Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2012 discussion

Hi! I'm Bev from Indiana. As the Challenge Rules tell you...I have an incredible mountain range of TBR piles. I'm working on climbing and conquering those peaks and clearing out some space in my back room. I'd love it if you'd tell us a bit about yourself and maybe give us an idea what your mountain range looks like. How you acquired it...any little thing you'd like to share about yourself.

I am Jo Ann from WI...i have mountains with picks at my house...I love to read...and now that i have a color Nook I am converting my "treasured" books over to eBooks...LOVE IT...i can hold a library in my hand! and when i miss the "smell" of print & paper(backs) i make a beeline to my nearest B&N store...and yes i read in bed - don't need the flashlight anymore...yah baby! :)

Hi Bev, thanks for your invitation to join this group here at GR. Since my passion for books is infinite, I loved the idea of this Mount TBR Challenge.

@Jo Ann: The picks come in handy for climbing. :-) Hope the challenge helps encourage you. Yes, it is nice to be old enough not to have to hide under the covers with a flashlight to read...

Laura wrote: "Hi Bev, thanks for your invitation to join this group here at GR. Since my passion for books is infinite, I loved the idea of this Mount TBR Challenge."
You're welcome! Glad to have you along. What size mountain will you be going for?

My first goal was to reach Mt. Kilimanjaro but certainly (I hope so) I'll be able to reach Mt. Everest!!! May I invite some friends of mine to join this group?

Laura wrote: "My first goal was to reach Mt. Kilimanjaro but certainly (I hope so) I'll be able to reach Mt. Everest!!! May I invite some friends of mine to join this group?"

You can invite anyone you'd like. The more the merrier! Don't forget to sign in under your chosen level. Only those who officially choose a level through a sign in (in a level folder here or through a sign up post on the blog) will be eligible for Progress Prizes.

I just invited 18 friends, lets see what happens.....

Bev wrote: "Laura wrote: "My first goal was to reach Mt. Kilimanjaro but certainly (I hope so) I'll be able to reach Mt. Everest!!! May I invite some friends of mine to join this group?"

You can invite anyone..."

I didn't know about the Progress Prizes, seems to be quite challenging.

Hello All.

Signing up for Everest too. Although I have already read over a hundred this year, not every one was from the TBR pile and it will be interesting to see the source breakdown of my reading habits.
:O)

Hi all, Laura and Bettie invited me here, so here I am! My Mount TBR is pretty high, over 600 books, but of those "only" about 150 are actually owned (paper and ebooks).

I'm from NYC but have been in Rome for the last 26 years (half my life!) and I read a lot, obviously, but not nearly as much as Bettie and Laura. I get through about 80 books a year.

Will now go study the categories and the rules and will choose a level.

Yes...when I saw that Bettie had already read over a hundred, I had to double-check my reading. And my family thinks I read a lot.... :-)

Hi all, Bettie invited me and I'm from the UK. Books are a big part of my life and this looks fun, although I'm way off the board in numbers read a year compared to some of the major league players here :)

ohhh, Bev, what a WONDERFUL idea - hope I can keep up!!! I *know* I'd ought to start small...! (grin) But, hey, I've run out of room for the books LONG ago, and by reading a large bunch of 'em from my piles (AND the boxes in the closets that moved with me to a much smaller apartment THREE years ago...!) I might be able to actually (sob!!) sell some of them off and thus reclaim space.... yeah. right... (grin)

Heck, I've got lots of books I bought in the 1990s that I haven't read "yet"... - that's when The Collecting Bug really bit me AND had a decent enough job so that there was actually "disposable income" available for books and yarn (yes, I've a huge stash of that too...). Unfortunately, a lot of my reading for this year is already scheduled to be of rereads - I'm smack in the midst of my own personal challenge that I've been very slowly going at for a year now, of female writers from between-the-wars who wrote similarly to Agatha Christie - many of them are of series, and it's been so long since I read some of them I need to reread the earlier books so I can then get on with the ones in my TBRs that I *haven't* read yet!

Luckily my spotty memory means it's LIKE reading a new book... (grin) - guess that wouldn't count, though, right??? And I *do* have a huge pile of kindle books and e-books available as well. mmmmm, lovely!! Being me (and a Sagittarian) I tend to go all-out, but I'll start low-ish, with Mt. Vancouver - two books/month seems entirely "workable".

This sounds like fun, and many thanks to dear friend Laura for inviting me to participate.

I'm Hannah, and have been a GR member since 2009. Love, love, love this site and have made some great online friends here. I've also added way too many books to my TBR pile, so this will be a great way to trim it down a bit.

