January EXPLODING BOMBS Progress report

We've all signed up because we felt we needed to read the books that were sitting on our shelves unloved and unread. Well, 2012 is right around the corner and I would like to see us all band together again to encourage each other to read those TBRs that, in my instance, grew because I acquired 111 new books but only read 65. (I'm apparently not making any headway since I'm gingerly inching through a minefield while the enemy continues to plant more mines mile after mile ahead of me.)

Let's see the new Tickers mushroom out to enormous proportions so that we can make a dent in the enemy of UNREAD BOOKS!

So, I'm setting up these tickers (password BOMBS) that everyone can add their goal to and then we can have a comprehensive goal for all of us. Wouldn't it be great if we could together read 1000 books, 1500 books, maybe even 2500 books that have been sitting on our shelves too long? IN 2011 WE READ NEARLY 1900 BOOKS OFF OUR OWN SHELVES! That's awesome! But can't we do better?






ENLISTMENTS

alphaorder 30
alxa 64
amz310783 60
AngelWitch 35
AnnieMod 50
arrwa 5
auntmarge 50
BBleil 25
benitastrnad 24
booksloth 50
bragan 100
brewergirl 30
bucketyell 50
cait86 40
carmenere 32
cataluna 50
Conachair 50
clue 25
connie53 18
cyderry 80
deep220 70
deltaqueen 110
detailmuse 40
doglover58 26
duaney_h 20
dudes22 70
Ephemeralda 40
FAMeulstee 40
fjumonvi 25
fundvogel 10
helenbaker 50
helenoel 25
hemlokgang 30
h-mb 30
jonesli 120
kac522 25
karenmarie 25
kdogey 75
kerryth 40
LA12Hernandez, 50
laura_88 20
laurabrook 100
lindapanzo 125
majkia 30
mandymere 250
melonbrawl 50
meredy 49
mrsrochester 75
paeonia 24
pigletto 40
rabbitprincess 45
ramblingivy 10
readingwithtea 25
riverwillow 100
robertgreaves 35
rcketjk 21
sarahbradshaw 30
seasons of love 60
shearon 20
sjmccreary 10
squeakychu 20
staffordcastle 35
streamsong 30
sturlington 20
tallulahrose 20
thorold 60
tloeffler 50
torontoc 30
tututhefirst 20
tymos 53
xenaballerina 50

I'm in for the new challenge.

I'm in, too. Aiming for 125 books off the shelf again in 2012.

I love this, and of course I am in!

This will be a combination of physical and Nook books. I've added my goal of 120 to the group total.

So you want us each to add our goal to the goal in the tickers in the first post?

OK, Cheli, I've added my goal of 53 to the 80 that you had on the first post tickers -- the first one worked for sure, not sure if it worked for the second ticker. I never did one of the percentage tickers.




I'm counting anything and everything I read that I own as BOMBS, regardless of when purchased, though I have a rule that at least two per month must be pre-2012 and/or ER books

I've added my goal of 110 books to the group ticker.

I've added my goal of 25 books to the group ticker.

Third time lucky...

I've added my goal to both tickers. I'm in for 60 in 2012

I added my 25 to the group goal on the main ticker.

Sign me up for another year.

Help! I ruined the ticker! Can anyone get it back? The number stood at 718, and I was trying to add 25.

ALL FIXED!

Thank you! I know what I did wrong and won't make the same mistake again. (Can't promise not to make new ones, though.)

I added mine (see post #3) to the ticker so we're now up to 868.

Let's keep it going.

I'm aiming for 45 and have added it to the first ticker, bringing the total up to 913. Someone else may have to do the percentages one though because I don't trust my luck. :P

I've added my 30 to the ticker.

I've added my 25 too.

OK, I've added my goal of 100 to the tickers. Which just put our collective goal up over 1000.

(At some point I still need to set up my own post, though.)

I've added 30 to the group ticker for me.

I've decided to try another 20.

I've added them to the ticker

50 books for me this year! I've added my goal to the ticker.




