Bragan's Oldies But (Hopefully) Goodies

Hello all! This year, I have a somewhat different goal, which is to read some of the really old books, the ones that have been hanging around on the TBR shelves forever. Where, in this case, "forever" as defined as "since sometime before I joined LT and finished cataloging my books, in March of 2007." Although some of them have been there a lot longer than that. There are, somewhat to my shock, 264 qualifying books on the TBR shelves. Obviously, I'm not going to read that many in one year. I went back and forth for quite a while as to where, exactly, I should set the goal, but, geeky soul that I am, I've finally decided that the answer must be 42. That's 3.5 per month, which seems entirely doable.

Here's my ticker, featuring a hopeful, hoppy frog:

Ouch! 264! That's a healthy library, without your newer books. What book is up first?

Tell me about it! If you count the newer books, too, the TBR Pile is at 398, and that's after actually meeting my goal aimed at reducing it last year! But I really am shocked that there are that many genuinely old books. Some of them have, quite literally, been sitting there for decades. Some of them, I have absolutely no idea how old they are. So it really is way past time that I made a concentrated effort at getting them under control. At least it's one category that's never going to have anything added to it!

First up will be Cities in Flight, Vol. 2 by James Blish. Which I should be done very soon, as I was already most of the way through it when the calendar flipped over.

And, indeed, I have now finished Cities in Flight, Vol. 2, which is both the first book of the year, and the first oldie off the TBR pile for this year's challenge. I have no idea when I got this one, in fact, except that it's definitely been on the Pile long enough to qualify. If you told me it had been ten years, though, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

Good job! At this pace you'll clear out 365 of your 398 pile! :)

I don't doubt that you've had it 10 years. James Blish was the editor of the Star Trek short stories collections that were published before Star Wars existed.

>5 lbradf:: Sure, I can keep up this pace, no problem! :)

>6 cammykitty:: Yeah, he did novelizations of all the original episodes, which I will admit that read and re-read an embarrassing number of times as a kid. These particular stories were from the late 50s and early 60s, so even earlier than Star Trek, but apparently the edition I have is from 1991, so I guess that at least puts an upper limit on how long I've had it.

I loved Cities in Flight when I read it long ago. Happy New Year and good luck with this year's challenge.

Yes, my brother and I both read those Star Trek anthologies to pieces. Can't bear to watch any of the shows now!

I think I also said this on my previous thread, after I read vol. 1, but I really wish I'd read Cities in Flight when I was much younger. I remember checking it out of the library sometime in my teens but never actually getting around to reading it, and it's kind of a shame. I think I would have liked it a lot better back then, both because it hasn't aged incredibly well and because I've just become pickier. It really is a fantastic idea, though, I have to give it that.

I have the same problem as you--many of my TBRs are old--some have acquisition dates in the 1990's.

Since I know that in all likelihood I won't end up reading more books than I buy this year, I'm holding a one-person contest and giving myself points--the older the book the more points I get. Not sure what it will all mean in the end, but it makes me feel better.

I'm pretty sure I have a few books that have been there since at least 1989 or 1990. I don't know where the time since then has gone, I honestly don't.

And your plan sounds reasonable to me! Heck, maybe you could come up with prizes to trade your points in for, as an additional incentive.

Personally, I'm all in favor of using whatever tricks might work. I have a strict per-month quota system that was really helping me get the TBR Pile down, albeit very slowly, until I went a little crazy at the end of the year and blew it completely. Back to being strict about it for 2011!

Cheli came up with a great idea. We pay ourselves $1.00 for each book we read off our shelves. At the end of the year that money could go towards buying more books! I hope to put $70.00 away.

It is a great idea, but I think all my spare money already goes toward buying books, anyway. :)

Good luck with those, bragan, Just making any dent at all in Mount TBR (307 and growing) is good enough for me right now but there are quite a few that have been on the pile for so long now that I can't help wondering if I really ever actually wanted to read them at all.

Thanks! I may need the luck, although hopefully I've set the goal at an achievable target. Fingers crossed!

And I did finally conclude last year that some of those books I didn't ever really want to read, and thus got rid of them, but of course then I bought more to make up for it....

Booksloth> Yeah. All those books must have looked ooo shiny at some point, but some of them seem to have come from a different life. Or they represent knowledge we want to have, but don't want to acquire.

#17 I think that's a really excellent point. I know I have books on my shelves that I bought hoping the knowledge in them would be imparted through osmosis. I definitely have a mind-set that says "Okay, you may not want or need to know how to build a nuclear bunker right now, but if you ever do, won't it be handy to already have the book?"

(And in a weak moment last night I went online and ordered 4 new books - groan.)

Oh, man, yeah, I have a few books like that. I believe there's one all about handy survival skills to have after the collapse of civilization. And, really, who am I kidding? Even if I ever actually get around to reading the book, I'll still be lucky if I survive half a week after the collapse of civilization. :)

You need to update your zombie defense plan, although you'll have plenty of time to read the survival skills book once the fall of civilization happens, right?

I have The Dangerous book for boys just for that reason. You never know when you'll need a reference book that includes pirate flags as well as the rules for schooldesk hockey. What was I thinking?

But what if you did need to know those things? What if you were kidnapped and threatened with torture if you couldn't quote the rules for schooldesk hockey? It could happen. And then you'd be so glad you'd got that book. I wonder if there's a name for a fear of not having the right bit of information to hand in any given situation?

>20 RidgewayGirl:: Hey, I also have The Zombie Survival Guide on the TBR shelves!

>21 cammykitty:: I keep stumbling across that book, myself, but have not succumbed to it. I think you may have actually just made me kind of want it, though. Hey, I might need a pirate flag some day! What is I want to take up a life of piracy? *smacks self*

>22 Booksloth:: If there is, I have it. And one of my original justifications for starting to amass a large library was so I could always have lots of information at my fingertips if I needed it. Then the internet came along and kind of invalidated that line of reasoning, because it's way easier to google stuff than to figure out whether I have it in a book somewhere. And yet, the books still keep on coming...

Hmm, yes . . . you just killed my excuse - unless the power goes down, of course, then our libraries will be in huge demand.

Come to think of it, the power probably will be down after the collapse of civilization...

Problem is, if I ever do get kidnapped and my life depends on knowing the rules of schooldesk hockey (and if that ever does happen to someone, it will happen to me), my sadistic kidnappers will make sure that all my books are out of arms length! Just out of arms length.

