Mount TBR 2014 Challenge discussion

I'm another one who reads far too many library books. Not that this is a Bad Thing necessarily... I just need to read my own books too! This is my first attempt at this challenge and I'm aiming for 48 or more. Joining in here will hopefully help me to attain my aim. Good luck to everyone!

Good luck to you, Cath!

Bev wrote: "Good luck to you, Cath!"

Thanks, Bev! I'm wishing away the next 6 weeks so I can get started on my 2014 challenges!

Not my birthday and Christmas you aren't! Hence the present photo. ;) Plenty to enjoy when 2014 gets its fair turn.

LOL, C! I love Christmas but I also like the start of a New Year and deciding what books to read off my shelves. I love reorganising my books for my challenges, taking them off the shelf and stroking them because they're so beautiful. I'm such a book-nerdy person. :-D

Turning 41 tomorrow or not, I will also always embrace my personal birthday with no less excitement than I did as a kid. I reflect and find many more aspects to be delighted about. So with this to look forward to, I had to tease you about moving ahead.

Book crazies like you and I don't need January (or February, when I set my brand new challenges) to ogle covers. I know you're already doing it! Hahaha! I'm stopping myself from reading certain ones because they'll be "better next year". We strategists, eh!

Oh gosh, Happy birthday for tomorrow, C! I love birthdays too. Love them to last all week and to do something every day with family or go book shopping or whatever. I hope you have a really lovely day. :-)

Ah. My cover is blown. Yes, I do ogle my books every single day. Shift them around, bring out something I'd forgotten I had, make piles... do some more shifting. I sometimes wonder if I'm a trifle peculiar.

Oh yes, I'm now saving books for next year and the various challenges I'm doing. I never thought of myself as a strategist, but that such a pefect description.

If you didn't catch it posts elsewhere, everyone is always welcome to call me Carolyn. I leave it as "C" on Goodreads to reduce info to the main public.

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes! I'm a 40 year-old who'll never grow up. And who looks nothing like this number! :) My baby picture is my thumbnail portrait now.

C. wrote: "If you didn't catch it posts elsewhere, everyone is always welcome to call me Carolyn. I leave it as "C" on Goodreads to reduce info to the main public.

Ok... thanks, I will do that.

Hope you're enjoying your birthday! :-)

How very kind! Thank you!

My first book, (hoping the link works):

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Cath wrote: "My first book, (hoping the link works):

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder."

One down!

Yep, very pleased to have made a start at last as my first book of the year was a library book. But The Long Winter was a good choice for my first book for this challenge. Hope they're all as good as that one!

That's novel VI. I trust you began with the others. It's been maybe twenty-five years since I read my blue set. (I'm not at all old. I was single-digits, extremely young when I devoured them - numerous times through). However one time, I had the priviledge and thrill of travelling to South Dakota, USA where they are buried! I visited te schoolhouse, one of their homesteads, and there bought two late books I hadn't heard of.

My gushing is to say it happens for Melanie's epistolary theme, I'll be reading finally: "On My Way Home" and "West From Home". There were kittens and a sweet, "any day now" pregnant cow on that farm! The whole experience was awesome (and of course they were safe farm animals, living there freely and permanently at the museum).

Hi Carolyn. Yes I did begin with the previous 5 books, have been reading them over the past couple of years in fact, it's been a little while since I read any but I absolutely love them. I think The Long Winter is my favourite so far but I also loved The Little House on the Prairie.

I'm full of envy that you've been to South Dakota and seen their graves and where they lived. I can't even imagine being able to do that!

An American friend gave my grand-daughter a biography or autobiography (not sure which) of LIW so I'll be pinching that to read once I've read all the books. Have to buy the last three first though. Can't wait to see what you think of the two volumes of letters.

Which stage are you doing for this challenge? I was looking for you earlier to see how you're doing and couldn't find you.

Book two, a science fiction read:


Consider Phlebus by Iain M. Banks.

Book three, another science-fiction read:

Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Good to hear from you!

C. wrote: "Good to hear from you!"

Thanks, Carolyn! I'm having a quiet few weeks, hibernating until Spring comes. Enjoying my books and challenges. Can't wait to start a mystery for your mystery challenge. They're all lined up on the shelf. :-)

Cath wrote: "Book three, another science-fiction read:

Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold."

One of my personal reading goals this year is to read the Vorkosigan series -- how did you like this?

Yes, it's time for me to read like the wind too. By April I'm planning my garden and the sun is out long enough, I can't curl up at 6:00PM without looking foolish. ;) I don't really read anywhere but bed. The Canadian group runs Jul 1-Jul 1, for Canada day. So at gardening time, I alsofocus on my nation's authors. Choosing whatever I wish for other themes must occur now.

