You may have noticed that my bookishness has a new sense of sprawl to it. I’ve added links so that you can find me on Twitter, GoodReads, LibraryThing, and BookFace (er, Facebook, but I wanted to emphasize the important part). Please connect: I never tire of bookchat.
But speaking of sprawl. It may be that I’m spreading my bookishness a bit too thin.
I’m having trouble with my TBR stacks. There are so many of them now that I have a current TBR stack that travels with me from room-to-room when I change reading camps.
And my library borrowings are running wild. Once confined to a wooden crate turned backwards so that the chaos within was unseen, now they surround and cover (as well as fill) the crate.
Then there is the matter of the stacks of new books (it’s college booksale season in this city). They’ve taken over the coffee table, which we never use for coffee anymore. (Well, we never did, really, but, still, it feels wrong.)
My mid-year checkins for theme-reading and challenge-reading were pretty detailed, and they haven’t changed all that much, so I’ll recap more succinctly.
Theme-Reading
Short stories 8/12 (added 1, since mid-year)
My Must Read Everything Authors 8/12 (added 1)
Re-reads 5/12 (added 3)
Series Read Towards Finishing 10/12 (added 3)
Non-fiction 6/12 (added 4)
Aging (Memory) 3/6 (same)
Gender and Conformity (Intersexuality) 3/6 (same)
Nature/Wildlife 0/6 (same)
Toronto 9/6 (added 6)
Challenge Reading
5th Canadian Book Challenge 32/13 (added lots)
Foodie’s Reading Challenge 2/12 (same)
LGBTQ Reading Challenge 12/15 (added 5)
Heroine’s Bookshelf Challenge 2/5 (same)
POC Reading Challenge 22/25 (added 10)
New Projects
(I know: there shouldn’t be a section for this. All of the above suggests that I should remember how much I loved the old projects and reinvigorate those obsessions. But here it is.)
Giller Prize Reading Project 7/17
ReLit Award Sampling Project 9/26
And I should add this to the Reading Challenge portion of this page, but I wanted to emphasize that it is adding something new to my reading stacks:
The 3rd Maud Hart Lovelace Reading Challenge.
It runs throughout October and I’m planning to read the 3rd and 4th in the Betsy-Tacy series. (I read the 1st and 2nd last year: here’s my challenge page for 2010.)
Old Projects
(I”ve read towards all of them — though sometimes only one book, it’s true — except for one.)
Favourite Book of September?
Suzette Mayr’s Monoceros (2011)
Most Anticipated Read of October?
Alissa York’s Fauna (2010)
How are you feeling about 2011’s reading so far?
What did you love about September, what do you hope to love about October?
The Maud Hart Lovelace reading challenge sounds like fun — I loved her as a kid and would probably love returning to her!
It would make for a really interesting comparison with your recent Little House re-reading, I think. Not to tempt you or anything. 😉
Goodness, you have a lot going! September was good for me, since I was away most of August and didn’t get much reading done. It was nice to get back in the reading groove in September. Plus, I liked almost everything I read (or listened to) quite a lot.
As for October, I’m hoping to finish up all my reading commitments so that I can start November fresh. I really want to get back to reading the books I choose and so will be cutting way back on review copies. I can’t wait! I’m also cooking up a new project/goal for myself — they seem to work better for me than challenges or hard-and-fast rules! It may not get unveiled in October, though, as I’d really like to be done with review books before I launch it.
It’s really hard, isn’t it, to find the right balance between focussing on what you want to read yourself and still leaving yourself open to trying new reads. Because of course sometimes your next favourite author is someone of whom you’ve not heard “boo” until someone suggests you try it just when you had 100 other books in mind instead. I haven’t got it figured out yet!
I just posted a third quarter progress report myself! Sounds like you’re moving along smartly.
I think you’ve stuck remarkably well with your resolutions, Laura. Congrats!
It sounds like our tbr piles are twins! I went crazy with library check-outs too except I have ebook and physical ones. *sigh* 😀 So far my reading is going pretty well this year though I would like to read more. I hope you’re having a great weekend.
I’m pretty sure I could squeeze another book or two in, if I just stopped thinking about why my TBR stacks have gotten so unwieldy, stopped trying to make sense of the compulsion!