Mount TBR 2018 discussion
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Mountaineering Checkpoint #3
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Woohoo for Checkpoint #3!1) Sadly, I've only managed 42 of my 48 for Mount Ararat so far, which puts me at roughly 4500 m/14,750 ft. I've still got time for those last six book, though, and if I manage to read everything on my proposed TBR for October, I believe I'll reach the top by the end of the month.
2-A) Of the books I've read for Mount TBR, Granny May from Taylor Brown's Gods of Howl Mountain is probably my favorite character. She's a healer in 1950s Appalachia and is just an absolutely amazing character. She's strong, fierce, brilliant, takes no crap from anyone, and protects her loved ones.
2-C) I've read 11 of Agatha Christie's earliest novels so far this year and they've all been on my TBR since I inherited my mother's complete collection about 7 years ago. They probably count as being on the list the longest. They've been hit or miss. Some of them are fantastic (LOVED The Man in the Brown Suit) and some are just awful (The Big Four comes to mind immediately as one I hated). I've discovered that I tend to like Christie's stand-alone novels better, as a general rule, and I really dislike Hercule Poirot.
Thanks Bev!!
I have reached 127 out of 150 :D
Mountaineering Checkpoint #31. Tell us how many miles you've made it up your mountain (# of books read).
I've read 24 out of 36 books. A leisurely summer has me slightly behind. I need to pick up the pace in the crisp fall breeze to make it to the summit of Mt Vancouver.
2. A. Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like.
My favorite character is Elle Burns in An Extraordinary Union. She is a spy for the Union Army masquerading as a mute slave in the house of a Confederate Senator. She uses the racism and prejudice of others to defeat them.
B. Pair up two of your reads. But this time we're going for opposites.
Death of a Charming Man.
Murder of a Cranky Catnapper.
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?
Letting Go and Becoming an audio book by Marianne Williamson. It was recorded in 1999 so I've had it for years. It was enlightening and entertaining and still relevant today.
The longest owned print book was The Color of Light by Karen White on my TBR 10+ years. It was good story, well-written with a little mystery and a little romance.
D. Using titles from your list, see if you can tell a short story (or story blurb) or make a mini-poem. Feel free to add a few filler words here and there if needed.
Only a Kiss at a Lowcountry Bonfire was A Curious Beginning to An Extraordinary Union. Soon I was Between a Book and a Hard Place Stowed Away Sky High in A Perilous Undertaking investigating The Death of a Macho Man. It was The Summer Before the War when The Hate U Give turned into A Treacherous Curse. I solved The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken and escaped Terror in Taffeta by Letting Go and Becoming The Alchemist.
[In it for the fun. I'm on a book diet after adding too many books to my TBR this year!]
I've read 53 out of 60. I'm really hoping to finish my mountain this month but we shall see. My favorite character so far this year is definitely Holden Caulfield from
. Why? Because he is me. He is insane. But he is my spirit animal. The book I've read this year that's been on my mountain the longest was
. It was good. I loved the main character, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have when I first bought it. My tastes have changed a lot in the past 3 years. It felt a little too juvenile for me now. If I would have read it before I read all the YA I have under my belt now, I'm sure I would have loved it.
1. I made it to 23 books read! So I'm almost done with Mont Blanc!2A. Not sure I could pick just one favorite character, but I think it would be fun to get Twinkle from From Twinkle, with Love together with Alice from Let's Talk About Love and Lois and friends from Triple Threat in one massive, goofy high school adventure with snark and possible romance.
2B. Opposites:
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States and Record of a Spaceborn Few
The contrast between the origins of the United States and the possible far-flung interstellar future of humans and aliens finding ways to build a new society together.
2C. The longest owned book was Baby's in Black: Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, and The Beatles and unowned book that's been on my Goodreads TBR the longest is Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life In the Minor Leagues of Baseball I think both of them benefitted from waiting til now to read them... I just started to get more into graphic novels, and also I'm learning about baseball more, so I appreciate both books more than when they were first on my TBR.
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.I am 37/48. Considering that I've read 120+ books this year and my number at the last checkpoint was 31/48... well... 😬
I did the calculations last time about exactly how far up I was but can't remember them now and frankly can't really be bothered puzzling it out again.
2. A. Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like.
If real people count, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh - I read her biography, Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, back in March and have frankly been raving about it ever since. She was an amazing woman. I'm really annoyed that I'd never heard of her before, especially since she was close to Queen Victoria, and shows about Victoria are never off the telly here in Britain.
And of course there's Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. Such a sweetheart even if she does do sickeningly twee things like name individual flowers.
2. B. Pair up two of your reads. But this time we're going for opposites. One book with a male protagonist and one with a female protagonist. One book with "Good" in the title and one with "Evil." Get creative and show off a couple of your books.
12 Years a Slave and Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair satirises the vain, frivolous and shallow world of the English upper class in the early 1800s. 12 Years a Slave shows what was going on at about the same time on the other side of the world - the atrocities that enabled said upper-class to live the way they did.
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?
Probably Vanity Fair or Macbeth. Copyright page in my edition of Vanity Fair suggests it was published 2006. My edition of Macbeth was probably published sometime around 2007, it's a Penguin Popular Classic with the plain green cover.
