TBR Clear Out Readathon discussion
2024
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Katie wrote: "A board to discuss our current reads.I think I'm going to start off the readathon with The Mars House by Natasha Pulley - the newest book on my TBR! - before getting to some older books."
This new book by Natasha Pulley seems amazing, a queer sci-fi novel. I really like Natasha Pulley writing.
I am looking forward to see your review of this book ;)
I will start with "Agatha Christie: A Biography" by Janet Morgan. I have this book for ages and now it is the perfect timing.
I´ve also started with The Mars House. I´m really enjoying it so far!
I'm starting with The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope--oldest and longest. Enjoying so far. I'm reading this now because I've been reading Trollope's "stand-alones" in publication order and this book is next.
I started with my shortest book, The House on the Borderland, to give myself a bump right at the start. I'm about 2/3 of the way through, and I'm really enjoying it.
I started with the books for challenge 2 and 3.2: Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise of O-) by Heinrich von Kleist. I bought this book in January 1980. The novella itself is a reread, but the edition I own has a lot of extra material, including material about a 1975 film adaptation, and a discussion about how to adapt classic books to film. Opinions on this have certainly changed over the last forty years. I actually have this old film on my computer and will watch it again when I've finished the book.
3: The book that has been on my shelves for the shortest time is a Swedish crime thriller, Skyddsängeln by Sofie Sarenbrant. I always need a thriller on my bedside table.
I'm roughly halfway through The Handmaid's Tale and I'm liking it a lot! Not the easiest read but the fragmentary nature of the story lends itself really well to how sporadically I've had to read it... busy times! Atwood's prose can get very dense and a little overblown to me but I love the imagery. I should check out her poetry...
I've finished the first book, Die Marquise von O... by Heinrich von Kleist. I love this novella, and the extra material in the book was quite interesting. I'm now going to start the shortest book on my list, Black Coffee by Agatha Christie, a play with Hercule Poirot.
I will start with "Love in the time of cholera" by Gabriel García Márquez. It's my first time with the author
I've been reading the Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, the book that has been on my physical TBR the longest, but unfortunately I'm not getting on with it. It's interesting to see how my taste in books has changed since when I first bought it because I don't think it's a book I'd pick up now!
I started Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon. It's one of my latest TBR books, but I'm not super concerned about the order I am reading books. I have over 250 on my TBR.... In any case, so far it's OK, but I'm not totally into it, so I'm hoping I can get more into it tomorrow. I have also been reading Worlds of Arthur by Guy Halsall, and I am really enjoying it. I also started listening to The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker, but I'm having a hard time getting into the recording. I may try to read the paper copy.
Just finished Vengeful by V.E Schwab for challenge two. Started reading The Cruel Prince by Holly Black for challenge seven!
I finished Black Coffee by Agatha Christie for challenge five and I enjoyed it. I think I will now try to get into the book I lost interest in: Eremitkräftan (the Hermit Crab). This was the debut novel by the Swedish author Sven Delblanc and was published in 1962. It's on my shelves since 1986.
I started Cranford this morning, and after a few chapters of uncertainty (getting into Gaskell's style of storytelling) I can say I'm loving it! It's so interesting how each "short story" seems to explore different facets of Victorian female life...
I will deviate from my original plan, to read "Agatha Christie: A Biography" by Janet Morgan. In the end of 2023, I started to read "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman and I was enjoying a lot and I will return to this book, it seems so good, I found this praise from the book:
'Funny, clever and achingly British' Adam Kay, This Is Going to Hurt
My kind of thing ;)
Finished The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and I really liked it! I will be starting Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer next for the third challenge and to give myself a break from all the fantasy books I have been reading lately.
Just finished my first one- the one that’s been on my TBR for 16 years- The Hunger Games. I know, it is ridiculous that I’ve not read this series. I was gifted it in 2008 for Christmas from a friend, (Before it took off), but I just never got around to it. My daughter read the series last year; she was born in 2008, and has begged me to read it. Of course it was 5 stars! And it was a great way to start this challenge. Now, for a more recent add…I have too many choices for this one.
Currently reading Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. Have already DNFed Birds Without Wings... which was a real bummer as I loved the author's novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Oh well.
I finished the book I had lost interest in, Eremitkräftan by Sven Delblanc, and it went better than I had expected. It is an allegorical tale about freedom, and it made me think a lot. Perhaps I should read more of the books that have been sitting forgotten on my shelves for decades.
I've finished The Doomed City by the Russian sci-fi authors/brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. I found it engrossing, though I see from reviews that while some see this as a masterpiece, other readers find it incomprehensible, boring, pointless, or all of the above. It is similar to Orwell's 1984 in that it is an allegorical critique of both capitalism and the Stalinized Soviet Union. But much stranger and more fantastical. I will post a longer review over on my page. For a head-wrenching change of pace, on to Caste by Isabel Wilkerson!
Cranford was a lovely little read! I decided to go for my pick for a book I fear I lost interest in next - Balzac's Old Goriot. I just started it, and his prose is a little more expressive and witty than what I expecting based on what I had heard of him. I guess I was expecting a much more demanding realist style. Seems like it'll be an engaging read!
I finished "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman and it is funny.There is British humor, which I like, and some cultural references that are very characteristic of England.
It is a very entertaining book.
Finished Annihilation and have started reading The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting for challenge #6.
