Trim the TBR—January Planning and Reporting

[Nicole R]

The random number for the Trim the TBR Challenge in January is...

19

Head to your list that you posted in your personal challenge tracking thread, find your 19th book, and get your hands on it! Reading cannot start until January 1, but this gives you a few days to get it physically in your possession.

Feel free to post here what your 19th book is if you want to see if anyone else is reading it, but this is absolutely not required!

Once January 1st hits, then you can post your reviews here when you complete your book. Reviews must be at least 4 sentences long. Other things to include if it fits:

• Fits the January tag of action-adventure
• Page length of the book.

A note on page lengths:
To keep this fair, the official page count will be the hardcover edition OR, if there was no hardcover version, the format that the book was first published in. You can find these numbers on the book details page here on GR or you can also find them on Amazon.

This means your page length you are reporting only for this challenge may not EXACTLY match the edition you read, but it is the best way we can keep things even in the age where mass market paperback editions can have many more pages than other versions. This page length applies to audiobooks as well.

A reminder of the scoring:
• Read your book - 3 points
• Your completed book happens to fit the tag (must be tagged as such on GR) - 2 points (plus you'll get an additional 2 for posting your review in the Monthly Tag folder)
• Read the longest book among all people who completed their randomly assigned book in any given month - 5 points
• Read the most pages in any quarter (up to 3 books total and quarters are Jan-Mar, April-June, Jul-Sept, and Oct-Dec) - 25 points
• Read the most pages for the whole year (up to 12 books total) - 100 points
• Read the most books that fit a tag for the year - 25 points (totally random luck, but still fun!)

A note for people who start the challenge after January 1:

Whenever you join, if you want to participate in the current month, then Anita or I will randomize your list as described above, locking in the book for that month as well as the books for all previous months (exact number depending on when you join). Then, you can have the random number for the next month is announced to rearrange the order of the remaining books to align with any buddy reads or just going with your gut instincts!

Once the random number for the next month is announced, your list is locked and you cannot change it until our mid-year shake-up!

This seems like the best way for people to jump in at any point while still keeping things as fair as possible.

[Joanne]

I am amazed that #19 is the first one to come up-Amy must have sending "good ju-ju" across the miles-

#19 Ladder to the sky-I am the next in line at the library for this book, so hopefully whoever has it is nearly done and I will get it soon!

[Nicole R]

Joanne wrote: "I am amazed that #19 is the first one to come up-Amy must have sending "good ju-ju" across the miles-

#19 Ladder to the sky-I am the next in line at the library for this book, so hopefully whoever..."

Hahaha! I actually picked these random numbers at the exact same time that I announced the winners of the PBT Challenges! Maybe she could just sense that it was at the top :)

[Sue]

Yay!

Can't wait to read A Ladder to the Sky

[Viji]

I hope that I could raise this query here. My book on #19 is by Jonathan Stroud. The MPG has a mention of only 'Adventure' but it is tagged in the first page of Top Shelves as Action-Adventure. Should the genre be on the MPG for the book or it is alright if it is tagged?

Thanks.

[Nicole R]

Viji wrote: "I hope that I could raise this query here. My book on #19 is by Jonathan Stroud. The MPG has a mention of only 'Adventure' but it is tagged in..."

I am not sure what the MPG is....

But, you bring up an excellent point. To get the "your completed book happens to fit the tag" it must be tagged the exact tag on GR.

You can find the tag on any page of the list of tags and it does not matter how many people tag it as "action-adventure"—one is enough!

Viji, I took a look at this one because I know you have had several questions as you work out these two challenges, and the book you posted is tagged action-adventure! Lucky you!

If you go to the main book page by clicking on the book cover in your post, you will see "Genres" on the right hand side and a short list starts with "fantasy." Click the "See Top Shelves . . ." link below that and it will take you to a paginated list of all of the shelves this book has been added to from most-added to least-added.

In the third column, you will see that it has been shelved "action-adventure" by 11 people!

If others are also struggling with finding more tags, then follow these steps for your book! Or, perhaps members have an easier way to go about it that they would share, but this is the way that I know of.

[NancyJ]

Wow I feel lucky. I can't tell you how many times I almost changed my #19, because I didn't want to have to wait for Ladder to the Sky. WooHoo!

