Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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How Long Have Your Challenge Reads Been on Your TBR?
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I don’t know the actual statistics but my TBR has increased significantly joining reading groups on Goodreads!
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Lynn, hats off to such discipline! The shiny new penny always seems more interesting than the one in my pocket. I think it must be way passed time to purge my list!
Lynn wrote: "A few times a year I purge my TBR. Often books that I marked to read will no longer appeal to me. This especially happens because I have read another book that is similar and now I am ready for som..."I'll sometimes purge books if I find out that the author is a bigot or there's a particularly convincing review, but that's few and far between. Sometimes I find myself too old for certain books, but I'd rather take a chance on maybe discovering and/or rediscovering an interest/personal taste than losing out on an easy way to test it.
Such an interesting thread Aubrey!It's been barely a month and a half into the new year and I have already added nearly 260 books. That's sobering. Learning two languages will do that.
I'm terrifyingly picky about adding books and I always check 1 or 2 star reviews to see what exactly didn't work out. I give two tries to an author, after that I rarely read their books again. Case in point George Eliot and Virginia Woolf.
I purge my lists frequently. Like Lynn, sometimes I lose interest or it turns out I've already read better.
I am a spreadsheet person. My plan this year was to make a visual impact by targeting specific groups. My O&N challenge is novellas. I usually do a Women Authors Century. This year I did a Decade Challenge. My hope is that at the end of 2021 I can see that my lists are shorter. [Yes, I know I'm delusional about shorter lists, but just let me think I'm making headway.]
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Ila, the problem with dismissing an author is that you might miss something incredibly good. I am thinking of A Room of Ones’s Own, by Virginia Woolf. To me, it is an essential non fiction classic that every woman should read.
Sara wrote: "lol. We all live in that wonderland where the TBR begins to diminish, Marilyn. I have resigned myself to always adding more than I am able to check off."I actually get nervous when my TBR count starts decreasing too much. As it stands, I have far less years of reading material currently logged than I do years of reading left in me. Thus my concern with the ones that have been on the list the longest, rather than cutting my TBR as a whole down to size.
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I actually get nervous when m..."
Well, I am at the other end of the spectrum. I have 1200 + read books listed. I doubt I have another 1000 books left in me. We'll see. Of course, short stories could be a different story.
I just started looking at the first dozen or so books that I put on TBR list and I have to say, they pretty much all seem like good choices. I struck off only a few. I don’t think I will ever get through them all, though, so I know I need to do some ruthless paring, and less adding. Maybe I should look to see which books have the lowest ratings? How do you decide what to cut?Sometimes I think the books just go there to die, like lost socks.
I may actually try to start reading from the bottom of the list up. Or maybe I should do some random picking? Choose one from each group of 10? Do an alphabetical pick by author?
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I totally add or cut by whim. I am sure others are different. Either I am excited or I get the "meh" response. Anything that's "meh" I delete. There is no reasoning.
I am like Lynn and do periodic culling and the books I remove are random. As I scroll through, if something no longer excites me, it goes. Many books don't even sound familiar so I have to read the blurb, and sometimes I'm not sure what attracted me to the book enough to add it so those are removed as well.
My challenge picks are a mixture in terms of the period on my tbr.I usually try to pick at least some of the books on my tbr the longest, as well as books not actually added to my tbr, but on my 'head tbr' which is most if the books on the bookshelf of this group if I haven't read them.
My old&new challenge is mostly those, while my other challenge picks are more random/shorter on my tbr.
not sure I understand your percentages Aubrey - is that percentage of your 2021 challenge books by year added to GR shelves?
are those percentages not going to be skewed by variations in no. books added in each year, as much as by how much you are "targetting" them?
Darren wrote: "not sure I understand your percentages Aubrey - is that percentage of your 2021 challenge books by year added to GR shelves?"
Yep. For example, I have 69 books logged across all my 2021 challenges, and four of them were added to my digital library in 2010. 4 ÷ 69 x 100% = 5.7%, rounded up to 6% for convenience sake.
I've only been adding since 2016, and a quick count shows 18 remaining from that year that I haven't read yet, and 16 of them are pencilled in for this yearI always bear in mind what I call "Buggins Turn" priority when planning challenges (and even what individual book to start next)
and I seem to have settled into a pattern where I have about 5 years worth of books waiting to be read and hopefully only very few should go above 5 years on GR shelves (or 3 years on physical shelves!)
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I always bear in mind what I call "Buggi..."
Darren I learn so much reading your posts. "Buggins Turn" - great phrase.
Darren wrote: "I've only been adding since 2016, and a quick count shows 18 remaining from that year that I haven't read yet, and 16 of them are pencilled in for this yearI always bear in mind what I call "Buggi..."
Five years of reading content...I physically own six to eight years of such, while my entire TBR is between fourteen and seventeen years (assuming page counts aren't too prolix, and not including planned rereading). Guess that's what I get for hoarding.
