It is once again time for the TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader and once again, I’ll be a participant!
This is by far my hardest challenge for the simple reason that I have such a difficult, insurmountable, arduous, overwhelming problem with following lists. When it comes to reading, I’m more of a free spirit who would like to flit here and there as the mood or read-along takes me. Being trapped in a schedule is not my thing. HOWEVER, I do realize that it’s beneficial to work on the areas that are challenging for me, so this challenge reflects my effort at balance.
I still have a couple of books to finish for last year’s challenge. If I can get to them, I’ll be more than a little pleased!
Here are Adam’s rules:
The Goal: To finally read 12 books from your “to be read” pile (within 12 months).
Specifics:
1. Each of these 12 books must have been on your bookshelf or “To Be Read” list for AT LEAST one full year. This means the book cannot have a publication date of 1/1/2014 or later (any book published in the year 2013 or earlier qualifies, as long as it has been on your TBR pile – I WILL be checking publication dates). Caveat:Two (2) alternates are allowed, just in case one or two of the books end up in the “can’t get through” pile.
2. To be eligible, you must sign-up with Mr. Linky below – link to your list (so create it ahead of time!) and add updated links to each book’s review. Books must be read and must be reviewed (doesn’t have to be too fancy) in order to count as completed.
3. The link you post in the Mr. Linky below must be to your “master list” (see mine below). This is where you will keep track of your books completed, crossing them out and/or dating them as you go along, and updating the list with the links to each review (so there’s one easy, convenient way to find your list and all your reviews for the challenge). See THIS LINK for an idea of what I mean. Your complete and final list must be posted by January 15th, 2015.
4. Leave comments on this post as you go along, to update us on your status. Come back here if/when you complete this challenge and leave a comment indicating that you CONQUERED YOUR 2015 TBR LIST! Every person who successfully reads his/her 12 books and/or alternates (and who provides a working link to their list, which has links to the review locations) will be entered to win a $50 gift card from Amazon.comor The Book Depository!
5. Crossovers from other challenges are totally acceptable, as long as you have never read the book before and it was published before 2014!
And so, of course, now I have to come up with a list. Since I’m being even more unfettered with my planning this year, a list is certainly going to be a challenge. Let’s see what I can come up with:
- Meditations – René Descartes
- Orlando – Virginia Woolf
- The Plague – Albert Camus
- Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Hamlet – William Shakespeare
- Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott
- Walden – Henry David Thoreau
- Framley Parsonage – Anthony Trollope
- If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler – Italo Calvino
- Persuasion – Jane Austen
- Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- The World’s Last Night and Other Essays – C.S. Lewis
Alternates:
- The Cantebury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
- Ulysses – James Joyce
Whew! I think I have a list I can stick to. Ivanhoe and Ulysses are monster reads but I should be able to accomplish at least one. I hope!
Best of luck to everyone on their TBR Pile Challenge!
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Walden sounds interesting. I probably should participate in this challenge because I have too many books on my TBR. On a different note, when do you plan on reading Gulliver's Travels? Of course there's no pressure 🙂 I am obviously terrible at following some sort of a reading schedule but I am ready whenever you are. I will sincerely try to make this happen.
Oh, thanks for the push. Can we begin December 8th? I'll only have one week of class left then, and I hope to be finished with Le Morte d'Arthur this weekend. It's longest, most exhausting book I've ever read, but I have enjoyed it. Will have mixed feelings when it's over but mostly relief!
I have yet to finish The Once and Future King. I started Le Morte d'Arthur but didn't get very far. December 8th sounds great!
All the best Cleo..Hope you enjoy Framley Parsonage…its one of my all time comfort books…Ivanhoe is also awesome in a razzle dazzle swashbuckling way!
The only thing that got me through Arthur was Jean's read-along. And I now owe a slight apology to T.H. White ……. he wasn't completely nutty, he was dealing with a text that was a little nutty to start with! 😉
I'm so glad to hear that about Framley Parsonage but it makes me want to read it NOW. And I can't. Too many other books to get to at the moment.
I need a fun book and Ivanhoe sounds like it will fit the bill. Can't wait to get to it either!
