Bookoholic13's 2012 Assault on Mt. TBR

This year, I seriously need to attack Mt. TBR, so the actual challenge part of my 12-in-12 category challenge will technically not be the categories, but rather resisting acquiring new books. Since I read about 100 books per year, 75 books (or more) should be off Mt. TBR. Also, most of these (60 or more) should be given away.

1. January totals - Mt. TBR: 10/11 (Given away: 11)
2. February totals - Mt. TBR: 6/6 (Given away: 6)
3. March totals - Mt. TBR: 2/2 (Given away: 2)
4. April totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
5. May totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
6. June totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
7. July totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
8. August totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
9. September totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
10. October totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
11. November totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)
12. December totals - Mt. TBR: __ (Given away: __)

GOALS:
Running totals - Off Mt. TBR: 18
Running totals - Given away: 19

TOTAL BOOKS READ:

January

Off Mt. TBR:
1. The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney Finished January 5th TIOLI
2. When the Air Hits Your Brain by Dr. Frank T. Vertosick Jr. Finished January 10th
3. It Takes A Wizard by Thomas Hart Finished January 13th
4. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith Finished January 15th TIOLI
5. Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock Finished January 22nd TIOLI
6. Sabine's Notebook by Nick Bantock Finished January 22nd
7. The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock Finished January 22nd
8. Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman Finished January 23rd TIOLI
9. The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz Finished January 27th TIOLI
10. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill Finished January 30th TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James Finished January 20th

February

Off Mt. TBR:
1. The Sacred and Profane by Faye Kellerman Finished February 3rd TIOLI
2. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill Finished February 13th TIOLI
3. Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs Finished February 18th TIOLI
4. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison Finished February 19th
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg Finished February 19th
6. The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan Finished February 28th

March

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Milk and Honey by Faye Kellerman Finished March 3rd TIOLI
2. Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs Finished March 8th TIOLI
3. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill TIOLI
3. 4. The Alienist by Caleb Carr
-------------
Newbies:
1.

April

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Day of Atonement by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
2. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

May

Off Mt. TBR:
1. False Prophet by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
2. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

June

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Grievous Sin by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
2. The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

July

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Sanctuary by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

August

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Justice by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

September

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Prayers for the Dead by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

October

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Serpent's Tooth by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

November

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Jupiter's Bones by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

December

Off Mt. TBR:
1. Stalker by Faye Kellerman TIOLI
-------------
Newbies:
1.

I know what you mean about Mount TBR. I usually decide my categories based on what books I already own that I haven't yet read but you know what they say about best laid plans...

Good luck and I'll look forward to following your progress once again.

A sensible approach! Happy to see you deciding to do it within the frame of the 1212!

This is such a good idea! I also love your seasonal pics as well!

Great idea, I know I am going to be trying to concentrate on my TBR shelves as well. Looking forward to seeing those percentages soar while your TBR pile shrinks.

->14 AHS-Wolfy:
Thanks! I've done the same in the past, but I clearly ignore myself, so I wanted to put the pressure on this year - no more changing categories to somehow fit all the new books! :)

->15 GingerbreadMan:
I'm going to give your approach a try, but I'll be going with buying a max of 2 books per month (and trading site-books won't count...). I know it's not a "true" category challenge, but I really like our group, so I'm squeezing mine so that it looks like the right format. :)

->16 lsh63:
Thanks - I had a lot of fun picking! May is my birthday-month, so it would have gotten a strawberry cake regardless. :)

->17 DeltaQueen50:
Thank you! I talked to a coworker the other day who was complaining that she didn't have enough time to read and that she had "almost 10 books" at home that she hadn't read. Oh dear...

...she had almost 10 books at home..

Oh my goodness - that actually made me laugh out loud. Don't we all vow every year to take in less than go out? I know I do and then fail miserably. But I too will be trying awfully hard to keep it under control next year. It's just - and I've said this on other threads - those darn library sales.

I admire your resolve Eva! I could lie to myself and everyone else and say that I would do something similar, but I just know it wouldn't happen. The whittling down of the TBR pile is something I'm aiming for with this challenge, but the "gone bye-bye" part? Alas, that's often beyond me. A book has to really rub me the wrong way for me to part with it. Whoever is thinking "pack-rat" right now, you're dead right. My library is quite modest compared to many, I think it helps that I keep my wishlist elsewhere. With the two numbers kept apart, it all looks quite reasonable... Looking forward to checking in during the year!

->19 dudes22:
I know, 10 books on Mt. TBR, just imagine! I didn't even tell her "my number" because I didn't want the crazy-book-lady stare. :) I've accepted that I read about 100 books per year, but if I then buy 100 books every year, with what I already have in the stacks, I'll have to live forever. As much as that sounds interesting, I just don't think it'll happen...

->20 letterpress:
Oh, believe me, I know exactly how you feel - I was once an ardent collector and I loved every book on those shelves (and in those boxes and bins...)! I have gotten to the point, though, where I can give away most books that I know I won't read again (not all, though), but not because I wouldn't want to keep them, rather it's due to space restrictions - I'm just not prepared to trade my beachside apartment for something bigger inland. :)

10 books!!! LOL... although I made a mistake the other day. One of my friends has moved often and therefore has learned not to be a packrat. I told her how many unread books I had on my shelves. "Over 300? Hey Mom!!! Katie owns over 300 books she hasn't read yet." I wonder who else she's going to tell.

->22 cammykitty:
LOL! I think we all felt like anomalies before LibraryThing - it's good to be with other loonies! :)

>22 cammykitty:, that story cracked me up. The two-and-a-bit years I've been in my current (and hopefully final) abode is the longest I've lived in any one place since I left home 17 years ago and I've just had visions of my many moves and the looks on my friends faces who helped me...
"God, that box is heavy! What's in it?"
"Books"
"This weighs a tonne!"
"It's books"
"What about that one?"
"Books"
"Are there any that aren't full of books?"
"Um, I think that one is periodicals. Oh, and there's one somewhere with stuff for the kitchen."
Stunned silence.

@24 Um, yes. After a few of those embarrassing moves, I found out professional movers roll their eyes about so many boxes of books but the don't say anything.

Got you starred Eva and will look forward to following your reading next year. I'm also impressed with you resolve, but then I'm also another collector when it comes to books. Not looking forward to the move I'll have to make at the end of the year!

Less than 10 unread books, indeed. I know people like that too: "But why do you buy another book if you have one at home you haven't read?" Less than ten books to choose from sounds like a scary concept to me! (Ok, so 600 might be a slight excess on the other hand).

I - and Flea - too have a hard time getting rid of books. It needs to be very bad for me to be prepared to part with it. So I try to limit the inflow instead. It's a sobering experience coming to realise that I have probably at least ten years worth of books unread on the shelves. But I'd still the main reason to keep purchases down is lack of space. We are planning a move next year though - and devoting a room to home library with site-built shelves is very much part of the plan...

>27 GingerbreadMan: - I'll meet your 600 and raise you another 300+. I have to get rid of them as I read or there would be no room to bring in more.

->26 SouthernKiwi:
Good to see you here! Last time I moved, I luckily had about three weeks to do it and it was only 20 miles one way, so every day after work I would load up the car with books and drop them off at the new place. So when my friends came by to move furniture, there were no books at all for them to schlep. And, like Katie said in #25, hired moving people can't complain...!

->27 GingerbreadMan:
It would be so great to get to keep all books! I'm already envious of your new place - I'd love to have a dedicated library!!! However, California oceanfront property is HUGELY expensive, so I won't be getting a bigger place any day soon (and, no, I'm loving it too much to move away from the beach). :)

I've used moves in the past as a method of cutting down the library but then was too ruthless one move and regretted losing some books later (and replaced some) - I have about 2 years worth of reading on the shelves without buying any new books but still can't resist buying books whenever I pop into book shops which means I have to resist popping into bookshops....

>30 psutto: And we all know how easy that is...

I completely regret how deeply I purged my library after one move. I don't think I'll ever allow myself to purge books before a move again. I'm doing a better job of weeding as I go now though.

->30 psutto:
The move-cleaning is a great idea as long you have a lot of time to prepare before the actual move. Since I'm allergic to "stuff," I tend to get quite trigger-happy and have also binned a lot of things and books that I actually wanted to keep. Before my latest "cleaning" I had about 6 years worth of reading on the shelves and I'm currently down to a little over 2 years - how's that for progress?! :)

->31 GingerbreadMan:
Getting easier and easier where I live since they keep closing down... :(

->32 thornton37814:
Weeding is definitely better than purging. SO annoying to re-buy books that you've owned.

so am going to an event in a bookshop tonight so must resist buying lots of books!!

