The Polls are in - well ours are anyway!

In a week when politics in Australia has come to a standstill in the aftermath of last Saturday's cliffhanger election that appears to have resulted in a hung parliament, the polls on MYSTERIES in PARADISE has showed some conclusive results.

 Many of the readers of this blog participate in reading challenges but most say that they don't really determine ALL the books that they read. The comments on the poll are available here.
Listed in the reasons for participating in challenges:

• to push myself to read books from regions I don't usually read about. 
• challenges are good for me, expanding my reading choices.
• What I've learned is that I enjoy the ones that actually challenge me to read books I otherwise wouldn't have read but I only want 1 or 2 of them on the go at any one time.
• I have enjoyed the personal challenges like reading all the shortlist for the International Dagger award
• Challenges encourage me to read books I already own
• I tend to choose challenges that fit what I am likely to read rather than challenges that make me add yet more books to my reading list.
• Certain challenges, like the 2010 Global Challenge and the Japanese Literature Challenge have definitely expanded my reading. 

We're a greedy lot on MYSTERIES in PARADISE, or at least those who read this blog apparently now.
The poll about the size of Mount TBR shows that many of us have a problem, far too many books on hand.
My guess is that the problem arises from an acute awareness of the titles available in the genres we read, the fact that we are alert for book bargains, that family give us books for birthdays, that we belong to lists and discussion rooms that tell us about new titles, and the fact that most of us can't bear the thought of being book-less. Check the comments on this poll here.