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Sue Weaver - 100 books
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Sue
(last edited Dec 23, 2017 12:27AM)
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Dec 22, 2017 12:17PM
I currently own 150 books which I have not read. I'd like to read all of them by the end of the year. That's only 3 books each week. Some of them are quite short. Some of them I may not enjoy so won't need to finish. It's quite an ambitious target, but in truth I'll be happy if I even make a significant dent in that number. I'm not going to rush through the books just to tick them off the list. I want to savour each one if I'm enjoying it. But equally, I will be ruthless about abandoning any book that isn't earning its keep on my shelf.
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That is quite an impressive goal indeed Sue! Bringing down that TBR pile, isn’t that everybody’s wish! ;) Wishing you the best of luck with your goal and happy reading!
Hi Sue! Will you be placing a "no-buy" to keep you on track with reading the books you already own?
Good luck with your goal and happy reading!
Hi Lisa - oh no I couldn't do that! But what I will do is try to put books on my wish list instead of buying them straight away. I'll just buy them, or borrow them from the library perhaps, when I'm actually ready to read them.I have just been picking up the odd book here and there, without realising just how many I had collected in total. I was shocked to find out it was getting on for 200!! But I've already read 22 in December, so it's going in the right direction!
Sue wrote: "Hi Lisa - oh no I couldn't do that! But what I will do is try to put books on my wish list instead of buying them straight away. I'll just buy them, or borrow them from the library perhaps, when I'..."Haha, I was going to say, my hat's off to you, if you could enforce it!
Luckily, I don't have the space (or want) to accumulate a large quantity of physical books. My Kindle on the other hand.... that's a whole other story! I swear Amazon is out to steal all my money :D But what I noticed I started doing instead of impulse buying, was getting the free-samples, because sometimes I just see the price and don't really think about reading the synopsis, so this way maybe I'll have some more awareness of what I'm actually obtaining.
And hey, 22 is a great start :) Besides, it sounds like you have a great plan in motion for 2018!
Thanks Lisa - that's a really interesting thought. Quite a few of my books are Kindle ones that I got free. I was interested enough in them to say Yes Please, but wouldn't have chosen to read them just now. I just picked them up whilst they were available at that very best price in the world! Similarly, a lot of my books are audiobooks, which I bought because they help me sleep. So I'm not sure that they really 'count'. Perhaps I need to sort out my shelves so that I have a tbr of the books I bought because I'm genuinely interested in reading them.
You see, I'm such a completist that, once I decided to put all my books on GR, I had to put ALL my books on GR! But I think you have found a very good way of putting a dent in that tbr. Which means I can get through it more quickly... Which means I can buy more books in 2018...! :-)
Sue wrote: "....Which means I can buy more books in 2018...! :-) "Lol, very well reasoned!
I have a lot of books on my kindle as well because they were free. I did read the synopsis and didn't get them if it really didn't interest me, like romances, but others, hey, as long as it seemed just a bit interesting I would download them, why not, they were for free right? But I have so many other books I'd prefer to read over the free kindle ones, so I stoppen (although it's still nagging at me, I might be missing out on some great books lol). Btw, I have a separate shelf for my kindle books so I can keep them separate from my other TBR books.
Susy - since getting back into GR in the last month I've been prey to that feeling of missing out, so I understand what you mean. I'm hearing about so many books I want to read and if I'm not careful my Wishlist will just be every book ever published!I'm already finding that I need to look the book up, read a preview and THEN decide if it goes on my Wishlist or not.
Also, this morning I've gone through those 150 books that I own but haven't read, and I've moved some onto new shelves for 'free so worth trying' and 'background audio'. And now (small drum roll) I only have 100 books on my 'real' tbr!
I'm doing a little happy dance as we speak...
Hahaha, that really is impressive Sue! I’m thinking of dividing my TBR in For sure and Maybe.... Maybe I can get my TBR list down as well and join you in your dance :)
Good luck, Sue in the coming year!
Blagica wrote: "Good luck, Sue in the coming year!"Thanks Blajica!
Well, I'm really surprised at how many books I managed to read in December. Who cares that it was partly due to coughing and sneezing my way through Christmas? ;-) I've re-jigged my bookshelves and really there are only 100 books which I own and which I want to read. So that's now my target for 2018.
Sue wrote: "Well, I'm really surprised at how many books I managed to read in December. Who cares that it was partly due to coughing and sneezing my way through Christmas? ;-) ..."
Lol, I do hope you’re feeling better?
Thanks Susy - yes much better, just in time to go back to work in fact! Hey ho.
Three books read (well, finished) on 1st January! Now all I need to is keep up that pace and I'll be fine! Oh no - wait - back to work today. Hrumph.;-)
January is going quite well so far. I've read 12 books and 11 of those were ones I already own. It feels good to finally read these books I've had for so long - several years in many cases!
Sue wrote: "January is going quite well so far. I've read 12 books and 11 of those were ones I already own. It feels good to finally read these books I've had for so long - several years in many cases!"Wow, 12 books!?! That’s amazing!!!