& bragan, there are some pirate flags that could've used fig leaves. There's a reason the book was for boys, not girls.

Is it horrible of me that now I kind of want to see a fig leaf-needing pirate flag aimed at girls? Just for equal opportunity purposes, of course. :)

Hee hee. I almost went and looked for a suitable illustration until I remembered that sometimes a search result can result in retina-burning images. And "fig-leaf needing pirates" or "hot pirate flags for girls" are too dangerous for me!

Well, there were some female pirates, and if I saw one of their flags coming... Yi yi yi!

>28 RidgewayGirl:: Hee! I believe that refraining was wise of you, but I do appreciate the thought. :)

>29 cammykitty:: Yeah, there were some pretty darned dangerous female pirates, as I recall!

I'm just catching up with threads and have to admit I have a number of books on my shelves that fit into the "who-knows- what-interesting-information-I-might-find-out-by-reading-this" category (if not neccessarily the end of civilization needed kind) including one on cod (the fish) and 2 on lobsters. Also one on saffron. And those are just the ones I can think of without getting up to look at my shelves.

That probably describes half the non-fiction on my shelves. I have a book entirely about uranium, one about snails...

I'm most of the way through the one on Cod, and have also read the one on Salt.

Book number two is off the shelf! The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox by Stephen Jay Gould. Very disappointing book, especially compared to the usual quality of his writing, but, hey, off the shelf it comes! I'm not sure quite how long I've had this one, either, but it was published in 2003, so it's probably been about that long.

Aha. I thought I was the only one to read that tome. Very academic, wasn't it? and all to refute E.O. Wilson. I also was disappointed in it. And it's definitely getting off the shelf and out of the apartment.

It made me wish I'd picked the E.O. Wilson book off the Pile instead, honestly, since I recently acquired a copy. And, yeah, the writing was really not up to Gould's usual clear and eloquent standards. I don't know whether he was trying too hard to make it more "academic" in a humanities kind of style, or whether it was mostly due to the fact that he didn't have the chance to revise and edit the thing before he died, but I found much of it downright tedious. Not just because of the style, but also because whatever point he was trying to make didn't really seem to have much substance to it.

Well, I was able to make sense of it toward the end (I think) assuming that his reading of Wilson is what Wilson intended. But that academic style, and all his parenthetical digressions, made my eyes cross.

It made some amount of sense, but it wasn't really a very compelling argument, in my opinion. And it made my eyes glaze. :)

#34> The title is fabulous though. Too bad it didn't live up to it.

I know. Gould was great at titles, and that one sounded especially appealing. Ah, well.

Another oldie! The Greatest Adventure: Apollo 13 & Other Space Adventures by Those Who Flew Them! edited by Edward Gibson. This was published in 1994, and I suspect it's been sitting on the bottom of the TBR Pile nearly that long.

41> It sounds good though, perfect for a 14 year old boy, as long as it's well edited and not too full of jargon.

P.S. I'm not saying you're 14. ;)

Heh. It's actually a lot less 14-year-old boy oriented than the cheesy subtitle suggests. (I think the movie version of Apollo 13 was coming out at the time, and they were trying to milk it for what it was worth.) It's lots of space-related photographs, including gorgeous shots of various parts of the Earth from space, interspersed with little snippets of text by astronauts & cosmonauts talking about their experiences and thoughts. Not a very substantial book on the subject, really, but a pretty one. Very much the kind of thing that's supposed to sit out on your coffee table instead of languishing on the bottom of a TBR pile for decades and then being read in a lump. But, oh, well.

I see. It's a browsing book. At least it has been thoroughly browsed now.

Thoroughly. Actually, it wasn't a bad choice to read through in the sleep-deprived state I was in last night.

And one more real oldie: Elsewhere by Will Shetterly, which I believe has been on the Pile since some time in the 90s.

And it's time for the end-of-the-month round-up!

JANUARY 2011

Total books read: 14
Oldies read: 4
Books acquired: 10
Current TBR total: 394
Total oldies TBR: 260

(Where the definition of "oldies" here is books I already owned when I joined LT in March of 2007.)

To reach my goal for the year, I'll need to average 3.5 oldies per month, so for the moment, I'm right on track! Also, after going a little crazy at the end of last year, I'm back to taking strict measures to make sure the TBR pile keeps moving in the right direction, however slowly. I'm not going back up over 400 again!

Very well done so far, keep it up.

Thanks! I will try!

It's great to see those numbers moving in the right direction, you are doing well.

And this time, my ticker is only going to go forward, not forward and back and forward and back. :)

It's bad to confuse the ticker!!!

You're .5 ahead! Isn't Elsewhere a fun read.

My ticker last time was very confused. :)

Elsewhere wasn't bad, and did a pretty good job with the setting, but for some reason the story never interested me quite as much as I'd hoped. Still a nice, quick read, though.

Well, Elsewhere is very, very YA. It isn't terribly complicated.

Yeah, "very YA" is a pretty good description. I think that wasn't quite what I expected going in, or maybe I would have found it more satisfying, I don't know.

Just finished my first oldie for February: The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking. Am feeling reasonably happy with my progress so far.

*clapping* I tried reading Hawkings Brief History of Time and found myself feeling quite stupid, so kudos to you.

I felt a bit stupid when I read A Brief History of Time, too, but between then and now, I went and got a physics degree, so that helped. I still didn't understand some of the stuff in this book, but I'm blaming that on Hawking not explaining it thoroughly enough. :)

Yes of course! It wasn't explained thoroughly enough. :)

And another one: Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works. Not sure how long that one's been on the Pile, but it's been a while. Well, at least I know it wasn't there before 2001, since that's the publication date.

'Nother oldie: Blue Light by Walter Mosley. Not sure how long I've had this one, but I think it's at least less then a decade this time. And Mosley clearly has some writing ability, but I found it disappointing.

You know, of the seven qualifying books I've read so far this year, all of them have been somewhere in the "It was okay, but..." range. Where are the hidden gems that'll make me wonder why on earth I put off reading them for so long? I know there must be some on the Pile.

Ah, well. Onward!

Uh oh. I have Blue Light on Mount TBR. Usually I'd shrug it off and say, well I don't always agree with everyone else's ratings, but I read a really bad one by him this year. My faith has been shaken!

