Category Archives: TBR Challenge

TBR Challenge Check-In

30 Monday Mar 2020

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We’re a quarter of the way through 2020, fellow readers. Are you a quarter of the way through your TBR challenge?

Weirdly enough, I am 🙂  Books have become a refuge for me again, helping me thing about something other than all the things I have to worry about. And it’s been a lot of fun reading historicals set in different places and time periods again! Regencies make up the bulk of my TBR books, but I’ve also been visiting Civil War-era America and a steampunk version of China during the Qing Dynasty. We’ve got a historical romance book club in The Regency Salon, too, which checked another book off the TBR list for me. I bet that won’t be the last one, either 😉

I’ve just gotten started writing a new novella–more on that soon!–so we’ll see if I can keep up the reading pace while I work on that. I usually can’t, but I’m going to try not to stress about it if my reading slows down for a bit. There are too many other things going on in the world right now; worrying about how many books I’ve read shouldn’t be one of them.

Stay safe, everyone! And thank you to all the people working to keep us healthy, fed, and functioning ❤

courtesy of Jbuatti via Wikimedia Commons

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

30 Thursday Jan 2020

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One month down in the 2020 TBR Challenge! Did you start off with a bang or a whimper?

I seem to have started off with a bang for a change 🙂 I think I’m still in Read All The Books mode even though I’ve been back at the day job for weeks now. I’m not complaining, though! I’m working my way through Courtney Milan’s Brothers Sinister series, and her books are always a treat. I managed to read one of the Random App books that I’d purchased in 2012 (!) and discovered that another was a duplicate of one I already had, so I’m making progress on that front, too. Plus, Goodreads says I’m a little bit a head of the game for my overall reading goal, which will make it easier to get back to writing more than just a few words here and there (which I need to do soon!).

So overall I’m pretty happy with where I’m at, reading-wise. We’ll see how long that lasts 😉

courtesy of Jbuatti via Wikimedia Commons

Cora’s 2020 TBR Challenge

06 Monday Jan 2020

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courtesy of Jbuatti via Wikimedia Commons

We’re a few days in to 2020 and I’m in the process of getting organized in writing, reading, and around the house. I started a modified bullet journal, which for me mostly means all my To Do lists and calendars and appointments are in one place. I’m working out my writing/release schedule for this year, trying to wrap my brain around a smaller per week word count in an effort reduce my fatigue level this year. And I think I’ve settled on my TBR Challenge conditions for this year:

1. How many books from your TBR pile will you read?  I’ve decided on an overall goal of 30 books for my Goodreads challenge, and 20 of those must be from my TBR list. It doesn’t seem like a lot–especially when I was regularly reading over 50 books a year a few years ago–but it’s more than I read in 2019, and I always have the option to change it later.

2. How long have your books been waiting?  Everything pre-2020 is fair game this year, which I think is fair given that the purpose of this challenge is to read books I’ve already acquired 🙂  I also want to pay special attention to the 6 books that I somehow ended up with on various apps that I’d forgotten I even had. They’ve been sitting there for several years and it’s high time those books get read, too.

3. How will you hold yourself accountable? Like years past, I’ll post here once a month to share my progress and see how you all are doing. I found that creating a Goodreads shelf and the dedicated page on this website to be enormously helpful, too, so I’ll do both again. I’m a very visual person and being able to see the collection of books that I’ve read gives me a nice sense of accomplishment, which makes me want to read more TBR books.

4. What about adding more books to the pile? Like previous years, I’m going to keep track of how many books I purchase with another Goodreads shelf. I’ve found it really helpful to have an exact number readily available that I can compare to how many books I’ve read. By the end of the year, I’d like to have read more books than I bought.

So that’s my set up for this year. What plans do you all have? Anybody feeling really ambitious? Cautiously optimistic? Reading to comfort yourself through hard times? Let me know!

 

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

31 Tuesday Dec 2019

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It’s the last day of 2019, fellow readers! Did you complete your TBR Challenge?

I am one book away from making my revised goal this year, so you can guess what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day 😉  Bo has been cheering me on, too…as long as I can hold my book or ereader with one hand and pet him with the other!

Happy holidays, and happy reading!

UPDATE: I made it! I didn’t get to spend the day reading, but ended up completing the challenge with a novella that I’d purchased nine years ago, which I thought was fitting.

I read 14 TBR books (meeting my revised goal) and 36 books over all (meeting my Goodreads Challenge goal). I also purchased 37 books in 2019, so I came out nearly even in intake vs outgoing. This is the first year that’s happened since I started keeping track 🙂

 

TBR Challenge Check-In

30 Wednesday Oct 2019

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Happy Halloween, fellow readers! Are you making progress on your TBR Challenge?

I am, but at a snail’s pace. I did finish listening to William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope (it was as fantastic as I expected such a mash-up to be!), and I flew through Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastion (which was *such* a lovely story!).