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I think so many of my adds are from reviews that I read...and then I forget whose review it was and what excited me enough to add it. I have tried to cut, but find it takes so much time that I have resigned myself to the "to read" list being unhelpful and have started a second folder "short-listed" for things I really need to get to first.
Yes, Sara, I agree. I read reviews, put the book on my list, and later think "Why did I think I wanted to read this?!" So, I've tried to put some kind of note on some of them so I can remember. I have some (more than one!) that you have recommended to me that I haven't got to yet, but I put your name beside them and that assures me that I really do need to read them! Haha! But otherwise, I'm like the rest of you, my list is loooong! But, I don't tend to cull too much (I'm not sure why). I guess I just like looking through them every once in awhile (I sometimes put the date that I added them, so I can see how long it took me to actually read them!).
Also, like your "short-listed" books, Sara. I have made a recent list called "Nagging Books" that I just finally need to read. And several are coming off this year on my Bingo Challenge (such as The Idiot and The Iliad). So maybe that will help!
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Sara wrote: "Always feels good when you check off one that has been hanging around far too long. I had to laugh at "nagging books"!";)
I like that term, nagging books. The woman in white, Madam Bovary, and Bleak House had been politely poking me since a few years and I was a bit ashamed over procrastinating them.
Haha! "Nagging Books" I like that! War and Peace has been "nagging" me so I finally got it off my list this year! I have about 20 chapters left. I also went through my TBR list this year and cleared off a bunch of books I no longer want to read. I also focused on reading the books I first added to my list when I joined GR about ten years ago. I read about 30 of those and it felt great! :D
Thanks for reviving this board as well, Natalie. A good excuse to post my stats for what I've set for 2022 challenges thus far:2010 - 4%
2011 - 20%
2012 - 12%
2013 - 20%
2014 - 5%
2015 - 1%
2016 - 1%
2017 - 4%
2018 - 1%
2019 - 3%
2020 - 4%
2021 - 24%
You can tell when I started premptively amassing potential challenge works. Least a good portion of it will go to good use, and there's plenty of post 2022 challenges that the rest can fit into.
Aubrey, looks like you made real progress! I am going to do better in 2022, but my criteria is to read books that I own, whether they made it officially on to the list or not.
Natalie wrote: "Haha! "Nagging Books" I like that! War and Peace has been "nagging" me so I finally got it off my list this year! I have about 20 chapters left. I also went through my TBR list this year and clea..."
Natalie, I got two more of my "Nagging Books" off my list this year:
Katherine by Anya Seton = 46 yrs
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence = 20 yrs
Doesn't it feel good to mark them off after waiting all that time?! ;)
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Sara wrote: "I wonder if I have anything 46 years in the running. My poor mind might not be able to think back that far. Anyway, congrats, Terris on getting that one off the list!"Oh Sara! It was a book that my best friend read in high school and I always thought that I should read it too. She was so smart and I wanted to be just like her! I was probably a sophomore.
So I kept it on my list and finally got to it this year!! haha! ;)
I love that Terris! It does feel great to get those off the list. 😄That is impressive progress this year, Aubrey!
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I understand the long-running to-read list.I just rarely put the physical books I own and have not read on the Goodreads TBR shelf. I use that shelf for books I might order or look for online.
I inherited a few hundred hard back books from my parents. I literally cannot remember a time when they were not on the shelf in a home where I lived. I suppose some of those would qualify for 50 + years. For instance, Mom gave me all the Anne books but I still have only read two of them. Also Little Women that I am still reading was given to me in about 1970. It is a 1930's edition from her childhood. Then when she passed away I got another set of about 20 boxes full of books for older readers.
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I hope you get to the Anne books. I read them all when I was young and loved them. My personal copy of Little Women is one I was given for Christmas in 1964. It is very dogeared. It got read a lot when I was young and I have a book that is literally falling apart called When Sara Smiled which I loved as a kid. It is about a girl and a horse, and the reason I loved it so much is probably obvious.
Books are such lovely memories to keep. I inherited all my grandpa’s Louis L’Amour books. I haven’t read them all but they make me very happy. I’m like you Sara, most of the books I physically own are ones I’ve already read and loved so I had to own them. There are some childhood faves that have been well loved. Those also make me very happy. 🥰
99% of the books I buy these days are ebooks but I still love looking at my collection on the shelves. It’s so calming.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
Little Women (other topics)The Idiot (other topics)
The Iliad (other topics)
2010 - 6%
2011 - 16%
2012 - 13%
2013 - 15%
2014 - 12%
2015 - 0%
2016 - 3%
2017 - 3%
2018 - 10%
2019 - 6%
2020 - 15%
2021 - 3%
Not sure what happened in 2015, but the spikes in the earlier years make sense, as well as the one in 2020 where I was able to start acquiring books based on the challenge parameters. In any case, what do all yours look like?