Oh, dear. Well, it's possible you might like it better than I did, but I have to say I can't really recommend it. Although it did leave me feeling like I'd be willing to try something else by him, because his writing did at least have promise. What was the bad one you read, so I know to avoid it?

It was 47, YA fantasy set in slave times. It isn't his usual genre. Eventually I'll read Blue Light, and if it isn't that good, I'll make sure to read only his mysteries in the future. I really liked Blonde Faith.

I gather he is best known for writing mysteries, so I guess Blue Light, which is an odd sort of mystical science fantasy thing, is also a bit out of his usual line. Maybe he's just not that great with the speculative fiction end of things?

#65> That could be. It was the fantasy element that really spoiled 47 for me. The fantasy element wasn't well integrated with the rest of the book.

I think the problem with Blue Light is that the SF/fantasy element pretty much is the book, and it's just not handled particularly well. The writing itself was good, though.

Could be. Probably won't get around to reading it this year, but I'll let you know when I do.

Cool, I'll be interested to hear your take on it. Because mine is kind of conflicted.

And I've now just finished The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer by David Leavitt, which was also disappointing, despite its interesting subject matter. Bah. Well, at least I'm now actually slightly ahead of where I need to be to reach my goal.

#70 I so agree! How on earth it is possible to make such a fascinating man's story quite so turgid is a mystery to me (or it was until I tried to read While England Sleeps and found Leavitt has a real knack for it). And yet this is the same man who wrote the sublime The Lost Language of Cranes! There are some authors (Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell etc) who genuinely have only one book in them - it's a blessing when they know it.

It's the first book of Leavitt's I've read, and it's definitely going to be the last. I would have thought a book on Turing would practically write itself, but apparently I was wrong.

Seriously, The Secret Language of Cranes is so different it's hard to believe they were written by the same person and it's a wonderful book. As for Turing, there are some people who lives seem to cry out for a truly great biog, and he is definitely one of them yet, as far as I'm aware, (and I have looked) nothing of the kind exists. If there's a really good biography writer somewhere out there who'd looking for their next subject can I make a plea?

I'd like to second your plea, because that book just left me hoping to find a good biography of Turing somewhere, too.

All right, I really don't think I'm going to finish anything else tonight. So...

FEBRUARY 2011

Total books read: 12
Oldies read: 4
Books acquired: 9
Current TBR total: 391
Total oldies TBR: 256

I'm calling that progress!

You are still reading more than you aquire - so that is definitely progress! Good for you.

I'm trying! I refuse to go back up over 400 again!

The Queen is right! That is still progress.

It's the kind of progress I can only sit back and envy bitterly ;-)

Hee! I will bask in it as much as I can, then. :)

Just finished my first oldie for March: Moonstruck by Edward M. Lerner. Sadly, this is still not the hidden gem I've been hoping for.

Aha! There's the hidden gem! Just finished The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher, which turned out to be a well-written book on a subject I find fascinating. Yay!

And that puts me at ten books on the ticker, only half a book behind where I ought to be by the end of March.

And another one: The Shadow over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror by H.P. Lovecraft. This one was a pleasant surprise, as Lovecraft is a more entertaining writer than I'd remembered him being. Possibly I have passed some kind of turning point, quality-wise?

And quantity-wise, I am still right on track. Yay!

Perhaps? I know Lovecraft is quite a story-spinner, but I really have trouble getting past his writing style. I think I'm in the minority though. Some people thoroughly worship him, so you can't say he's sunk your quality. :)

A lot of the stories in this particular collection were done a bit less in his most, um, Lovecraftian style than usual. As I said in my LT review, he only used the word "cyclopean" twice in the first six stories. :) So I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to, having gone into it with exactly your opinion of him, based on having read some of his stuff in years past.

I still think I kind of like parodies of his stuff better than I like his actual writing. But, hey, it was entertaining, which is all I ask!

Entertaining is good. & yes, "cyclopean" has got to be one of his favorite words, and I'll bet he coined it.

I looked up "cyclopean" on Wikipedia, and it turns out "cyclopean architecture" isn't creepy at all. I feel cheated. :)

Huh? It's got a wikipedia entry? I thought it had to do with large size and lack of eyeballs.

Cyclopean masonry. You learn something new every day!

Although Lovecraft might well just have meant huge size and/or a sense that it's staring at you with one evil eyeball.

Well, it does look like the kind of masonry you'd expect from a huge, one-eyed monster.

Not going to finish anything else today. So...

MARCH 2011

Total books read: 13
Oldies read: 3
Books acquired: 9
Current TBR total: 387
Total oldies TBR: 253

And at 11/42 oldies read for the year, I am still exactly on track to accomplish my goal. Well, actually, I'm half a book ahead!

It's nice to see the TBR dipping a little again, however slowly. Pity it won't last. Library sale this weekend!

Good hunting, bragan!

Thanks!

But you're under 400. So you can bring 13 books more in. ;)

Well, my per-month quota is ten. Plus, um, I already have a couple of books on order. Also an ER book coming. But it's not like I've been obsessively doing the math or anything, constantly recalculating exactly how many books I can allow myself to buy. That would just be crazy, right? Ha. :)

Enjoy the library sale - don't worry about the numbers, if your TBR goes over 400 you will just have to stick with this challenge longer - more fun for us!

Noooo, do not tempt me! Anyway, I think I'm going to be needing this challenge for a long, long time, one way or another.

I figure I can "afford" to pick up seven books, which isn't a bad number. Especially as I'm not going to be able to get there until the afternoon, when things are bound to be a bit picked over. I'm at least trying to view that as a positive.

My library sale is at the end of the month. I'm going to enjoy myself, but endeavor to restrain myself to books I would regret leaving behind. Really regret, not just sort of regret.

Enjoy it!

I can't wait for the library sales to start - no notices yet. This year I'm on the hunt for books for Books For Keeps. That way my TBR pile doesn't move too much - oh who am I kidding? I'll still be grabbing stuff for me.

Well, I went to the book sale -- much earlier than I expected to be able to get there -- and I was very restrained. Only four books! Mind you, it helped that their selection didn't seem to be that exciting this year. (It's a fairly small book sale, this being a fairly small town.) My eye kept being caught by titles that looked interesting, only for my brain to kick in and go, "You have that one, you idiot! It wasn't even that good!"

Anyway, yay for being under quota! Of course, being me, my first thought on the way out was, "Now I can buy some more books from Amazon, too!"

Under quota at a book sale is a call for celebration, just as long as you don't expect the same from me!