Ye Olde Chronic Fatigue has been rearing its ugly head, though, so my previous plan of reading in the evenings hasn’t been sustainable lately–I’m just too tired most days. I’ve also got crochet projects lined up to make as gifts for Christmas, which I talked about last month, and I’m writing As Long As You Love Me So, both of which sap my remaining energy (though if I’m going to expend my limited energy on things, crocheting and writing are at the top of the list 🙂 ).

In light of all that, I’ve decided to do something I’ve never done in a TBR Challenge: modify the terms. I’ve dropped my Goodreads challenge from 36 books to 24, and I’m rolling back my TBR Challenge goal from 24 books to 14. That relieves some of the stress I’ve been feeling about making these goals, which helps make reading more fun again and knocks back my overall stress level. It’s always good to re-evaluate your goals and how you plan to achieve them–I think that should apply to reading challenges, too 🙂

TBR Challenge Check-In

30 Monday Sep 2019

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Just three months left this year, fellow readers! How is your TBR Challenge going?

Mine, as usual, is going slowly. But it’s going 🙂  I’ve started listening to audiobooks again–it’s a good way to pass the time while I’m crocheting Christmas gifts, especially when the pattern is kind of boring. Currently I’m listening to William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, which is fantastic for so many reasons. I remember just enough about The Bard from high school to enjoy the style, I grew up watching Star Wars, and I love a good mashup! This is one of those books, too, that I think is better in audio–there are multiple performers, sound effects, and a little (familiar) music which enhance the experience, and I’d miss all that if I were reading instead of listening.

Cora’s TBR Challenge

05 Thursday Sep 2019

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Four months to go, fellow readers! How goes your TBR Challenge?

I’m making some progress 🙂  It’s not a lot, but I’ve finished two more books for the TBR challenge and am nearly through another. I’m also trying to carve out time to read on a regular basis–lately it’s been right before I go to bed–and I think that’s what’s been making the difference this past month. I may only read for an hour before I get too tired to continue, but an hour a day gets me through a novel by the end of the week. And if I can squeeze out more than an hour I can read more (or longer) books, which makes me happy. I get grumpy when I can’t/don’t read for more than a few days in a row!

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

07 Wednesday Aug 2019

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Happy August, fellow readers! Are you getting in a lot of summer reading?

I’m still woefully behind, as has become usual for me 🙂  And I had an e-reader mishap, in the bargain–somehow An Extraordinary Union got reset back to the first page, and I have no idea where I was! I suppose I’m going to have to start that one over, but the first half was so good I don’t think I mind too much.

I’ve also begun reading Darcy Burke’s novella To Love a Thief, which has been languishing in my TBR for nearly 7 years! So progress is being made, and my working/writing schedule has become less frantic for a bit so I’m confident that this progress will continue, at least for a while 🙂

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

29 Saturday Jun 2019

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We’re halfway through the year, fellow readers! Are you halfway through your TBR challenge?

As usual, I’m not. But I seem to be getting back on track. After judging in the first round of the RITAs, dealing with a busy period at the day job, taking a history class in a condensed semester (History of Modern India–very interesting, but a lot of work in 6 weeks!), and taking a literary detour to read about dog training (new dog, Bo, came home nearly two months ago, but he’s big and strong and has almost no training), I’m finally getting back to my TBR books.

After several attempts, I’ve finished The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde in audiobook, read by Richard Armitage. I started it six months ago, and though it isn’t a long book, I kept getting sidetracked by other things (and, if I’m honest, by Richard Armitage’s voice  😉 ). It was good, as I’d expected, and the narration was fantastic!

Unfortunately, Jekyll & Hyde was only the third TBR book I’ve read this year, out of the 24 I set as my goal, so I have a way to go in the second half of the year. Perhaps this is the year when I learn to balance my reading time with my writing time (and my Bo-training time!), and manage not to run right up on my deadlines  🙂

Bo, my new furkid, pretending that he hadn’t just disemboweled a squeaky hedgehog toy.

Cora’s TBR Challenge Check-In

28 Thursday Feb 2019

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We’ve hit the end of February, fellow readers. How is your TBR Challenge going?

I, predictably, am a little behind. And just when it looked like I was going to get caught up, Mr. Migraine became a regular visitor when our weather got weird. And now I’m trying to get the books I’m judging for the RITAs this year finished in time. So I’ll likely be behind for a little bit longer.

But I have three books to go back to once my RITA reads are completed. I started listening to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, read by Richard Armitage. It’s a short book, but I keep getting distracted by the narrator, lol, so I need to try again with a better attention span. I also started reading The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, which has been interesting so far. I’m about halfway through Alyssa Cole’s An Extraordinary Union, too, and I can’t wait to get back to it!