What a great list! I read If on a winter's night a traveller this year and loved it. I hope you enjoy working through this list! 🙂
I'm so glad to hear that you liked that book because I had such a hard time getting into it! I think it was that I was so distracted when I tried to read it, that I couldn't keep track of what was going on. I will persevere though!
I have read three out of the twelve you've mentioned. Canterbury Tales is the only other one that I have any intention of reading. Perhaps Camus…but he isn't anywhere on my priority list. The rest sound a bit too heavy for me.
Oh, and I hope you don't mind my pointing out that you are actually allowed to choose two more books? It's supposed to be 1 book a month (i.e. 12 books) + 2 alternatives. Which would make it a total of 14 books. ^_^
A few of the heavy ones are for my Well-Educated Mind project where we are reading through the biographies list. However, I'm not dreading them and am actually keen to read them.
Oh, heavens! I obviously am too busy to pay attention properly. Thanks so much for pointing that out. I'll have to think of two more …… now what to choose ….???
I just signed up too! I love some of your choices. Hamlet and Persuasion are two of my absolute favorites. Framley Parsonage ended up being my second favorite of the series.
Well, your comments made me relieved that I have actually chosen some gems. It will make the list much easier to get through. Best wishes on your challenge!
Oh no, you've put The Plague on! I had the chance to buy it today and I didn't, now you're going to blog about it, I'm going to want to read it, and I'll forever regret not buying it! 🙂
Confessions is great – I remember particularly loving the beginning, and I think you will too.
Hurrah for Orlando!
We have Walden in common, too. I was planning on reading it for Fanda's Lit. Movements, but I think I'll end up reading it earlier (so I need to find a new Transcendentalist book!)/
Good luck! 🙂
LOL! I'm going to be reading it in January so you have a little less than two months leeway, if you want to beat me to the punch. You read much faster than me, anyway.
Your point about Walden is why I'm going to skip the Lit Movement Challenge; I know all the books I'll want to read will turn up in different months. Part of the genius of Fanda's challenge is to read them order and I know I'll mess everything up. One year I hope I can get it together enough to follow some of these more intricate challenges. I'm starting to feel that I've read the basic number of classics to allow me leeway for re-reads, etc. If I don't feel that I have sooo many classics to read before I die, I'll be able to be more flexible for these types of challenges.
Good luck to you too! I'll be following you closely! 🙂
OH! This is a tough challenge, but your list is so fantastic. Orlando is one of my favorite books of all time, and I had so much fun with Ulysses (it's a beast, but worth it). Walden & The Canterbury Tales are also two favorites of mine…. you're really challenging yourself, but I love it! So glad you're joining us for 2015, can't wait to see what you think about all of these! (P.S. You can have 14 books – one for each month PLUS 2 alternates in case 2 of the main books don't work out).
Tough, but I hope not too tough! That's nice to hear about Ulysses. It's the one I was thinking that I may bail on, but I really do want to read it at least once. Orlando I'm expecting to be quite bizarre but I really like Woolf's other works so it should be fun.
Thanks for the reminder. I've had some other reminders that I missed those two books so I'm looking over my plans and I'll add the missing two when I come up with something. I am thinking …….. 🙂
Thanks for hosting this challenge again, Adam!
I tried this challenge twice and failed miserably both times. I love the concept, and given the number of unread books on my shelves, you'd think it'd be natural fit, but apparently what I think I'd like to read in January is not what I actually want to read as a year progresses. Your list looks like quite the challenge! I hope you have fun with it. (Well, if nothing else, I'm sure you'll have fun with Persuasion!)
This challenge really makes you focus and stick to original lists, which I think not many of us are good at doing. But it's certainly an area that I can improve and I'm going to try. If nothing else, I can only get better.
I'm going to fail with this challenge this year, sadly. However, while I picked books I knew I was going to read, I also threw in a number of wild cards that I just didn't get to. With this coming year's list, I was more crafty (I hope) and picked mostly books that I know I'm going to be reading. So I have high hopes that I'll be sucessful in 2015, but we'll see.