To the contrary, I think you should go wild at yours, and let me experience it vicariously.

Congrats! Walking out with only 4 books is like going to Dairy Queen without getting a blizzard. So, what are you getting on Amazon? (I'll confess to buying two last night.)

>103 cammykitty:: Mmm Dairy Queen...

And the books I ordered from Amazon are Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell, because I like her writing and because I'm going to Hawaii later this year, so it seemed timely. Among Others by Jo Walton, because I've seen it praised extensively in ways that make it sound right up my alley. And Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi, because it's what the program I wrote to pick random books off my wishlist came up with this time. (I'm having immense fun with that program, and it's resulted in me reading a number of interesting books I might never have gotten around to otherwise.)

Sorry it took so long to answer your comment, by the way. Somehow, I completely missed it.

Also, I have just finished my first oldie for April: Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre, a pretty good science fiction novel.

Ah, I've been using LT as a bit of a randomizer too. It has pulled some interesting surprises off my very strange shelves.

I haven't been using it to pick what to read next, since I prefer trying to pick books to fit my mood/work schedule/whims, but using it as a means of deciding what to pick up off the wishlist next has been fun. Especially as I've got so many books on there that I don't even remember adding half of them, so as often as not I get something completely surprising.

And another one: The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman. Why the heck I didn't read this sooner, I don't know, but I'm very glad to have done so now, so my streak of good stuff is continuing!

Just finished Too Many Magicians by Randall Garrett, a not-at-all-bad fantasy/mystery novel. Still on track at 14 out of 42!

I don't think I'm going to finish anything else today, so:

APRIL 2011

Total books read: 10
Oldies read: 3
Books acquired: 14
Current TBR total: 391
Total oldies TBR: 250

Which, OK, I know that's going in the wrong direction, as far as the TBR total goes, and looks like I exceeded my regular 10-book buying quota this month. Except that, well, for reasons not worth going into, I picked up a few at the end of the month and credited them toward the May total. I'm thinking of it as buying them in May and having them shipped backwards in time. :)

I totally understand your reasoning. I went to a library sale today, but I'm not adding the books I bought until tomorrow. Now I'm off to do my monthly summary. I already know it won't be pretty.

Somehow, I couldn't justify not entering them until May, but I can rationalize pretending they came back in time from May. :)

And ah, library sales, the bane and the joy of a bookoholic's existence! I still can't quite believe I didn't buy more at the last one I went to.

Finished my first oldie for May: Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, which I enjoyed. Now at 15/42!

That's the thing. You will remember that book you put back on the shelf at the library sale much more than the ones you brought home. The book not purchased is just as powerful as the Robert Frost poem.

It's true, I have occasionally been known to pay full price later for books I could have gotten for a dollar at a library sale but foolishly put back down.

Well, let that be a lesson to you. :)

You can't even put them down for seconds! I've learned that one. ;)

Actually, there was one at the last library sale that I looked at, debated over, left where it was, and then changed my mind and came back for a short while later only to discover that it was gone.

You'd think I'd have learned by now. Ah, well. I guess that's the down side of self-restraint. :)

I've put a book down and watched someone grab it while I was still thinking about it. Ouch! It took restraint not to start a cat fight!

A friend told me that the book sale I traveled to recently developed a reputation a while back for book dealers getting into fights over books they wanted. I didn't see any fistfights or book tug-of-wars while I was there, though.

LOL, I believe it.

Finished oldie #16 for the year: Top Ten of Everything 2001 by Russell Ash. Well, OK, I really mostly only skimmed it, but it's off the TBR shelf now, so it totally counts.

At least I haven't actually had this one since 2001, although I think 2005 might not be an unreasonable estimate. And so it sat there on the shelf, just getting more and more out of date... until now. Yay, I guess.

Was it still sort of fun, even though 2001 is history now?

Meh. Actually, some of it was a lot less dated than you might expect, because it was lists of stuff that doesn't change much. But it was also less entertaining than you might expect. Lots of information, not much context to make it interesting.

Too bad. At least it's off the shelf now.

Yep! One less to worry about!

Just finished Destination: Void by Frank Herbert. The bad news is that it kind of sucked. The good news is that I had three sequels to it on the TBR pile, and that might very well be three books leaving the TBR Pile.

Well - that's one way to make it smaller. I have a bunch a friend gave me for one particular author that I think I'm not going to enjoy based on what my sister told me after she borrowed a few. And they are in hardcover so that would make lots of new space.

He's the guy who wrote Dune. I'm sure they are thick!

Actually, Destination: Void is mercifully thin at 190 pages, but the sequels are longer. So unless I find out that they're generally regarded as being way, way better than the first one... yeah. It may be time for another mini-purge, as there are maybe a couple of other books I've been thinking should have gone with the batch I donated to the library last year.

That's the good thing about LT. You can see if anyone has rated them, and if they are 3 or under, bahbye!

Ratings aren't necessarily all that informative if there aren't a lot of people doing them for a particular book, but they can be useful. I like to look at the distribution of the ratings, rather than just the average, too.

I see, by the way, that the LT average for Destination: Void is three and a half stars -- I rated it two and considered myself generous -- so I'm not sure how much I trust it on the sequels. What reviews there are, though, don't sound very promising. So, yeah, I think those are going bye-bye next time I do a cull of the shelves.

I've definitely read books and then cleared the sequels out of the TBR pile; it feels like cheating, somehow. But really, if I'm not going to be enjoying them all that much, why not use the shelf inches for other books?

Yeah. I've been immensely reluctant to ever get rid of anything on the TBR shelves, out of some feeling that if I bought them I should read them, but after finally breaking down and getting rid of a bunch last year that I knew I really, really wasn't interested in anymore, it got a lot easier. Why keep stuff on there if I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it? Or am never actually going to make myself read it?

It does still kind of feel like cheating, though...

I agree. It feels like a waste to get rid of an unread book, but than I switch roles and think of it as housecleaning.

Besides, if I donate it to the library, hopefully someone more interested will end up with it, and everyone involved wins.

Yup!

Yes, it's hard for me too to get rid of books I haven't read. A lot of 'should' in my head. It's a good idea to face up to what I won't read and let it go.

It's amazing how hard it can be. I get obsessive over finishing books whether I'm enjoying them or not, too.

I know! I think I've finally broken myself of finishing a book I don't like. I handed one back to a friend today. 33 pages in, but I knew I wouldn't like it.