Total for January: 3/50

I'm in, thanks for letting me know, I'm new to LT and haven't figured too much out yet! I'll leave last year's group and start a new thread.

bad news... when I calculate the enlistments noted here in the thread, we're only at 943. So I've adjusted the ticker. We need more recruits!

Are you sure you got everyone, Cheli? I added and got 1043. I'll try adding again.

ETA to add I went down the thread and wrote down all names and their commitments, and when I added I got 1043 again.

you're right I missed one, OOPs!

OK, we cross posted with my edit. Good, we're set! (so far, anyway)

Ok I just added 75, I'm hoping to detonate over 100 but I figured I'd be realistic.

Oh crap I just ruined it! I'm so sorry, the number was at 1118!

Ok I fixed what I messed up and the ticker is back on track, now I just need to figure out how to make my own lol

Done.

You can put me down for 50, and I'll add a ticker later.

As to the group ticker - I can't get it to let me update it. It looks simple enough but doesn't accept the PIN, so perhaps someone can tell me where I'm going wrong or update it for me.

The pin is BOMBS. Make sure you type it in capitals. I've just tried it and it workes for me.

Here's my ticker:

I don't want to start my own thread, because I've found that I can't keep up with more than one thread of my own. However, this is a fun challenge so I'll add my ticker to this thread and periodically come back to update it. I think I'll go with 20 books, but mine will need to be books acquired before 2010. I certainly have enough of them. So...bombs away!




I added my 20 to the group ticker.

ETA: I'm a TBR wimp. I know!

Great, Madeline. Welcome to the war against unread books! We have a thread each month to show our joint progress, so just update your ticker and we'll take it from there.

here I am - I'm planning on 70 this year. I'm off to update the ticker now.

>35 Tallulah_Rose: Thanks so much! That works and I've added my 50.

I'm going for 40 books. I've updated the ticker.

I finished my first official book and I counted it off of my personal ticker, should I only count the books I finish after January 1st for the group ticker or should I update as I finish them?

this is for books read and finished in 2012.

I added my goal of 40 to the top ticker.

got it, I took it off of my ticker too- I'll think of it as a warm-up excercise ;)

There's a problem with the main ticker. Fifty bombs have been detonated, but 2012 has not yet begun.

Looks like someone added 50 to the wrong box on the ticker ( or they read really fast)

Y'all know, this is a pretty traumatic thread for those of us who live 7 miles away from an EOD (Electronic Ordinance Disposal) school and not much further from a test range where they set off bombs constantly. Our whole house shakes quite often. Our poor puppies.

Jean, maybe small detonations will protect you from the larger ones in the neighborhood. LOL :-)

My big concern with this thread is that, by the time I add books appropriately to my own BOMBS thread, to my thread on the 75 challenge, and to my thread on the 12 in 12 challenge, I'll forget about (or run out of time to update) the big group tickers at the top here. (My own ticker on the thread here is the same image URL as on my own thread, so that should update automatically when I do the one on my thread.)

I added 10 for me.

Edit: So it makes it easer to reconcile if I have a ticker? ok.

Cheli, I'll try to remember that. :)

And no doubt will give out a very un-ladylike snort every time I see a car that goes by with an EOD symbol on it. I will have my spouse wondering what the hell I'm up to. I love to make his life weird.

>48 majkia:: I don't know, I think I may have the opposite problem. I'm so used to window-rattling booms from the explosives range here that I barely pay them any attention, so I'm not sure how much the concept of books as bombs will motivate me. :)

#53 LOL. Don't you love it when you get company and forget to warn them and they freak out? I confess to getting a perverse sense of joy out of it. :)

I used to worry that it would freak out my mother, because she worries about the weirdest things, and I figured me being anywhere near explosions might qualify. But she lives near Edwards Air Force Base and is used to sonic booms, so she is actually quite blase about it.

I've added my goal of 30 to the ticker.

I have added my 40 to the ticker, have no ticker myself, but will keep track in oldfashionated way

I've just added my goal of 50.

I have a goal of 49, noted in my own thread, and have created a counter. I have no idea how to add to the group counter.

Thanks cyderry for the invite!

My goal is 50. No idea re the group counter as well - went on it, almost screwed it up. Going for coffee to clear the brain. If that doesn't work I'll look at it again later after an eggnog and brandy!