@34 Don't worry I wont let you buy anything ;) I must admit I only tend to buy when I need to a read a book so it wasn't for psutto's (my better half) addicted book buying habits my tbr would be small :)

its not an addiction, I can stop whenever I want, honest ;-)

->36 psutto:
If you're in foetal position and rocking while you say that, it doesn't count... :)

you two have a good time!

I went to the used bookstore today, but I took in much more than I brought home. In fact, I still have quite a bit of trade value! I also went to Barnes & Noble, but I used gift cards there. I feel like I got a bunch of books for free!

we didn't buy any books - although I added a few to the wishlist whilst browsing...

Belatedly getting caught up and love the challenge you have set for yourself!

love this idea and am wondering how to adjust it to fit me.

California beach property? I'd purge most of my crafts, and half my sewing supplies and books for beach property!

LOVED reading the comments!

Congrats! Takes restraint to come home bookless. Now watch out for the next few days. Experience says the bookstores still have their little tentacles on you and will pull you in and make you BUY sometime still this weekend. ;)

->41 lkernagh:
Thanks! I do hope it works.... :)

->42 BellaMariposa:
It's difficult to argue when you walk out your front door, turn to the right, walk for a minute and then the Pacific's lapping at your toes. :)

->43 cammykitty:
Congrats, indeed! Not quite sure how they managed that... :)

I've got this one starred Eva. Don't want to lose track of you!

This monthly TBR idea of yours . . . hmm, sounds way better then doing it in a pyramid. I do seem to ‘need’ to buy new books so I can finish a category (which must STOP!). Lately I have gotten quite a few TBR (which is unusual for me – normally, I buy and must read now).

Are you trying to even out your ‘categories’ or just randomly pick and hope you don’t say read 3 months of all mysteries or something?

Maybe number twelve of each month can just be a chapter of a certain book that I am sure will be left over from the 11 in 2011. . .

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

->46 bruce_krafft:

I haven't actually decided if I'll be reading in any order or not. I do tend to want to read in "binges" so that'll probably happen.

What happened was, I was clearing out my bookcases and put all the Mt. TBR books that I don't think I'll want to keep after I've read them in plastic bins - so that my bookcases would look like "normal" people's bookcases :). Then I tried to sort the "binned" books into categories to fit the challenge, but it was too hard, so I just decided to make a very open challenge but one that would force me to read from the bins instead of accumulating new shiny books.

I know it's not an actually kosher category challenge, but this group is cool and I want to stick around, so I just mangled my reading into the "required" format. :)

The more I think about it the more I like it.

I still want 12 categories, but I don't think I want 12 books in each, so this would be a good way to do it. Maybe 12 books a month (or 11 books and a chapter of a Turkish book), at least 1 book from 12 different categories for the year. Becuase really science and history books do take much more time and effort to read then say a romance or mystery, not to mention reading in a new language takes even longer).

BTW what do normal peoples bookcases look like? I saw on HGTV that some of the space 'should be' - gasp - EMPTY!!

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I normally read about 100 books/year, so no way I'll get to 12x12! I figured if I don't set the mark at 100, however, I may be more inclined to tackle the hugest of my chunksters.

Oh dear no, I don't want empty spaces!! I'm aiming for this:


rather than this:


PS! Pics stolen off the web - not mine!

Okay, picture one looks like a good bookcase goal but I still don't think it looks like a "normal" person's bookcase. It looks more like a well organized used bookstore. As for the second picture, that looks very much like one of our local used bookstores. Alas, we're so gone on books that we can't comprehend normal!

The "bin" idea sounds quite similar to the pick random shelf coordinates version I've seen of the challenge. Thing is, there comes a time when a shelf coordinate is a luxury, and you & I have reached that point. ;)

Oh, & DS, I hear you!!! I love my Spanish language books, but they are intimidating slugs!!! In the 11 11 challenge, I realized I was behind on my Spanish category and had to talk myself out of going to the library to finish up with a few Spanish picture books.

LOL - hence the quotation marks around the word "normal." :)

I was going to do the pick-random that Anders came up with, but I got the urge to sort out my bookcases so that I would know what was actually on my shelves (and Big Lots had a sale on bins). I even got rid of about 350 books in the clearing out, but there are still 200+ left in the read-then-give-away piles.

Hey, 350 down is awesome!

I was actually contemplating rearranging by books by spine color to see if it looked any "better" last week. But then I came to my senses. I'd never be able to find anything, even with tags in LT.

ETA: BTW - I do like your category idea. I might think about that for 13 (did I really just say 13?)

->53 dudes22:

Never too early to start planning! :) If 2012 works the way I hope it will, then I'm up for something similar in 2013 - I just need to find something that equals 13. Baker's dozen perhaps, with pictures of different breads...?!

I think Anders is in the planning lead right now with message #97 over here (OK, it's a joke, but still...):
http://www.librarything.com/topic/119846#2893001

I usually start planning as soon as I get a book that doesn't fit into the current year's categories. This year it was Mar. But your way allows for so much more flexibility.

*blushes* I already have my categories planned for 2013. Diversicon category changes to Tiptree Award. Caribbean changes to Mexico and Central America. New category: Nobel prize authors or books on nobel prize winners. & dingnabbit, I can't fit in a folklore category.

Isn't it funny that no matter how many categories we have, we could always use more! Looks promising for 2016 etc.

Your second pic in post #49 above has my fingers itching - I just want to climb into that picture and browse through the piles of books!

I'm looking forward to the year when my reads should not all come off Mt. TBR. :)

->58 lkernagh:: I'd just rather find piles like that at second hand bookstores, not at home when I'm trying to find a book that I just know I have. :)

Eva tracked you down! Original idea for your challenges - I ought to do that with my own very beleagured stocks to be honest. This year I am buying at about 7 books to every book read which is reckless, hopeless and destined to get me scolded from SHE-WHO-MUST-BE-OBEYED (My dear other half, Hani - she of the culinary expertise and frightening stare!).
Will keep track of your progress with no little interest!

I'm looking forward to the year when my reads should not all come off Mt. TBR.

Mouaaaaaa haha haha hahahaha!!!

AS IF!

Never gonna happen. For any of us. That's our curse.

:-D

For every year I've been here at LT my TBR pile grows about 100 books. I started last year with a TBR pile of about 300 and by January 2012, it will be about 400 books. No point in worrying about it, as Ilana says, That's our curse. Being cursed with too many books seems a small price to pay.

->60 PaulCranswick:
Yeah, a 7:1 ratio seems to be the norm with people around LT! :)

->61 Smiler69:
LOL - got a bit of a chuckle out of myself at that one.

->62 DeltaQueen50:
If only people could only read bad books for a couple of years so I didn't have to add anything to the wishlist. :) (Not that I would actually ever wish bad books on anyone!)

I admit I sometimes wish really bad books on my fellow LT:ers. They tend to make interesting reviews :)

Just to clarify: do you all by TBR mean physical, unread books in your home? I do. And there are at least 500 of them.

"They tend to make interesting reviews"
That is very true!!

To me, Mt. TBR-books are those in the towering stacks in my home. I keep a to-buy wishlist and a to-borrow wishlist as well, but since they will be no danger to me in an earthquake, they don't count. :) I'm anal retentive enough to separate Mt. TBR books into to-read-and-keep and to-read-and-give-away lists as well.

>64 GingerbreadMan: My TBR pile is a digital list housed publicly here on LT and privately in a ginormous spreadsheet that contains the 1600+ books I want to read, whether I own them or not. But I seem to be in the minority in that I've actually read most of my personal library (I own a mere 96 books I have not read) and that I catalog things I'll never truly read, such as dictionaries and style manuals.

Also, I have very limited storage space at the moment, so I buy only books I know I like, which typically means books I've read and like well enough to read again and again.

My TBR pile consists of 327 actual books plus 63 Kindle books, for a total of 390 actual books to read. Like Eva, I have a enormous wishlist of books to borrow, then slightly smaller wishlist of books to buy and a wishlist for Kindle books to buy. Lately I am finding I have the least control over my Kindle purchases, it's just so easy to push those buttons!

I tend to download lots of Kindle freebies as they become free if I think I may want to read it at some point. I've controlled myself better lately. My biggest weekness at this point are the free cookbooks. Many of those are very short anyway. I tend to wait on classics that are in public domain until I actually am ready to read them. I downloaded Persuasion the other day, knowing it's the final book in the Austenathon.

Eva interesting discussion on our various weaknesses and predilictions! You are so right that if everyone else read rubbish we could reduce our lists a bit but it wouldn't be fun would it? I am a notorious magpie in that I cannot go near a bookshop without filling my boots! Unread books on my shelves and in various nooks and crannies total well in the four figures - I am going through and cataloguing - heaven knows when I'll finish.

