TBRN - best laid plans

Earlier this week I wrote about Challenges needing some attention.

Challenges needing a bit more attention

• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge - one book to go for this year's target
• Outdo Yourself - 6 books to go
• Ireland Reading Challenge - 3 books 
• Vintage Mystery - 2 books
• Canadian Book Challenge 2011-2012 - I've slipped behind schedule a bit - 3 more books for this year.
• New Zealand  - 2 books
• British Books - 1 book to my crown. 

So here are my plans

• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge - 1 book to go for the year
  THE MOVING FINGER
• Outdo Yourself - 6 books to go
  This one will take care of itself
• Ireland Reading Challenge - 3 books
  I have some books on my Kindle
  THE LIKENESS by Tana French
  THE BURNING by Jane Casey
  PLUGGED - Eoin Colfer
• Vintage Mystery - 2 books
  More Kindle books
  BEFORE MIDNIGHT by Rex Stout
  THE POISONED CHOCOLATES by Anthony Berkeley
• Canadian Book Challenge 2011-2012 - 3 more books for this year.
  INNOCENT GRAVES, Peter Robinson
  A BREWSKI FOR THE OLD MAN, Phyllis Smallman
  THE WEED THAT HANGS THE STRING by Alan Bradley - already on my Kindle
• New Zealand  - 2 books
  BLOOD MEN, Paul Cleave
  BOLD BLOOD, Lindy Kelly
• British Books - 1 book to my crown
  A LONELY DEATH, Charles Todd.

So that is 12 books and I think it easily do-able  so I can probably fit some of the library books in as well as completing these.

• next on Kindle - THE BLACKHOUSE, Peter May
• next Australian - WATCH THE WORLD BURN, Leah Giarratano
• next on audio - GIDEON'S DAY, J J Marric (John Creasey)
• also on audio - THE FOUR LAST THINGS, Andrew Taylor

Pitfalls: Reconciling two TBRs

This is an updated image of the TBR Range at my place, and I regret to say it is not getting smaller. My latest estimate is that it may indeed be over 100 books higher than it was last year.

Today I realised it has become complicated by the fact that unless I am careful I am likely to buy a Kindle copy of a book I already have on books-in-the-hand.
 
That nearly happened with Donna Leon's A QUESTION OF BELIEF this morning after I had read the review on Crime Scraps. In fact, if I hadn't gone to search the tbr bookshelf, it would have happened! My memory of what is lingering on the bookshelf is dimming, the longer the book is there.

I did buy THE POISONED CHOCOLATES CASE by Anthony Berkeley after I had read Martin Edwards' Forgotten Books post about it (although I don't have another copy of that). It will fit nicely into my Vintage Mystery Challenge, but so will any one of about 40 other books I have on the Mount Kindle TBR.

So while I am trying to read faster, and have read 46 books so far this year, I don't think I'm, in fact I know I'm not, keeping pace with the growth of TBR. Thank goodness I have some extended travel coming up in about 6 weeks' time, when I'll be basically relying on my Kindle, but there will not be any danger of running out of readable books.

Last week I said that I was seriously thinking of disconnecting the link between  my Kindle and it's money tree, my credit card, and that may still happen. Perhaps I need make use of the Kindle wish list a lot more, but that might begin to look like the one I maintain on my Library account, Mount NeverGoThere. I can report that I am being more controlled with my library book borrowing.

Welcome To My Life*

Many thanks to Margot at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist for this meme which allows you to give a crime fiction view of the world to come in 2011. Check the origins on her post. By all means take the questions and answer them on your blog.

Following Margot's example, I've used crime fiction titles (from my TBR) to complete the answers to the questions.

I spent my New Year’s Eve: In A MIDNIGHT CAB with James W. Nichol

I’ve made a resolution to: WATCH THE WORLD BURN (Leah Giarratano)

I plan to quit my habit of: VIOLENT EXPOSURE (Katherine Howell)

I hope I’ll get to visit: DARK COUNTRY (Bronwyn Parry)

One project I didn’t finish last year but want to finish this year is: THE RULE BOOK (Rob Kitchin)

I want to learn: THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION (Iain Pears)

I’m not looking forward to: my DYING GASP (Leighton Gage)

My biggest dream for the year is: OPERATION NAPOLEON (Arnaldur Indridason)

I hope I don’t end up: DINING WITH DEVILS (Gordon Aalborg)

I’ll probably spend a lot of time: exploring THE LOCKED ROOM (Maj Sowal & Per Wahloo)

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.

