actually got smaller instead of bigger! :)

With two months remaining, my numbers will surely change, but right now my physical TBR pile is sitting at 986 books. In late 2019 it went over 1000 for the first time, so in 2020 I made a concerted effort to get it back under 1000 and make some progress. Now I'm feeling very motivated to get that number down to something more manageable in the coming years.

Hello fellow book-a-holics. My name is Pamela. I really need this challenge. The past years have helped me try to make dents in my piles of TBR, even though they grow faster than I work on them. I am always distracted by what's next.

Somehow this pandemic with more time at home has meant less reading got done. It was the commute, the focused time to read or listen, that is no longer there. I'm managing, but not reaching as far as I hoped for 2020. Going to set my sights on the same mountain as this year, at Mt. Ararat, with hopes of going further. We shall see what 2021 brings.
Happy reading!

Edit: ended up going for a bigger challenge with Mt. Kilimanjaro. I can do this! (I hope)

Lianne (The Towering Pile) wrote: "Hello! I'm Lianne, and I've been doing this challenge since the beginning, so this will be my tenth year of trying to shrink my TBR pile. 2020 is, I think, the first time it actually got smaller in..."

Welcome back, Lianne and thanks so much for joining me all these years! Good luck with another climb.

Pamela wrote: "Hello fellow book-a-holics. My name is Pamela. I really need this challenge. The past years have helped me try to make dents in my piles of TBR, even though they grow faster than I work on them. I ..."

Glad you'll be joining us for the 2021 climb! I know what you mean about the pandemic. I had a brief moment of more reading during the pandemic, but it didn't last. Thought for sure with all the time at home I'd finally be able to make it to the top of Olympus...but it's not happening.

Hi everyone! I'm looking forward to climbing another mountain in 2021, if all goes according to plan.

I'll start with 12 books and aim to climb higher - so that I can feel accomplished haha.

Edit: Apparently 2021 will be my 5th year doing this challenge! Wow, where did that time go?

Ezgi wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm looking forward to climbing another mountain in 2021, if all goes according to plan.

I'll start with 12 books and aim to climb higher - so that I can feel accomplished haha.

Edi..."

Welcome back! Glad you've been climbing with me all these years.

Hi Everyone! My name is Jessica and I am so excited about doing this challenge, starting January 1! I have about thirty-forty books on my to be read shelf that I am really looking forward to getting into.
Many of them I wanted to read, but this past year I did the Popsugar Reading Challenge for the first time and not a lot of them counted. But that is totally fine because I was exposed to some really good books that I may not have read, otherwise. BUT, back to this challenge - I am very excited!

Books and peloton wrote: "Hi, I'm Kate and I'm new to the group and joined GR back in October. I mostly read science fiction and fantasy books with a smattering of historical fiction, mysteries, and classics thrown in.

Nex..."

Hi, Kate! So glad you found us and are ready to make the climb in 2021!

Jessica wrote: "Hi Everyone! My name is Jessica and I am so excited about doing this challenge, starting January 1! I have about thirty-forty books on my to be read shelf that I am really looking forward to gettin..."

Hi, Jessica! Welcome to the 2021 climbing crew! Glad to have you with us.

Hi all! My name is Rai and this will be my first year climbing. I have around 120 books on my owned-TBR shelf, of which, around 70 are ebooks and maybe 10 are audiobooks. I expect a few more physical copies to appear over the holiday season as it is both Christmas and my birthday in December and with the state of 2020, books are pretty easy gifts to send via the post!

I'm starting with 12 for Pike's Peak but I'm hoping to get more done as I have so many books and series I really want to get to. My favourite genres are fantasy, sci-fi and thrillers. This year I hugely exceeded my reading challenge goal so I'm hoping to continue that momentum into 2021!

Hello fellow book lovers!! I am jumping into this challenge and even though I have no idea how this works, I am jumping in with both feet. I have lots of books on my book shelves and on my kindle that keep getting pushed aside. I would like to enjoy them.

Rai wrote: "Hi all! My name is Rai and this will be my first year climbing. I have around 120 books on my owned-TBR shelf, of which, around 70 are ebooks and maybe 10 are audiobooks. I expect a few more physic..."

Hi, Rai! Welcome to the climbing crew!

Heidi wrote: "Hello fellow book lovers!! I am jumping into this challenge and even though I have no idea how this works, I am jumping in with both feet. I have lots of books on my book shelves and on my kindle t..."

