Aussie Readers discussion

I'm setting myself a challenge to read a minimum of three OWNED paper books per month for 2017.

I desperately need to lessen the amount of unread books I have around my house :)

Aussie authors

Blood Brothers by Charles Beagley
Bad Seed by Alan Carter
Eyrie by Tim Winton
Standing Strong by Fiona McCallum
Right As Rain by Tricia Stringer
Dust On The Horizon by Tricia Stringer
Our Kind of Love by Victoria Purman
Only We Know by Victoria Purman
Tiger Men by Judy Nunn
Family Secrets by Liz Byrski
The Lightkeeper's Wife by Karen Viggers
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry
Forbidden Fruit by Kerry Greenwood
Colours of Gold by Kaye Dobbie
Mercy Street by Tess Evans
Crystal Creek by Charlotte Nash
Zoe's Muster by Barbara Hannay
Rosalee Station by Mandy Magro
Driftwood by Mandy Magro
To Love a Sunburnt Country by Jackie French
Heart Country by Kerry McGinnis
The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane
The Farmer's Wife by Rachael Treasure
The Reluctant Jillaroo by Kaz Delaney
The Soldier's Curse by Meg Keneally
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville
The Three Miss Allens by Victoria Purman
The Opal Desert by Di Morrissey
One Boy Missing by Stephen Orr
The Accident by Kate Hendrick
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Tim by Colleen McCullough
Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves by Matthew Reilly
Mistress to the Crown by Isolde Martyn
Olmec Obituary by L.J.M. Owen
Thirst by L.A. Larkin
Cyanide Games by Richard Beasley
Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham
Claiming Noah by Amanda Ortlepp

Several Deborah Challinor books
#1. Kitty
#2. White Feathers
#3. Amber
#4. Band of Gold

Several Bryce Courtenay books
The French Promise by Fiona McIntosh (and others)

Non Aussie authors


Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory
Jigsaw Man by Elena Forbes
The Final Murder by Anne Holt
Several Jack Higgins books
#1. The Midnight Bell

Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway's Ghost by Iain Reading
Joyland by Stephen King
Several Michael Connelly books
Several James Patterson books
#1. Truth or Die
#2. NYPD Red 4
#3. Cross the Line
#4. Mistress
#5. Private Games:
#6. Bullseye
#7. Private: No. 1 Suspect:

Dead Simple by Peter James
The Blackhouse by Peter May
Several Stuart MacBride books
Several Linwood Barclay
#1. Too Close to Home

Solitude Creek by Jeffery Deaver
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf
The Satanic Mechanic: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein
Life Support by Tess Gerritsen
Motive by Jonathan Kellerman
Little Girl Lost by Brian McGilloway
Stalked by Brian Freeman
Bleed a River Deep by Brian McGilloway
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
Look Again by Lisa Scottoline




And that's not all!

Great challenge, Brenda. Good luck :)

Thanks Sharon! I might need it ;)

This is a great idea to motivate you to reduce those owned-unread.

Thanks Veronica! I hope it works ;)

A great idea that I wish I could do. What are you going to do with the books you have read?

Thanks Anna :) I'm in the process of going through my spare bedroom sorting through books I've read and want to get rid of. I'll be keeping my favourite authors and donating the rest to charities. I've already got several boxes full ready to go!

That's what will happen with the ones I'm reading and will read...

Wow - you're on the ball, Brenda! Still over a month until 2017! I'm still thinking about my personal challenges...

But as far as 3 of your own books go - that will be a piece of cake for you - that will still leave you about 27 days of each month to read other books!

LOL! Yes, and you say I'm early - but I've been thinking about it for probably a month now! Thought I'd put it out there to cement the determination ;)

When the children left home, I fondly imagined I'd have a lot of time to read. It didn't work out that way. It meant I had more time to work...

But there will have to come a time when, with Brenda's inspirational lead, I might manage one paperback on my shelves every now and again and then I shall have more space. Space - the ultimate luxury.

LOL! I don't think book lovers (completely committed ones like us) will ever have more space Anna :)

Good luck Brenda - both with the challenge (which I know you'll blitz!) and making space in you bookshelves :)

Thanks Carolyn :) Making the space has stalled.... **must get back to it**

Great challenge Brenda and I agree with Kathryn, it will be a breeze for you. Who knows you may actually inspire the rest of us to do the same. The problem is how to stop adding to that owned TBR???

Finally updated my first post with some of the books I'd like to tackle in 2017!

Elaine wrote: "Great challenge Brenda and I agree with Kathryn, it will be a breeze for you. Who knows you may actually inspire the rest of us to do the same. The problem is how to stop adding to that owned TBR???"

Going to try very hard to slow that down! It'll never stop but if I can at least get rid of a fair few of the books I've had for years, I'll be happy :)

Great challenge Brenda!

