Do the 2009 TBR challenge

I’m giving up on this so I can start fresh in 2010. I think I picked too many very long and serious books. I didn’t want to make myself miserable by forcing myself to read them all in the next month or so.

Maybe I’ll include a few of the ones I missed in 2009, but not all of them.

Im not going to complete this goal. I know I could if I got a shuffle on, but I dont want to! Ive got three books on my shelves which I actively want to read, and none of the books left on this list are ones which I can motivate my self to get on with…. so I sense this goal with be given up on before the end of 2009…

Ive read loads of books which I didnt end up putting on this list though… Ive really gotten into Jill Mansell, and really REALLY gotten into Jodi Picoult. I know I have some Kate Atkinson books left to read too… hmmm.

I am sure though that this goal will reappear on my list next year – as I did find some good books through this goal. The Time Travellers Wife will remain one of my favourite books of all time.

am supposed to be reading lots of plays for my writing course. i’m not sure i have the imagination.

• Harold Pinter – The Caretaker
• Alan Ayckbourn – GamePlan (that was an easier read)

1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. Madame Bovary by Flaubert
4. The Boat by Nam Le
5. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
6. The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller
7. Geography by Sophie Cunningham
8. The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide
9. The Story of Tibet by Thomas Laird
10. The Assassin by Margaret Atwood
11. Nine Lives: True Spy Stories From Mata Hari to Kim Philby by Fitzroy Maclean
12. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
13. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
14. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale
15. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
16. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
17. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
18. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
19. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

The latest book I finished on my TBR list was The Book Thief. Review to come soon but loved it – one of the best books I’ve read this year.

My TBR Lite List, completely crossed off:
1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage

2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools

4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

5. Mary Roach, Stiff

6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I finished Garbage by A.R. Ammons on October 12. It’s a book-length poem, all written in couplets. It’s about literal garbage (what goes into the landfill) but also about the author’s aging, and more broadly about what at first we value in adulthood and then don’t value anymore as we get older. (Things that are not valued any longer are: garbage.)

The book is short but it too me a loooong time to read. The couplet style, and also the author’s strange punctuation (nary a period in sight, colons sprinkled liberally throughout, the overall effect being that every chapter was one long run-on sentence) were always getting in the way, for me.

Right, Im crossing off books 7 & 10 even though I havent read thm all the way through. Ive read about 1/2 of the first anf 1/3 of the second, and its enough for me to know that I dont want to read anymore, and Im not going to force myself for the sake of it, when there are so many other books out there I would enjoy more!

However, it still leaves 4 on my list, one a month… not sure Im going to get through all of them plus a bunch of Jill Mansell books I have awaiting me (plus all the Jodi Picoult books I am desperate to get!)Will have to make time to read during the day if Im going to fit it all in…

1. The Light of Day – Graham Swift
2. The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
3. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
4. The Accidental – Ali Smith
5. 26a – Diana Evans
6. Eve Green – Susan Fletcher
7. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
8. My Best Friend’s Girl – Dorothy Koomson
9. Status Anxiety – Alain De Botton
10. The Psycology of Childhood – Peter Mitchell
11. When Will There Be Good News? – Kate Atkinson
12. Deception Point – Dan Brown

My TBR Lite List:

1. A.R. Ammons, Garbage

2. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

3. Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools

4. John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

5. Mary Roach, Stiff

6. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

I finished Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach on August 15.

If you donate your body to medical science or scientific research, what happens to it? Mary Roach follows this question to some very interesting but sometimes gruesome answers. Some are used, as we would expect, at medical schools for dissection in anatomy classes, or for continuing ed classes for surgeons to practice new techniques on. But other cadavers end up in other sorts of research: at forensics labs, at auto-crash-test labs, all sorts of other kinds of research. The book is written with a nice blend of tacftulness and humor.

This book is not for everyone—I am used to reading over my lunch break, but this was not the kind of book I could read while eating! (The forensics lab chapter was the grossest. And a brief history of the guillotine and related experiments was almost as bad.) But if you can stomach the subject matter, Stiff is actually a very entertaining read.

Have already started book #6—the end of this Challenge is in sight!

All the way through this book, I kept thinking I must slow down and savour it because as soon as the 3rd one’s released there’s no more of this. But I couldn’t. I was compelled to read as much of this story as I could as often as I could. Only one more and then this man’s literary magic is lost to the world forever:(

This is the 2nd time I’ve read this book. I read it not long after it came out and I couldn’t really work out what all the fuss was about. I thought I should give it another shot.

I know most people rave about this book (including Oprah) but apart from the section on Bali which I found enjoyable my opinion hasn’t changed from last time. I can’t put my finger on why. The writing was ok, she seems nice enough… Maybe some books and some people just don’t go togther.

1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. Madame Bovary by Flaubert
4. The Boat by Nam Le
5. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
6. The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller
7. Geography by Sophie Cunningham8. The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide
9. The Story of Tibet by Thomas Laird
10. The Assassin by Margaret Atwood
11. Nine Lives: True Spy Stories From Mata Hari to Kim Philby by Fitzroy Maclean
12. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
13. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
14. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale
15. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
16. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer17. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott18. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer19. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin