Do the 2008 TBR challenge

Just wondering if we will do a 2009 TBR goal together? I’m feeling quite confident that I can do this in 09! Seriously, I have started reading for pleasure again in the last month or so and I am ready to do my list for 2009. Anyone else going to join me?

i only actually read 3 of the 12 books i was supposed to be reading in 2008 … but i also read a further 32 (listed in earlier entries), so i’m definitely counting this done. i’m really happy to be back back in the reading habit. joining the reading group has helped enormously, as has the OU course – i’ve discovered great new (to me) writers and no longer stand around looking dazed in bookshops before walking out with fluffy rubbish. plus i’ve joined the library, found some new sources of second hand books, and am going to continue to buy as few new books as possible.

i think for 2009 i need to make a list of books i’ve borrowed that i really must read and give back to their owners. i probably have 12 if i look hard enough.

yes I read it yes
Ulysses yes I liked it
confused but yes, yes

Ok, so I only read 8 out of the 12 books but I did join late in the year and I’ve achieved what I wanted from this goal which is to start reading regularly again.

I did debate about adding two tattooing books I’ve read recently but they’re mainly illustrated so I didn’t count them.

I also chose not to count the hundreds of children’s books I’ve read – at least two a day.

There are also a number of books that I read before adopting this goal including among others:

How to Kill Your Husband
The Rise and Fall of a Yummy Mummy
The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy
Making Your Mind Up
Lean Mean Thirteen
The Complete Dog Training Manual

Now I’m contemplating what to add to the 2009 tbr list…I think I want to read more historical non-fiction. I also have another goal to re-read all the books I own so I’ll probably flit between the two.

After finishing ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ I felt compelled to read another book set during WWII. Although I’d planned on reading a few shorter books in order to complete the 2008 challenge I couldn’t resist this weighty tome.

It took me a few pages to become accustomed to the narrative by Death but I soon found I could not put it down. The story is focussed on Leisel a young girl who is fostered during WWII. Zusak introduces a wide range of captivating characters and their tale moves at a fast pace.

Having lived in Germany as a child I felt connected to the protaganist and as her understanding of Nazi Germany develops so did mine. The scene where Leisel receives a beating when she walks with the jewish friend being marched by Nazi soldiers was hugely moving. As anticipated the ending was heartbreaking.

Reading this book (and the previous one) have left me with a huge desire to learn. I feel a new goal coming on.

My sister bought this one for my birthday. It’s probably not what I would have chosen but I’m glad I read it.

Written from the perspective of a naive nine year old boy it made me realise just how little I know about WWII. It made me want to increase my knowledge, not just about history but about current political conflicts too.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was a beautifully written story with an incredibly sad but poignant end.

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker

Ah, what a perfect ending to the books I’ve been reading all year. This was a spur of the moment read, but I’ve had the book for well over a year. An utterly enjoyable romp through an ingenious transreal ficton. Rucker conjures up characters and events so bizarre, and yet so tied into his explanations of infinite math and the gnarl of chaotic processes as well as discussions of what constitute human consciousness and human beingness. Wow!!! It was quite literally a psychedelic experience (driven only by my own neurotransmitters drifting to new places by the new connections being formed by the text).

Synchronistically enough, this book tied together multiple ideas from about half the other TBR books I’ve read this year. Certainly the most important ones. Now it’s time to get home and make up my list for 2009.

Finished this a couple weeks back but never got around to writing it up. I’ve read a considerable amount this year, but made it through only half this list. Oh well.

An interesting collection of short stories, filled with many motifs (shipwrecks, wood worms, gopher wood, and water to name a few). Stories compare and contrast one another, narrators change, and tone moves from mildly comic to tragic and back to some center. There is a deepening of questions, of motives, of ideas but I can never seem to land them into something concrete. Overall, a good read but I’d recommend other works by Barnes over this.

Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

The first rule of FIGHT CLUB is “Nobody talks about FIGHT CLUB.”

The second rule of FIGHT CLUB is “Nobody talks about FIGHT CLUB.”

(Let’s just say that while the movie and the book share a certain amount of common material, simply enjoying the movie is an insufficient reason for reading this book. If you’re a Palahniuk junkie then why haven’t you read this one yet? An excellent experience, but it required a long karmic shower.)

I’m going to mark this ‘done’ because I started halfway through the year and read half of my books. The remaining books are going to go on my brand new 2009 list, which I am excitedly compiling. It wasn’t my original intention to pro-rate the list, but life happens and blah blah blah excuses. I’m really looking forward to tackling all 12 this coming year.