As for whether it was worth it, hmm. I would say Macbeth was, definitely. Vanity Fair was a real slog though. The book is pretty good but the seemingly neverending reading experience was a downer.
D. Using titles from your list, see if you can tell a short story (or story blurb) or make a mini-poem. Feel free to add a few filler words here and there if needed.
Once Upon a Time in the East, Beneath the Sugar Sky, The Little Stranger with No Name or Provenance sat by The Well of Loneliness. They had lost all their Familiar Things in a Home Fire, so to afford A Room of One's Own, they told Tales from Outer Suburbia.
"Three Guineas per story!" they would shout. "The Things I Would Tell You!"
I've completed 38 books on my journey up Mt. Ararat. Slowed down a little in August and early September. Was hoping to go beyond but might not get much further.Using all the titles on the adventure, here's my little story:
Behold the Dreamers : A Tale of Two Cities
One Long Hot Summer on An Excursion to Canada close to This Side of Paradise, A Man Called Ove gave us The Address to see The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City. Upon Losing the Light we saw Small Great Things of Little Fires Everywhere.
Then we saw The Lost Boy Learning from Leonardo The Secret Wisdom of the Earth. We Need to Know too.
The Wilderness Warrior said, with Point of Direction, "They aren’t The Immortalists, it’s a Commonwealth and This Land Is Their Land, but I'll Take You There to Nomadland as long as you don’t play Ranger Games, and take No Baggage."
Yet The Hoarder in You used a Scythe, and with All Our Wrong Todays we became a Prisoner of Trebekistan.
Finally The Boy in His Winter and The Mortifications were satisfied. Released we watched The Far Away Brothers with The Woman in the Window. She said, "Leave Me with only Love and Other Consolation Prizes and On Writing this with Ink and Bone our seal to An American Marriage."
All Rights Reserved
(please no prize for me, just joining the fun.)
1. I’ve clambered up 77 books towards the so close and yet so far 100 volumes of Mt Everest, and I’m definitely hearing the siren call of new acquisitions and library books. But those older snow banks, I mean shelves, are threatening to avalanche so onward I trudge.2.A. Young Esperanza of The House on Mango Street is my favorite character— full of hope and poetry, dreaming of growing up to become a writer, puzzling to make sense of the world she sees around her.
Runner Up: Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath for her down to earth common sense, love of family, and compassion in a tough time.
B. A Pair of Opposites: True Grit by Charles Portis features fictional 14 year old Matty as a resourceful frontier heroine, AND This Old Man: All in Pieces features real life 93 year old Roger Angell, living and working in New York City.
C. Longest on TBR: Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky has been on my TBR since high school, and its cynical, sardonic, and unintentionally funny narrator was well worth the wait.
D. Using titles from your list, see if you can tell a short story (or story blurb) or make a mini-poem.
[In] The Beginning of Spring, Three Sisters, [who were] Poor Folk, [got] The Summons [to] The House on Mango Street. Never in a Hurry, [they took] The Most Beautiful Walk in the World [to get their] Seneca Falls Inheritance: [a] Diamond Solitaire, Rock Crystal, [and] Art Objects. Joy in the Morning!
I've just today added my 119th out of 150 books for my revised Mount Olympus run. Since I started out the year on Mt Everest, i'm not too disappointed if I fail to summit, but apparently I'm about 19.8 kilometres into a 25k hike. Not bad, by my accounting!My favourite character so far? Probably Kady from Illuminae, which I read back in April. Her, or the AI in the same book, whose name currently escapes me. It's a good book.
Opposites, hmmm... Every Ugly Word and Beautiful Bastard
Longest on my TBR? Moby-Dick or, The Whale. I'm glad it's off my list but my word was it a slog. Got a few in that vein, unfortunately.
I've not got the energy for story telling right now, nor am I entering the give away. Just wanted to check in!
I’ve reached my goal of Mt Ararat and have elected to continue the remainder of my year with more recently add TBRs. The oldest book I completed was “Bite Me: A Memoir” by Max Thompson ( who happens to be a cat). This was the first book I bought, on my first kindle ( I’m now on my third). And in response to the question... I should have thrown it off the cliff!
1) I've read 36 out of the 48 books for Mt Ararat. I'm right on track but will need to stay focused to reach my goal by the end of the year.2C) Going by my Goodreads list, Outlander had been on my TBR list the longest (since March 2015). I was worth the wait and I really enjoyed it.
Checkpoint #3 already! The year really flew by!1. I've already completed my GR goal this year (I'm 66 books in, of 60 I had originally planned), and I've just reached the top of Mt. Ararat! I'm planning to plant another flag in Mt. Vancouver, my goal last year.