Welcome, Heidi! So glad you'll be joining us.

Hi everyone! My name is Jessica and this will be my 5th time with the challenge. Hoping to do better this year as I will finally be ending my grad degree (with a whimper, I somehow lucked out and have one small class left).

I can't wait to be more active this year and see what everyone is reading!

Hello everyone! I'm Katie and this is my first year doing this challenge, I wanted something to keep me motivated through the year as I've been thinking for quite a while that I need to really whittle down my massive load of books that I haven't got round to reading yet because as I'm sure you can all empathise with: I. Keep. Acquiring. MORE! I'm a sucker for a kindle daily deal, especially if it's in the self help category and I wanna use this year to really curb my spur of the moment spending and really focus on what's already in front of me! This also gives me an excuse to really look at what books I've got and what books I really don't wanna read 😅
Happy Reading 💜

Hi! I'm back for my 5th year. I'll have about 160 books on my owned TBR for 2021 and will be sticking with Mt. Ararat.

This is my first year with Mount TBR! I’m excited to finally make a dent in my TBR (hopefully). Shooting for Pike’s Peak to start but maybe I’ll read more! We’ll see! :)

Hello, I'm Beth and this will be my second year climbing. I will barely make Mt. Ararat this year, but seem to have amassed at least that many new books this year. My husband says that I own too many books (both physical and on my Nook) to read in my lifetime. I disagree, of course, and am going to try to push myself to climb Mt. Everest in 2021.

Hello, I'm Sheila and I think this is my third climb (or possibly fourth?). I've somehow managed to buy more books (71) than I've read (it will be minimum 48 as I'm en-route to Mount Ararat - 4 to go - by the end of the month) from my TBR in 2020.

So 2021 is going to need to be a bigger challenge. I'm thinking El Toro!

Hi, I'm Amy. I'm a returning climber, although I took a couple of years off. Back at it for 2021! I've made it just past Mt. Ararat each time I've climbed, so I'm going to aim for that peak again and see where the old legs take me this time. ;)

Hi! I’m Jennifer, I’m a nurse in southwest Florida. I’ve been a lifelong reader and almost always read more then 50 books a year. This is my second climb here.

I can’t decide to do 48 or 60 books for this years climb. I’ve been cleaning, going thru, cataloguing, etc all of my books/bookshelves this year and am finally almost done. I have about 500 unread physical books catalogued so far!!! Plus I always do the popsugar reading challenge every year so between both challenges I hope to get thru a small dent in my pile!

I hope to have fun and find some good reads at the same time. Thanks for having me! Happy Reading!

Hello again everyone! This is climb five for me. I've been in a bit of a slump after busting down my TBR this year (totally normal, I do this every year), and I have a...Hill TBR? Yeah. I've been loving having less crowded shelves, so back in I go!

Hey guys. My name is Beverly and I also go by Bev. :D. This will be my first attempt at climbing up my bookshelf mountains. I'm excited to see how far I can go.

Looking forward to this challenge!!!!

Time for a bigger, tougher mountain. Mt. Ararat, here I come!

I'll be there and look forward to the next year. now I just have to think about which mountain to take.

Hi all! I successfully completed this challenge in 2018 and 2019, and let's just not talk about 2020, k? ;) But I am looking forward to participating again - successfully! - in 2021.

Howdy!

I'm a returning challenger from Michigan. I've made it to Mt. Everest once and Mt. Toro a few times. My dream is making it to the top of Olympus one of these days. :)

I keep adding nearly as many as I subtract from my pile so I'll be climbing Mt. Toro once again.

Cheering you on to the top of your chosen summit!

Returning challenger from 2019. I didn’t reach my peak, and 2020 was, well, 2020. I’m ready to get through this stack. My plan is to stay away from my Kindle - it leads to madness and the library. Determined to put a dent in this 200+ hard copy stack that is haunting me!!

I'm Carla and yes, I'm a book o holic! I greatly failed in my challenge last year in that I didn't read as much AND I bought so many books I can't even begin to tell you how many I have now! last year I begin shelving my books in goodreads but have now divised a "better" storage system. I will still shelve here but will more than likely.end up moving them around and resolving before im done. if I had to guess I'd say I bought at least 300 books last year! I know, I know. my nearby salvation army has them 10/$1 and last time I went they were half price! hmmmm. I also started xstitching again and diamond dots which has taken time away. this year (it's in the works anyway) I plan on revising my "me time" schedule so I have time for all the things I love. wish me luck!