I've now finished reading Lost Civilizations: Rediscovering Ancient Sites Through New Technology by Austen Atkinson. That's four oldies this month, for a total so far of 18, which I believe means I'm still right on track!

What, is it June already? Well, OK, then...

MAY 2011

Total books read: 13
Oldies read: 4
Books acquired: 7
Current TBR total: 385
Total oldies TBR: 246

Which is excellent progress, although the low "acquired" total is mainly due to me jumping the gun and buying some books in April that I counted toward May's quota.

And after posting that, I did go and pull those Frank Herbert books off the TBR pile, along with a few other things that I really should have gotten rid of the last time I purged some books, but inexplicably didn't. Which makes my new TBR total 378 and my new oldies total 240. I guess that's the easy way to make progress! I'm not going to count those toward my Off the Shelf total, though. I'm only including the ones I actually read for that.

I'm with ya there. I got rid of a few books by reading the first thirty pages, but that doesn't really count. As for actual challenge books, I haven't been doing too well. :(

Aww. Well, dumping books after 30 pages does still get them off the shelf, even if it doesn't count for the challenge. So that's something. :)

I've been gone almost a year and you're still plowing through books like a crazy person. You are my idol.

LOL! We'll, I'm glad I'm an inspiration to someone! I still feel pretty overwhelmed, myself...

Oh, and while I'm at it: welcome back!

Thank you ever so!

Finished my first oldie for June: Flux by Stephen Baxter. Which gets an A- for nifty science fictional concepts, and a D as a novel.

Now at 19/42, and still on track!

LOL! There are so many science fiction books like that. I love the double rating.

There so are! It kind of drives me crazy. Surely there must be other people like me who actually want good science and good characters?

Finished another one, this one involving stories with great characters and bad science: Firefly: The Official Companion, Volume One.

I still miss Firefly.

I still haven't seen Firefly! I better get around to it. Maybe we need to start encouraging science fiction writers to collaborate - we can pair good science writers with good character writers, and voila! Great science fiction! ... or great feuding.

Probably the feuding, alas. Although, if we're talking of TV shows, Babylon 5 did a petty good job.

Anyway, Firefly is great fun.

Firefly is now top of my netflix list.

Cool! Let me know what you think of it.

So, um, you know how I felt pretty good about purging seven unread books off the pile because I'd decided I didn't want to read them? I, uh, kind of just accidentally went to Barnes & Noble and replaced them with seven new ones. And, yeah, that's after purchasing my quota for the month already. Well, at least now it feels less like I'm cheating!

Also, I just noticed that I now have exactly 1000 books tagged "non-fiction." I feel like I ought to give Non-Fiction Book Number 1000 some kind of prize.

bragan, what title was it?

Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton.

Is Wil Wheaton your nemesis like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory?

Now, I'm off to steal books for my Wistlist from your library! You're so handy, you know that?

**Wistlist! Tee Hee. Ahem. Wishlist.**

Heh. Not as far as I know. Of course, I've only seen season one of The Big Bang Theory so far.

And you're welcome! I've certainly done that often enough with other people's libraries.

And another one, as I keep going through these old sci-fi paperbacks I've piled up over the years: Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler.

I'm halfway there!

Ah yes, Mind of My Mind. I was interested to see that she was playing with some of the ideas she used in Fledgeling when she wrote the patternist series. I'm through Clay's Ark but I think there are one or two more after that.

The only other book in that series that I've read is Wild Seed, which I remember finding interesting, but it was so many years ago I can't remember many details. I'm not sure if I'm going to read the rest of it or not. Mind of My Mind wasn't bad, but all the matter-of-fact mind-control and domestic violence and stuff left a bad taste in my mouth in ways that, oddly, those kinds of dark subjects usually don't.

I vaguely recall having mixed feelings about Fledgling, too, although I thought it was an interesting idea. I'm beginning to think Bulter and I just aren't particularly compatible, even though I really want to like her stuff.

Butler has a high ick factor. My writers group and I now use that term as a technical literary term, and I can't think of another author that it applies to more. If Mind of My Mind was an unpleasant read for you, don't go on to Clay's Ark. The ick factor goes up. As for Fledgling, I wasn't as taken by it as other people seem to be, and speaking of the ick factor, all that sex with a seemingly underage female. Ick!

I think it was less the ick factor itself that got to me and more the way the characters just accept it all. Which maybe makes sense in terms of the story, but was still disturbing in ways that even really icky things usually aren't for me. Not least because it was never addressed in ways that would, I don't know, let me deal with it and get it out of my system. It's actually kind of interesting to analyze, but it was less so to read.

(Meanwhile, on an unrelated topic... I realized that I actually purged eight books this month and only replaced seven. So I bought another one. I really do have a problem, don't I? :))

Only the same problem we all suffer from!

I suppose it's at least nice to know I'm not alone. :)

LOL! Yes, you do have a problem.

& you've got a point. Her characters do accept it all, as though they don't know that it could/should be better. Almost battered spouse syndrome, which I'm sure is the effect she was going for. Ick ick ick.

Well, they say admitting it is the first step... :)

In Mind of My Mind, I think the battered spouse analogy is actually pretty explicit. I also strongly suspect the characters, to some extent, are subtly mind-controlled not to question it too much, and that's a particularly insidious and creepy kind of ick.

Yes, and she uses that mind control thing again in Fledgling. Big ick.

Finished one more -- Engine Summer by John Crowley -- so I'm ending June just slightly more than halfway done. Yay.

And that's it for June! Let's see where I stand...

JUNE 2011

Total books read: 13
Oldies read: 4
Books acquired: 19
Current TBR total: 383
Total oldies TBR: 236

Well, I'm actually in better shape this month than the books acquired/books read ratio makes it look, since I did also purge eight books from the TBR Pile. Plus, one of those 19 counts as a reference book, and thus bypassed the TBR Pile entirely. Still, I admit to being a little over-indulgent lately. But at least I'm keeping up with my oldies goal!

How was Engine Summer, by the way? I'm a big fan of Little Big, but I've never read any of his other stuff. Although, of course, (blush), I own some.

I loved Little, Big, but, while Engine Summer was well written, I'll admit that I had a little trouble getting into it. Not really on the quite the same level, if you ask me.

