TBR Clear Out Readathon discussion

A place to tell us what you'll be reading in April.

I have a modest starting goal of three books (not a lot of discretionary reading time) while combining prompts to see if I can cover them all. I've started with The Doomed City by the notable Russian sci-fi authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. This is one of my longest TBRs both in terms of page length and how long it has been on my "want to read" list. Next up, the library gods willing, will be There There by Tommy Orange (newer and most anticipated) and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. The latter is also one of the longest but, I'm sorry to say, one of my least anticipated, though I am sure I will get a lot out of it.

Ordered by the optional challenges!

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood
2. Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut
3. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
4. Cranford by Gaskell
5. Old Goriot by Balzac
6. To the Lighthouse by Woolf (bonus round!)

Looking forward to diving into Atwood after clocking out of work this afternoon...

These readathons are the perfect time to tackle the really large books; the last time I began Clarrisa (which took three months to finish) and this time I'm taking on The Anatomy of Melancholy.
My TBR list is large, so I will remain flexible based on what I feel like reading at the time. I checked Clytemnestra out of the library after a verrry long wait, plan to finish Secondhand Time already in progress, and would like to finally read Oblomov. Other books I'm eyeing are Lathe of Heaven, Brideshead Revisited, Edith Wharton's Summer, and Heyer's Alastair-Audley trio.

This is what I've picked out for my (hopefully) six books, using the prompts:

Book that has been on my TBR for a very long time: Living High and Letting Die by Peter Unger. I bought this book in college, so it's been on my TBR for at least 20 years.

Book that has been on my TBR for a very short time: The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. Just bought this in February. One of my favorite authors, and I've read almost all of his other books, so I'm pretty exited for this one.

Long book on my TBR: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Kind of cheating on this one, since I've been reading it on and off for several months, but I'll be finishing it in April so I'm going to count it.

Short book on my TBR: The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. Been on my mental TBR list for a long time, but only ran across a copy last year. Excited for this one as well!

Book from TBR I fear I've lost interest in: The Ceremonies by T. E. D. Klein. I absolutely loved Klein's "Events at Poroth Farm" short story, so when I saw his two published books at a used book store, I snapped them up. I read the short story collection first and, while I enjoyed it, I wasn't gripped by it the way I was "Poroth". This novel has kind of languished on my shelf ever since, but now I'm looking forward to seeing how I like it.

Book from TBR that I'm excited to get to: God Emperor of Dune. A long time ago, when I worked at a bookstore, a guy I worked with told me I had to read this book and expounded at length about how great it was. And then he was like, "Oh, but there are three other books you have to read first." Prompted by the movies, I've now read those three (and absolutely loved the first one), so I'm excited to finally read the book I started the series to get to.

My goal is six books, one for each category, from my fantasy TBR!

- short-term shelfer: Storm and Fury (Armentrout)
- long-term shelfer: Shadow and Bone (Bardugo)
- shorter novel: The Cruel Prince (Black)
- longer novel: The Black Witch (Forest)
- excited-to-read: Dance of Thieves (Pearson)
- hesitant-to-read: The Book of Dust (Pullman)

I do plan to read in the above order!

I plan to read the following books, one for each challenge, from my physical TBR:

- Read a book that has been on your TBR for a very long time: Vengeful (V.E. Schwab)
- Read a book that has been on your TBR for a very short time: Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)
- Read one of the longest books on your TBR: Invasion of the Tearling (Erika Johansen)
- Read one of the shortest books on your TBR: The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis)
-Read a book from your TBR that you fear you have lost interest in: The Body Finder (Kimberly Derting)
-Read a book from your TBR that you are very excited to get to: The Cruel Prince (Holly Black)

I plan to read them in any order based on my mood!

I have over 500 books on my TBR (don't faint, Katie). I plan to read 8 in April:
-The Way We Live Now, Trollope--longest (800+) and oldest (2011)
-How the Other Half Lives, J. Riis--shortest (under 200 pages)
-Uncle Tom's Cabin, H B Stowe--oldest (2011) and losing interest
-Music in the Hills, DE Stevenson; and Young Anne, D Whipple--newest (both 2023)
-In This House of Brede, R Godden--excited to get to
-John Adams, David McCullough--audiobook
-Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins--in memory of booktuber (& Wilkie Collins lover) Jennifer Brooks and for the 200th anniversary year of Wilkie Collins (b. 1824).

1. Goal: I want to read at least six books.
2. Very long time on my TBR: Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise of O-) by Heinrich von Kleist (on my shelves since January 1980)
3. Very short time on my TBR: Skyddsängeln by Sofie Sarenbrant (The Guardian Angel - I don't know if there is an English translation, it's a Swedish crime thriller.)
4. Longest book: Can you Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope (830 pages)
5. Shortest book: Black Coffee by Agatha Christie (108 pages)
6. Lost interest: Eremitkräftan by Sven Delblanc (The Hermit Crab - I doubt that there has ever been a translation into English, nor into German, which is my native language. This is on my shelves since 1986.)
7. Excited to get to: The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett (I love her The Making of a Marchioness)

Anja wrote: "These readathons are the perfect time to tackle the really large books; the last time I began Clarrisa (which took three months to finish) and this time I'm taking on The Anatomy of Melancholy.
My ..."
Secondhand Time is wonderful, revelatory, and Lathe of Heaven is one of my all-time favorites. I bet you will have a good reading month!

Prompts in order:

1-Long term: Pinocchio
2-Short term: Love in the time of cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
3- Longest book: One thousand nights or Black spider, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
4- Shortest: A study in scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle
5- Fear lost interest: Los depravados príncipes de la Vieja Corte, Matieu I. Carnigale
6- Very excited to: The three body problem, Cixin Liu

Of course I don't know if I can read all of them, but I can try it :)

I am setting my own goal for my TBR - I plan on reading 3 books from my TBR each week, with a total of 12. Right now my TBR is over 250 books, and I really want to get it knocked down as much as possible by the end of the year. I'm hoping this challenge can help me kick this off!