[Amy]

Time to order Ladder to the Sky! I knew this would be a great challenge! So excited! Eventually somebody’s going to have to remind me who the buddy reads are, Although I think a few of you just announced yourself! Can’t wait

[Robin]

#19

[Nicole R]

For those of you who are doing a buddy read for A Ladder to the Sky, that is great! But, once the month starts, will someone please take the lead and start a buddy reads thread for that? Then, you can all have your discussion over there without overwhelming this thread and you don't have to worry about spoilers!

Then, you can each just post your reviews in this thread for official credit for the challenge.

You can put the buddy read thread in the "2019 Activities and Challenges" folder just as you did for the buddy reads in 2018—that worked great!

Thanks!

[Cora]

My #19 is The Rook - Daniel O'Malley

[Jeremiah]

I hope I can get through my #19 in one month. I have looked forward to reading this book despite its length. I hope January turns out to be a good month to tackle it.

My book is The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey Stewart. The book won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2018 and comes in at a massive 944 pages.

I don't read on my Kindle much anymore, but given the size of this one and the fact that I have to choose between kindle and hardback, I think I might break out the Kindle again.

[Kelly]

Amy wrote: "Time to order Ladder to the Sky! I knew this would be a great challenge! So excited! Eventually somebody’s going to have to remind me who the buddy reads are, Although I think a few of you just ann..."

I do not have Ladder to the Sky as number 19, but I do happen to have it out from the library. So I will join you unofficially.

[Nicole R]

JW, that sounds interesting! And, as a reminder, even if you don’t finish in January but finish this quarter (Jan/Feb/Mar) then you can still be eligible for most pages in a quarter!

[Kelly]

Nicole R wrote: "JW, that sounds interesting! And, as a reminder, even if you don’t finish in January but finish this quarter (Jan/Feb/Mar) then you can still be eligible for most pages in a quarter!"

Is it too late to change around the order numbers of the 36 books to match other members list as long as number 19 does not change?

[Theresa]

#19 Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History

It has been winking at me from the book pile next to my sofa for weeks!

[Nicole R]

Kelly, unfortunately it is too late to change the order because the first book was announced. Unless you want to forgo participating in January then jumping in in February, but it sounds like you are ready to dive in.

There will be a point about halfway through the year to swap out some books and I could probably be convinced to allow a shuffling of the unused numbers as well!

[Olivermagnus]

My #19 is Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I'm kind of glad something easy came up for me this month since I chose a big biography for the Cultural Horizons challenge.

[Meli]

My #19...

I don't typically like to read nonfiction essays but I picked this up a while back because it got rave reviews, the dude is my age and writes about music and is from Ohio. I lived there a while and as a Hoosier Midwesterner I connect with fellow Midwesterners. 😁

[Susie]

I’ll be reading Abide With Me by Strout. You can’t go wrong with Strout!

[Nicole]

My #19 is Love Walked In - Hopefully a simple, heart-warning book to start the year :) Since my cultural read will be so heavy, this will be nice for balance.

[KateNZ]

I’m in for ‘Ladder in the Sky’ as well. And it’s the one on my list that I most hoped would come up!

[Hebah]

My #19 is Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist. It's not on theme with the tag or YA like I will primarily be reading, but the essay format should make it good bedside reading. And it was on the shelf at the library today, so I nabbed it and will be ready to go on January 1.

[[deleted user]]

Typical - the majority of my books for this challenge are physical books so that I can create more shelf space, but the randomizer chooses a Kindle book to start the year off! My #19 is In Farleigh Field

[Joanne]

Nicole R wrote: "Viji wrote: "I hope that I could raise this query here. My book on #19 is by Jonathan Stroud. The MPG has a mention of only 'Adventure' but it..."

FYI Nicole MPG=Main page Genre(mean the genre is in that short list on the main page)

[Anita]

So excited to see that a lot of people got A Ladder to the Sky. I really enjoyed it and hope you all do too.

I'm excited to get to my GR freebie In Our Mad and Furious City - - although I'm a little annoyed it is a paperback. That takes me a lot longer to get through than a Kindle book that I can read at night when I have insomnia.

[KateNZ]

That’s on my list of 36 too (at 32 I think), Anita - it’s one of the three Booker longlisted novels that I didn’t get to this year. Will be so interested to see what you make of it!

[[deleted user]]

Anita wrote: "So excited to see that a lot of people got A Ladder to the Sky. I really enjoyed it and hope you all do too.

I'm excited to get to my GR freebie [book:In Our Mad and Furious City|3..."

