2X19 CHALLENGE:
READ 38 TBR BOOKS IN 2019
As I've done since 2014, I'm combining the Mt. TBR Challenge with a TBR challenge I came up with to read two books for each year of the century. It gets a little more challenging each year. I didn't reach my goal in 2018, in part because I got distracted by other books on my TBR shelf, in part because I picked a couple of dense chunksters that slowed me down.
So I confess I intentionally picked some short books for 2019 (short in pages, not height, but see below). I like the mix. I'm usually drawn to long novels, so consciously choosing short books will make me read some books that have been waiting on my TBR shelves for a long, long time.
I am going to read 38 books for the 2X19 part of the challenge, one from each of 38 separate shelves on my various TBR bookcases. I have 29 fiction books and nine nonfiction books picked out.
MY 2X19 BOOKS
Here are the books in the order I plan to read them. The first two come first because they are my New Year's resolution books. The next two come early because I'm most excited to read them. The rest I am reading in order of height, from tallest to shortest, for no reason except whim.
A Year of Living Kindly: Choices That Will Change Your Life and the World Around You by Donna Cameron (RCR interview here)
On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books by Karen Swallow Prior
The Girl from Oto by Amy Maroney (RCR interview here)
The Shame of Losing by Sarah Cannon (RCR interview here)
An Affair with a House by Bunny Williams
Mark Hampton on Decorating by Mark Hampton
The Tenth Man by Graham Greene
Friend of My Springtime by Willa Cather
Licking Flames: Tales of a Half-Assed Hussy by Diana Kirk (RCR interview here)
Queen of Spades by Michael Shou-Yung Shum
Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth
The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion
The Robineau Look by Kathleen Moore Knight
Agents and Patients by Anthony Powell
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
A Woman of Means by Peter Taylor
The Poorhouse Fair by John Updike
Girl, 20 by Kingsley Amis
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Slam by Nick Hornby
Lady Into Fox by David Garnett (James Tait Black Memorial Prize Winner)
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery by Kyril Bonfiglioli
The Gift of a Letter by Alexandra Stoddard
Do the Windows Open? by Julie Hecht
Dirty Friends by Morris Lurie
Something Special by Iris Murdoch
The Imitation Game by Ian McEwan
The Small Room by May Sarton
I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel
The Little Book of Lykke by Meik Wiking
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Heart-Keeper by Françoise Sagan
The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark
Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
First Love by Joyce Carol Oates
THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE:
READ A TOTAL OF 60 TBR BOOKS IN 2019
Every year, I join Bev at My Reader's Block in her Mt, TBR Challenge. This year, I am going to climb higher than ever (or try), to reach the Mr. Kilimanjaro level of 60 books. I tried this in 2018 and fell sort by two books because I didn't get through all of my 2X18 books. This year, I have to read 22 in addition to the 38 from my 2X19 Challenge. We'll see how it goes.