Sunday Salon: Tyrannosaurus TBR, 22 Aug 2010

Hello fellow Sunday Saloners

I've written before about my TBR. I'm alarmed today as I suspect things are really getting out of hand.
It has grown by an estimated 55 books since my last look. And the culprit is my Kindle!
Or rather the culprit is Net Galley together with Books-on-the-Knob.
NetGalley puts me in touch with e-books that publishers want reviewed, while Books on the Knob alerts me to far too many bargains.

So, how is your TBR (To Be Read)looking?
Don't have one? You are not trying!

Over on the right you'll find a poll you can take to make me feel either better or worse about my growing TBR. Give me an estimate of your TBR. Now be honest - count everything!

What makes us accumulate a TBR? Is it greed? Are we afraid that we'll miss out? Are you afraid of being without a book to read?

Posts this week:

• Audio Book Challenge Update, 21 Aug 2010
• Review: PILGRIM OF HATE, Ellis Peters (audio)
• Forgotten Books: My Escape Hatch
• Do You Remember? Blott on the Landscape
• Book Towers - creator Tom Bendsten
• Ned Kelly Awards 2010 Shortlist
• Review: ON EDGE, Barbara Fister

When Mount TBR becomes a mountain range

I've written about Mt TBR before, and indeed taken pictures of the made-from-trees residents on my shelves.
TBR for the non-initiated means "to be read" but in my case also could mean "to be reviewed".

Every now and then it is worth taking stock. In the last 8 months or so with the acquisition of the Kindle, and under pressure from my audio book provider, other mountain peaks have emerged.
I'm not going to bore you with pictures of book shelves but thought you might appreciate the enormity of the problem:.

I think there are perhaps several possible solutions to the problem:

• an extended world cruise - although that wouldn't deal too effectively with books-in-the-hand because they just wouldn't make it into the case.
• some long flights - same problem as above.
• retire from work and read constantly - unfortunately money is very nice. Nor am I sure the eyes would hold up.
• train the cat to read and write - so far he has not shown much aptitude.
• buy NOTHING - that is tempting but then I couldn't join in a lot of discussions and challenges.

For now, I think all I can do is prioritize my lists and plough on. I am sure there are many out there in Reader Land who share my problem.

Weekly Geeks 2009-32: Why Haven't I Read This Yet?

This week's Weekly Geeks task is to talk about a book or books I haven't read yet. Sorry, I can't do that!
That's because I have Mount TBR (to be read) lurking in the passage. Just inside the front door it is, waiting to trap me, ensnare me in its coils as I pass by in and out of the house.

Here is the main peak of TBR.

Sitting smugly at the top are the library books. They think they are safe. Little do they know. Today 6 of them have been relegated, unread, to the out-of-this-house contingent, just to keep our librarian happy. They'll be back!

Under the library shelf are the so-called "review" books - ones I should be reviewing post-haste.

And under them books I have bought. I have talked before about my inability to visit a book shop without books leaping off the shelves into my arms!

The growth of Mount TBR is a constantly recurring theme of this blog.

And here is the Agatha Christie Challenge part of it.
I've read 13 out of an estimated 80 Agatha Christie titles. And just last week, they've announced another has been discovered.




And here is the pinnacle: the select few, the ones I have to read now: just ignore the fact that there is nearly a month's reading there.

10 reasons why TBR doesn't ever diminish

• Reading them gets deferred in favour of other books I have to read for discussions and books groups I belong to.
  
• New review books keep turning up!
• I can't stay away from book shops.
• I'm greedy and collect books like other people collect stamps
• People keep publishing new books
• I don't read fast enough
• I've tried training my eyes to read independently of each other, but it doesn't work, my brain gets in the way
• I belong to Book Mooch
  
• I've tried to listen to audio books and read hard copy books, but despite an innate ability to multi-task I can't do both at once.
• I am addicted to blogging and spend valuable reading time blogging, tweeting, and reading other people's blogs.
  

What does your TBR look like?

I didn't need any more books!

Yesterday we went out to the Meadows Easter Fair and discovered heaven in the form of a number of second hand book tables. You can see my purchases on the right.

Now I can justify the Agatha Christie's with the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (although thus far the library has supplied all my needs).

I bought the Arthur Upfields at Elliot Books in the mainstreet of Port Elliot. It was recommended to me by a work colleague and, although my parents live down there, I had never been into the store before. Well worth visiting often! He gave me a discount for buying more than one book.

Anyway I bought the Upfields because of 3 Acts of Murder coming to ABC TV soon.
From the website:
In 1929 Arthur Upfield, Australia's premier crime writer, plotted the perfect murder for his novel The Sands of Windee. Meanwhile, one of his friends, stockman Snowy Rowles, put the scheme into deadly effect, even before the book was published. The result was one of Australia's most sensational murder trials of the 1930s.
Well, as you can see, I didn't manage to buy SANDS OF WINDEE so perhaps I'll have to pay another visit soon.