OHHH, eggnog and brandy...sounds yummy!

I'd like to add 26 unread books to the mix, but I'm afraid to touch the main ticker for fear I will make it explode :)

I will try to make a ticker for myself and see if I can get that far.

Thanks!

Okay hope this works

I've inserted the enlistments in the OP. Please let me know if I've made any mistakes or if changes need to be made.

I added my goal of 40 books to the tickers.

I added my 5 to the ticker

I am not sure how to add my 18 books to the ticker. (I tried but it went wrong)
And I don't know if Cyderri added the list, because my total is mentioned there.

I just no good with PC stuff

Connie you are taken care of!

I added my 30 to both tickers.

I'm in too.

I'm going to aim for ten, in the hope that I can dispose of many, many, more than that.

Could someone please add my ten to the ticker? Like some of the other posters, I'm afraid to touch it.

#70 I added your 10 to the ticker. We're just short of 2,000 books now.

Thanks, Linda.

Added my 64.

I've updated the enlistments, let me know if I missed someone,

Love your ticker Cait! I see we have quite a few books in common. Good luck with your goal.

Cheli, who updates the main ticker? Do we do that, or do you do that?

We can all update the ticker but the end of each month, I reconcile the total with the progress that each person says they made and move the ticker and listing to a new thread.

So if you don't want to touch the ticker that's okay, just come back at the end of January and let us all know how you did.

What I did was also post my ticker on my own thread of the 75 books challenge thread . In that way, I'll always remember to update it there at least. I hope that's okay. I think that should work out fine.

#78 Madeline, if you copy that same ticker here, it'll update automatically. For example, my ticker in msg 3 is the exact same one that I have in my thread. I ought to put it into my 75 thread, too.

All this posting about BOMBS has me worrying that one of the three nearby Air Force bases has had my still undelivered Book Depository SantaThing package blown up in fears of a BOMB.... Wouldn't be the first time books have been blown up here. Seriously. Well, they were, but I hope I'm joking about mine!

Okay, I've added my 50. I'll be resisting the urge to start a personal 'BOMBS' thread and ticker as well since I really need to cut back on time spent repeating the same old thing 100 times on LT but I'll be reporting back here and adjusting the totals as I go. Good luck everyone!

I added 20 to the group ticker, so we are up to 2094.

>75 HelenBaker: - Thanks Helen, good luck to you too!

>>80 majkia:--I also work in a place with bomb-sniffing dogs examining all shipments coming in and cars are routinely screened for traces of explosives.

Definitely gotta watch where I leave my BOMBs.

> 79

if you copy that same ticker here, it'll update automatically.

Linda, I'm already doing that. I guess I didn't explain myself well enough.

>68 cyderry:. Thanks for taking care of me ;-)

Okay, I've added my 50 to the top ticker (I hope). I haven't started my own ticker yet for 2012 (I don't want to jinx myself for 2011, which I'm still working on!). When I do, I'll add it here. I hope I'm right in understanding that I don't have to worry about the bottom one...

Everyone, if you have a ticker that's posted here, I'll use that to reconcile our monthly totals if you don't leave a specific month end message. But please be sure to check the totals on the next message and re-post your ticker just to make it easier to keep our numbers in sync.

I finally cleared all of this year's challenges (just in time) and set up my goal for 2012. I have added my 50 BOMBs to the ticker.

#89 wow you're aiming for 50 this year? Good luck!

# 90 well, 50 with slightly changes rules :-)

cyderry, you put a lot of work into this challenge! The group ticker confuses me so I'll continue to add to my own personal ticker in my thread and post my progress in the monthly threads for you.

Thanks for helping out those of us born without technical prowess ;)

I just added my goal to the ticker. Even though I reached my goal last year, I'll stick to a more reasonable goal of 250 this year.

>93 mandymarie20:, Mandymarie20, you're going to read 250 books in a year?