I have - as of the end of Oct - 974.books in my physical TBR pile. BM says I've mooched 599 books since I joined in Jan 08, so that's where most of them have come from. There and various library sales. And there are @ 1100 on my wish list to read. Most of which are the result of joining LT and hearing of all the interesting books people are reading. I too have been adding free books from the "free Friday" books that are offered for the nook. And the daily find deals they have. I vow every year to try add no more than I read, but it hasn't happened yet.

Everything I classify as tbr is on my shelves. If I don't own it then it goes on the wishlist which I dont include on LT.

Ack, and I know I have books in an unclassified mount TBR - ie a few boxes that haven't been recorded on LT yet.

I'm hearing *great* things about Bookmooch - i don't think my house space could handle it!

I also have a physical Mt Tbr of classical proportions that I'm fairly sure runs to four figures, most are old paperbacks from bookfairs, used book stores and library sales so I need to read them instead of constantly requesting more & more books from the library.
I started keeping an account on goodreads to add any books that catch my eye when browsing or reading threads, that list is now at about 1400, but I'm fairly convinced that I don't have a burning desire to read at least half of them.

I have about 80 books on the shelves I consider to be the TBR although there are many others there I've not read yet and may get round to one day ( books Claire has read and I haven't as yet)

It's very hard not to add to that number though ands been fairly constant for a while, for every one I read I tend to buy another....

Hmm my TBR pile has been consistently in the 60's all year (currently 62), I would love to say I read one, buy one but I actually buy them, read the new ones straight away and leave the old ones lingering on the shelves. Although I do think I have it down from the 70's at the beginning of the year ... slow progress but it *is* progress :-)

I always try to pare down my piles of TBRs but subconsciously I think I am happier with all those choices at hand. Luckily Monsieur doesn't complain about my buying habits.

I am loving this thread!!!! I have a TBR ticker on my challenge, with the hope that that will guilt me into reading more off my shelves. The problem is that, even though I live in a country where second hand books can be as much as 10 Euros (Spain), I have an OK selection at the library and bookworm colleagues. Oh man! I did well for the 11 in 11 Challenges (just under 50% and 2/3 were read from my TBR pile), but that was with a couple of visits to the UK and family visiting me and bringing me my books.

I have at least 250 books on my TBR mountain, and my realistic goal is to have bookcases like your first picture, rather than double stacked. I feel especially bad as my books are cluttering up my parents' house, but luckily they love reading, too! I have had friends visiting who just can't get over the amount of books around. I try to explain that you never know what you'll be in the mood for, and, heaven forbid, you might fancy a good historical novel and there are none on your shelves!

One good thing about LT is that I have weeded out some chaff that I will never read based on other people's reviews. These are usually books I got through Bookcrossing, but can't remember what drew me to them in the first place.

This is such a fantastic way to structure your challenge. Makes perfect sense. This year I actually started to track my incoming and outgoing/read books and succesfully read (or gave away) more books than I bought (or received as presents).

Oh, it's time to get going on this challenge, isn't it?! Can't believe that 2012 is already here!

Book 1 for me will be Stef Penney's The Invisible Ones since it's an ER-book, but after that I have no idea. I have sorted my read-then-give-away-books into bins, so the plan is to go digging there first, but we all know what happens with well-laid plans, don't we? :D

Good luck to us all with Mt. TBR-shrinkage. Yeah, right. Mwahahaha!!

I too am starting with an ER book. And I made a list of possibilities when I was deciding my categories. But it's exciting to be starting. I wonder why? They are the same books that have been on the shelves all year for the most part.

I'm finding it hard to even pick up a book, I seem to have developed a book funk as the New Year ticked over! I've read some pages of The hunter which is my pick for the Orange January read. I had to order a copy online a few weeks ago, so my first read is an addition to my Mt tbr!

->80 dudes22:
It's true! I don't know why, but there is certainly something about a new shiny thread that is very exciting. :)

->81 avatiakh:
Potential overload? I'm actually happy I had an ER waiting since I looked in the TBR bins the other day and wanted to read them all so read nothing. :)

Hi Eva! I came here because I thought I recognized the name from bookcrossing - still not sure about that - but after reading this far, I'm hooked and you are starred. :-) We have some interesting books in common in our libraries. Regarding this strand...I think I had more than 10 unread books before I finished high school. My library (read and unread) is in the thousands, and this is the year I've vowed to get all of them on librarything. I did manage to read 104 books a few years ago, but I didn't write reviews/adequate notes. This year I'm aiming for 85 and know that should be a comfortable number for me.
Every time I read through one of these 12 in 12 strands I find several more names to check out. Must remember to limit the amount of time I spend reading librarything postings.
Good luck to everyone!

->83 Katethegreyt:

Hello Kate and welcome! This is a really fun challenge to hang out at because of a bunch of fantastic people!

Listing all your books will definitely improve recommendations, but that also means that your wishlist and Mt. TBR will start to count in the thousands.... :)

I am actually registered on BC, but only to log received books, I am not an active BC:er - there are quite a few around here though!

Hope you have a great reading year as well!!!

Thanks for the welcome, Eva, and for the warning. LOL I only register books on Bookcrossing that I do not want to keep. I prefer the system here. I figure that as I go through my collection to list it I will also weed out some books no longer of interest and duplicates (there must be a few).

Nice to see from all the comments that I'm not alone! Of course I kind of suspected that already from being on this site for the past few years. I used to think I was indulging when I bought half a dozen books at one time. Now I'm in an even bigger predicament. Being surrounded by books in a used bookstore is not necessarily the place an OCD afflicted book-a-holic should be. Can't help it tho! I love it and this is just like heaven to me! I have managed to lessen my grip on books I keep, tho. I came to the realization that I can't keep them all, so now I bring it in to the store once I'm done with it unless it's something I really loved and think I'll read again, or it's on a topic dear to my heart. Unfortuately I have not dealt with all the books I owned prior to finding LT, and that is around 20 boxes full, plus I've been quietly adding to MT. TBR in my home for the past 2.5 yrs! What I have listed on LT is just the tip of the iceberg! Kudos to those who are able to give away books they haven't read yet! I haven't reached that stage quite yet.

Although I haven't commented on many threads in this challenge, I have almost everyone starred, I think! I look forward to reading everyone's comments about the books we share. I've set my thread up very bare bones. I'm hoping to read as many as 12 books per month...that's the goal anyway. I expect there will be times when I don't meet that goal.

Happy reading and sharing everyone!

Aren't we LT:ers a lovely bunch of enablers!? You have too many books? Buy another one, nobody will notice! :)

Kathryn, I'm not sure I would be able to handle working in a bookstore - how do you not bring home everything? Or do you get to a point where it's just overload?

> -Eva- I just had to laugh out loud at your comment "buy another one, nobody will notice!" I so have been there!

As for working in a bookstore, it's very difficult. Especially when someone comes in with books that are right up my alley! Even tho I try to be selective, I still take home far to many. I look around my place and realize I'd best not kick the bucket any time soon. I've got far to much reading to do yet! Some books that come in are of course duplicates, or books I'd probably read only if it was the only thing available, so that helps. Just yesterday, tho, I had several customers bring in some really good stuff! When I finished Beyond Black, I hadn't brought anything else from home, so picked up a new arrival...Whoopi Goldberg Book. I'm thinking it's going to be a quick read. :)

But what if someone comes in and wants to buy the book you're reading or was planning to read? I'd be rubbish at the actual selling part! :)

Ha! That's what I like about working in a library. The book does come back (theoretically speaking). I have checked books out with a sticky note to mark my page.

Oh, I just realized that I removed a small post-it from a library-book I was reading. I may inadvertently have ruined it for one of the staff. Oops. :)

LOL I'm sad if a book I'd planned to read goes out before I get to it, but then again, we're a used book store and quite often it comes back, either the same one, or another. That took me awhile to come to terms with, but now it's ok. If I'm reading one, it's not usually within sight of a customer, so it's safe until I'm done, which is when I put it back in stock. I try not to borrow ones we already have in inventory as they are also listed on our website, so at any point, someone might want to buy that one. We have a lot of duplicates, too, so I'll pull one out of backstock if I can, rather than take it off the shelf. I think I enjoy helping others find wonderful books they'll enjoy reading so much, that I don't have a problem with the selling. Plus, I'm dealing with over 20,000 books every day. More than enough to go around! :)

I'd love to work in a bookshop but suspect I'd be like Dylan Moran in the series Black Books

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg_mUfVLa_0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

One of my favourite programs of all time a comedy set in a bookshop, what's not to like :-D

I ended up watching a few of those! What a great comedy! To bad "Black Books" isn't available here. :(

That's even better (and more dangerous) that you get first dibs. Yeah, it would wreak havoc on my bokshelves!

