Jonathan's Climb up Mt Blanc 2018

[Jonathan]

Although I succeeded in my climb up Mt Vancouver (36 books) last year it was a bit of a struggle near the end and as I'm not still not sure what other bookish commitments I may make for 2018 I'm going to limit myself to Mt Blanc at the moment. 24 books off of my TBR is good anyway and if all is going well I may choose to jump over to Mt Vancouver. I am going to restrict it to physical books as my main aim is to reduce the physical pile of books I have.

As with last year I will edit this first comment with my progress throughout the year. I was feeling too lazy to add a photo of my TBR pile this year—too lazy to collect all the books in one place, photo them, then put them all back. I have 134 books on my stack though.

Currently reading

Finished Reading
1. Nick Cave: Mercy on Me by Reinhard Kleist. Gift in 2017. Started on 01Jan18. Finished on 01Jan18.
2. Through the Woods by H. E. Bates. Bought in 2017. Started on 12Jan18. Finished on 15Jan18.
3. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. Started on 21Jan18. Finished on 30Jan18.
4. The Wanderer by Knut Hamsun. Started on 09Feb18. Finished on 14Feb18.
5. In the Heart of the Country by H.E. Bates. Bought in 2017. Started on 21Feb18. Finished on 24Feb18.
6. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani. Bought in 2017. Started on 04Mar18. Finished on 11Mar18.
7. Baudolino by Umberto Eco. Started on 13Mar18. Finished on 23Mar18.
8. 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks. Started on 27Mar18. Finished on 02Apr18.
9. The Happy Countryman by H.E. Bates. Bought in 2017. Started on 26Apr18. Finished on 28Apr18.
10. In the Pond by Ha Jin. Gift in 2017. Started on 03May18. Finished on 05May18.
11. The Damned by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Started on 06May18. Finished on 12May18.
12. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. Bought in 2017. Started on 14May18. Finished on 19May18.
13. Bouvard and Pécuchet with The Dictionary of Received Ideas By Gustave Flaubert. Started on 26May18. Finished on 02Jun18.
14. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert. Started on 28Jul18. Finished on 08Aug18
15. The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh. Bought in 2017. Started on 11Aug18. Finished on 13Aug18
16. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Started on 18Aug18. Finished on 25Aug18
17. Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar. Started on 15Sep18. Finished on 19Sep18
18. Wolf Solent by John Cowper Powys. Started on 23Sep18. Finished 08Oct18
19. America by Franz Kafka. Started on 28Oct18. Finished 03Nov18
20. Nibelungenlied by Anon. Started on 17Nov18. Finished 25Nov18
21. Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith by Mark E. Smith and Austin Collings. Started on 28Nov18. Finished 01Dec18
22. Angels at the Ritz by William Trevor. Bought in 2017. Started on 02Dec18. Finished 05Dec18
23. A Short History of Japan: From Samurai to Sony by Curtis Andressen. Started on 06Dec18. Finished 10Dec18
24. The Life And Times Of Emile Zola by F.W.J. Hemmings. Started on 11Dec18. Finished 16Dec18

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review)]

Good luck with it all :D

[Diane]

Good luck on your challenge

[Jonathan]

I've just started Gogol's Dead Souls, a book I've been meaning to read for years.

[Guy]

I loved that book

[Jonathan]

I'm a hundred pages in and loving it. Despite reading many of his short stories years ago I never got round to DS. I may have been put off with it being unfinished.

[Guy]

Yes it's really unfortunate that it wasn't finished, but otherwise, it's brilliant.

[Jonathan]

Finished Dead Souls. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read it as it was a fun read.

[Jonathan]

I started The Wanderer by Knut Hamsun today. Only 50 pages in but it's an interesting book so far. I don't think it will reach the heights of Growth of the Soil though.

[Jonathan]

I started The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani today but I'm not finding it that interesting at the moment. I thought it would be a sort of cross between Brideshead Revisited and In Search of Lost Time. Not yet.

[Jonathan]

I'm halfway through 'Baudolino' and I'm thinking of giving up. It's becoming more and more of a slog as it's getting sillier and sillier. Carry on or stop? I just don't know. Part of the problem is that this year I've been in more of a realist mood than anything else.

[Jonathan]

Finished 13 Things That Don't Make Sense at last! I don't know why it took me so long to read.

[Jonathan]

I started The Damned by Joris-Karl Huysmans today—a book that's been near the top of my TBR list for quite a while now. I'm enjoying it so far but then what's not to like about a story of a biographer of the infamous Gilles de Rais who gets drawn into a world of Satanic worship.

[Jonathan]

Finished Excellent Women by Barbara Pym today. It's my second book by Pym and I'd like to read more by her.

[Jonathan]

Damn! I've been reading library books and watching the World Cup and now I'm behind, only slightly, but still, behind. Meanwhile new books keep being added to my TBR pile...

[Jonathan]

Finished at last! Flaubert's Sentimental Education was a bit of a struggle.

[Jonathan]

I'm on my 16th physical book from my TBR pile. Yay!

But I've just noticed that I've bought 23 physical books so far this year. Shit!

I've read a couple of those already though. Phew!

Let's not even think about ebooks!

[Jonathan]

I've been meaning to read something by John Cowper Powys for years and so today I started to read Wolf Solent. I'm fifty pages in and doing fine.

[Jonathan]

Wolf Solent by John Cowper Powys finished! I'm just about on track for 24 this year!

[Jonathan]

I'm a bit behind now but should be able to get back on track. I've just started the German epic Nibelungenlied. I have just noticed that I have bought 30 physical books so far this year as well as many more for kindle.

[Jonathan]

I will complete this task! Only two more to read—time for some non-fiction I think. A Short History of Japan: From Samurai to Sony is a book I've had kicking around for a while.

[Jonathan]

23rd book finished. One more to read before the end of the year!

[Jonathan]

I've just finished the 24th book! - The Life And Times Of Emile Zola

[Jonathan]

Well, I completed my climb a couple of weeks ago but I haven't read any more from my TBR since then. Anyway here's a picture of the 24 books that I read from my TBR pile.

I think this looks quite impressive seeing all the books in a single pile. The only problem is that I've acquired 40 physical books this year (let's not even think about ebooks for the moment!) and here's a picture of those:

There are some chunky ones there as well!—some of those were presents so I can blame someone else for them—but still, 40!!

[Jonathan]

Just for the record:
I read 65 books this year (GoodReads said I read 67 but I think I read a couple of the shorter ones twice) with 24 from my TBR (as seen above). But I also read 20 from the library, 14 on my kindle (which I wasn't including in my challenge—most of these were ones I bought this year) and 7 which were physical books that I either bought this year or were re-reads.

From my GoodRead shelves I notice that I have 115 kindle books that I haven't read—I'm sure that I must have more than that though.

[Jonathan]

Or another way to see the books I read this year:

[Jonathan]

I felt as if I was reading a lot of books that I bought in 2017 but it turns out that it was 9 in total, with 15 that were acquired before then. As my main aim is to read some of the books that I've had for ages I feel as if I'm cheating a bit by including those that I've bought relatively recently; but then I guess it's a continually evolving situation. I'm looking forward to the same challenge next year—just over a day to go!