Anita, I've got the exact opposite of your problem - my book is a Kindle one and I need it to be a physical book (especially with the order I've just placed with my winnings!)

[Anita]

Jenny wrote: "Anita wrote: "So excited to see that a lot of people got A Ladder to the Sky. I really enjoyed it and hope you all do too.

I'm excited to get to my GR freebie [book:In Our Mad and ..."

Ugh! Okay, that seems unfair. Well, I guess we will both just muscle through . . .it is actually my only non e-book on the whole list of 36.

[KateNZ]

I’ve got that one in dead tree format, AJ - if I have space I’m going to try to read it too (determined effort to get through more of the TBR than I end up adding because of everyone else’s reads 😉)

[Kimber]

My No. 19 is A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold. I am happy to have it as one of my first reads of 2019. I've become very fond of nature and conservation writings.

[Rachel N.]

My number 19 is Till the End of Tom which I have owned for a very long time (I'd say definitely longer than 10 years). I'm happy to finally get around to reading it

[Nicole R]

Joanne wrote: "FYI Nicole MPG=Main page Genre(mean the genre is in that short list on the main page)"

Thanks! I learned something new today! lol

[Nicole R]

Kimber wrote: "My No. 19 is A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold. I am happy to have it as one of my first reads of 2019. I've become very fond of nature and conservatio..."

This sounds great! I love Aldo Leopold. Probably not surprising as my PhD is in ecology. lol

[Elise]

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Not even close to this month's tag XD

[Charlotte]

Yay! Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow which I have on Audible. So I may have to pause Becoming since Homo Deus is such a long one.

I'm so glad this number was picked!!

[NancyJ]

AJ wrote: "My book is What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty which is something I have had in my Audible library for quite a while so I am excited to have a good reason to get to that. Come soon January 1st, I a..."

I really enjoyed What Alice Forgot. It was my first by the author, and still my favorite. There were some psychological elements that I really liked, and it had great insights about marriage. I hope you love it!

[Hebah]

Elise wrote: "Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Not even close to this month's tag XD"

Maybe not on theme, but that looks delightful.

[Critterbee❇]

January's pick is #19 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
394 Pages

I hope I like this one as much as I liked Around the World in Eighty Days!

[Charlotte]

Olivermagnus wrote: "My #19 is Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I'm kind of glad something easy came up for me this month since I chose a big biography for the Cultural Horizons challenge."

I read that a couple of weeks ago and I think it might be my favorite of the 3 in the series.

[Vanessa]

Woohoo! 19 - now to track it down...

[Joanne]

KateNZ wrote: "That’s on my list of 36 too (at 32 I think), Anita - it’s one of the three Booker longlisted novels that I didn’t get to this year. Will be so interested to see what you make of it!"

i will be reading it soon too Kate, i got the freebie from GR too!

[Joanne]

Kimber wrote: "My No. 19 is A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold. I am happy to have it as one of my first reads of 2019. I've become very fond of nature and conservatio..."

I can't wait to see your review on this Kimber, it looks outstanding!

[Nicolas]

My 19th book is And I've been meaning to read it so I'm really happy.

[Joanne]

Elise wrote: "Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Not even close to this month's tag XD"

I slashed this off my TBR shelf a few months ago when I was trying to "clean house"-I will be interested to see your thoughts(so I can add it back-lol)

[MargieD2017]

My number 19 is A Course in Astral Travel and Dreams. Wow, out of all of my 36 this would have been the least desired to be a January pick! Well, there you go. Just got to put on my big girl's pants and step up to the challenge!

[Amy N.]

Oops... I still haven't finished my list. Am I too late to start in January or can I jump in and somehow randomize the 19th book so it's fair?

[Anita]

Amy N. wrote: "Oops... I still haven't finished my list. Am I too late to start in January or can I jump in and somehow randomize the 19th book so it's fair?"

If you give me your list, I can have it randomized to make it completely impartial and fair. Just private message me when you have posted it (and where), and I'll use the randomizer. Don't number the list.

[Amy N.]

Anita wrote: "Amy N. wrote: "Oops... I still haven't finished my list. Am I too late to start in January or can I jump in and somehow randomize the 19th book so it's fair?"

If you give me your list, I can have ..."

Phew! Thanks, Anita!

[LibraryCin]

Happy the number that came up is lower than 29, so i can feel better about finishing up my list tomorrow! Not sure what 19 is for me until i get on my pc a bit later tonight. Have family here, still, so am currently on my tablet.