I'm thrilled you're premiering my themes with me! I'd love to gather more. However what we have is grand for my first year out. Leslie and others, you're welcome too. Carolyn

Carolyn
Can I ask you what it looks like in South Dakota ?It's one of the states I've always wanted to visit . I bet it 's beautiful .
A REALLY late Happy Birthday !

Thank you, Julie! I love getting well-wished in November. Some of my relatives are late this year anyway. :) South Dakota, USA took a few days to reach by car from Manitoba. I'll never forget it. I expected prairie plains like my province. (We're mixed with awesome forests).

It seemed instead like the very dry, hot cowboy west and like stepping back in time. I visited more than one cave, a free-roaming animal park (a better way to do zoos), a western food and music show. Of course Ingalls historic spots, Mount Rushmore, and even more impressive, the Aboriginal statue of Crazy Horse, who is huger. Thanks for asking, I love telling about it!

Cath darling! Further to your wonderful enthusiasm; do count anything that fits my 3 challenges, starting now. If you don't review on your blog / Book Depository / Goodreads / Amazon before February 1, it's all the same. :) I'm going to roll out a welcome post on my blog and can't wait to see what everyone reads!

Leslie: I've read two of the Vorkosigan books so far - The Warrior's Apprentice and Shards of Honour. I read them in that order too and should have read them the other way round and 'Barrayar' inbetween. (Hope I'm making sense here...) This is because Shards and Barrayar are about Miles Vorkosigan's parents and how they meet, the rest of the books mainly - I think - involve Miles. Anyway, after saying all that I really did enjoy them, especially Shards of Honour. I plan to read Barrayar next. I hope you try them and enjoy them. :-)

Carolyn: Same here with the garden in Spring, so I tend to get a lot of reading done in the Winter. From April to about October is all about how much we can grow to eat, harvesting it, and then preparing it all for the freezer or making jams, pickles and chutneys.

Ok then, I will do that. In fact when I've finished the YA library book I'm currently reading - probably tomorrow - I will start on my first book for your challenge. I signed up for 5 to 10 books but have 14 books on the shelf for it. My Maths ain't great but even I can see there's something wrong there. ;-)

Are you doing 10 colours or 10 topics for "Gentle Spectrums" too? The lovely thing is that one can be trundling along through the year and find we're reading titles that match. I think our themes this year are going to turn out very easy indeed.

Something occurred to me! I hadn't planned on reading Agatha's autobiography this year. We both own it. Perhaps you, I, and interested parties could explore it jointly. Hug, Carolyn. :)

P.S. As a Canadian who has seen -36C temperatures, you bet our hearts go into our gardens whilst mother nature lets us grow our own produce, fruit, and berries! Even flowers aren't merely pretty. I see first-hand that they provide nouishment and homes for insects and birds. I happen to be fond of non-biting insects and save them from a puddle or a pickle any time they need. :)

Cath wrote: "Leslie: I've read two of the Vorkosigan books so far - The Warrior's Apprentice and Shards of Honour. I read them in that order too and should have read them the other way round and 'Barrayar' inbe..."

I have read Cordelia's Honor which is the first omnibus edition - I think it is Shards and Barrayar but it was several years ago now. I am hoping to get to the next omnibus soon, which should be The Warrior's Apprentice and The Vor Game.

Carolyn: No, I'm not doing the colour one. I have 5 challenges for the whole year and 2 regular ones that cover several months each and think, me not being a very fast reader, that that's about my limit.

I think that's a good idea about the Christie autobiography. Maybe later in the year and ask if others might be interested? That could be a delightful experience.

I'm pretty certain that our growing season in the UK is longer than yours in Canada due to our more temperate climate. We don't get minus temps like that. Yes, I agree about the flowers. I also love growing herbs to attract bees, marjoram and oregano are wonderful for that. :-)

Leslie: Thank you for accepting my friend request!

I need to read Barrayar and then the next Miles book is The Vor Game I think. I gather the books get better and better as they progress.

Goodness yes, most countries have longer frost dates. I don't know about your hardiness zone but we're 3. Thankfully the good Lord makes a lot of arduous plants, grass, and trees that suit our spectrum. And spring and summer life grow remarkably fast. My prizes for the groups are cute, odd things from home; including postcards, used paperbacks, and seeds. :)

C. wrote: "Goodness yes, most countries have longer frost dates. I don't know about your hardiness zone but we're 3. Thankfully the good Lord makes a lot of arduous plants, grass, and trees that suit our sp..."

Wow, a 3! I am in zone 6 (I think)...