I love Black Books and that is a great clip!! Kathryn, do you have Netflix in Canada? I know the show is available on streaming here in the US at least.

We do have Netflix here. I've avoided it as I think I would get totally sucked in! It would be like having unlimited TV. I'll keep that in mind, tho. Thanks!

Using this challenge to plow through a mountain of TBR books is a good idea. My own pile of TBR books is growing ridiculously tall.

->96 Neverwithoutabook:
Yes, definitely it definitely has the potential to be a huge time-sucker!

->97 owltype:
I suspect the books are multiplying amongst themselves! :)

Good luck with your goal, it's a great idea. I had to get rid of a bunch of books over Thanksgiving break when I found that one of my old bookcases kindly stored by my parents had collapsed under the weight of books stacked three 3 layers/shelf. My dad had shoved all my books in the closet and reassembled the bookcase a little wonky-sided. But it still functions!

@ 98 -- Perhaps you're right. Maybe books have discovered a way to reproduce asexually.

>87 -Eva-:-88 I would soooo love to work in a bookstore. I have a local one right down the street from me, and a few years ago a part-time night position came open that I could have worked after my regular job and we needed extra money. I told my partner I was going to go apply and she said No Way! Ha! I still laugh about that. She said I would end up spending more money than I made, which is probably true. Oh well. One day maybe ...

Yes, that could be a problem. I still buy books, but with so many around me all the time, I've gotten more selective in some ways, and still manage to have more than I can read. there was a point at which the need/desire to keep every book I've read went out the window and now the majority of what I read goes to the store when I'm done. The upside of that is that a good percentage of what I read sells very quickly. Often the same day. I think that's due to all the great books I hear about on LT! :)

I do love Dylan Moran :-) Also librarians checking out books with their pages marked made me chuckle, but it's totally understandable!

I used to work in a bookstore and the staff were allowed to put aside books out the back that they wanted to buy. It was very dangerous, every pay day another 1 or 2 books from my stack would go home with me, but there were usually several more still left in the cubby hole :-) I always console/defend myself with the logic that there are far worse vices I could have!

This has been a great conversation to follow, people! I've also had fantasies about working in or running a second hand bookshop, but I've realised there's no way in hell I'd make a living from that. I'd be very lucky to break even, even :)

Did I mention the town we're moving to this summer is famous for it's many second hand bookshops? It's not quite Hay-on-Wye, but I still see a bad Mt. TBR rising...

@104 we are a dangerous 1.5 hour drive from Hay-on-Wye!

Glad people liked the clip

->104 GingerbreadMan:
I was wondering why you picked that particular town! Now we know. :)

>106 -Eva-: You can't prove anything!

Sadly here second hand books seem to be on the decline. There used to be a very nice one just down the street and another not too far away. I am starting to despair that soon all I will be left with is chain stores (and even they are dwindling.) Thankfully at least there are a few good used bookstores are still around. Nothing quite compares to the hushed tones of a store that is filled with books in all its nooks and crannies! Some even come complete with basements in which you find a labyrinth of books that spill over the floors and chairs. Now if they only came with the same nice parking lots of the chain stores! Maybe Amazon will be the thing that saves the smaller used bookstores giving them the ability to sell books at all hours or the day to people from all over – no parking validation required.

I find it amusing that my husband has threatened an ‘intervention’ on my music addiction but not my book addiction which is many times worse!

Maybe ‘someone’ will have to scout out all those stores and give us some reviews . . . you should always familiarize yourself with the town you live in - right?

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Egad! I almost lost you, Eva. No time to read your thread now, but I don't want you to get away! Have a wonderful 2012.

@108 once there was a company called Abebooks that second hand bookshops connected to that you could order second hand books from which was separate to Amazon until Amazon gobbled it up just like it gobbled up Book Depository. I'm guessing though that many 2nd hand bookshops have an online presence?

People in the industry tell me that both publishers and therefore authors earn less from books sold on Amazon or Waterstones than from independent bookshops which is why you should find your nearest independent and buy all your books there

I guess it's kind of like when the supermarkets put grocers, butchers etc out of business....

>110 psutto: - OK new resolution for 2012 only buy new books from local independent bookstores. I will also endeavor to buy a few more new books, my book habit is mainly for used ones, it is so hard to resist those $.01 books (even with $3.99 shipping & handling) though I do have a few favorite vendors on Amazon and will spend more if it comes from them.

Oddly enough we met someone who has such a bookstore in Stillwater (complete with parking lot) at a party in the Hope Town one year. Just proving that just when you think that world is a big place it can be quite small.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I guess its a catch 22 as Amazon's marketplace probably encourages buying second-hand buying of books to those who might not bother. Still I prefer to go independent when I can. Actually I prefer to peruse second hand bookshops and soak up that lovely smell :)

@110 - Psutto, You are correct, some independent used bookstores do have an online prescence. The level they commit to that is quite varied, tho. Some have simply a website giving the basics of their business, location, policies, etc. Some go further. As a co-owner of an independent used bookstore, I'm happy to say we recognized the need to have an online presence. We not only sell through ABE books, but we also have our own website where we list our inventory and you can buy direct from us. I think it's very necessary to our business to take this route. Selling second hand books isn't ever going to make us rich, but we're doing something we enjoy. In talking with other used bookstore owners, I find they feel keeping up an online presence is to much work. I have to agree that it is a lot of work, but I think it's worth it. That being said, I'd never want to give up our "brick & mortar" store unless we just couldn't make it anymore. I love the constant contact with regular customers and get great enjoyment out of helping people find a book they couldn't find anywhere else! Kudos to all who still buy from their local independent. You're helping to keep local business alive!

-> 109
Hello Madeline! Great to see you here!

-> RE: Indie Bookstores
Some sort of online presence is a must nowadays I think. One of the most successful second-hand bookstore in my area (Bookman in Orange) is the leader simply because its owner happened to be a computer-geek who already had his inventory "in digital format" when the whole online shopping thing started. I do try to go brick & mortar as a first choice (the smell of second-hand is fantastic, isn't it?!), but it's just not possible all the time. :(

Hullo! First book of the year is finished! And, hullo!, it was a very enjoyable one at that!

Sorry, I've been watching old episodes of QI and in one episode they all make fun of Stephen Fry for using "hullo" as an expression of surprise (they taunt him quite a lot for being posh, if you haven't watched the show) and now I can't stop saying it. Hullo!



#1

The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney

Half-Romany PI Ray Lovell is hired to find a missing Romany girl and in doing so unearths quite a few of the family's secrets and gets a stunning reminder of the differences between Romany and "gorjio" life. This a really engaging story, almost exclusively because of the two voices; part of the story is told from Lovell's point of view and part from one of the family member's point of view and both are completely relatable and believable. The insight into British Romany life is probably new to most readers and although I can't be absolutely sure, from what I know the details ring true enough. Unfortunately for me, I guessed Ivo's (somewhat unlikely) secret halfway through the book, so once the first mystery is cleared up, I was left with merely flipping the pages. If you don't pick up on the clues, though, I imagine it's a riveting read right to the very end and these characters are definitely worth the effort regardless.

QI is great, though anything involving Stephen Fry often is. The XL versions of the program usually show more interplay between the panellists and are very watch-able if you get the chance.

Glad you enjoyed your first book of the challenge. I've read The Tenderness of Wolves by the author and liked it quite a lot so I'll have to see about picking this one up when it gets a full release.

First book down and looks like you enjoyed it. I have yet to read anything by Stef Penney and keep bumping into great comments about Tenderness of the Wolves here on LT.

Nice review of The Invisible Ones. Looked like a good book to start your 2012 challenge!

There aren't any "legit" ways of watching QI here, but I do have access to a few XL episodes - are they longer than the regular ones?

I too had heard good things about The Tenderness of Wolves and after reading this one, I'm very interested in reading more of Penney's writing, so it's definitely on the wishlist.

I'll have to read Stef Penney as well, good to see you kicking off the challenge with a good read.
I've seen QI a couple of times on tv but never really watched it, I'll have to track it down.

@Eva, There's about an extra 10 minutes or so of programme time usually more anecdotal or just general mickey taking which is always fun.

Very good!! I am really loving them and, of course(!), I can't just watch a couple of episodes, but have to binge on as many as I can fit in a day! :)

Hullo! Only one book so far this year? How's that? Don't tell me you're slacking. ;-)

Hullo!! I got sucked into watching QI instead, so I am indeed slacking on the reading. I'm up to series F now, so I should be back very soon. :)

I avoided reading your review of The Invisible Ones until I had finished reading it. I finished it this evening and went back to read your comments. I figured out where it was going about halfway through, too. I loved the characters, though, and was kind of sorry to reach the end of my time with them.

