Working on the previously mentioned book planner, I also reconfigured my current Franken planner... Again. I found a list of 20 in 20 that I had started prior to the craziness that is this year, and saw a couple things book related on said list.
20 in 20
The first of note is to complete the Goodreads reading challenge. Unless I stop reading right now, I've got it in the bag this year. For once. I'm currently 10 books ahead of schedule. I figured that since 100 books was too difficult the past few years, I'd start with something a little more manageable, like 5 books a month for a total of 60 this year. And yes, this is made easier by the fact that the vast majority of the books I've been reading have been YA.
The second, and by far the most important of my 20 in 20 that were book related, "Finish Tamora Pierce's current catalog of books". The list thus far includes not a one. It's October! Crud, I'm behind. When I pulled up her author's page on Goodreads, I noted that I really don't have too many of them left. Most of them are from her lesser known Circle universe that takes place in Emelan, and are designed for Middle Grades to beginner Young Adult. So they should be fairly quick to get through. The problem is going to be finding them. If I break them up by mini-series, I can finish off the second quartet The Circle Opens in October, the three published books of the third quartet The Circle Reforged in November, and finish off in December with a return to Tortall with the first book in the newest series The Numair Chronicles.
Additionally, I wrote that I wanted to "Read 3 Classics". Uh. I don't think I've read a single one this year. I better get crack a lackin'! But what are some easy "classics" to get through? I'm thinking 1 a month should handle things. Any suggestions??
October TBR
TBR stands for To Be Read, by the way, and I have resisted for so long to do this whole reading thing the way others do, but the lingo seems to be well known now. When in Rome, I guess.
So, for my October TBR, I've actually got a decent pre-made list due to the Tamora Pierce goal and what is currently loaded in my device.
- Tamora Pierce, The Circle Opens #2 Street Magic
- Tamora Pierce, The Circle Opens #3 Cold Fire
- Tamora Pierce, The Circle Opens #4 Shatterglass
- Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass #3 Heir of Fire
- Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who... #4 The Cat Who Saw Red
- James Rollins, Sigma Force #2 Map of Bones
- Judi McCoy, Goddess #3 Making Over Mr. Right
That's a lot for October, but in my defense, I've already started Maas, Braun, Rollins, and McCoy. Rollins is an audiobook again, so that means when driving/cooking/cleaning/gaming/ignoring family, I'm basically reading. I only have about two and a half hours left out of 14 total to listen to. McCoy is a quick dollar novel read, even though the books don't cost just a dollar anymore, but that's what the spinner with trashy romance novels was called when I was a kid. My mother's era called it the dime book rack, and Grandma's the 5¢ rack. Also a quick flick through ebook while I'm trying to fall asleep and hubby is snoring.
The Maas book might be a bit more difficult to get through. It is an ebook, there are two people waiting on the copy, and it's due in 3 days because I've been too engrossed in Rollins. And to be honest, I'm looking at the book much differently than I viewed the prequel novellas and the first 2 books. When my favorite BookTubers are poo-pooing on the characters and writing... but I was really enjoying it... What are they seeing that I'm missing? Is it really not that great? Was I wearing Elton John's rose colored glasses again? Plus the book has a notoriously long wait time and I don't think I want to outright buy it when I don't have the rest of the series... We'll see.
Now Braun. This is definitely not a series anyone but the most serious Cat PI obsessed fan will read. These are in the same company as Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie Mysteries, Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy/Sneaky Brown Mysteries, and others that I haven't even begun to look into. Shall I count the reasons this is a tougher series to get through?
- For one, the first 3 books were originally published in 1966-1968, so the characters are pretty much set in that time period, and although Braun published another Cat Who 18 years later, KoKo and Yum Yum and Jim "Qwill" Qwilleran certainly didn't age 18 years in that time too.
- For two, this book was originally published in 1986, there are 29 books in the series, and the final one was published in 2007.
- They're cozy mysteries, and I literally don't know anyone personally who likes those.
- If memory serves from the first 2 that I read, the physical books are quite large and cumbersome. Long. Detailed, pretty unmemorable. Long.
That is really all there is to it. It took me a couple months to get through book #3
The Cat Who Turned On and Off and it was even in audiobook format!
But truly, if I finish off Rollins, McCoy, and the Pierce books, there's 5 books and I made my 2020 goal with 2 months to spare.
1,070 Books!
That is a lot of TBRs, man. And it doesn't take into consideration new books I will come across, new additions to my currently read series that become published, nor does it include book recs from friends and BookTube. What the heck!
This needs to be whittled down! Excel was having a terrible time keeping up with my 200 copied lines per paste that I was putting down. Took me an hour to get all 1070 books into a sheet, and that was mostly because while I was waiting for Excel to stop 'not responding' I was getting distracted by other things.
Looking at the list of books, I'm thinking that the Bonnie Bryant Saddle Club books are just going to be removed from my shelf. Not the ones I've already read obviously, but I don't really see the appeal of going back and trying to pick up where I left off. I read a lot of books about girls aged 12 when I was 12. I aged faster than the characters did. Reading the first 83 books of a 101 book series is still pretty good, right? That's 17 off the list... Then there were the Super Editions, of which I read 3 out of 6. Another 3 gone.
Yay! I'm down to 1,050!
Where else can I make cuts? Oh! The Mandie Series by Lois Gladys Leppard. Fantastic series for younger girls of faith that included cozy mysteries, and as a girl I owned the first 21 in the series. But it isn't designed for my interests anymore, so that cuts out another 19 books... and the college years series that Leppard started in 2006 but never got to continue. Eliminating the Mandie TBRs takes out a total of 20 more.
Down to 1,030!
It might start getting more difficult from here. I read series and have very few stand-alone novels. So a lot of these numbers will be whittled away as I work through series, particularly when many of these series have 20+ books in each and I am at the beginning. I guess I'll just have to pick one and start.
Until next time,
Keep Reading!
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