THE TBR 24 IN '24 CHALLENGE
My Sign Up Post
This is my sign up post for the TBR 24 in '24 Challenge. The simple idea is to read 24 books off your TBR shelves between January 1 and December 31, 2024. If you want to join me (and I hope you do), go to the main challenge page here to sign up. You can participate through your blog, social media, or just in the comments on the challenge pages.
You do not have to pick all your TBR 24 in '24 books ahead of time. I like to, so I do. You can pick them now. Or you can pick some now and some as you go. You can pick them all at whim. Or you can pick now and then change your mind. The only real rule is that you read books that you already owned before January 1, 2024. Find all the rules on the challenge page.
MY TBR 23 IN '23 BOOKS
I like to pick my books ahead of time and keep them stacked by my bedside to motivate me through the year. This year, I picked 12 fiction and 12 nonfiction. I plan to alternate fiction/nonfiction as I read through the stack in alphabetical order by author name. In years past, I read my challenge picks as my mood struck. But I always ended up in December with the least appealing books and that was no fun.
Here's a list of what is in the picture. Do any look good to you?
FICTION
Quentins by Maeve Binchy. I went on a Binchy jag years ago and read most of her books, including several that involve the fictional Dublin restaurant Quentins. But this one slipped past me. FINISHED
Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury. I loved Eating People is Wrong and The History Man so look forward to reading more of Bradbury's books. FINISHED
The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. This one is on Anthony Burgess's list of his 99 favorite novels, one of my favorite lists. FINISHED
A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable, looks like fun! FINISHED
J by Howard Jacobson. I like his books but this one is speculative, dystopian fiction, not my favorite genre. We'll see how it goes. FINISHED
The New Men by C. P. Snow. I've been plodding my way through his Strangers and Brothers series and am determine to get through the whole thing. FINISHED
A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler. As with Binchy, I went on an Anne Tyler tear several years ago. Then I just stopped. I want to get back and read the ones I missed. FINISHED
Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware, This is probably the most random novel I have on my TBR shelf so I decided to dust it off. FINISHED
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, which will also count as my Austria book for the 2024 European Reading Challenge.
NONFICTION
My Almost Cashmere Life by Margy Adams. I already ripped through this memoir. FINISHED
Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review by William F. Buckley, Jr. This is one of my favorite titles ever. I grew up reading his Notes & Asides column and look forward to revisiting the columns in this collection. FINISHED
Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier. My husband gave this to me several years ago and it's time I read it. FINISHED
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David. I love food writing but have never read this classic. FINISHED
Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell. I've read Lawrence Durrell books but never Gerald's. I love the TV show, The Durrells of Corfu, so want to try his books. FINISHED
Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz. I bought this on a whim when it came out and don't want it to languish on my shelves. FINISHED
The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis. I'm chipping away at reading all his books. FINISHED
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. I found this at a library book sale and it looks terrific! FINISHED
The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux. This classic book of travel writing has waited too long for me to read it. FINISHED
Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull. I missed this when it came out and love ex-pat memoirs. FINISHED
I'll Take the Back Road by Marguerite Hurrey Wolf, a 1975 memoir about living on a farm in Vermont.
THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE
This TBR 24 in '24 Challenge dovetails nicely with the Mt TBR Challenge that Bev at My Reader's Block hosts every year. Like I've done for the past couple of years, I am signing up for the "Mt. Kilimanjaro" Level in 2024 to read a total of 60 books off my TBR shelves. That means 37 books in addition to those listed above.
MY MT. TBR BOOKS
I will try to remember to list my Mt. TBR books here as I read them, although I completely forgot this last year.
Here's the list. Consider them all marked FINISHED:
Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Myers
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier
The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life by Charles Murray
The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne
Habits of the House by Fay Weldon
Long Live the King by Fay Weldon
The New Countess by Fay Weldon
His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle
Silverview by John le Carre
The Reivers by William Faulkner
Dead Lions by Mick Herron
Pocket Full of Poseys by Thomas Reed
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
After All These Years by Susan Isaacs
Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
With No One as Witness by Elizabeth George
Loser Takes All by Graham Greene
The Third Man by Graham Greene
The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
The Messenger by Megan Davis
The Stranger House by Reginald Hill
Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah
The Vacationers by Emma Stroud
Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny
Castle Dor by Daphne du Maurier
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis
Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thakeray
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh
NOTE: Updated September 21, 2024.