2. a) Amani, from "Rebel of the Sands" by Alwyn Hamilton. She's fierce, complex, loyal, smart and driven. I loved her development through the story, how she discovered herself and found something worth fighting for and wrote her own tale. She's definitely on my list of favorite YA heroines.
b)"Days of Blood and Starlight" and "Night of Cake & Puppets" both coincidentally by Laini Taylor.
c) "Envy" by Anna Godbersen has been on my TBR since 2010 or so...I loved the first two books and wanted to finally continue it, but this third installment wasn't all that I was hoping. My favorite character suddenly had this involution during the story and everything I liked about it was just meh in this one. Maybe if I've read when I originally started the series, I think I would have enjoyed it more. I still want to finish it and read the fourth one, but I'm putting it off.
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.I've read 65 books out of 75 towards El Toro, and I still haven't been able to figure out which real-life mountain El Toro actually is, so I can't do any intricate math, as much as I would like to. But it must be somewhere between Mt. Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters) and Mt. Everest (8,848 meters), and I can tell you I've made it 86.67 % percent of the way so far, and I am confident I'll get to plant my flag before the year ends.
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.
Out of the books I've read since Checkpoint #2, I'd say Eli from Let the Right One In takes home really high marks: fascinating, ambivalent, and with real empathy towards the unfortunate protagonist but also merciless against others.
I also really like Scott Burroughs from my current read, Before the Fall, because the character is well fleshed out and relatable, and I really liked the way his heroic feat at the start of the book was described.
B. Pair up two of your reads. But this time we're going for opposites. One book with a male protagonist and one with a female protagonist. One book with "Good" in the title and one with "Evil." Get creative and show off a couple of your books.
Leviathan Wakes vs. Sleeping Beauties
The Night Circus vs. Day Four
Katzendämmerung ("Dawn of Cats") vs. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Pretty Girls vs. Der dreizehnte Mann ("The Thirteenth Man")
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?
We had that question for the second checkpoint, too, so that answer still counts. Out of the books I've read since Checkpoint #2, I guess that would be Tuesdays with Morrie, which I got in 2005 or 2006, I believe. I should have picked it up much, MUCH earlier!
D. Using titles from your list, see if you can tell a short story (or story blurb) or make a mini-poem. Feel free to add a few filler words here and there if needed.
The Last Dragonslayer and Little Lord Fauntleroy met at The Night Circus Just After Sunset for the Night Shift. They listened to The Song of the Quarkbeast that dwelled in a Heart-Shaped Box at The House of Lost Souls, making sure to Let the Right One In.
[I don't have the time to continue right now, but there's more^^)
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. I've read four out of twelve of the books for Pike's Peak, which is about 4,705 feet. I have some more climbing to do before the end of the year, but I might make it yet.
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.
Jane Eyre. I admire her humor, strength, and passion. I had a high school English teacher say that I was like Jane, and I think of that as a pretty high compliment now.
B. Pair up two of your reads. But this time we're going for opposites. One book with a male protagonist and one with a female protagonist. One book with "Good" in the title and one with "Evil." Get creative and show off a couple of your books.
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. When I think of Jane Eyre, I think of Jane’s moral, Christian behavior. And when I think of Wuthering Heights, I think of nearly all the characters behaving in selfish, immoral ways.
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?
Jane Eyre. I started reading it when I was in about seventh grade, but I didn’t read it all the way through until this year. I should have finished it when I first read it, but I don’t blame myself for losing interest after a certain part. As an adult, I enjoyed that part, but I can understand why preteen-me had a tough time.
D. Using titles from your list, see if you can tell a short story (or story blurb) or make a mini-poem. Feel free to add a few filler words here and there if needed. Here's my example:
Jane Eyre went Through the Looking Glass to brave the Wuthering Heights and gather Water for Elephants.
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Congratulations, Dyln! I'll contact you soon about how to get the prize list to you.
Mount TBR 2018
Books mentioned in this topic
The Night Circus (other topics)The House of Lost Souls (other topics)
Sleeping Beauties (other topics)
Let the Right One In (other topics)
Before the Fall (other topics)
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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.
I've read 91 out 100 books towards Mt. Everest which means I've managed about 26,416 feet. The air's getting a bit thin and I'm low on steam. I may launch a rocket ship to Mt. Olympus on Mars yet, but I don't see a flag getting planted on that peak. Oh, well...there's always next year.
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. Pair up two of your reads. But this time we're going for opposites. One book with a male protagonist and one with a female protagonist. One book with "Good" in the title and one with "Evil." Get creative and show off a couple of your books.
Mine: Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain AND Death at the Dog by Joanna Cannan
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?
Mine: The Invisible Thief by Thomas Brace Haughey [on TBR since 1983]
D. Using titles from your list, see if you can tell a short story (or story blurb) or make a mini-poem. Feel free to add a few filler words here and there if needed. Here's my example:
A Man Lay Dead (in) Another Woman's House. Pride & Prejudice (led to) Murder at Midnight By the Light of the Study Lamp. (Several) Women Sleuths (use the) Odor of Violets (and) The Sign of the Book (to solve this) Untidy Murder.
Please submit your answers in a Checkpoint comment below.
And what do you get for all that hard work (and distraction from the actual climb)? The thread will be considered closed for entries at 11:59 pm on Friday, October 12. Sometime the next day 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!
***Please note--comments are for for Checkpoints only. If you'd like to cheer on your fellow bloggers, please visit their individual challenge thread. Thanks!
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