I stayed up late last night to finish “one of the bigger books on my TBR.” I chose All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I chose this one for a few reasons: many of my longer books are classics and I didn’t think I could tackle those at this time, it seems as everyone has read it already, and I’ve been very disappointed by WWII historical fiction lately. I appreciated how there was no “hallmark movie ending.” That’s my issue with so much WWII historical fiction- it gives very unrealistic outcomes. The outcomes of all the characters felt correct. It was a beautifully written book too but I only gave it 4.5 stars. I’m not exactly sure why it wasn’t 5, it just wasn’t for me. I still really enjoyed it and am happy to move it the the Read it Already stack.
I've finished the book I picked out as having languished on my TBR for too long, and that's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. The strongest elements of the book, to my mind, are the stories she brings to light in discussing the impact of racism on people, specifically Black people, over the course of U.S. history. However, I wasn't persuaded by her basic premise, that caste is at the bottom of all the other "isms." I have a longer review on my Goodreads page.On to There There by Tommy Orange, one of my most anticipated books of this challenge and a new one on my list, and Sula by Toni Morrison, one of my shortest TBRs and also one of the newest on my list.
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting ended up being a DNF for me but I did finish The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen for challenge #4. I also listened to the audiobook for I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, which ended up being my first five star of the year!I am now starting The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S Lewis for challenge #5.
It took me a while to get through Old Goriot, but I am glad I persevered. There is so much power in Balzac's writing, his descriptions are lucid and memorable and he crafts some brilliant characters. This morning I'll move on to To the Lighthouse as I realise I won't have the time to plough through Crime and Punishment this week!
And after I will cap off the month's reading with Slaughterhouse-Five, one of the shortest books on my tbr!
I have finished five of the six books I had on my list for this readathon and two more that I've had on my shelves for a very long time. I liked the book best, which I was very excited to get to, The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was fantastic! Now I've started the longest book on my list, Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope, but as it's over 800 pages long, I probably won't finish it this month.
I finished Toni Morrison's Sula, which is so profound and rich and complex and wonderful I immediately went back and read it again. I think that's the first time I've done that with a book. Lots of re-reads, but I can't remember an instantaneous re-read! Next and final: There There by Tommy Orange.
READATHON CLOSING THOUGHTSI am finishing off my final book, and I'm finding myself a little burned out, but proud. This has been a fun and challenging readathon, I learned a lot about what I like to read and how to push myself. I also learned how to rest and let myself be honest about the things I do and don't like!
One big take away for me was the planning ahead of what I want to read. 6 books a month will likely never be a consistent goal of mine, however prepping a few books in advance was helpful! It encouraged me to pick up books I'd been wanting to read but hadn't been itching to pick up, and it took the stress of selection away when I knew I needed to read something but nothing was sounding enticing.
All in all I'm incredibly grateful I found and joined this challenge and I hope to do this again next year!
Having loved both To the Lighthouse and Slaughterhouse-Five, I ended up having a week left for another book. I reckoned Crime and Punishment was still a big too long, so I went for Adam Bede, also fitting the prompt for one of the longer books on my tbr but a little less mighty! I will need tomorrow to finish it off, but I have been enjoying it, despite its absolutely glacial pace... Eliot's writing has always fascinated me
I had an amazing time with this readathon! I was able to read all of the books I wanted to read for the challenges. The Body Finder ended up being a DNF for me but I'm happy I tried it; I found my first 5 star for 2024 and I made progress in several series that have been sitting on my shelf for years. This was a great experience and I can't wait to participate again next year!
Thanks to this readathon, I'm pleased with what I finished this month. I had hoped to finish 8 and I did complete 6 (one tonight, so a day late!). Two of my books were more than 500 pages.DONE The Way We Live Now, Trollope--longest (800+) and oldest (2011)
DONE How the Other Half Lives, J. Riis--shortest (under 200 pages) (nonfiction)
DONE Music in the Hills, DE Stevenson--newest (2023)
❤️DONE Young Anne, D Whipple--excited about
DONE John Adams, David McCullough--audiobook--text is 500+ pages (biography)
DONE Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins--in memory of booktuber (& Wilkie Collins lover) Jennifer Brooks and for the 200th anniversary year of Wilkie Collins (b. 1824).
All were good, but I especially loved Young Anne by Dorothy Whipple--it's my first Whipple and I plan to read them all!
Mod
So I covered all the prompts with four books -- one or two less than I was aiming for. The Doomed City, a long sci-fi epic read, and also one of the books that's been hanging around on my TBR the longest. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, another chunker, and the one I feared I would never actually get to. The last two were Sula by Toni Morrison, a shortie which I immediately turned around and reread, and There There by Tommy Orange, one of my newest and most anticipated TBRs. Both of these last two were five-star reads for me, and I just might go ahead and reread There There again right now also. A very good reading month! Two books I loved and two that I'm glad that I finally got to and read.
I read two books, none of them was from my original plan but it is OK ;)I read:
- "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman
- "Machines Like Me and People Like you" by Ian McEwan
The first one I bought last year and the second one I had for at least 5 years.
The first one was very entertaining.
And Ian McEwan is one of my favorite writers and I found this book very fascinating, if you are into Artificial Intelligence (AI), I think you gonna like this book a lot.
Katie wrote: "I had a wonderful readathon and managed to read 17 books - mostly because I was on holiday for half of April! My TBR now stands at a much less scary 30 books :)"🤗 Yay!
I ended up having some adulting stuff take up a lot of my time in April, so I wasn't able to devote as much to reading as I wanted. I only finished four of the six books I'd picked, but that's four books fewer on my TBR, so I'll count it as a win. Thank you for hosting, Katie!
I think I'm going to start off the readathon with The Mars House by Natasha Pulley - the newest book on my TBR! - before getting to some older books.