->125 cbl_tn:
I do wish I hadn't guessed it, but I definitely agree that the characters are worth the read, regardless of the "mystery" part.

Whew! Just read the entire thread, and I really enjoyed the discussion about physical books vs. virtual ones, and the second-hand shop one too! My library here on LT is sadly all too real, and my TBR lists (aside from my shelves) are either online through my local library or in my head. I stopped writing down most TBR books a few years ago when I started using LT/goodreads, and it's been a small but noticeable decline in the paper piles around me. Also, a lot of my TBR wishlist is posted on goodreads as "to be read" without a delineation between what I actually own and what I'd like to read some day. Hmmm, a project for a PJ Day perhaps?

At any rate, I'm glad you have a decent start to the year and I promise to follow you in a more timely fashion from now on! Hope you're having a good start to the weekend!

"a project for a PJ Day perhaps"

Or a PJ week? Or PJ month, perhaps? :)

Thanks - good to have you here! So far my weekend is very good. I managed to get all my errands done before noon on Saturday so now it's vegging on the schedule the rest of the weekend (hopefully!). :)

#2

When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick, Jr. M.D.

This is a fascinating and emotionally frank collection of stories taken from the author's professional life, from the humble beginnings of a Neurosurgery resident to the humbling culmination of a Neurosurgeon. I especially appreciate how he doesn't avoid those cases that had a less than great ending and that he recognizes how much you can learn from failure. Anyone with an interest in Neurosurgery should read this, not only because of Vertosick's talent as a story-teller, but because of his honesty when it comes to patients, his sense of humor regarding this very serious topic, and his seemingly unending passion for that lump in our head which is the brain.

#3

It Takes A Wizard by Thomas Hart and Sean Lam

This is a manga for people who enjoy Christian fiction and don't mind being smacked in the face with the message. I received this in a multi-trade on a trans-Atlantic flight and would not have read it at all had I not thought it was a "regular" fantasy tale. Unfortunately, there is no indication on the cover that it's an overt religious story, so it ended up in the hands of someone who didn't enjoy it at all. The art is somewhat interesting, but at times so busy that it's difficult to keep track of what is actually happening. Highly not recommended.

@129 sounds fascinating and @130 sounds like a bad nightmare!

@130 Book sounds awful, but I get curious: What's a multi-trade on a trans-Atlantic flight? Passegers sponaneously swapping books?

@132: Yeah, been wondering about that multi-trade thingy as well. ;-)

->131 clfisha:
Absolutely - the very definition of antipodes! :)

->132 GingerbreadMan: & 133
That's exactly it! Admittedly, I'm normally the one who starts "the chain" and get a few odd looks when I offer to trade with anyone who's done with their reading, but it works surprisingly often, especially on the 10+ hours flights.

Off Mt. TBR to join in the January TIOLI and unfortunately not too exciting, so it'll be going to a new home.



#4

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

A series of mystery stories about Mma Ramotswe who starts her own detective agency in Gaborone, Botswana. She mentions wanting to be like Solomon and the mysteries she ends up solving are of that ilk, rather than of a more gruesome or dangerous nature. It could have been an exciting collection of tales if the stakes had been higher and there had been an emotional connection with the victims, but unfortunately it ends up being rather dull. I did enjoy the beautiful descriptions of the landscape and life on the border of the Kalahari, but there just aren't enough of them.

Uh oh, No. 1 Ladies was among my haul of 4 last week, this series has been on my radar so long. Maybe it will stay on Mt TBR for longer than I'd intended.

I'm glad you posted a review of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I'd been curious about the Mma Ramotswe series, as I've been enjoying another mysteries series (inspector Kubu series by Michael Stanley) also set in Botswana. You might like those books. They are supposedly somewhat darker, and I find the plots sufficiently complex to hold my interest.

Oh goody! I get to visit Eva's thread and leave without incurring any book bullets during my visit..... I know that isn't going to last. ;-0

Some of us love the quiet pace and dignity of Mma and her friends. I just pre-ordered the 13th of the series. You might also try to find the videos of the HBO series they did a year or so back. They did a fabulous job and filmed in Botswana.

I'm not surprised at all that it's a popular series - it has a very feel-good vibe to it, but it just didn't work for me (I like my mysteries a bit more blood-curdling!). Great nature descriptions, though, which I very much enjoyed. I'll definitely look into that Inspector Kubu series - I read Kwei Quartey's Wife of the Gods a couple of years ago and got very intrigued by the mix of mystery and African vistas and culture.

You're welcome, Lori!! :)

I've read the first in the Mma Ramotswe series and quite liked it but never felt the need to read more of them either. Another African based series is Robert Wilson's Bruce Medway, a set of 4 based in West Africa. I've read all his other books, loved his 4 Javier Falcón books set in Seville. His most well known book is A small death in Lisbon. Wilson's books are dark and delve into the country's murky past. I haven't got round to reading the Medway books yet, I have a couple on my tbr pile.

@Eva, I'm right with you on that one. While I'm sure there are lots of people that love the series I doubt it will fit the bill for me either.

I have 44, Scotland Street on Mt. TBR and I'm hoping that his writing that type of literature is more fitting to my tastes.

Putting Instruments of Darkness on the wishlist!!

->142 AHS-Wolfy:
I'd skip it if I were you since you too prefer something with higher stakes and less cozy.

ETA: You can also skip the one below, I think. :)

My mum, who is a great lover of Pride and Prejudice but not a mystery-aficionado, asked me to read this to see if it was any good as far as the mystery part was concerned.



#5

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

A murder mystery/courtroom drama, set mainly at Pemberley with the characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as the cast. It's not the most riveting of murder-tales, mainly because the Austen-style writing is at the absolute forefront and the mystery part gets to take a back seat. As an exercise, it's quite successful; I did feel that James had captured the age and style quite aptly and that the characters sounded true compared with their appearance in the original text. As a mystery, though, I'm not sure it works as well. Part of the problem is that so much text is spent explaining the back-story and the characters for those readers who have not read Pride and Prejudice. Also, there are a lot of explanations of 18th/19th century British society and law "quirks" and those are usually put in the mouth of one of the characters explaining it to another character, when that character would in reality already know about it. However, the end result is a fairly entertaining spin on Pride and Prejudice that I would recommend to those who are willing to suspend their belief and who have a special place in their heart for Austen.

Hummm... I am not an Austen fan and not always drawn towards courtroom drams either so with to strikes against it I think I will call a pass on this one!

That's another good review and I will probably end up reading it but not for a long long time. This year I'm just going to be rereading a few of Austen's books.

->146 lkernagh:
The entertaining bits come from the well-known characters, so for non-Austenites there is really no reason to bother.

->147 avatiakh:
Bring on holiday and leave at the hotel/on the plane when done, I'd say. :)

@Eva, I think you're right, no book bullet for me this time. While I would be interested to read some of P.D. James' other work I doubt that this will ever be one I get to.

Eva, I was a bit disappointed in Death Comes to Pemberley. I agree that P. D. James pulled off the period language fairly well, but I don't think it really succeeded as a mystery OR as an Austen spinoff.

->150 christina_reads:
Such a shame, right?! I thought it was decent as far as the style of Austen is concerned (although Austen was obviously a heck of a lot funnier since she was writing satire, not mystery), but the mashup didn't quite work. It would have been wonderful if it had!

Stopping by to say hi!

->152 SqueakyChu:
Always good to see you around!! :)

These books were all the rage a few years ago, but I never got around to reading them even though I am a fan of Nick Bantock's art - he's done a fantastic pop-up version of Kubla Khan which is one of my favorite shelf-dwellers.



#6

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock

Postcard artist Griffin gets a card from mysterious Sabine who somehow can view his world from thousands of miles away, and the two strike up a rather unusual correspondence. This is an inventive and aesthetically interesting epistolary story that has an unexpected spin at the end, resulting in more questions than answers. I was mainly impressed with the art, but the ending was surprisingly dark and intrigued me enough to continue reading the trilogy although I would have liked a more fleshed-out story. Opening the envelopes to read the continuing story was much more satisfactory than I would ever have thought even though (or maybe because) it felt slightly illicit to read someone else's mail.

#7

Sabine's Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues by Nick Bantock

In the second book of the trilogy, Sabine goes to London to see Griffin, but cold feet drives him on a world tour and their correspondence continues. Interesting little hints as to why the pair are having trouble meetings, and although I would want a juicier story, I did enjoy that nothing is completely explained - the mystery keeps the story intriguing.

#8

The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes by Nick Bantock

The third part of the trilogy brings Sabine in danger from a stranger who has come to experiment on her and Griffin's link and the two conspire to escape together. This is the "conclusion" to the Griffin and Sabine story, which turns out to be as elusive as the rest of the story. The art is darker and, in my opinion even better in this installment, but I still wish that the overall story were a little more substantial.