Not sure if I'm supposed to put this here or in the sign-up thread, so I'll repeat it here:

I have 54 books on the TBR shelf and 20 ebooks on various devices. I hope to be letting off 30 BOMBS and 5 eBOMBS in 2012. (not added to the ticker)

Add me in for 50 (as mentioned on my thread) and will someone add them to the ticker above for me? Thanks :)

I am feeling reasonably successful as I managed to read 46 of my 182 books on my shelf this year. that is roughly a quarter. HOWEVER... as my TBR books now stand at 229 and not 136, it would appear I have acquired 93 new books this year which is double what I read.
Oh dear, no wonder I need more bookshelves. Off to sort and make new resolutions! Happy New Year, only 4 hours to go here!

Almost 24 to go here but happy new year!

Like all of you, I have books on my shelves that I never seem to get to. I'll sign up for 30. Not nearly enough since my LT catalog shows I have at least 120 out there, but it will be a start.

I will start my own thread and also attempt to update the group ticker.

cyderry, when I made my new ticker for 2012, it seems to have substituted itself for my ticker for 2011. My official total for 2011 is 37 out of 25.

Thanks for all your work on this! And Happy New Year, to all!

It all starts today! My current read is If Walls Could Talk so that'll probably be number one on my list, though I need some fiction to read alongside it. This time of year is fabulous for the challenge because all my books count towards it - it's after my first shop that everything goes to hell.

>101 Booksloth:

Lucky you - I have books in the mail, expected in Tue. And knowing me - I will start them... and they won't count (anything that did not make it here before the end of the year is not TBR). Oh well. :)

>101 Booksloth: - It's true - the wealth of books at the beginning of the year can be overwhelming. I started with an ER book I got because I feel guilty if I don't get them out of the way, but my next book will be one I got last March that I've been waiting to read because I couldn't find a category for it in my 11 in 11 challenge. With the number of books in my TBR, I try to get categories that I only need my TBR to read from.

I'm in too! I hope to read at least half of my 75 book challenge from my tipping tower, so roughly 32. Good luck everyone. We can do this!!!

@102: I'm expecting books in the mail this week too! And one of them in particular I will definitely want to read sooner rather than later. That's why I re-worded my challenge to say anything already in the house before 1 January 2012 gets "higher priority". :P

I usually read 50 books a year. Last year only 5 of these books were from my own shelves! This year I am going to make a real attempt to attack mount TBR. Thus, I am going for 30.

Please add my 30 to the group ticker, as I don't want to mess with that.

Good luck everyone!

GAME ON!

I have reviewed and updated the Enlistments so please check to make sure that your commitment is recorded correctly.

Now all I can say is.......enjoy all those TBRs!

Thanks Cheli, and thanks for all the work you are putting into this to make it such an enjoyable experience! Good luck on your challenge as well.

I'll join in again this year - 25 for me please. Have updated group ticker.

>107 cyderry: Cyderry, I've upped my target to 35, after finishing 37 in 2011!

I have also finished my first BOMB for 2012, and updated the group ticker. :-)

#93 - I hope so!

Finished #2, Dead in the Family! I have updated the ticker.

We got this bunny hopping on the first day!

Go, bunny, go!

I've added my 100 to the first ticker. Good luck to everyone!

I tried to add my 30 books to the ticker total but I couldn't! I'll report how many I have read at the end of January. ( already have read one)

torontoc - you are on board, welcome back!

I'm so glad I joined this group. I met my (quite small) goal of 14 books last year, and hope to make it at least 25 in 2012.

What I love about this, is that for so many years I've looked at all those unread books on my shelves with total dread ("Yikes--I'll NEVER have time to read them all!!!"), and now I'm actually looking forward to knocking 'em out. And I'm finding out there usually was a pretty good reason I bought them in the first place!

Thanks!

**And I'm finding out there usually was a pretty good reason I bought them in the first place! **

I found that was very true last year with the 65 books that I "knocked" off my shelves. When I was making my list for this year, I was excited that I was bumping up my goal!

Cheli, can we add more books than our target (assuming we finish them) to our ticker by year's end?

#120 Madeline, I think so. Last year, I exceeded my goal but just kept my goal intact. If I'd blown past it much earlier in the year, though, I would've changed it.