Susy wrote: "Wow, 12 books!?! That’s amazing!!! ..."Thank you Susy! I imagine I'll fall off the wagon soon. I've spent the last couple of months doing a lot of reading. At some point the knitting will be calling me. Or the sewing. And then I'll forget books for a while. I think that's why I'm glad to get ahead of my 2018 target early on. I'll have a buffer then, which will get me through a few weeks of not reading because the trouble is, now that I've set that target, I can't abide to miss it come hell or high water!!
I've found yet more books that I own but have not read! Or at least that I haven't read in so long that I can't remember anything about them. These are audiobooks and I think they originally came from the library and are in a different format to my Audible ones, so I overlooked them. It was like a late Christmas present finding them in this folder I hadn't checked in years! :-)I've read 19 books so far this month, which I'm quite pleased with. Although I did make the mistake of starting two lengthy audiobooks and I'm getting bored with them.
What to do?
If I give up now, I will have to start again when I come back to them because I will have (literally) lost the plot. And they are both good, so I don't want to DNF them. At the moment I'm trying to mix them in with other, shorter books. But I seem to have ended up with 10 books on the go! Quite daft. ;-)
Ah well, there are worse problems to have!
We're almost at the end of January and I'm unlikely to finish many more books in the next couple of days, so my total is likely to be 25. I'm pleased with that. 22 of those were ones I already owned, so I've made a good start towards reading all my owned books by the end of the year, leaving 73 to go.
I took the two long audiobooks off my Currently Reading list. They had become a chore to finish, and reading is not meant to be a chore is it? I've got enough of those elsewhere in my life!
I'm very pleased to have read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at last, as I've had so many people tell me about this one over the years. I enjoyed it and will read the next one soon.
I'm also pleased that I read a quite recent, topical book. If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes From Trump's America It's part of my goal to get better informed about UK and global politics this year.
So it's been a good mix this month. In February I'm less likely to clear many of my own books, as my reservations list at the library is getting quite hefty!
2018 Totals
January: 25
Blagica wrote: "Awesome job so far!"Thanks Blagica!
Sue wrote: "I've found yet more books that I own but have not read! Or at least that I haven't read in so long that I can't remember anything about them. .."Yes, I too found some books I'm sure I must have read before (I don't do re-reads), but can't remember anything, and I just might NOT have read them, so....
Sue wrote: "We're almost at the end of January and I'm unlikely to finish many more books in the next couple of days, so my total is likely to be 25. I'm pleased with that. ..."
That is really impressive Sue! Must feel great to have brought your TBR list down! I keep adding books that were not on my TBR for 2018....lol
Susy wrote: "I keep adding books that were not on my TBR for 2018....lol..."I keep doing that with library reservations Susy - I've borrowed or reserved 13 books since the beginning of the year!
Sue wrote: "Susy wrote: "I keep adding books that were not on my TBR for 2018....lol..."I keep doing that with library reservations Susy - I've borrowed or reserved 13 books since the beginning of the year!"
Lol, 13? You win! 😂
I read 24 books In February. Not bad at all. Quite pleased with that.There were four that I did not finish. One was by Terry Pratchett, which was disappointing as I've been told so many times how great his books are. I finally got round to trying one but just couldn't get on with it.
Several were re-reads from favourite authors; these were books I first read some years ago and include Mary Stewart, Ellis Peters, Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters. It was heartening to find that I still like them just as much today. :-)
I read Ready Player One in anticipation of the film which is out soon. I enjoyed it, although there was far too much exposition. I think they will cut all that out in the film though and concentrate on the action sequences, of which there were plenty.
Only three of these books were from my "own and want to read in 2018" list. Never mind though, there's plenty of year left to go yet!
2018 so far:-
January: 25
February: 24
Total: 49
Sue wrote: "I read 24 books In February. Not bad at all. Quite pleased with that...."Not bad? I find it quite impressive! Here’s to a great March as well!
You are doing great! Hoping March is a smashing success for you.
I retired a few weeks ago, so my book count has gone through the roof! This was helped by the snow that hit the UK a few days back. Well what's a girl to do when you can't get out the front door for the white stuff! Throw another log on the fire and sunggle up with a good book of course!I feel like taking on a bit of a challenge, to give some direction to my reading for the rest of the year. When I started this thread, only two months ago, I had no idea I was going to retire. It has come as something of a shock to be honest but I'm making the best of it. Seven days a week to read is how I'm looking at it in fact!
My original challenge in January was to read all of the 100 unread physical books that I own.
2018 so far (all books, not just the challenge):-
January: 26
February: 24
March: 25
Total: 75
Total 'challenge' books still unread: 49
I still want to read those 49 by the end of the year (although I keep getting sidetracked by fantastic book reviews, interesting group reads and lovely people here on GR!) But what else?
Maybe I could:-
1). Read every Agatha Christie book in publication order and watch any film or TV adaptations I can find for each one as I go along.
