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.
Books left on the TBR List: 27*
Best book of the month: Any Other Family
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.
Worst book of the month: I Shudder at Your Touch
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!
