Mount TBR Challenge 2023 discussion

‘Historic’ because I am finally getting around to uploading my 2023 reading and reviews to Goodreads and tallying which books were eligible for Mount TBR.

Mount Wycheproof was achieved in January, it appears! A mixed bag, ranging from 5 stars (Little Gold 🤩) all the way down to 1 (the less said about that the better - appropriately enough that hard slog got me to the top of the mountain, at least). The length of time on Mount TBR varied a lot, too, from one month (29 December!) to almost six years (x 2!).

1. Swing Time, by Zadie Smith.
2. Middle England, by Jonathan Coe.
3. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro.
4. Little Gold, by Allie Rogers.
5. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty.
6. London Calling, by Claire Lydon.

Climbing Pikes Peak turned out to be similar to Mt. Wycheproof in terms of both terrain and rapidity. Looking at the stars, these ranged from 2 (too much of several aspects: like the radium itself, less would have been more) to 5 (Brenda made me laugh and cry with equal intensity). Several stellar reads again, reminding me why I took up this mountain climbing lark in the first place. Phase 2 was also historic in more ways than one: Brenda had only been on the mountain for a few months, but on 23 February 2023 the summit of this second phase was achieved with the completion of a book that had been on Mt TBR since 2012!

7. Letters from Brenda, by Emma Kennedy.
8. The Kraken Wakes, by John Wyndham.
9. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf.
10. The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore.
11. The Order of Time, by Carlo Rovelli.
12. Grimm Tales for Young and Old, by Philip Pullman.

Now I’m hoping that my being so on fire at the beginning of the year will have kept me warm as I scaled the much steeper and icier Mont Blanc. I am about to find out…

13. The Great Plant Based Con, by Jayne Buxton. This book was an exercise in How Not to Present Your Arguments and I feel totally justified in putting a book I decided not to finish on this list. Why would you go to such lengths to explain exactly why biased reporting is bad, then do exactly that? The mind boggles. 2 stars, and the extra one is for the information hiding in the self -serving morass.
14. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Much better!
15. She Gets the Girl, by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derricks. Feel-good romcom with a nod to Austen. Lovely stuff 🥰
16. Far Cry from Kensington, by Muriel Spark. Read by Juliet Stevenson, but that was not enough, here. Has its moments but not my favourite Muriel Spark.
17. Memento Mori, by Muriel Spark. Now that’s more like it!
18. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus. 5 stars, one of my favourite books!
19. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton. Her social observation skills are so good!
20. Twenties girl, by Sophie Kinsella. Bought in 2012! Then went back to college and was apparently saving this for a time when frivolity woould be ‘allowed’ again. Long live Audible for allowing me to read frivolous books at moments when I can’t be working anyway! :)
21. The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth. I have had the beautifully illustrated hardback for over a year and, yes, Audible again helped to nudge me in the right direction. Listening with the book on my lap was quite a treat, too.
22. Five on Brexit Island, by Bruno Vincent. In a fit of generosity, I gave this 2 stars. Probably for the hardback cover, and the (clumsily re-used) original illustrations.
23. Through the Language Glass, by Guy Deutscher. Omg, this is another one from 2012! And a 5-star read, to boot :)
24. Traces, by Patricia Wiltshire. Sadly not ending on a five-star read, but a rounded-up four. Fascinating insights into how pollens are used to crack criminal cases and, appropriately for this challenge, prehistoric mountaineer Ötzi gets a mention😀

Just one more for another flag!

Weheyyy, I made it to the summit just as temperatures plummeted to zero where I live. So a good time to leave the mountain, I feel ☺️

If I do read any more from the pile before the year end, I will consider them to be refuges on the way down from this one, as I have a completely different mountain to scale before the year end: finalizing my last research project for my master’s.

Next year I might reach the top of Mt. Vancouver, but I will be calling by my old neighbour in Wycheproof first.

Well done Dani! You've done an amazing job, some great reads there. :)

Thanks, Em!

And now that my master’s is finally out of the way I should be scaling the heights guilt-free from now on!

The irony is that some of the books I really want to read are ones that were recommended for the degree course, only I didn’t feel able to make time to read them as they were no longer directly related to what I needed to hand in next.

Great Climb!! So glad you got to plant the flag!