I've already put together a personal reading challenge for this year (I decided not to do GR's reading challenge), but that still leaves enough books to do "Pike's Peak" at least!

Thanks again - and good luck everyone.

Some lovely people here - many seriously addicted readers - this promises to be a great year for TBR mountain bustin'

I think I will start with my ant hill first...working third shift and sleeping during the day cuts into put my feet up time...(when i do my reading & crocheting!) oh well we have to start somewhere...i hope there are no limits to what we read(?) and can we discuss our books or is this only how many books we read in a month/year group?

Hi Bev,

Thanks for the invite and I'd love to participate.

I'm Yvonne from New York and read several different types of genres from cozy mystery to thrillers to suspense to romance.

I'm looking forward to being part of this challenge. I'll take a better look at this in the next couple of days and decide what level to be on.

Thanks for hosting this!

here is a question for the group...are you a hardcover, paperback, audiobook or eBook reader?

Hi Jo Ann (and everyone else too!), for me it's "all of the above", although I listen to very few audio books. Most of my books are paperbacks and then ebooks.

Jo Ann wrote: "here is a question for the group...are you a hardcover, paperback, audiobook or eBook reader?"

Hi Jo Ann - for me its all the above too but mainly HB and PB. e-books for when when I'm commuting and I love audio books (and BBC Radio 4 adaptations too).

Hi All! I am primarily a paperback, audiobook and eBook person. I love the convenience of these three mediums. I will read a paperback and unless I really love it, I will donate used ones to the hospital or to the library. An eBook takes no space at all as it lives on the cloud. Audiobooks (MP3 player types) are great for cleaning the house.

I am an old-fashioned, gotta have a real book in my hand kind of girl. I don't have an e-reader and have no plans to get one. I spend a lot of time on electronic equipment at work and I want my reading for pleasure to be a totally different experience. Plus--for me--there's something about going into a bookstore (normally used--because my first love is vintage mysteries) and finding a copy of the book sitting on the shelf waiting for me to take it home. Clicking on a computer/e-reader button and ordering it up just isn't the same.

Hello to all :)
I've been trying to find a group like this for some time, and I'm glad I found it!
Like Bev, I'm real book kind of person. I really like hardcovers but they are so expensive, so I settle down for paperbacks.

E. wrote: "Hello to all :)
I've been trying to find a group like this for some time, and I'm glad I found it!
Like Bev, I'm real book kind of person. I really like hardcovers but they are so expensive, so ..."

Welcome,E.!!

Thank you :D

Hi Everyone. Just got the invite from Bettie and I see Hayes is here already. What a great idea especially since it looks like I'll be moving this year and it's expensive to move Mt. TBR.

I live just outside of Washington DC and I've been a life-long reader. I work in the technical publishing world and like Bev prefer the feel of a book in my hands after a day of computer screen reading.

Hey Donna! Hi Wanda! Old friends and new... this is good news for me. I had already planned to clear off a few bookshelves this year, but you all will keep me focused.

Hi - I'm Amreeta from Dubai. I just moved here from London 7 weeks ago (today!) - and shipped all my TBR! I've intended to read them *forever* but this is just the challenge I need. Looking forward to reading with you all! What a brilliant idea :-)

Hi all,
I'm Chris from Philly.


This is a good reason to get read of that TBR pile that is staring at me. I'm going to aim for Mt. Everest, considering this will be the only way I'll climb it.

Welcome, Donna, Hayes, Amreeta, and Chris (and anyone else that I might have missed so far)! Glad to have you joining in.

Jo Ann wrote: "here is a question for the group...are you a hardcover, paperback, audiobook or eBook reader?"

I've become an EBook reader mainly, but I do read the occasional paperback and hardcover. I also like to listen to audiobooks during my commute to work.

Everybody's lists are shaping up nicely! So glad to see that I'm not the only one with piles of books that need reading.

Hi all, I'm another of Bettie's invitees :-) What a great idea for a group! Although I'm more of a library junkie than a book buyer these days I still have a reasonable pile of unread books on the shelves. Bargains can be hard to resist! I'm also a sucker for bookmooch - a great way to find those volumes the library doesn't carry.
I live in Auckland NZ, a city built on a field of volcanoes. My nearest is called Pigeon Mountain... which I think is kinda appropriate as I'll be going for the smallest challenge to start with!

Hi there. Yet another of Bettie's invitees signing up to do some mountaineering.

I tend to get far too enthusiastic about great books that definitely need to be read, and read by me! And then get distracted by life and work.....

Like most people here I imagine.