Hi Eva, love you review of the Bantock books! I keep looking at them - or whichever one is readily available - when browsing my usual book haunts. One of these days I will read them .... I am pretty sure I have seen them listed in my local library's catalogue, but I have been wrong before!

I have never heard of Nick Bantock, he sounds very intriguing. Would you recommend this a good place to start?

What claire said! :)

What Claire and Anders said!

What Claire and Anders and psu.... Oh, wait, that's not right. :)

My favorite of his is the Kubla Khan pop-up, but that's mainly because it's my all-time favorite poem. The Griffin & Sabine-books are his "break-though" books and they would be an excellent place to start. My only gripe is that they are so short (48 pages each) and the story has such potential that I would want it to be longer, but they are first and foremost "pop-up" (sort of anyway) art projects and as such are absolutely beautiful, so it's not a legit gripe.

Ah, yes, the beginning of another series... Although it's good, I'll try not to go completely bonkers this time. :)



#9

Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman

In the first book in the Decker/Lazarus-series, a woman is raped on her way home from the mikveh and Detective Peter Decker teams up with the witness, Rina Lazarus, to find the assailant. As far as the mystery-part is concerned, this is business-as-usual; the stakes are high and the characters interesting. Where this story really stands out, though, is in the locale - it takes place on the grounds of a Yeshiva and the main characters are Orthodox Jews, which is a world that is probably unfamiliar to most readers. Kellerman does a great job explaining the various religious and cultural concepts, but some of the lines (in transliterated Yiddish and Hebrew) are left untranslated so that we can emphasize with the bemused Detective. All in all, a very decent beginning of a potentially very decent series.

Eva 9 books to date....good going. Bit remiss as I haven't been over here as much as I would like.

@160 I just read the second in the Decker/Lazarus series and it was much darker. That said, I enjoyed it better than The Ritual Bath. It is too easy to get hooked on new series around here!

->161 PaulCranswick:
I try to get books out of the bins (see #47) to read first and I may subconsciously go for the thinnest ones... :)

->162 VictoriaPL:
It did seem like it has a lot of potential - I don't mind darker, so I'm looking forward to continuing the series. The plan is to match it with TIOLI, so I'll read part 2 in February. I can get very sucked into a series and just devour the whole thing, so I'm trying to learn how to pace myself. :)

I'm finally all caught up with you Eva!

The Decker/Lazarus series sounds intriguing. I'm willing to bet there aren't that many mystery series out there that feature Orthodox jews as the main characters!

I did wonder how that environment would work in a mystery novel, but it was really interesting. I do know quite a lot about the concepts discussed, but I don't have any doubts that someone unfamiliar with Jewish practices will be confused since Kellerman makes an effort to explain everything. Hope the rest turns out good as well!

@163
I also count on using the Decker/Lazarus series for the TIOLI challenge. I'll be reading Milk and Honey for March.

Very good - we'll be tandem-reading then!! A friend gave me her entire stack when she moved, so I have the first 16!! I sincerely hope they're all good. :)

Ah, so I finally found your 2012 Challenge page. It's a great approach to chopping down bits of the TBR pile. Quite the challenge indeed. :)

I read the first Griffin & Sabine book years ago and I loved the format of the book, how it felt like looking at someone's private correspondence. I've been meaning to read the follow up books, but never got around to it. Though I do have either the second or third book at home (I don't know which).

The biggest part of the challenge is to not get lured into reading new stuff that the lovely 12-in-12 people are recommending! :)

It was strangely appealing to open those envelopes to read "someone else's" mail - a bit naughty, even. :)

@167 I hope so too! :)

My "not getting lured" failure is a big reason my TBR never shrinks, but only grows.

Never heard of Decker/Lazarus.... but now need to resist their lure. ;-)

A series is always murder on Mt. TBR, especially if it's been going for a while. :)

I used to read the Faye Kellerman series, I think I got up to the 7th, and then I took a break. I don't know why I never got back to them, I think it was about that time that I discovered British Crime Series and got distracted. I thought it was a very well written and thought-out series, and I should make more of an effort to get back to it.

I do tend to gravitate towards British Crime as well, but this one takes place in Los Angeles which is my adopted home so that makes it a little extra appealing to me. To not get tired of the series, I'm thinking doing a book a month (in step with TIOLI) might be better than my usual binge.

A book a month is a good pace for a series. Unfortunately I am involved in so many that I am lucky to get to read one a year. My own doing, of course, I can't seem to resist the lure of a new series.

LOL - I seem always to vow to not start another series until I've finished the ones I already have going, but we all know how that works. Or, rather, doesn't work. :)

#10

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Quirky members of a family of private investigators work together and against each other on various cases as the mood strikes. Whenever you pick up a book that has been described in the press as "uproariously funny," you should probably begin reading with very low expectations. This is Lutz's debut novel and it's not entirely bad, but the humor is quite contrived and the characters too much caricature. The story does pick up in the second half when the stakes get a higher, but there are still a few twists that are just too unbelievable to be really funny. Hopefully, for the next book in the series, Lutz will stop trying to be funny and concentrate more on the plot and making her characters more plausible.

Eva, I've been eyeing up this book on my shelves lately, wondering whether I should read it or just get rid of it. I can't decide after your review, but I suspect that if I do read it, I'll have a really similar reaction. At least it's one that you can let go of fairly easily? Hope your next read is a great one, totally outstanding, best book of your life. :)

I found the first 4 books in the Spellman-series at the Friend of the Library bookstore, so I will try one more in the series. If that's a bust as well, they'll all have to go. At least I only paid $4 for the lot. :)

Eva, this is great for me, you get to try all these crime series and I'll just sit back and take note of which ones a worth going for. I have the first Spellman book, but will wait for your remarks on book 2.
I did read a Karen Fossim book this week and will read more, but I want to try something by Denise Mina next. You read her books last year?

Too bad. The Spellman sounds like a good premise, but badly executed. Humor backfires frequently. I hate it when it seems like the author is working too hard to be funny.

>182 cammykitty: I agree. An "ordinary" book written by a writer with a sense of humor will almost always be funnier than a "funny" book. There aren't that many Pratchetts or Adamses in the world.

I'm always wary of books that describe themselves in any way as being overtly funny. I'll still buy them and read them, but I don't ever expect the deep belly laugh you expect to get from genuine laughter (I very rarely laugh out loud while reading). But I do often crack a smile in amusement, so if I can get that, then a humor book works for me.

Always good with anti-bookbullets, right?! :) Funny is so, so difficult to get right, especially since everyone reacts differently to it, but when I feel that something is written to be quirky/funny for the sake of being quirky/funny I can't help but to baulk.

->181 avatiakh:
Yes, I did read Mina last year. Absolutely loved her sense of place and time, but never liked her characters. Definitely worth a try, though!

@Eva, hopefully the series will pick up for you. I remember seeing a review for one of the later books that sparked an interest for me so I think there's hope. I never actually got around to grabbing a copy so will be looking to see how it goes for you.

I'm hoping the author was trying a little too hard for the first one and that she settles into the writing for the others. I do like quirky characters a lot, but I don't want them to be QUIRKY!!!

Now, here's quirky done right! :)



#11

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill

After the Communist takeover of Laos in 1975, instead of getting to retire, Doctor Siri Paiboun is conscripted to become the country's chief medical examiner. Although the story has a lot of problems as far as the mystery is concerned (Siri is given clues via supernatural visions!) and the conspiracy plots get a little confusing at the end, this is still a very engaging read. The place and time is perfectly described and it's really entertaining to read about the mayhem which ensues when a new government has taken over, most of whose members have no idea of what they're supposed to be doing, why, or how. Some of the characters are a little caricature, but Siri and his staff are so incredibly charming and funny you cannot help but to like and care about them. From what I understand, the rest of the series also features the mystic visions which is a little disappointing, but since Siri himself questions them for being scientifically implausible, I'll go along - I do like the characters and setting enough.

January Summary:

Number of books: 11
Pages: 2,715
Off TBR: 10
Given away: 11(!)
Books bought: 1(!!)
TIOLI books: 6

Best read of the month: When the Air Hits Your Brain got 5 stars
Worst read of the month: It Takes A Wizard got 1 stars
(I absolutely do not expect the distinction to be this easy to make in any following month!)

Í really enjoyed The Coroner's Lunch as well Eva. It has such a mix of themes that it could very easily have gone wrong, but Cotterill somehow made it work.

The characters and the setting really is what made it, I thought. Did you manage to get to any others in the series?

I received one of Cotterill's books through the ER program, Killed at the Whim of a Hat and I enjoyed his characters and description of the setting in Thailand. I must look for this series at the library.