>120 SqueakyChu:

SqueakyChu, I exceeded the target on my ticker, and it accepted the data just fine.

> 122

I know that the ticker accepts data beyond an original goal. I was just wondering if Cheli wanted us to post beyond our own individual goal as that number will offset some of the bombs that others will not have detonated by year's end.

Madeline,

Which ever way you want to handle it - you can increase your goal or help others/group with the overall goal.

WOW, LOOK EVERYBODY ! We've nearly 3,000 BOMBS targeted for denotation!

> 124

Which ever way you want to handle it

Sweet!

Now let's see if I can even reach my own goal! :)

It's fun having so many people do this together (what a great idea!) because we can watch the numbers going up every day.

It is fun, Madeline, and each month I show how we have progressed toward the group goal when I open up the new monthly thread.

At this point we have 62 readers enlisted to clear books this year. If we each read 1.8 books a month, we can reach the goal. Some of us will do more others less, but we all will work together and get there, we just need to keep to our resolution!

I detonated a bomb today - yay! and upped both my own total and the one for the group. Is that what I was supposed to do?

you got it alpha! Way to start out!

I have detonated my first bomb, back to the shelves.

My ticker.

We've moved over 3000!

I've read two of mine so far this year. I'm keeping note but won't do anything to the ticker until the end of the month - that way there should be a nice fat chunk to log (if I can just resisit those shiny new ones).

How does BOMBS work? I'm a hoarder, and my justification for buying all my books in the first place was that I only got books / authors I really liked, so I would keep the books - no bombing bookshelves for me!

Are these reads to get rid of books (no ... no!)? I presume we only count books we own? And do re-reads count?

Oh - I found this image :

-> 135

For me its reading books I'v owned for several years and giving them a new place on my 'have read shelves' . I would not think of taking books out of my house!

>135 humouress:
What Connie said - for many of us, it's just about getting the TBR (to be read) pile whittled down, and not at all about getting rid of books (no way!).

Oh, phew - I might join in, then; although this year I'm planning to make more use of libraries.

> 135: well, ahem, if after reading a book get two stars or less it might get tossed the next time I have to make room on my shelves....

Definitely this is just about reading those unread books - making them feel loved like the day we bought them. We must have wanted to read them when they were acquired, so now we will actually do it!

And then there are some of us who just physically don't have enough room any more and have to get rid of some once they are read or else we couldn't fit any more in.

My first attempt was a DUD. I got a book off of my e-reader the wrong way -- deleted it after about 50 pages because it was horrible. Did not finish it, so it doesn't count.

>135 humouress:: humouress, for me it is about literally getting the books off my shelves--off and out. Here's my thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/129138

Why? To make room for others, of course.

I like that we can make our own interpretation of the challenge and set our own rules. I think that will work for me.

#135 The great thing about this challenge is that it's whatever you want it to be. If I've enjoyed a book I keep it, if not it goes to the charity shop - either way, at least it's been read (ofetn after years of hanging around staring at me accusingly). With luck, it might even save me a bit of money on buying books I many never get round to reading but that remains to be seen and I'm not that hopeful. I'm including ER books and anything that was already on order before the end of 2011 - other will do it differently. You just have to decide which of your books need the kiss of life - the rest is up to you.

For me, it isn't about getting rid of the books, since most of mine are ebooks at this point. It's about getting books I was excited about read, and not getting distracted by the latest and greatest shiny NEW book. And reading what I have and buying less.

So, humoress, as you see this challenge is what each of us wants/needs it to be. If it is a success for you then it's a success for us too!

OK; if I can get myself organised (which is on the Resolutions list, and hasn't happened yet), I'll join. But Project Re-read (a leisurely thing, going more or less alphabetically / whichever TIOLI challenge can be filled) means there aren't so many BOMBS to read; and this year I'm thinking I'll borrow more from libraries, which means they won't be boMBS, either.

Happy new year to you all! (I know it's a bit late. but it's pretty busy here lately...) I was a bad girl and started the year with a borrowed book... but I've decided to make up a lkist with this year's TBRs, because there are some that need more to be read than others.

Congratulations to all of you who have already succeded in bombing and a great thanks to cyderry!