I've already sorted through my TBR shelf here at GR, presently running at 111, of which around 30 are also on the wishlist. So on my reckoning I must have about 80 scattered around the house waiting to be cracked open. I could go for halving that number, but I doubt that's feasible as I usually read around 50 per year. So I think I'll go for the 25, thus saying that at least half what I read this year must come off the pile. Howzat?!?!

Welcome Darkpool & Karen! Good luck with your mountains.

What a great idea for a group and a challenge!

I'm Kim, I'm from Sydney and I was invited here by Laura. I see a number of friends and other people I know here already. *waves*

I am an equal opportunity reader: fiction, non-fiction, dead tree books, e-reader books and audiobooks are all fine with me.

I have a TBR pile of less than 200 and what I've realised is that most of those books are in the wish-list category - that is, I don't own them. Rather, I mostly use my TBR shelf as a shopping list. Books I've been given and don't want to read immediately stay in a real pile on the floor, but don't necessarily get added to my virtual TBR shelf.

Soooooo .... I'm going to start with the minimum challenge and read those books which are on my TBR shelf which I actually own. Then, if I get through those books, I'll move on to other books I own which aren't yet on my TBR shelf. That should keep me going for a while!

Welcome, Kim! Laura has turned into my PR person. :-)

Hi Kim, Darkpool and Karen! *waves back*

welcome guys!!!!

Hello Everyone... I am Marialyce and I too, am an equal opportunity reader. Give me the opportunity and I will read. My likes vary, but recently I seem to be drown more to non fiction books. Perhaps it is a phase!

At any rate the well read and erudite Laura invited me to join and I think the challenge looks like so much fun. I think I will chose Everest as being retired I have lots of time to read. I am right now living in DC with my daughter helping her with my youngest grandson who is six months old. I really live in NY, but will in the fall of 2012 move to VA. We bought a house there to be near our other two grandchildren, but still kept the NY house.

I add to my TBR pile all the time, but never seem to delete any...what's with that?

At any rate, thank you Laura, for thinking of me and thank you Bev for thinking of doing this.

Laura wrote: "I just invited 18 friends, lets see what happens....."


Thanks Laura for asking me. My TBR looks like Pike's Peak which I live next to at 8,000 feet. Got oxygen? When I first got on goodreads this endlessly increasing TBR would bother me greatly but now I just shrug as I read for pleasure only now. Once in a great while I do delete based on someone's review. I simply LOVE goodreads and log in most everyday to do the quiz. I am always finding new books but lately I can't even get them on interlibrary loan but its OK as I have so much to read. So many books so little time!

Alice (sometimes my alias is Cullen as I hated being called Alice in Wonderland!) :-)

Hi all!! Rick here- so very happy to a part of this wonderful Group!

Hi Marialyce, Alice & Rick! Glad to have you aboard!

Hello Everyone!
A great idea, this! My life has taken a turn that makes this challenge perfect for me. I don't buy many books as I can't afford my appetite for them (library geek), but I do have enough for Pike's Peak at the least. Will post as I go!

Hi Everyone,

I'm Jenny from Adelaide, Australia and was invited to join by Kim. I'm a sad case and have 388 books (both fiction & nonfiction and dead tree & e books) on my GR to-read shelf. I only add books 'to read' if I physically own them, the rest languish on my wishlist which is really my shopping list.

I'll probably start off at the lowest level (even though I easily have enough books to reach Mt Everest) because I've had a bit of a book buying binge in January and do want to read some of them soon. I'm also not a particularly fast reader so don't get heaps of books read each year. I can always increase my goal should I need to!

Will list books as I read them. I think I've already read five this year that qualify :-).

Hello, Esther & Jemidar! Glad to have you along.

Thank you for the invitation to join this group :-)

Hello all,
I'm Grada from the Netherlands and I have a huge MTBR any help in reducing it is welcome :-) This to-read shelf of mine is very heavy, but is only with books that I fysically have. Books I want to read are listed as wishlist. I do not own an e-reader and do not plan on buying one, since I love to have a book in my hand while reading. I prefer hardcover, but they are SOOO expensive, most of the time, that I switch to paperback.
I have set myself a reading challenge of 100 books for 2012. That is all books: rings and rays through BookCrossing included. So I won't start with too many books at first and will join the 40 books off MTBR at first. If things go well, then I can always step up.

I'll make a list of the books I intend to read off MTBR. The first ones I have read already. I'm not sure if I'll make a list of all books, or just stick to the 'add one once finished'-method. I'll have to see.

Look forward to see other people's progress, comments etc.
Will post the list in the appropriate part of this group.

welcome Grada!!

Hi Grada/BoekenTrol... we've got the whole crowd here. That means success is guaranteed! I must get my books up off the floor, really I must.