I didn't even notice he had written outside the Siri-story, but one of my brothers is currently living in Thailand, so I'm definitely putting Killed at the Whim of a Hat on the wishlist!

That's a great review of The Coroner's Lunch, I'll have to keep my eyes open for that one.

Nice little monthly recap. And yay for a minus ten ratio!!!

I'm so envious - you're reducing your TBR. Good job!

Thanks! I'm keeping a separate list of this year's bookbullets and try to pretend they didn't happen. :)

Ah, I remember requesting Killed at the Whim of the Hat. I think I'll accept this book bullet - but ummm, someday I'm going to have to pare down the wishlist!

>191 -Eva-: The setting and the history were a huge part of why I enjoyed it so much. I haven't got to the next in the series yet, but I plan to read some more of Cotterill's books this year.

->198 cammykitty:
Good luck with that. :) Since I'm really doing my best to read as much as possible off of Mt. TBR this year, the wishlist is growing exponentially!! It'll topple over soon. :)

->199 SouthernKiwi:
I liked the whole mood of it as well - hope that it keeps up!

#12

Sacred and Profane by Faye Kellerman

In the second book in the series, Decker has been lent to Homicide and is investigating a gruesome torture murder, so the dichotomy between his life as a police officer and a Torah student (and, by extension, a possible future with Rina) is coming to a head. As the title suggests, along with a really nauseating crime, the main thrust of this installment is Decker's problems with merging a "normal" police life with the somewhat secluded religious life that Rina and her boys live. I'm familiar with the Jewish terms being discussed in this book, but I wonder if most people are and, if they are not, if they will follow in the discussions on that topic. The mystery part is absolutely worth the read, especially if you like your mysteries well creepy, but an interest in the Jewish aspects of the story is needed as well.

Well, I officially have my first Did Not Finish in this challenge. I was hoping that Curse of the Spellmans would turn out better than part one in the series, but after forcing my way through half the book I realized that it was so much worse. Not only were the characters even ¡¡QUIRKIER!!, but the plot was missing entirely. Loads of people seem to love the humor so if you do then this may be a fantastic series, but my set is going on Bookmooch!

I'm starting Thirty-Three Teeth instead and hope that Doctor Siri is his usual charming self. :)

I'm casting aside any thought of reading the Spellmans but you have me intrigued by the Jewish aspects of the Kellerman, so I'm adding her series to my tbr.

Congrats on your first unfinished Eva! Means you've made room for a novel you'll enjoy more. ;-)

Well darn on the Spellmans. I love quirky but there has to be a plot that goes along with the quirky characters or there is just no point to the book!

->203 avatiakh:
Yeah, skip Spellmans unless you love slapstick without a point, which I don't think you do. :) The Kellerman has a really interesting juxtapositioning of the Orthodox world and the "regular" world of the police - the whole making-the-everyday-holy is taken for a bit of a spin.

->204 Smiler69:
Love the silver lining! :)

->205 lkernagh:
I really wanted it to be good too - lots of the reviews for it says how hilarious it is. :(

Ah, but did you throw it against the wall? A book isn't truly horrible until it has bits of drywall dust in the pages. :)

Congrats. It's hard for me to abandon books, even when they really deserve it. I have one I keep putting back on my shelf for when "I'm in a better mood."

It's hard for me to abandon books too, even when I know there's not much point in reading further. Bookmooch seems like a good place for the set. I've been able to get rid of stuff there that I feared no one would ever want. One person's trash ..., as they say.

It is very hard to abandon books - we all want to have good reads, after all!

->207 cammykitty:
LOL! No, all I did was glare at it every time I wanted to read and then turn on Netflix instead. :)

->208 mathgirl40:
Loads of people seem to have loved them so I'm sure they'll go fast and to a much better home than mine.

It took me a while to get comfortable with the idea that my time was valuable and didn't need to be wasted on a book I didn't like. It's still hard to stop sometimes.

A book and a bit is more than a fair crack of the whip. Sometimes you just have to say enough is enough.

#13

Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill

Dr. Siri Paiboun, the “Super Spirit Doc,” is sent to ascertain the identity of a couple of charred bodies at the same time as he and his team have to contend with the horrific maulings by what could be a "weretiger," the repercussions of the departure of the deposed king's spirits, and the Government attempting to impose state regulations on the spirit world. Although not quite as engaging as the first book in the series, mainly because there are a few too many things going on, Dr. Siri and his coworkers are still very charming and funny, the mysteries intriguing enough, and the spirit world contributing with some madness, which makes for a very exciting read. If you're reading this purely for mystery the supernatural parts can get a little overwhelming, but they don't detract too much once you're prepared that they'll be part of the solution.

#14

Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs

Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan gets to aid in the beatification process of a Canadian nun as well as tying together the loose ends of a multitude of murders that may or may not be connected to an apocalyptic cult. Since the author is a forensic anthropologist in real life, there is a fantastic amount of scientific information woven in with the mystery part of the story and for anyone interested in forensics, which I am, this is an absolute gem that shouldn't be missed. In the previous book in the series, Tempe managed to get herself into trouble by making stupid mistakes, which is a personal peeve of mine in mysteries (what I call "Sookie Stackhouse Syndrome"), but there's none of that in this installment so I'm very pleased about that - the baddies really are as dangerous as they should be to make the stakes very high. The one thing that irked me is that Tempe talks about how she grew up listening to Irish folkmusic and then makes comments that make it evident she may never have heard even one song, but it's rather a small gripe and only annoying because it's something that is so easy to look up. So, if you're prepared to have oversight with an amazing amount of coincidences, this is quite a good read with a lot of interesting bone information.

I've had a bit of a reading slump, so went for a couple of YA novels to get me over the proverbial hump.



#15

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

14-year-old Georgia Nicolson's diary is filled with boy talk, clothing choices, disastrous haircuts, annoying parents, and a savage wildcat called Angus whose big dream in life is to eat the neighbor's Poodle. I expected a rather silly YA novel about a whiny teenager's life, but this is surprisingly cute and Georgia is so much funnier than anyone else I've read in a while - she's like a young Bridget Jones (sans the alcohol, obviously).

#16

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Claudia Kincaid decides to run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her little brother Jamie in order to have an adventure and return home a different person. Quite a charming story which manages to talk about art and history while still providing a decent plot and likeable characters. I probably should have read this when I was a kid, so it didn't blow my mind, but it was definitely a fun enough read to be worth the while.

I'm not having a great reading-month for some reason, but this weekend was one of my favorites as the annual Scottish Festival at the Queen Mary was going full speed ahead and instead of books, I devoured huge amounts of haggis, neeps and tatties. Good times!!

Thirty-Three Teeth sounds like it would be right up my alley. Will have to check out the first book in the series.

And the photos from the annual Scottish Festival are awesome. I love the t-shirt!
(As my dad is fond of saying -- in his badly imitated Scottish accent -- "If it ain't Scottish, it's crrrrap!")

I'm glad to know that Dr. Brennan acts more sensibly in book 2 of the series. I read the first book a few years ago and I've been reluctant to continue with the series because of all the stupid things she did in that book. Maybe I'll give her another chance.

Glad to hear you liked Death du Jour. This has been sitting on my book shelf for a while and I hope to get to it soon. Love the photos of the Scottish festival!

Yes, Tempe did shape up for this installment - be prepared for a bit of a stretch when it comes to coincidences, though. I'm liking this series for the forensics, so I'm a bit forgiving. :)

"If it ain't Scottish, it's crrrrap!"
Those t-shirts were everywhere as well!! :) Great festival!

I'm a fan of the Tempe Brennan series (and TV's Bones even more), and have read the lot. But after 14 books I think Reichs is going to have to change something up soon, or I'm going to lose interest.

Heh love the photos

Great photos of the Scottish Festival!

I haven't seen the TV series yet, but it is in my Netflix queue, so maybe once I'm done with the books. I do enjoy the bone bits (no pun intended), so if the mystery part is OK, then I'll probably keep reading.

The Americans go bonkers over heritage, regardless how long ago their ancestors came over here, so the Scottish Festival is always fun for over-the-top celebrations. And, spawns some great photo-ops. :)

Wow! The Bones TV show is based off a book series? I had no idea. I mean, I guess I'm not surprised, I just had NO idea.

LOL, yes @224 the Americans go bunkers. I have an Irish Water Spaniel and take him to Irish Fair every year where I sport green even though I suspect my Irish ancestors were actually protestant. Shhh, don't tell anyone!

And as for Death du Jour, I was thinking I needed to get a copy of a friend for mine who did her Masters with a forensic anthropologist as an advisor. When I got to this comment though The one thing that irked me is that Tempe talks about how she grew up listening to Irish folkmusic and then makes comments that make it evident she may never have heard even one song, I knew it wouldn't fly. That would be a fatal flaw for her!