Carla wrote: "this year (it's in the works anyway) I plan on revising my "me time" schedule so I have time for all the things I love. wish me luck!"

Good luck! And I'm very curious how your me-time schedule works. I have the same problem: many hobbies and not enough hours. And while 2020 should have made that easier (more hours at home and fewer hobbies because some are cancelled lol), instead I just find myself doom-scrolling and watching Netflix (which is only one of my hobbies).

I'm a crazy list maker and "keeper tracker" lol. so I love the new year and getting new calendars and making new goals. last year was an odd one because I started to revisit old hobbies and my reading suffered! I xstitch, diamond dot, latch hook, bought a few needlepoint, not.to mention crochet and the goals I set there. what I usually do is make a goal as to how many projects I'd like to accomplish in a year and then divvy up by months weeks etc. so last year for example to which I failed miserably I had to complete 3 diamond dots a month 6 books a week, I crochet a large granny square a day (and in my spare time attach to afghans for donation) I habe filet crochet curtains I like to do a row a day. my x stitch I rotate 4 projects weekly and on and on. now for this year I'm thinking more in terms of hours. so timing may be the key to not do so much of one thing and ignore another. . . . anyone else with too many hobbies and too little time?

Hello everyone! My name is Diana, I'm from Portugal and I have participated in this challenge for a few times now. In this pandemic, participating in challenges and being in contact with people who share the same passion for reading has helped me immensely. So, I'm really looking forward to this! :)

Hi, everyone! I'm Merin, and found this challenge via a Google search. It sounds right up my alley, as I've wanted to truly spend time reading books I already have for the past several years and haven't made much of a dent. 2020 was a pretty bad reading year for me, so I'm hoping 2021 will go much better. I think this challenge will help keep me motivated and let me show some love to all the books that have been sitting untouched on my shelves and/or Kindle for far too long!

Hi everyone! My name is Linda and I am joining for the third year in a row. I read 17 books last year off of my tbr but hope to read more this year

Hello, my name is Nadja, and this will be my first try to reach the top :D it is the perfect challenge for the upcoming year. I just got back into reading this year and went a little crazy with the book shopping so now i have so many unread books on my shelfs that just want to be read (not even thinking of all of those ebooks, that i constantly forget, because i don´t see them all the time XD)

I think I last joined in 2019, but, went back to school and skipped 2020 which was just as well as it ended up being a poor reading year for me anyways.

I probably have a few hundred unread books on my shelves; mostly juvenile fiction as I worked in the children's department of a public library for several years.

I have a 10 year old daughter with very particular reading tastes- so while I've enforced some variety in reading, it's reaching the point where I have to acknowledge that there are some books she will never read.. lol

I'm going to start at the lowest goal and work my way up. I will be abandoning books a lot sooner, generally I make myself finish books. But, this year I will abandon books I don't enjoy and donate them so someone else can enjoy them. Most of the books I've purchased are well-reviewed, but, of course that doesn't always mean that I enjoy them.

I'm looking forward to just retaining favorites and making lots of space on my shelves for new wonderful books.

Hi! I'm Stina, and I am the worst at keeping up with my posts for these challenges. I just posted for the first time since March in the 2020 group. But I did manage Mt. Vancouver and Mt. Ararat this year and have even made some progress on Mt. Kilimanjaro!

I still have thousands of unread books, though, and I keep buying more. Hey, somebody has to keep the indie bookshops in business! I'm performing a public service!

My name is Rokk and I'm a book-aholic. But I need to read more books before buying any more - I have no shelf space at all so some hard copies need to be read and sent off into the wider world once charity shops reopen. A good portion of my TBR is kindle based, of course, but regardless of medium I'm aiming for Everest at a minimum.

I'm KT, I've been a member of Goodreads for a long time, but 2020 was my first year doing the challenge. I got distracted by library books, book club reads, new releases, reading challenges, etc. so I'm still 2 books shy of Mt. Vancouver. However, my TBR is definitely into the hundreds, so I am going to go for Mt. Everest for 2021 and make this challenge my primary motivator!

I live in Portland, Oregon, USA with my husband and 3 kids. Looking forward to doing buddy reads with some of you AND especially looking forward to conquering 100 books!