Oh, dear. I, uh, seem to have just gone on a two-day, three-bookstore biblioholic bender. First it was just a few old sci-fi paperbacks at the local used bookstore, because it was my birthday and I was feeling celebratory. Then I thought, well, I have to go into the city, maybe I'll treat myself to a trip to my favorite bookstore. I'll only just buy one or two, really. And then while I was on the way, I got a phone call with some possibly bad news -- one of those probably-nothing-but-could-be-something, what-unbelievably-inconvenient-time-should-we-schedule-your-uncomfortable-tests-for? medical things -- and because I was feeling stressed, "one or two" became "five." And then I had to go to the mall... where the Barnes & Noble is... and I just kind of completely lost my mind. I mean, it really didmake me feel better, but so much for the monthly quota. So much for never, ever going back up over 400 unread books. So much, in fact, for all my hard work and progress and restraint over the past year or two. Sigh.

I think at one point, right after I got home, I was standing in my living room with a huge armful of books giggling crazily. All I can say is, it's a really, really good thing that it's books for me and not drugs or gambling or something.

But I thought maybe, just maybe, you people would understand. :)

Of course we do, dear child. Revel in your secret vice. And good luck on the "probably-nothing."

Thanks!

I think I have the choice right now between jumping up and down going, "Eeee, look at all these great new books!" or wallowing deep in regret and shame. I can't help but feel that option B might set a better precedent for the future, but option A sure sounds like a lot more fun.

NO WALLOWING. Jumping up and down and going 'Eeee' is MUCH more therapeutic.

And I too hope for the 'nothing' option.

Thanks, also! It probably really is nothing, so I'm trying not to worry... But I think jumping up and down and going "Eeeee!" will help.

Absolutely! Best of luck, and enjoy the new books!

Oh, my. I had to start stacking them on an entirely new shelf. Um... but they're still fun to have!

I completely ! understand. I went to the bookstore yesterday at lunch to pick up a business-type book (which they didn't have) and came back with 5 books. Now I just have to sneak them in past my husband. I think I'll hide them in my lunch bag.

Medical tests - UGH! Good luck though.

At least I don't have to sneak them past anyone but myself!

All right, well, whatever I may have been up to on the book-buying front this week, at least I am still slowly working towards my goal. I just finished the first oldie for July, Alternities by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, which has been sitting on my TBR Pile approximately since the dawn of time.

Very healthy way of dealing with stress! I approve completely, and am jealous. You still have shelves that you can cram books on??? I'm throwing books on top of the dog's crate and on my old stereo speakers. Here's hoping the medical tests go smoothly, give you nice quiet reading time in the waiting room, and then of course give you good news.

Well, I keep buying more shelves. When I ran out of room, I moved to a bigger house. When I run out of room here, I guess I'm in trouble!

And thanks for the well wishes. Reading time is the only good thing about waiting rooms!

LOL, you could build an addition... or buy the neighbor's house. There's always a way to make more room for books.

OOOH! There's an idea - move to a bigger house. Except - I'm retiring for good soon and I like my house and my mortgage is almost paid off. But still ....

>190 dudes22:: Maybe you should build an addition.

A waiting room without a TV is a thing of beauty. Please let us know the results of your tests.

And you can only wallow in regret and shame if your bender also included a fifth of gin and a wee ball of black tar heroin. Otherwise, you should feel vaguely righteous.

We did a while ago, but it was kitchen and laundry room. Had I known how my TBR pile would grow once I joined BM and LT, I would have included another room. Oh well - I'll just have to pick up the pace reading, I guess.

>192 RidgewayGirl:: Do they even make waiting rooms without TVs now? I might find reasons to wait in one of those! And, nope, no gin and heroin. Just a mango smoothie, I think.

>193 dudes22:: Silly you, prioritizing food and clean clothing over books!

Good luck with everything, bragan, and go buy more books if it makes you feel better. (Says the enabler. :)

Broken Bow Medical Clinic, Broken Bow, Nebraska. No TV in waiting room.

>195 melonbrawl:: Aforementioned medical tests are taking place a few blocks from aforementioned favorite bookstore. I keep telling myself, "No, you can not stop by afterward!"

>196 MerryMary:: Too bad that's a bit far for me to travel. :)

Of course you can stop there! You'll need to celebrate!

You people really are enablers! But I love ya for it. :)

Can you find a way to let them use the bookstore as a waiting room instead of their TV infested one?

I only wish! Although, really, that might be dangerous.

Very, very dangerous.

And here I go, still reading like crazy to try and offset all those new books I bought! Just finished Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, which I've had so long that I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.

So, I had those medical tests I mentioned today, and discovered that -- drumroll, please! -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with me! Whew! So, um, I... may have gone back into the bookstore to celebrate. I mean, it was right there.

Yeah, that's it. I am now doing nothing whatsoever for the next week besides reading. I swear.

Oh, and they had me in two different waiting rooms, only one of which had a television, so that was nice. I got to read a bit of one of the books I bought on my last spree.

Well Yahoo for you - good news is always cause for celebration. I was going to ask "Did you get anything good?" but I should probably say "what did you get that's interesting or should be good or ... you know what I mean. How many? Come on now - confess. Not that my wishlist needs any additions ;)

Good news. deserves a book, for sure.

>205 dudes22:: I only got four this time. At least I have some restraint! Um, sort of.

What I bought yesterday is:

Blue Heaven by Joe Keenen, because somebody on LT recommended it to me a while back, and it was on sale.

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan, because I've liked the other books of his that I've read, and I remember someone on LT posting a good review of it recently.

Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson, because I really liked his Hugo-winning SF novel Spin.

And Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz, because I'm a sucker for anything about the history of the space program.

Of course, if you want to see the full results of my recent binging, you can check the most recent acquisitions out in my library. Which also include some stuff I ordered through the mail back before I zoomed past this month's quota.

>206 ffortsa:: It does deserve a book! Or four. :)

I read Blue Heaven a year or so back and thought it was quite a hoot. Have fun reading that one.

Thanks! Hopefully I'll get to it sooner rather than later. Of course, I still need to work on these older books...

Glad to hear the tests went well!

Yeah! Hooray for nothing at all wrong! I'm glad it's all over and now you can get down to enjoying your reading.

Thanks, all!

Yes!!! Glad that there is nothing wrong with you!!!

Enduring Love is one of his best. Enjoy. I'm glad you're healthy.

Well, despite all the shiny new books, I'm still trying to keep up with my goal for the oldies. I just finished No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleaveland, a great bit of local history/memoir that I'd been meaning to get around to for ages. Now at 25/42, so I'm still (somehow!) on track.