Forgive me, but all this Scottish stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVFJ2kb62c

Check out this slightly rude Utilikilt commercial.

LOL - it always cracks me up when I go to Swedish Heritage events here in the US and people know about obscure Swedish traditions that us native-borns have never even heard of. It's a lot of fun though and I absolutely love how Americans just go so head-over-heels into whatever it is they're doing.

If it would irk her that Tempe refers to a certain song as "Whiskey in a Jug" and doesn't know how many claps are in "Wild Rover" (things you hardly have to be Irish for!!), then she should probably just skip that whole part. :)

That video is hilarious!! And, it uses the saying Andrea's dad uses! :)

Hi Eva,

I'm now reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. I'm not much of a murder mystery reader, but my husband loved the Millennium trilogy and so many other people recommended this book that I grabbed my daughter's copy. Of course, right away, I thought of the only Swede I know -- you! :)

Have you read this book? If so, what were your thoughts about it?

Beginning with a caveat: I read it in Swedish and I've heard that the English translation is a bit iffy.

After the first 50 pages (which are rather uninteresting), it's really a full-speed-ahead thriller. There are quite a few things to be annoyed at, but I'd suggest just suspending belief and read it for plot.

I am biased though, because in Sweden, Larsson is was mainly known for his work researching and documenting Neo-Nazi and extreme right-wing groups and I was very appreciative of him and his work before I knew he wrote fiction.

Beware of some very, very gruesome scenes, though!

I have the second book scheduled for my vacation next week and am looking forward to continuing the series. I probably will not, however, see the first movie either with subtitles or in English.

There are a few scenes in the movie that I could have done without. :) Just a heads-up that the second and third books are part of the same story-arc and the third picks up exactly where the second left off.

> 230

Beware of some very, very gruesome scenes, though!

I've already been warned about that and decided to give it a go anyway. I'm into the book about 100 pages already, making notes so I don't forget who's who in the cast of characters. :)

Having read the trilogy already, I decided I didn't need to see the movie. There's some types of scenes that I can tolerate in a book (it's called skimming!) that I couldn't tolerate in a movie. I am interested to learn that the English translation is a bit iffy. One of the major complaints I've heard about the book is that the writing is amateurish. I shrugged that off as the writing of a first-time-novelist. Perhaps it's the translation.

But I AM surprised that the book got quite as much publicity as it did. My reason for liking it was the description of the social justice system. The mystery part of the book was page-turning, but not brilliant as far as I was concerned. But I know the entire world disagrees with me on that!

>234 The_Hibernator: I wouldn't say the writing is that excellent in Swedish either, so my guess is it isn't just the translation. A few years back there was some speculation as to whether Larsson had actually written the books by himself, or if the co-wrote them with his partner. To which a friend of mine tiredly replied he'd have found the debate more interesting if the books were even remotely well-written.

Agreed, it's not a piece of literary genius in the original either, but I've read other translations the same translator has done and been frustrated that some idioms were translated word-for-word. If you don't understand a saying, you can always ask someone! :) I have read other things Larsson wrote and I think the writing sounds like him. Definitely it's possible she had some input, but the uber-detailed parts sounds like Larsson the Journalist to me. It's a great page-turner in my book (pun intended...). :)

Oh, I agree. I liked all three books - but not for the style, exactly. Vey unputdownable stuff.

I concur. The series was definitely a page-turner and I enjoyed it very much, but like Rachel, I found it hard to stomach the violence and have no inclination to see the movies. I also had trouble keeping track of all the names, which I suspect would be much easier for you Swedes. :)

That's a funny thing when you read a book originally in a language very unlike your own. I often tend to register the names graphically then, by how they look as text. Which is a curious thing when I try to talk to someone about the book and realise I have no idea what people are actually called. Not just that I don't know how to pronounce their names properly - but that I couldn't spell them out either. They're all "That girl with a short name beginning with an F" and "The guy with an X in his name" to me.

Anders, that's how I read foreign books too. I have particular trouble remembering who's who with books set in Asia when the names tend to be quite short and repeat a lot of the same letters.

I remember it took me a bit longer than usual to get everyone straight with the Millenium Trilogy but they're so complex and twisty you can't put them down, I was always wondering what was next.

I found Wolf Hall tricky at times since several people had the same name - and that was in English!

I think Madeline's (SqueakyChu) modus operandi with any book she reads is to make flashcard for the characters - not a bad idea, especially for those with foreign names or a large number of characters. Or when you read Russian novels where each person is mentioned using at least three different names. :)

I totally agree about Russian names! I struggled through the beginning of War and Peace until I figured out that several different names often referred to the same person. I had the opposite problem with the Millenium trilogy, where different people had similar looking names.

Well, that's a total 6 books for the whole month, but at least I went out with a bang. :)



#17

The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan

It's the 1960's (some time after the 1958 Munich air disaster) in a small Welsh village and 12-year-old Gwenni Morgan dreams of being a detective and tries to remember how to fly, which she can now only do at night. The ability to fly may be a family talent but nobody wants to acknowledge it, and soon Gwenni's attention is diverted when a neighbor is found murdered and she is finally allowed to practice her detection skills. Strachan's story has such a fantastic sense of place and time, coupled with secretive characters, beautiful symbolism, and fantastical events, that I'm completely infatuated with the story. That the dénouement then is Gwenni's epiphany and personal growth rather than simple justice makes the tale so much more poignant and powerful than any regular ending would and it is to Strachan's credit that Gwenni's catharsis is actually palpable. I would recommend this enigmatic story to absolutely anybody.

February Summary:

Number of books: 6
Pages: 1,721
Off TBR: 6
Given away: 6
Books bought: 1
TIOLI books: 3

Best read of the month: The Earth Hums in B Flat was nothing short of mesmerizing.
Least good read of the month: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was good, but I probably would have liked it better had I read it when I was a kid.

I really enjoyed The Earth Hums in B Flat when I read it..... glad to see it was a good read for you as well!

I also thought The earth hums in B flat was a great read - one of the best in 2010 for me!

Sigh another book to add to my wishlist

Too many people who's opinions I respect have sung the praises of that book for me to ignore any longer. Adding to the wishlist also.

Wow. The Earth Hums in B Flat sounds really wonderful. If you don't stop it with these book bullets I'm going to be buried under a mountain of pages. ;)

It's all payback, people, it's all payback. And it feels goood. :)

Another book that needs a gentle push closer to the top of the pile!

#18

Milk and Honey by Faye Kellerman

Decker finds an abandoned child who is covered in blood and bee stings and is pulled into a multiple murder case at the same time as his old army buddy needs help, but the friend also brings with him painful memories from Vietnam which complicates not only the case, but Decker's home life. Apart from Decker's new(?) "little woman-"attitude towards Rina and the Hicksville description of the Valley, this is a really solid mystery, gruesome as they come, with Decker's Jewish studies as an added angle. I'm enjoying this series quite a lot with its evolving characters and nice description of locale - it's one I'm familiar with, so that make it even more fun to read. If you're ever in LA, I do recommend Decker's restaurant choice for lunch, Pico Kosher Deli (their Hot Pastrami sandwich is fantastic and their coleslaw is made in heaven for sure!).

Earth Hums in B Flat is going on my wishlist too. The title is great and your review makes it sound really interesting.

For my fellow Miéville-fans, here is a link to Miéville's "London's Overthrow" photoessay.

Thanks for providing the link Eva...... very interesting photoessay!

Hi Eva, thanks for posting the link.

Great link! Thanks :)

Time to try out this new nifty thread continuation function - see you there!! :)

> 242

I think Madeline's (SqueakyChu) modus operandi with any book she reads is to make flashcard for the characters

Eva, I gave up with that idea with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. In that book, I had filled two sides of two index cards (!) with character names (and one-line explanations of who they were) due to my bad memory. (That's why I rarely read mystery novels. I forget all the clues!) By that time, I gave up on the index cards as I figured the murderer had to be a family member anyway since there were so many of them that a family tree had been diagrammed at the beginning of the book. (No spoilers here!)

I've recently been reading some 19th century literature (thanks to help from lyzard) and had been confused by different male characters in those books being called by similar names, as well as the same men also being called by different names within the same book. I used my index card idea with Emma by Jane Austen. That aid helped me very much since I could refer back to the card each time I wasn't sure who was who. I only needed one index card for that book, though. :)

For you to note: Index cards make good bookmarks. :D

> 244

I, too, found The Earth Hums in B Flat a delightful read.

" I forget all the clues!"
Well, if you end up with as many cards as the book has pages, I'm thinking it's not worth it. LOL!