James of Ready When You Are, C.B., is once again hosting a TBR reading dare - and he's upping the ante with the Double Dog Dare for 2013. Accepting the dare means agreeing to read only from your own TBR stacks from January 1st to April 1st. I've signed up again; I need to. This is the first year that I'll have e-books in the mix, as well as the actual volumes on the shelves (though my Nook is pretty well stocked with out-of-print 19th century novels, I still haven't managed to read an entire e-book since I got it).
I did pretty well with the 2012 Double Dare, clearing 71 books off the stacks by April 1st. At that point, I felt like I'd easily meet the one reading goal I'd set myself for this year: to read all the books I bought within the year. Then came my trove of Trollope discovery, all those lovely fat Oxford World's Classics, the same night that I found William Thackeray's Pendennis (all 1000 pages of it). Adding The Count of Monte Cristo (1128 pages) and Mary Chestnut's Civil War (836 pages) to the TBR shelves pretty much nixed any chance I had of meeting my goal, never mind the other, shorter books that keep arriving.
As James's rules allow, I am making an exception for three new books coming out in those months, from favorite authors Dean James, Deborah Crombie, and C.S. Harris. In theory I should also make an exception for book club books, but then I hardly ever manage to read along with either of the groups to which I belong.
I think this Dare will dovetail nicely with the Reading Presently project that Simon is organizing over at Stuck in a Book, to focus on books received as gifts. I haven't been counting those in the TBR totals, but as I said elsewhere, I haven't been reading them either. And just this month I won a lovely copy of Graham Greene's Stamboul Train from Falaise at 2606 Books and Counting...
Good luck! I think you're very brave because I couldn't bear not to have my weekly library visit.
ReplyDeleteCat, I did miss library books, though anything you have checked out or on reserve before Jan 1st is still eligible. I think I have some interlibrary requests that I'll still be waiting on!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this wonderful plug and for the link. Sign-ups have been a little slow, but it's still early.
ReplyDeleteYou've described one of the major reason why I haven't bought an e-reader. I read that the Nook will be 59 dollars today, too.
I'm so glad that you're hosting this again, James! I realized that I didn't leave a comment actually on the challenge page. The end of the year and the looming TBR stacks will inspire more to sign up, I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteI really debated an e-reader, because I knew I'd load it up. Unfortunately I'm finding it frustrating to use - too slow on turning pages back to check things - but at least so far all the books I've added have been from Gutenberg or other non-profits.
I've signed up too! I really need to do this and I am looking forward to discovering all the books on my shelves that I forgot I had. Working in the library makes it hard to not want to check multiple books out a day, but I am just going to write down every title that looks enticing and look at them again after April 1. Really looking forward to the challenge!
ReplyDeleteAnbolyn, we can cheer each other on :) I think you're very brave to take this on, working in the constant temptation of a library! I worked for two years in a university archives, and wandering the stacks of the library at lunch or on breaks was a definite job perk.
ReplyDelete71 books in three months!! Wow! I'm close to 100 books for the year and I'm pretty proud of myself.
ReplyDeleteI tried last year, but there's no way I can sign up for the TBR Dare -- working in a library is too tempting, and I belong to too many book groups. I'd like to force everyone to read the titles I want from my shelves, but most of them don't have enough copies (plus I don't know if I can persuade them to read Trollope).
Karen, I didn't read all of them. Some I started & gave up on - and some I realized that I was never going to read, that I was just holding on to them out of guilt, because I'd spent the money on them. I won't have that impressive a number next year, because I've weeded out the dead wood already.
ReplyDeleteOne of my book groups does try to read a classic every year (though our next book is a Harlequin historical set in Texas, which I doubt I'll read) - but I don't think I could sell them on Trollope. Even the Warden :)