2). Try a genre each month that I don't normally touch and read three (five?) books to give it a proper chance (fantasy, thriller, romance, horror, paranormal, true crime, graphic novels, poetry, magical realism).
3). Go to the library and pick five random books each month without looking at what they are about.
4). Pick a particular subject and read several books covering that event/period, then write up an overall summary, as well as reviewing each book. (WW2 home front, 2008 financial crash, fake news.)
5). Pick one author and read all their main works, visit their home town, read biographies. (Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen, Mary Stewart, Ellis Peters, Elizabeth Peters.)
Hmmm. Pondering...
Hi Sue, so retiring was not your choice? Seven days a week to read is a fantastic way to look at it! :)Those sound like great ideas Sue! Are you following up on all of them?
No but I'm looking on the bright side! I'm not sure yet which one(s) I'll follow up on, but I thought I'd write the ideas down before I forget them! I think I will miss having a big project to work on, or long-term goals like I had at work, so the idea of a big book project appealed to me.
Sounds like you've set some reasonable goals, as long as you don't run out of steam. When the weather turns more pleasant, do you have a stream, lake or such where you can sit and read?
We are lucky enough to live near the sea Beth, so I can go and sit there and read.
We spend winters in our camper in south Florida. The best way to spend a day is on the beach with a good book and a good frou frou drink.
Beth wrote: "We spend winters in our camper in south Florida. The best way to spend a day is on the beach with a good book and a good frou frou drink."What's a frou frou drink Beth?! :-)
Agatha Christie bibliography by publication date (just in case I decide to go for that challenge...)1. 1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles
2. 1922 The Secret Adversary READ
3. 1923 Murder on the Links
4. 1924 The Man in the Brown Suit
5. 1925 The Secret of Chimneys
6. 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd READ AND REVIEWED
7. 1927 The Big Four
8. 1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train READ
9. 1929 The Seven Dials Mystery
10. 1930 The Murder at the Vicarage READ
11. 1931 The Sittaford Mystery
12. 1932 Peril at End House
13. 1933 Lord Edgware Dies
14. 1934 Murder on the Orient Express READ
15. 1934 Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? READ
16. 1934 Three-Act Tragedy
17. 1935 Death in the Clouds
18. 1936 The ABC Murders READ
19. 1936 Murder in Mesopotamia
20. 1936 Cards on the Table
21. 1937 Dumb Witness
22. 1937 Death on the Nile
23. 1938 Appointment with Death
24. 1939 Easy to Kill
25. 1939 And Then There Were None READ AND REVIEWED
26. 1940 Sad Cypress
27. 1940 One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
28. 1941 Evil Under the Sun
29. 1941 NorM?
30. 1942 The Body in the Library
31. 1942 Five Little Pigs
32. 1944 Death Comes as the End
33. 1945 Sparking Cyanide
34. 1946 The Hollow
35. 1948 Taken at the Flood
36. 1949 Crooked House
37. 1950 A Murder is Announced
38. 1951 They Came to Baghdad
39. 1952 Mrs McGinty’s Dead
40. 1952 They Do It with Mirrors
41. 1953 After the Funeral
42. 1953 A Pocket Full of Rye
43. 1954 Destination Unknown READ AND REVIEWED
44. 1955 Hickory Dickory Dock READ AND REVIEWED
45. 1956 Dead Man’s Folly
46. 1957 4.50 from Paddington
47. 1958 Ordeal by Innocence
48. 1959 Cat Among the Pigeons
49. 1961 The Pale Horse
50. 1962 The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
51. 1963 The Clocks
52. 1964 A Caribbean Mystery
53. 1965 At Bertram’s Hotel
54. 1966 Third Girl
55. 1967 Endless Night
56. 1968 By the Pricking of My Thumbs
57. 1969 Hallowe’en Party
58. 1970 Passenger to Frankfurt
59. 1971 Nemesis
60. 1972 Elephants Can Remember
61. 1973 Postern of Fate
62. 1975 Curtain
63. 1976 Sleeping Murder
Sue wrote: "Beth wrote: "We spend winters in our camper in south Florida. The best way to spend a day is on the beach with a good book and a good frou frou drink."What's a frou frou drink Beth?! :-)"
A fruity, usually rum, drink with an umbrella in it. Talking about it makes me long for the beach, or at least summer and the pool.
Beth wrote: "A fruity, usually rum, drink with an umbrella in it. Talking about it makes me long for the beach, or at least summer and the pool. ..."Oh I know what you mean then. Yes one of those and a sunhat and a good book, what a lovely afternoon!
A collection of political books that would go together quite well, all available at the library:Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem
How the Hell Did This Happen?: The Election of 2016
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
What Happened
The Destruction of Hillary Clinton
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. I hope that April brings you many more five star reads. Do you have a stand out book so far this year?
I hope May is a fantastic month filled with books and sunshine!
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History (other topics)Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem (other topics)
How the Hell Did This Happen?: The Election of 2016 (other topics)
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (other topics)
What Happened (other topics)
More...
