Today seems to be a good time to write another post about my successful battle against Mount TBR – always write about your victories, never about your defeats 😉
So the mountain of around 130 books which had been reduced to 82 books three weeks ago, now consists of 75 books. Not too bad, and though I have felt sorely tempted lately, I only gave in the other day because I could get the first ebook of a series I have wanted to read for a long time for free.
As a result of this struggle, I have all but neglected my reading challenges for months, and now I have finished the Irish Reading Challenge – by reading a second book by Brian McGilloway. Not exactly what I´d call imaginative, but the book was right there on the TBR.
Ireland Reading Challenge
Declan Burke, The Big O (2007)
Tana French, The Likeness (2008)
Brian McGilloway, Gallows Lane (2008)
Colin Bateman, Mystery Man (2009)
Jane Casey, The Burning (2010)
Brian McGilloway, The Rising (2010)
Six very good reading experiences, but The Burning is my favourite.
djskrimiblog 
You’ve done *very* well! That’s a lot of reading. I haven’t read “The Burning”–thanks for the tip!
Excellent list to take into account Dorte. I’ve only read Brian McGilloway’s Borderlands. Well done on your challenge.
Wow, congrats! I wish I was a fast reader like you. Thanks for all the reviews you did on this book too.
Dorte – Good for you to keep working on Mt. TBR! And congratulations on finishing the Irish Reading Challenge. Nicely done :-). And I’ve been wanting to read The Burning, too. Thanks for reminding me that I haven’t done that yet…
Very clever cover for The Burning. My battle with Mount TBR is sort of a draw at this point. Even though I’ve only bought a couple books, I keep winning them and also ordering from Amazon Vine. Then I bought a Kindle so that’s counter-productive too. Maybe this winter when I don’t have yard work to do will see improvement.
Congratulations on completing your Irish challenge and for making such progress with your TBR stack! I plan to tackle mine with full force in 2012.
Thank you, friends.
Barbara: oh dear, how unlucky you are 😉
Good idea, Kelly.
I am impressed by your reading habits!
I’m very impressed with the reduction in your Mount TBR. I’ve stopped keeping count of mine, I’m afraid.
Diane: no need to be; when I read too much it is a clear proof that I have been too tired to write. Well, you can´t have everything…
Belle: I just had to do something when I realized I had so many books I didn´t want to read ANY of them.
MY TBR exceeds 1000 books. I hope to finish them in 2050 or so. Anyway buying them is as good as reading them for the writer, right?
Patti: 1000 books? I hope some of them are ebooks. But of course every sale counts for the writer 😉
I haven’t read any of the books in the Irish Challenge,but have heard of Tana French and will certainly remember your recommendation, The Burning (though I’m not overly fond of serial killer novels). Congrats on whittling down your pile to only 70 something.
You’ve done very well in getting your TBR pile down to 75. But I’m in shock over the 1,000-book TBR pile. Where is there room for them?
2050 is the year I’ve given myself as the deadline for me reading all of the books on my TBR list, but then again hundreds more books will reappear by then, so I’ll never catch up.
I will check out your Irish books. Read all three of Tana French’s and I like them, and also Rob Kitchin’s The White Gallows. I should read more of these as part of my family is from Ireland.
So many books, and people ask me to actually DO THINGS instead of letting me read!
I just started Mercy by Adler-Olsen, and have Outrage and a few more before I turn to the Emerald Isle, so I’m still in Scandinavia, where I end up, no matter what.
Gerry? Harvee? Tana French is excellent if you can accept her rambling a bit. I just love words so I have no problems there. And people who have read The Burning agree that it is not that kind of serial killer book.
Kathy: I think (hope) Patti reads ebooks. Solves one problem, but creates another (you´ll never have hours to read them all). And it is so interesting to see English readers ending up in Scandinavia because I always seem to end up in GB + Ireland no matter what I do.
I’m calling for a 36-hour day, wondering if I can listen to one book while reading another, and also considering cloning myself — all with the goal of reading more books. I worry I’ll miss good ones just due to sheer time constraints. (And I wish I could read as quickly as I did decades ago, when I’d get an armload of books from the library and a week later get new ones, although I now admit my reading came before schoolwork!)
Kathy: schoolwork? What´s schoolwork? Well, at least there is ONE advantage to lying on the sofa with a flu. If you pick books that aren´t too demanding, you can read a lot in four days.
Such GOOD advice to recognize the positives and not talk too much about those darn negatives. ESPECIALLY with reading challenges since this is supposed to be FUN! 🙂
I have had a few great challenge successes this year. Like the Europa Editions Challenge and to read more translated works.
Congrats to all you’ve accomplished so far this year!
Care: thank you. And as you say – challenges should be fun – so I am not at all sure I will finish the last two or three. Well, who knows which books I fall for in the next couple of months.