Anyway I decided to spend today moving Mount TBR from the various locations described in another post two weeks ago, to its own dedicated bookshelf.

BEFORE
At this stage I though the TBR count was about 189

AFTER

Thanks to the fact that I discovered a couple of duplicates, the count now comes in now at 197 (I think, although I have lent some unread books out to friends just recently). I like the fact that I now have them all in one place. And those who are waiting for me to review something: that second shelf from the top is the review shelf. Now all I have to do is tidy up the mess I've made moving the books.

Agatha Christie pile Next up in my ACRC reading should be a set of short stories PARTNERS IN CRIME but it has been on order from the library for nearly a month now. So I'll probably go on to the next: THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

Books, Books everywhere

Or why I shouldn't acquire anymore!

If you click on the image above, you'll get taken to the bigger photo and you'll get some idea of the size of my problem.

After acquiring the 3 books down in the bottom right corner today because

• I had some book vouchers to spend and needed to buy THE WRITING CLASS for our face to face group,
• CHILD44 was on special at $14,
• and well... the other just leapt into my arms,

I took a serious look at my current book repositories. (Other people would call them hiding places.)

You'll see there are 7 separate photos, showing approximately 180 books waiting for me to read!
How on earth did I get myself into this situation!
I should take the following steps I think:

• stop work and devote my time to reading
• divorce myself from the library where I have another 30 books requested and 90 books on my wishlist
• zip up my purse and NEVER buy any more books
• stop belonging to reading groups which suggest new books (and discuss them)

Now, we all know none of that is going to happen, so I guess what I need to do is

• read faster
• read even faster
• read very fast
  

Waiting in the Wings

I thought I'd treat you to some of the titles I intend to read - well, I have the books on my shelves but, if my current rate of consumption is any indication, it is going to take me some time.

Books I have from the library

AGATHA RAISIN AND KISSING CHRISTMAS GOODBYE, MC Beaton
ALL THINGS BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL: MURDER IN THE CITY OF LIGHT, Susan Mitchell
AND JUSTICE THERE IS NONE, Deborah Crombie
ATONEMENT, Ian McEwan
BLEEDING KANSAS, Sara Paretsky
DEATH OF A RED HEROINE, Qui Xiaolong
DECEPTION, Denise Mina
THE DEVIL AND MARIA D'AVALOS, Victoria Hammond
ICE MOON, Jan Costin Wagner
KISSED A SAD GOODBYE, Deborah Crombie
NOT DEAD ENOUGH, Peter James
OFFICER DOWN, Theresa Schwegel
S IS FOR SILENCE, Sue Grafton
SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR, Fred Vargas
THE SIMIAN CURVE, Mark Lalbeharry
THUMBPRINT, Friedrich Glauser
THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS, Nancy Pickard
WATER LIKE A STONE, Deborah Crombie
THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH, Douglas Kennedy
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION, Michael Chabon

About to arrive from the library
GONE TO GROUND, John Harvey
WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND, Fred Vargas

Books waiting to be read and reviewed

BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE, Lee Child
COLD IN HAND, John Harvey
CUT TO THE QUICK, Diane Emley
FAN MAIL, P.D. Martin
ILLEGAL ACTION, Stella Rimington
ISABELLA MOON, Laura Benedict
KENNEDY'S BRAIN, Henning Mankell
NEMESIS , Jo Nesbo
SACRIFICE , S. J. Bolton
THE CLEANER, Brett Battles
THE QUIET GIRL, Peter Hoeg
WILLOWS FOR WEEPING, Felicity Pulman
WRITTEN IN BONE, Simon Beckett

Others
Still reading WICKER by Kevin Guilfoile
for F2F group next Sunday: THE SPELLMAN FILES by Lisa Lutz

The rest in no particular order
BORKMANN'S POINT, Hakan Nesser
GEISHA, Arthur Golden
BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES, Robert Fate
TRACE, Patricia Cornwell
THE DEAD POOL, Sue Walker
THE CHRISTMAS MYSTERY, Jostein Gaarder
THE CRUELLEST MONTH, Louise Penney
BLOODY HAM, Brian Kavanagh
DYING TO SIN, Stephen Booth
COLD LIGHT, John Harvey
THE SINNER, Petra Hammesfahr
HEART SICK, Chelsea Cain
SUCKED IN, Shane Maloney
SKIN AND BONE, Kathryn Fox
FRIEND OF THE DEVIL, Peter Robinson
DEATH MESSAGE, Mark Billingham
THE SLEEPING DOLL, Jeffery Deaver
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, Linwood Barclay
THE THIRTEENTH TALE, Diane Setterfield