Thanks Tracey :) and Michael...

I am impressed and wish you luck, I don't have the strength of will for it myself. Though all the routine challenges you post have reduced my 'to-read' shelves considerably!

Every Aussie readers challenge I have done included books from my Acquired-as-yet-unread bookcase and it is a bit trimmer than before I started doing them.

Thanks Deborah :) My strength of will is wavery too! I thought if I set this for myself I might be able to follow through! We will see :)

Yea, that's going to be my problem, too!! I think I could put a big dent in my TBR books, IF I can keep myself from buying one book for every one I read! It was hard enough before. How, I ask you, do I keep from adding even more 'want to read' books, that my wonderful friends recommend!

It's impossible Owl - I won't tell you otherwise ;) But we have fun trying!

Good luck, Brenda!

Thanks Kiera :)

Good luck Brenda, I should possibly do that too, read some of them and pass them on!

I'm also working through my bookshelf rather than borrowing anything from the library other than audio books. However the problem is I keep on getting more. However I no longer keep books once I read them. I pass them on to family and friends and that keeps the bookshelf from overflowing. i tell them not to return them to me but keep on passing on. To curb the need to buy too many I enter competitions, borrow from friends and family ( so they have to be returned) and have set myself a $50 a year budget for books. 2016 managed to stick these guidelines and never failed to have books on hand and have about 20 still to be read.

Thanks Stef :) Sounds good Noelene...

Brenda wrote: "It's impossible Owl - I won't tell you otherwise ;) But we have fun trying!"

Yea, I thought you would say that! =o)

I'm going to figure out what my personal reading challenge will be after Christmas. I asked for books for Christmas, like everyone else here probably did. In don't know how many of those will have to be added to my 2017 goal.
I like your ideas, everyone, so I'll do something similar! Thanks for the help =o)

Have fun Owl!

Thanks Steph :)

Good luck Brenda & happy reading in 2017! I'm doing the same thing but with a minimum goal of 22 books that I own (as of 12/31/16).

Thanks Pam :) And good luck with yours!

#1. Kitty by Deborah Challinor 1/1/17

#2. The Three Miss Allens by Victoria Purman 3/1/17

#3. Pieces of a Lie by Rowena Holloway 10/1/17

good luck!! i need to do the same but my books are all in boxes at my parents haha

Haven't you entered them on GR yet Anna? Took me awhile back when I first started, but they're all on here now. That's why my TBR is so massive!

You'll get there though :) And thanks!

That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good until you realise that along the way I started collecting ebooks instead. I have big back problems so ebooks work better for me anyway. And now it has seriously got away from me again and I am resigned to my addiction. LOL. But I do think that getting all the unread books onto GR is a great idea. Except you have to stop reading for quite a while to do that.

Mary wrote: "That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good until you realise that along the..."

I know exactly what you're up against! I started working on my bookshelves a few months ago and still haven't finished! It was good to get many of them done, as Brenda pointed out to me! I'm taking a break from it at the moment to get some of them read! Just keep pecking away! Good luck! =o)

Li'l Owl wrote: "Mary wrote: "That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good until you realise t..."

Thanks Owl. I've started and now I'm discovering forgotten gems. I think I may go back and edit my challenge plans to use up more of my owned books.

Mary wrote: "That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good until you realise that along the..."

It did take me a very long time Mary, but so worth it when it was done. I just wish I could remember those hundreds/thousands of books I've read over the years, pre-Goodreads!

Mary wrote: "Li'l Owl wrote: "Mary wrote: "That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good un..."

It's amazing what you find - and what you'd totally forgotten about!

some excellent reads ahead, Brenda

Thanks Marianne - I hope so :)

Mary wrote: "That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good until you realise that along the..."

Once you have it started it is easy. Went to a book fair yesterday and came back with quite a few, half an hours work and they are saved to Goodreads. Also, if I am standing at a table wondering if I already have that book a quick search on GR tells me if I do or not - that has saved me a fair bit of money over the last few years.

Also, my smartphone GR app has a 'scan' function where you scan the ISBN and it comes up. That saves a lot of time.

Wonderful if you have the scanning ability which I don't. But I agree about checking while you're staring a book in the face you're not sure of! I've done that on many occasions :)

#4. Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín 19/1/17

Brenda wrote: "Mary wrote: "That's impressive Brenda. As we have continued to downsize houses I have gone from 10 bookcases (one was a wall) plus piles down to half a book case. It sounds good until you realise t..."

That is my thing Brenda: for years I didn't keep books after reading them, often I 'wish I could remember that book...' On the bright side now that my memory is deteriorating with age I do have Goodreads as a crutch :)

LOL! It's very helpful :)