I've finished my first book off my shelf--Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope, and I've updated the ticker.

First BOMB of my challenge detenated. I, at first, was not going to apply it because it was a book I rec'd in the Christmas Swap but on second thought I decided to indeed use it for it was rec'd in 2011 and although it wasn't on my shelf long it is one I own so.........KABOOM!

This group must be invigorating for me - book number 3 off my shelf!

First book down, was on my shelves before 1996...

I've got a perfect record so far - 3 Books down, 3 BOMBS defused! I wonder how long I can keep it up?

>153 cyderry:

Until the first trip to a bookstore/sale/library/amazon/whatever... I suspect.

You're probably right, I'm due to hit the library this week...Sigh

First bomb for me. Yay me!

First book done :)

Some shelves to clear ;-)

OK, I finished one. Let me see if I can add it to the ticker.

OK, added to the group tickers. But I can't get my own ticker to work. :(

Terri, be sure to check your password on the ticker. I've had the same problem, I forget to change my password.

I think I got my password mixed up with the one for my ticker for the 75 challenge. I just deleted it and did it over again, and wrote the password down this time.

I was able to successfully add my three books read to the ticker1

I thought I signed up but somehow I only did that in my head :)

I'm in for 50 BOMBS this year. Perhaps once exams are finally done in April, I will make better progress and increase that number. But for now, it's doable.

I have one down and one on the go. (I updated both the overall count to add my 50 and the completed count to add my one)

It took me a little while to catch on the fact that there was a new group for 2012, and then a little longer to get a minute to check in.

Put me down for 21 in 2012, of which I've already got 2 completed. I will update the group ticker myself shortly.

enlistments have been updated

Thanks for the invitation. I'm in, though I've started the year slowly and only finished one book so far.

Welcome, paeonia! How long is your enlistment?

I'm in for 30 BOMBS. I've finished Crown conspiracy :) ... and immediately added the following books in the series to the pile.
Better not to dwell on it... :( Or is that :) ?

second book down, updated the tickers :-)

I am going to try for 24 BOMBS. It would be nice to get even more off my TBR shelf, but I know there are a lot of tempting books out there.

The ticker is still growing and yet we've cleared 1%, wow!

Finished my fourth book, and updated the ticker.

Finished my first one, which was rather large and updated ticker. I'll probably do end of the month bulk updates later on, once the excitement of finishing the first books of the year wears off.

Everything was going so well until my first shop of the year . . .

--> 174. Those are the worst days, entering such a place and.... buying

And, it's pretty much impossible to enter and not buy ...

#176 'Enter and not buy'? What is this 'enter and not buy' of which you speak, stranger?

Impossible though it must seem: I've managed to enter a bookshop and bought nothing except a street map. :D Unbelievable!

While in Cambridge I tried two bookshops, a little disappointed that they seemed to have everything, except the stuff I was interested in. Then I tried the third shop and found a wonderful section for medieval literature, which seemed to have something new every time we got there. We introduced a "one book per week only" rule at some point, which was impossible to stick to. :-)

> 180: so glad I don't HAVE a creditcard!

I've added my goal of 20 books to the group ticker and have included my 1 book read to date.

Everybody's doing great!

cyderry, LOL!

One atomic explosion as Wolf Hall is toppled off the shelf. Now to pick up the pace again! Ticker updated.

First BOMBS exploded for the year.
Dealing With Dragons read 1-18-2012

My first BOMBS exploded just 5 minutes ago.
Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

I did nothing to the ticker. And will post this in my personal thread aswell

I love that! :D

--> 188 What do you mean?

I just detonated one more bomb! That is 5 for me. You all are so inspiring. I updated the ticker.

Hello

Less than 3 weeks into the year its great to see everyone making such good progress.

I signed up for the challenge a few weeks ago, but couldn't start straight away as I was finishing off an English MA - I handed in my dissertation yesterday. So am ready to start the challenge.

I've spent this evening tidying up my tbrs - there were a few duplicates, plus a few books that I'd actually read were still included in the collection and I've added ebooks, and some late Christmas presents.

