Category: TBR Challenge

Halloween is almost here, fellow readers! How scary is is your TBR pile right now?

I’ve fallen into the pattern (again!) of buying books faster than I can read them, so overall my TBR bins and collections are worse than when I started the challenge in January. But I have managed to read thirteen TBR books so far out of the eighteen I set as my goal.

I dove into The Boleyn King earlier this month, which has been waiting on my Kindle for a couple of years. It’s an alternate history novel, telling the story of what might have happened had Anne Boleyn not miscarried the baby boy she conceived after Elizabeth I was born. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a lot of fun (even if you aren’t a scholar of Tudor history), well thought out, and easy to read.

The rest of the books I’ve read (or am in the process of reading) this month are all new-ish, so they don’t count toward my TBR goal. But I’m trying to keep books from the year-or-more-since-I-bought-it pile, too, and it’s nice to buy a book and read it fairly soon (for a change). Maybe we should start a non-TBR challenge next year 🙂

Happy first day of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere! And happy first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere! The weather hasn’t changed much here in Southeast Michigan (yet), but my reading habits have. How’s your TBR Challenge going?

After all the reading time I found during my trip to the UK last month, September has been rather disappointing. I haven’t finished a single book this month, though I am in the middle of three: a novel (Deadly Proof, the fourth book in M. Louisa Locke’s Victorian San Francisco Mystery series), and two research books (Regency Spies [which isn’t actually helping me, but it’s quite interesting] and To Hell Or Monto [which has been very useful]).

I’ve been writing a lot lately, though, which is why my reading time has been so abysmal. Characters are talking to me for books I haven’t even outlined yet, and that’s not a bad thing (especially with three–yes three!–releases scheduled for next year). It just means that I’ll have to make adjustments to my daily schedule yet again 🙂

Eight months down, fellow readers–what does your TBR pile look like? Mine got significantly smaller…for a minute 🙂

I spent a fantastic two weeks in the United Kingdom this month, and with travel comes reading time (what else was I supposed to do on those long plane rides?). Not only did I get to see London and some of the countryside, but I paid an extended visit to Spindle Cove (and finished the series!) and Victorian San Francisco (in the form of M. Louisa Locke’s historical mystery series). Six books in total released from TBR backwater 🙂

Then I bought some more books 😛  Tessa Dare is releasing a new Spindle Cove novel on September 27 (despite Amazon’s insistence that it’s a Castles Ever After book). I discovered that there were several parts of Louisa’s mystery series that I didn’t know about, too. And I went back to the steampunk series I started (The Fall of the Gas Lit Empire) to pick up the two books I didn’t have. *sigh* I just hope I get them all read before they become TBR casualties…

Happy May fellow readers! The weather is heating up here in Southeast Michigan (the forecast is calling for near 90F this weekend!). Has your reading been hot?

Mine has been mostly of the textbook variety, so not so hot. On the bright side, I’m halfway through my classes and doing well in both of them. I also have a four-day weekend coming up, and while I have a lot of schoolwork to do, I am also pledging to read for pleasure at least one hour a day during my little holiday. Wish me luck!

I did get a little audiobook action at the day job this week, so my world has not been entirely fiction-less. I’m listening to Diana Gabaldon’s Dragonfly in Amber, though Goodreads informed me that it’s been about ten months since I last listened. Thank goodness I’ve already read the book, or I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what was happening in it 😀

Four months down, readers! How many TBR books have you read so far?

In my case, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that I’m reading again. The bad news is that I’m reading a textbook rather than anything from my personal collection. Classroom Assessment is nowhere near as much fun as Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series (or any of my other long-suffering books, for that matter), but it must be read. I do have some slow days coming up at the day job, so I’m hoping to either get ahead in my required reading or steal a day with the Kindle. Then again, I’ve said that before and my Kindle slumbered peacefully on without me 🙂

It’s the end of our first month, fellow readers–did you start the challenge strong?

I’m struggling already. The big bad migraine monster is chasing me again, so I’m losing some valuable reading time there (more than I’d care to admit, actually).  The day job has been unusually busy these past few weeks, too, so I haven’t been reading at my desk as I thought I might.

I am going to get back to audio books at work, though, which went well before. I can play the book right from my computer while I go about my daily tasks, and pause it when I need to talk to someone. I only need to make sure I actually get my work done, and don’t sink too far into the book 🙂