2X16: A PERSONAL TBR CHALLENGE
Like I've done the past two years, I'm combining the Mt. TBR Challenge with my own, idiosyncratic TBR challenge. I am going to read 32 books for this part of the challenge, one from each of the separate shelves on my TBR bookcases – 25 fiction books, and 7 non-fiction books. This year, I picked the book from each shelf that I've most been meaning to read for one reason or another.
I ended up with a mix of books, but not as crazy as when I picked the 14th book or the 15th book on each shelf like I did the last two years. There are a few prize winners on the list, a couple of classics, some pop fiction, and more mysteries than prior years,
These are the books in alphabetical order by author, but I am going to read them as the mood strikes.
THE 2X16 LIST
The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage by Kingsley Amis FINISHED
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood FINISHED (Booker Prize winner)
Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli FINISHED
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess FINISHED (chunkster)
Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark FINISHED (Edgar Award winner)
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion FINISHED
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen FINISHED
The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan FINISHED
Longshot by Dick Francis FINISHED
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED
Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George FINISHED
The Big Seven by Jim Harrison FINISHED
Shaken and Stirred by William Hamilton FINISHED
Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley FINISHED
Devices and Desires by P.D. James FINISHED
Nobody Move by Denis Johnson FINISHED
The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge FINISHED
The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy FINISHED
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan FINISHED
The Bell by Iris Murdoch FINISHED
Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols FINISHED
Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters FINISHED (Edgar Award winner)
Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell FINISHED
Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers FINISHED (National Book Award winner)
The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell FINISHED
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson FINISHED
The Light and the Dark by C.P. Snow FINISHED
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz FINISHED
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor FINISHED
Bech is Back by John Updike FINISHED
One Day My Soul Just Opened Up by Iyanla Vanzant FINISHED
Orlando by Virginia Woolf FINISHED
THE MT. TBR LIST
Bev at My Reader's Block hosts the Mt. TBR Challenge and I am signing up for the Mt. Ararat Level to read a total of 48 books off my TBR shelves. So in addition to those listed above, I need to knock off another 16. I don't know which ones they will be, but I have a couple thousand to choose from! I have many mountains to climb.
OTHER TBR BOOKS FINISHED
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
More Baths Less Talking: Notes from the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle with Football, Family, and Time Itself by Nick Hornby
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell
A Little Dinner Before the Play by Agnes Jekyll
The Fur Person by May Sarton
Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
Fallen Into the Pit by Ellis Peters
The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol I. East and West) by W. Somerset Maugham
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Wild Horses by Dick Francis
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
Family Album by Penelope Lively
Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography by William F. Buckley Jr.
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk
The River Swimmer: Novellas by Jim Harrison
A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read
The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina
Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara (National Book Award winner)
Winter and Night by S. J. Rozan (Edgar Award winner)
The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Pulitzer Prize winner)
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
Laughter On The Stairs by Beverley Nichols
Sunlight On The Lawn by Beverley Nichols
Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
After You with the Pistol by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Something Nasty in the Woodshed by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Be Cool by Elmore Leonard
UPDATE
As of mid-December, I've finished all of the 32 on my 2X16 list. And I've already read 33 other books of my TBR shelves, for a total of 55 books for the Mt. TBR challenge. So I surpassed my goal.
I'm doing something similar. I'm listing my top 20 books I want to read as a personal challenge for 2016 so they don't get lost in the shuffle as they often seem to.
ReplyDeleteI've read and loved Major Pettigrew and Merry Hall. I think the only James book I've read is A Taste For Death. I really should read more of her work.
ReplyDeleteCarin: I've been doing this that past couple of years and I like the sense of accomplishment seeing the stack whittle down as the year goes on.
ReplyDeleteNan: How did you like Merry Hall? My husband gave me the trilogy last year and they look great, but I've never heard of them, so wonder if they look better than they read.