I don't know if 'MA' stands for Massachusetts or Maine but can't see a northern state being a 6. Cath in Devon, I picture at 7 or 8. Yes, for 3, we grow nearly all of our food in south-eastern Manitoba May to November. Not surprisingly given my cat motherhood, we're vegetarian. :)

Carolyn and Leslie: Hmm... I've never heard of hardiness zones! How interesting. I imagine Carolyn to be correct when she guesses at 7 or 8 though. The UK is warmed by the Gulf Stream and Devon and Cornwall are two particularly mild counties.

We tend to start planting in March but that said my husband planted our shallots today. In pots in the greenhouse admittedly but even still... Over-wintering in the garden and quite happy (and pickable of course) we have leeks, Brussel sprouts, kale. I picked some today to have with our evening meal. :-)

If you gave no thought to hardiness zones, you're high enough to not worry about frost dates! Cornwall grows tropical flowers (although all it did was pour). Of course the lovely Devon, where I had my first real scone and cream, is one county inland. Are you town or country?

We've left parsnips and spinach all year; the former underground, the latter outside our kitchen door. The tricky thing is that vegetables strong enough to leave out, are eaten by deer if you don't grab your broccoli etc faster than them. But I love those beauties in winter, so lovely to behold. I lived a lifetime in apartments and the city and waited long to be in their graceful presence.

C. wrote: "I don't know if 'MA' stands for Massachusetts or Maine but can't see a northern state being a 6. Cath in Devon, I picture at 7 or 8. Yes, for 3, we grow nearly all of our food in south-eastern Ma..."

MA stands for Massachusetts and you are right, I am in zone 5. I don't have a green thumb but I wish I did :)

Hmm, I seem to be having real trouble getting the html to work here. So I'll just try a link to my blog review of The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer.

http://read-warbler.blogspot.co.uk/20...

Your correction was tweaked at "My Kind Of Mystery". Funny that both my earliest reviewers chose the letter H. I hope everyone enjoys the semi author-alphabetized layout. :)

My book 5. for Mount Ararat is Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers.

http://read-warbler.blogspot.co.uk/20...

Oooo! I need her third, "Unnatural Death", otherwise I have enough to get started with this famous dame.

C. wrote: "Oooo! I need her third, "Unnatural Death", otherwise I have enough to get started with this famous dame."

I am tempted to send you my copy just so you will start - she is one of my favorite authors!

Carolyn and Leslie: I didn't start with book 1. Someone on FB suggested I read the Harriet Vane books first, so I've read the first two of the books that she's in. Not sure which to read next but I really want to read all of them. Nine Tailors looks good and so does Gaudy Night. Any suggestions Leslie?

Leslie, I'd love it. I've been trading with someone in England and if I have anything you need; it works out beautifully! :) Please e-mail me and I'll let you look at my giveaway list. Never any pressure if there isn't anything you need yet. Hug to you both!

C. wrote: "Leslie, I'd love it. I've been trading with someone in England and if I have anything you need; it works out beautifully! :) Please e-mail me and I'll let you look at my giveaway list. Never ..."

Sorry - I didn't mean to get your hopes up! I wouldn't part with any of my Sayers books but I will check to make sure I don't have two! I'll message you...

@Cath - I actually like the Harriet Vane ones least. I think Nine Tailors is better than Gaudy Night. Another good one is Murder Must Advertise…

If you look at my profile, it shows enough of my e-address for friends, to figure it out. If you find you have books you're willing to trade, e-mail is easier and I could attach my list for you to browse. On dial-up, when I first load Goodreads it can take 15 minutes for the home screen.

Leslie: Now that's really interesting that you like the HV books least of all. I must read a non-Harriet one now to see what I think. I like the character of Wimsey's valet, Bunter, and am hoping he features more in some of the earlier books.

I love the way everyone has different opinions on books.

I own "Murder Must Advertise". Thank you for explaining that some novels are outside Dorothy's series. Perhaps I can read it straight away, or does it have accompanying books?

Two more books read for Mount Ararat:

6. Sundiver by David Brin
7. Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes

http://read-warbler.blogspot.co.uk/20...

We spoke of Ms. Sayers. I looked at my back of "Murder Must Advertise" and it appears to be a 'Lord Wimsey' volume. I think it's my copy of "The Documents In The Case" that I may read willy nilly. The literary chess-players that we are: it'll suit Bev's vintage theme, Mélanie's epistolary, and 'My Kind Of Mystery' chez moi. :) I hope everyone re-visits the main page to look for... interesting things. I'm launching the first 'A RIEDEL Clue' ASAP.

Cath wrote: "Two more books read for Mount Ararat:

6. Sundiver by David Brin
7. Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes

http://read-warbler.blogspot.co.uk/20......"

I liked that whole series by Brin - have read them more than once!