Oh, dear, time to assess the damages...

JULY 2011

Total books read: 14
Oldies read: 3
Books acquired: 38 (Eep!)
Current TBR total: 407
Total oldies TBR: 233

Sigh.

Eep is right! But whose talking. I've got a pile of books I need to enter into my library. Oh well, it's a new month... to turn over a new page.

I'm going to try to turn over a lot of new pages. Goodness knows I have enough of them! :)

I guess I have a few of those new pages to turn over as well. I managed to bring home 15 books from my vacation, bringing my TBR up to 334. And that's not counting all the books I am quietly adding to my Kindle. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara - " Oh fiddle-de-dee, I won't think about that right now. After all, tomorrow's another day!"

I was going to say that you're still doing better than me, but, hey, at least I don't have I don't have a Kindle. From everything I've seen those things are dangerous when it comes to adding to the (in this case virtual) to-read shelves.

But, yes, I think it is extremely useful to adopt Scarlett's attitude in situations like this. :)

Finished the first oldie for August: Callahan's Secret by Spider Robinson.

Also, I tried not buying any books in August, but it didn't last. Well, at least I mail-ordered them, so maybe I'll get some more read before they arrive. :)

Well, if they take three weeks to arrive, you didn't get anything in August. ;)

That's true! Except I think they've already shipped, so I probably don't have that excuse. :)

sigh

Just finished Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. It's utterly inexcusable that it took me so long to get to this one, but, man, am I glad to have read it now.

Currently at 27/42. I feel like I'm slowing down, but I think I'm still pretty much on target. For now.

I haven't read Tiptree yet. I'll have to put that on my list of possibles for 12 12. So inexcusable because it was really good? Or inexcusable because it had an inch of dust on it?

Because it was really good. And I knew it was probably going to be really good, too. And yet, there it sat...

I've read a lot of the Tiptree award books but have never read Tiptree. I almost put a Tiptree award category in my 12 12 challenge even. So, if it was really really good, I'll have to read it (or something by her) soon.

I gave it five stars. Not all the stories are completely perfect, but collectively they're incredibly impressive. It's well-written, creative, disturbing stuff. I definitely recommend it.

Have now finished Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, which is an oldie by every possible criterion, being a 1960 edition of a book first published in 1883 which has been sitting on my TBR shelf for, well, I don't actually know how long, but some number of years, anyway. And it's yet another one I can't believe I left this long.

Well, I'm definitely not going to get any more books finished before midnight, so let's see where I stand...

AUGUST 2011

Total books read: 12
Oldies read: 3
Books acquired: 11
Current TBR total: 406
Total oldies TBR: 230

Meaning my TBR pile has decreased by a grand total of one. Well, at least it's going in the right direction again...

Well, you did read more books than you bought. That's not as easy to do as it sounds sometimes. ;)

Just barely, but yes. :)

Getting an early start on September, I just finished Terraforming Earth by Jack Williamson. Not a very good book, but, still, that's one more down!

@234 It does sound a bit dry...

It's a science fiction novel, and it's got a terrific premise, but, man, does it waste it.

Just finished The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. Total oldies read for the year is now an even 30. Only 12 more to go to reach my goal! I'm hoping to knock off one or two more while I'm on vacation later this month.

And I've now finished The House of Doors by Brian Lumley. Which was moderately terrible, but oh, well.

I'm about to head out on vacation in just a few hours, but I'm bringing a couple of the oldies with me. We'll see if I get to them or not.

Have a good one!

Enjoy! Hope you have a lovely, restful time.

Thanks!

Well, I did get a few books read while on vacation, but less than I'd hoped, and I didn't quite manage to finish any oldies. So...

SEPTEMBER 2011

Total books read: 12 (including one re-read that doesn't diminish the TBR Pile)
Oldies read: 3
Books acquired: 10
Current TBR total: 405 (as of the end of September)
Total oldies TBR: 227

Still at 31/42, so I'm nearing my goal at a decent pace, but I'm not there yet!

And I've now finished my first book, and my first oldie, for October: Timeline by Michael Crichton. Which is also the book I spent half of September reading while on vacation.

Just finished A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay. Weird-ass book. But it's off the TBR Pile now!

...and I followed that up quickly with Full Moon by Michael Light, although it seems almost dishonest to say that I read it, since it was mostly pictures.

LOL, but it's off the shelf now. Still counts as a book.

Yep! I am totally counting it!

Just finished The Course of Irish History, edited by T. W. Moody and F. X. Martin. Because last month while on vacation in Hawaii and (inevitably) buying books about Hawaii, I forced myself to face up to the fact that every time I go on vacation somewhere interesting I get all excited to learn more about the history of that place and buy a book on the subject... and then I never, ever read them. Figuring that it was more than time for that to stop, I finally turned to this book on Irish history that I bought when I was there on vacation... in 1999. Sigh. Well, better late than never, right?

In other news, I bought way too many books at the Friends of the Library sale today... and that's after already blowing my quota out of the water earlier this month for no good reason. Again I say, sigh. Somehow once I start buying too many books again, it seems impossible to stop.

Er uh oh. Good that you finished the Irish History. Was it good? We'll look the other way over the library sale... those things happen...

It wasn't bad. Definitely well worth reading. Probably well worth reading years ago.

And, um, thank you. Although I still have shame. :)

Yeah, well. We won't tell any non-readers about the book sale. ;)

You want to hear something funny? Yesterday morning I was walking home from work, reading as I went, as usual. (Although this time it happened to be a magazine, not a book.) There's this guy who's often walking the opposite direction at the same time when I'm coming home from a night shift. We don't know each other from Adam, but we'll smile and nod, and sometimes he'll make a little good-natured joke about my reading-and-walking habit. Well, yesterday, he stops me and tells me that, hey, if I like to read, I ought to know that they're having this library sale... And I had to somewhat sheepishly admit that not only did I already know about it, but I'd been to the special preview sale the evening before, which you have to buy a Friends of the Library membership just to get into. (Hey, you get first crack at the good stuff that way! Also, they were holding the regular sale during hours when I kind of wanted to be asleep.)

So, yeah. I am such an obvious book-buying addict that random strangers will stop me on the street to offer me advice about book-shopping.

I think that's sweet.

It was kind of cute. :)

Nice of him!

