Wednesday, December 30, 2015

2016 CHALLEGES: 2X16 & Mt. TBR




2X16: A PERSONAL TBR CHALLENGE

Like I've done the past two years, I'm combining the Mt. TBR Challenge with my own, idiosyncratic TBR challenge. I am going to read 32 books for this part of the challenge, one from each of the separate shelves on my TBR bookcases – 25 fiction books, and 7 non-fiction books. This year, I picked the book from each shelf that I've most been meaning to read for one reason or another.

I ended up with a mix of books, but not as crazy as when I picked the 14th book or the 15th book on each shelf like I did the last two years. There are a few prize winners on the list, a couple of classics, some pop fiction, and more mysteries than prior years,

These are the books in alphabetical order by author, but I am going to read them as the mood strikes.

THE 2X16 LIST

The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage by Kingsley Amis FINISHED 

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood FINISHED (Booker Prize winner)

Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli FINISHED 

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess FINISHED (chunkster)

Mr. White's  Confession by Robert Clark FINISHED (Edgar Award winner)

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion FINISHED

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen FINISHED

The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan FINISHED

Longshot by Dick Francis FINISHED 

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald FINISHED 

Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George FINISHED 

The Big Seven by Jim Harrison FINISHED

Shaken and Stirred by William Hamilton FINISHED 

Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley FINISHED 

Devices and Desires by P.D. James FINISHED

Nobody Move by Denis Johnson FINISHED 

The British Museum  is Falling Down by David Lodge FINISHED 

The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy FINISHED 

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan FINISHED 

The Bell by Iris Murdoch FINISHED 

Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols FINISHED 

Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters FINISHED (Edgar Award winner)

Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell FINISHED

Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers FINISHED (National Book Award winner)

The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell FINISHED 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson FINISHED

The Light and the Dark by C.P. Snow FINISHED 

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz FINISHED

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor FINISHED

Bech is Back by John Updike FINISHED 

One Day My Soul Just Opened Up by Iyanla Vanzant FINISHED 

Orlando by Virginia Woolf FINISHED

THE MT. TBR LIST




Bev at My Reader's Block hosts the Mt. TBR Challenge and I am signing up for the Mt. Ararat Level to read a total of 48 books off my TBR shelves.  So in addition to those listed above, I need to knock off another 16.  I don't know which ones they will be, but I have a couple thousand to choose from! I have many mountains to climb.

OTHER TBR BOOKS FINISHED

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

More Baths Less Talking: Notes from the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle with Football, Family, and Time Itself by Nick Hornby

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell

A Little Dinner Before the Play by Agnes Jekyll

The Fur Person by May Sarton

Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

Fallen Into the Pit by Ellis Peters

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol I. East and West) by W. Somerset Maugham

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Wild Horses by Dick Francis

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

Family Album by Penelope Lively

Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography by William F. Buckley Jr.

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk

The River Swimmer: Novellas by Jim Harrison

A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read

The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina

Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara (National Book Award winner)

Winter and Night by S. J. Rozan (Edgar Award winner)

The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Pulitzer Prize winner)

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone

Laughter On The Stairs by Beverley Nichols

Sunlight On The Lawn by Beverley Nichols

Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli

After You with the Pistol by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Something Nasty in the Woodshed by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Be Cool by Elmore Leonard



UPDATE

As of mid-December, I've finished all of the 32 on my 2X16 list. And I've already read 33 other books of my TBR shelves, for a total of 55 books for the Mt. TBR challenge. So I surpassed my goal.