Bev’s Comments (group member since Nov 24, 2012)

Bev’s comments from the Mount TBR 2013 Reading Challenge group.

Steven wrote: "Late again, and short, sharp and brutal (I am a veritable Harlan Ellison)...graduated to Mount Olympus back in September, just as my house caught fire, and am slowly trudging up as best I can...alt..."

Oh, Steven! What an Autumn you've had...I hope all goes well with your surgery!

Oooh--only 20 more to go!

#80 Dead of a Counterplot by Simon Nash

Whew...finally got another one off the TBR stack:

#79 Murder at Cambridge by Q. Patrick

Nell wrote: "My TBRs overcrowd the bookshelves, fill boxes and are stacked around my reading room. I am just joining this official group but I've been trying to achieve the 'read what you own' goal for a few y..."

Welcome, Nell! Yes, as Carolyn says--if you owned it before January 2012, you can count it--paper books, e-books, even audio books...they're all fair game.

#78 The Haunted Dolls' House by M. R. James

C. wrote: "Thank you Bev. When I do even a small public write-up like that, my head goes into university exam essay mode. I try to make them thorough and nice!

I think you live in north-eastern USA? I'm a..."

Carloyn: I'm in Indiana (south of mid-point of Ontario). I would love to shop with fellow book-lovers--but it would be tricky if we all reached for the same book at the same time. ;-)

Carolyn: Yes, indeed! I enjoy hearing about all the hikers--pictures or no pictures. Glad we're all doing so well on getting those TBR stacks whittled down (or at least no higher if we go out and replenish at book sales :-) )

So, I got all wrapped up looking forward to the Red Cross Book Sale this year I only managed to add 48 new-to-me books to my TBR pile for next year (that's not too bad, is it? We won't talk about the stacks of books I already had.)....and realized that, Hey! I need to post about the September Checkpoint. And now it's time to find a winner for the Checkpoint prize. So....without further ado, I will just plug in the random number generator and enter in the parameters....and the lights flash and webpage whirs and we get (drum roll, please).....Link #8! That means that Ellinor is our winner! Congratulations, Ellinor! I'll be contacting you soon about the prize list.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the check-in. I enjoy seeing your progress so far. I especially enjoyed the pictures you found and were able to post--I love that a picture of Queen, the group, came up for Célia.

Thanks as well to all climbers for joining me in scaling those Mount TBR heights. Good luck in the last leg!

The checkpoint is now closed. Will be back later to announce a winner!

Pixie wrote: "Hi all! I think this challenge would be good for me as I've already been doing an unofficical 'read more than i acquire' thing this year and so started to attach an approximate date to all books I ..."

Welcome, Pixie!

Just knocked out a book that's been sitting on the TBR stacks for almost 30 years!

#77 Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Célia, I love that the image you found for your Check-in post is Queen, the music group!

Ellinor wrote: "102. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (read 02/10/13)

Very creepy!"

Very creepy indeed! It's been a while since I read that one...but I still remember how spooky it was.

First book of October and

#76 The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson

Oh my goodness! Where does the time go? Last I checked, September was just starting....and now it's gone and I neglected to get the third quarterly checkpoint up and running. Time to fix that....

Let's see how our challengers are doing after 9 months are under the ol' mountain-climbing belt.

For those who would like to participate in this checkpoint post, I'd like you to do two things:

1. Tell us how many miles you've made it up your mountain (# of books read). If you're really ambitious, you can do some intricate math and figure out how the number of books you've read correlates to actual miles up Pike's Peak, Mt. Ararat, etc.

2. Complete ONE (or more if you like) of the following:
A. Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like.
B. What has been your most difficult read so far. And why? (Length? Subject matter? Difficult style? Out of your comfort zone reading?)
C. Which book (read so far) has been on your TBR mountain the longest? Was it worth the wait? Or is it possible you should have tackled it back when you first put it on the pile? Or tossed it off the edge without reading it all?
D. Choose 3-5 titles from your stacks and using a word from the title, do an image search. Post the first picture associated with that word.


And what do you get for all that hard work (and distraction from the actual climb)? The link will close at 11:59 pm on Tuesday, October 8. Next Tuesday I will crank up the Custom Random Number Generator and pick a winning climber. He or she will have the chance to add to their TBR stack via my gently-used book vault (prize list will be sent). Just think, if you win a book you can start up a pile for next year's Mount TBR Challenge.

Even if you're not in the mood for a prize or you've already finished your climb, I'd love to have you check in with us and tell us all your news.

Enter here OR on my blog, My Reader's Block, (but not both places, please)

***Please note--comments should be for Checkpoint posts only. To cheer on your fellow climbers, please visit their climb post folders and congratulate them on progress and rally them for the last quarter.

#74 Death Knocks Three Times by Anthony Gilbert

#75 The Mystery Lovers' Book of Quotations by Jane Horning

Good for you! And several great reads in there...The Moonstone, Perfume, The Book Thief, and Hound of the Baskervilles!

#73 The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

#72 The Dreadful Hollow by Nicholas Blake

Next!

More "ghost" stories for the climb:

#71 The Temple of Death by A. C. and R. H. Benson