So my final unexploded bomb total as of today is 670

I want to clear at least 100 bombs throughout the rest of 2012. And yes, more books will inevitably arrive through the next 11 or so months.. As long as my tbr total is below 520 at the end of the year I will be happy.

Could I please beg a favour and ask someone to please update the main ticker for me, I'm still more than a little sleep deprived and could end up deleting the whole thing. Thank you.

Really looking forward to reading alongside all of you, and exploding a few bombs!

Congratulations on handing in your dissertation, riverwillow!

192 Ditto!

I finished a second book, and will update the tickers.

#191 Well done riverwillow - you must be feeling great! I just completed my pre-dissertation year and am still mulling over the possibilities for the big project which feels incredibly daunting. Having actually completed yours is a great achievement.

#192, 193, 194 - thank you, just keeping everything crossed that I actually have done enough to pass.

?194 Good luck with your selection and your project, the last twelve months have been incredibly hard but also immensely rewarding. Have you any strong ideas about what/who you want to do?

So two days after I delivered I'm missing it already (and have been sneaking a look at part time PhDs) although I am enjoying reading whatever I want and, hopefully, clearing some space on my shelves.

Congrats on handing in your dissertation, riverwillow

Congrats to all of us for our great start to the reading year. We're at 2 percent, already!!

Finished my first book of the year The Club Dumas, and added it to the ticker.

Just a reminder at the end of the month to either have your tickers updated to your monthly progress or add a little note to tell me where you stand so that in next month's thread I can have the update.

Finished book #2 toward my goal of 25: Narcissus Leaves the Pool by Joseph Epstein. This book has been on my shelf since at least 2009. These are essays by Epstein, who is a past editor of the journal The American Scholar. I have updated the ticker.

#195 Next to nothing right now and it's starting to keep me awake at night. I thought last weekend that I might narrow down the possibilities by going through my LT catalogue and marking any books that I would really enjoy writing about but as I ended up with 153 of them it wasn't a lot of help. I actually have two strong-ish possibilities book-wise but no real idea of where to focus the dissertation. It has to link in some way with what we've done this year on intertextuality so that means looking at at least two books that have similarities but I have no idea what kind of themes I'm going to use. I've filled dozens of notebooks with ideas then ended up crossing them all out for various reasons. This is harder than any of the assignments were and there was I thinking it would be the 'fun' part!

Finished my sixth book of the year. Since it was a book that I bought for my daughter, I am not counting it as off my shelf or bought...

Still, 5 of my goal of 30 off my shelf- good start!

Book #3 toward my goal of 25: Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. This book has been on my shelf since probably the 1980's. I am so glad to have finally read it. Great descriptions of Chicago and New York in the 1890's. I have updated the ticker.

Book 3 toward my goal of 53: Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace by Cathleen Fasani. I'll update the tickers.

ETA to ask Why are the numbers of books on the two group tickers different? Is there something I'm not getting?

>203 tymfos: Because not everyone is updating both tickers when they log their reading.

Oh. OK! :)

Congratulations, riverwillow!

I fianally detonated my second bomb. Sheesh. Took forever!

#203/204 I'm saving mine for the end of the month but thanks for the reminder that there are two threads that need updating - is that going to continue or will we eventually settle on one?

Maybe I've just missed something but where is the second ticker?

209 In the very first post on this thread, there are two group tickers: one with a bunny labeled "BOMBS detonated", and one with a dog labeled "percentage of BOMBS read."

ah that one... :) I was just confused because the second ticker actually shows no number of books... but okay, my mistake! :D

Since I just found out that these tickers also count into the negative I'm changing my rules as follows: I will not oly try to read 20 BOMBS this year but to read as many as is needed to have 20 less TBRs than at the beginning of the year!

I added my 26 books to be read goal to the first ticker, bringing the number up to 3322. I hope that is what I was supposed to do...

Sandy K

Oh, Tallulah Rose, that is a brave goal. Good luck with it.

You got it Sandy! Welcome to the fight against unread books!

I'm going to switch this thread to a new one, hope it works.

Okay I think it worked so no need to copy anything from here (tickers) for January. When I open the February thread, post your tickers there please.