I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.
In December 2023
Books read: 5
Books I decided NOT to finish: 4
The Family Upstairs: I dunno, I just re-read the book summary in the catalog and decided it sounded like too many characters with names I was going to mix up.
Yours Cheerfully: A sequel to a book I read last year and just didn't enjoy that much.
The Orphan Collector: I don't want so many downers on the list; I read a sample of the ebook and it didn't grab me.
Yes, Chef: Eh. Perhaps my recent push through a mountain of food memoir has dulled my appetite for a back-of-house kitchen diary.
Life Undercover
Books left on the TBR List: 27*
This fictional work about an extended family formed through open adoption (birth parents, 3 sets of adoptive parents, 4 kids) seemed very relatable for someone in my current stage of life. The birth mother character was, frustratingly, off stage for the whole novel and seemed pretty two-dimensional. But I identified with various facets of the three adoptive mothers, and the story made me think about family relationships and community.
It would probably be this collection of short horror stories, only because they were imbalanced. I wasn't particularly inspired to keep reading, so I failed to finish it when I got sick a couple days before the end of the challenge.
*At two weeks until the end of the year, I reviewed the 27 books remaining on the TBR List and determined which would remain for next year. Then I added my collection of titles that has been growing all year, and the ones I currently have checked out/in my possession, for a total of 90 books I would like to read in 2024. Oh, and there are a few (not available at the library) on my Amazon list, which I might get around to.
All in, I completed 96 new books this year, re-read several more, and made the freeing decision NOT to read about 25 more, out of a starting list of 150. I finished the epic space opera series with Honor Harrington as the main character, and polished off several from the Mary Russell (and Sherlock Holmes) collection -- both of which I started in college. Not a bad result for #VirtualMountTBR (2023); depending on how you count it, I stopped within sight of Mt. Seleya or vaulted past and got halfway to Mount Olympus!