I just spent two days at a library fund-raiser, so made multiple visits to the book sale tables ... only came away with five books, though :-)

LOL! People are watching out for you. At least you know if you're so absorbed in what you're reading that you're about to step off a curb, someone will save you... and then lead you to the next book sale.

I've never been hit by a car yet! Perhaps it is reassuring to know people are there to look out for me, though. :)

LOL! Let's keep it that way.

Just finished a volume called John Brunner: Three Complete Novels, featuring Brunner's Children of the Thunder, The Tides of Time and The Crucible of Time. Sadly, even though it's three books in one, it still only counts as one book off the shelf. But it's one that's been on there so long that I can't remember it ever not being there, so yay for finally reading it. It also happens to be the fifth "oldie" I've read this month, which is a new monthly record. Not that that makes up for the insane book-buying sprees I've gone on this month -- it wasn't just the library sale, sadly -- but, hey, it's something. :)

??? It would count as three if it were off of my shelf. Think of how wide the spine is on that puppy. I'll bet it's a good three inches thick! Was it good?

Alas, it only counts as one by my reckoning -- after all, it only counted as one going onto the TBR list -- but at least it's a good bit of shelf space freed up, because, yeah, it was close to 800 pages. And it wasn't bad. The individual novels I'd describe, respectively, as "deeply flawed but still surprisingly readable," "a weird thing that shouldn't work but somehow kind of does," and "very much the sort of thing you'll like if you like this sort of thing." :)

"very much the sort of thing you'll like if you like this sort of thing." - LOL! sounds not half-bad.

OK, let's see what the damage is...

OCTOBER 2011

Total books read: 18
Oldies read: 5
Books acquired: 40 (!!!!)
Current TBR total: 427
Total oldies TBR: 222

I really don't know what is wrong with me. I started buying books this month, and then just didn't stop. Aargh. Well, at least I'm getting that pile of oldies down! Although I don't see how there can still be over 200 of them when my shelves seem to be so full of new stuff. And 18 is a darned respectable monthly total, even if a couple of them were mostly pictures. Still... That vow to never go back up over 400 is beginning to seem like a distant memory.

18 is definitely an honorable count. As for the other, it's hard to stop buying books. They all look like they'll taste SO GOOD.

I just got three mysteries through PBS, telling myself that wasn't really buying books. But there they are anyway.

They do! It's very hard. And once you give yourself permission to buy one, well, why not another? And another? And another six or seven? :)

oops... well, you're all set for next year's challenge then! But really, if you look at the over all challenge, you're doing pretty well.

Yeah, I'm doing good with my stated goal for this year, just not at higher-level goal I've been plugging away at forever. Ah, well.

And I have, indeed, at least been telling myself that I'm setting myself up nicely for next year, because I intend to switch to a pre-2012 books goal for that, so everything I just bought will count. :)

Finished the first oldie for November: Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories by Warren Ellis. It's a graphic novel, so not exactly a long and involved read, but it counts! Five more to go...

Finished At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kauffman. Only four more to go!

Finished Idiom Savant: Slang As It Is Slung by Jerry Dunn, which I'd been dipping in and out of for a while.

NOVEMBER 2011

Total books read: 13 (including one re-read that doesn't diminish the TBR stacks)
Oldies read: 3
Books acquired: 21
Current TBR total: 436
Total oldies TBR: 219

Sigh. Yes, once again my TBR total is going up, not down. Because, once again, I acquired way more books than I'm supposed to be allowing myself to buy. Although a lot of that was due to the ridiculous shopping spree I went on in October, in which, among other things, I ordered a bunch of books that didn't come until the beginning of November.

Well, at least as far as my goal for this group for this year goes, I'm doing OK. I only need to read three more of the real oldies to reach my goal for the year, which is about what I've been averaging per month, anyway.

The first oldie for December: On Language by William Safire. I have no idea how long I've had this one. I'm not sure I remember buying it.

Two more to go!

Finished The Pinball Effect by James Burke. Also one that's been on the Pile so long I don't remember how it got there.

One more to go!

Just finished Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, which I quite enjoyed. And with that:

I HAVE DONE IT!!!

Yep, that puts me at 42 "oldies," my stated goal for the year. Sound the trumpets and break out the champagne!

Actually, I'm pretty sure that I'll end up exceeding that goal, because I'm also most of the way through another oldie that I've been dipping in and out of and should finish very soon.

Even though I didn't really doubt my ability to meet what was really a pretty modest goal for me, I'm still feeling rather proud of myself. And given that a lot of stupid things have not been going my way lately, I am going to enjoy my victories where I can get them. Go, me!

Hurray! Completed challenges are always a good reason to celebrate! It's also good that you finished the challenge with a book you liked :) Congrats!

Congratulations on completing your challenge. It's a good feeling to see those books getting moved along, isn't it!

Thanks! It does feel good. I'm working on getting myself psyched up for next year's challenge now.

WOO HOO! GO BRAGAN!

*ahem* sorry for shouting. :)

Hee! Shout all you like! In fact, I think I will add another "WOO HOO!" myself, since, as predicted, I have now not only met but surpassed my goal, having just finished Urban Legends: 666 Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend... of a Friend... of a Friend.

Woot! Go, you!

Thanks!

Congratulations on finishing with a week to spare. Time to sit and enjoy the holidays.

Who knows? I might even get one more read. But the pressure is off. :)

Well, I did just get another oldie off the TBR shelf: The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. I'm not counting it for the challenge, though, since I didn't actually read the thing. Or even give it a good browse-and-skim, which is what I was planning on doing. Some reference books are fun to do that with. This one turned out not to be. So, off the TBR shelf it goes, and onto the reference shelf, where it will sit just in case I ever actually want to look something up in it.

Whee, I managed to finish one more by the end of the year: The Spell of the Black Dagger by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Which puts me two books over my goal. Go, me!

I'm pretty sure that's going to be it for the oldies for 2011, but I will wait a couple of days to do a year-end wrap-up here.

And now for the final monthly summary for this year:

DECEMBER 2011

Total books read: 14
Oldies read: 4
Books acquired: 25 (yeah, so much for my quota system)
Current TBR total: 447
Total oldies TBR: 213

OK, so, this year was not so good for the TBR pile. Really, really not good. I did do pretty well with those really old books, though, between the ones I read and the ones I got rid of. And next year I will be better-behaved with the book-buying, I swear!

Speaking of next year, you can come and join me for it here. I'm looking forward to a year of great reading!