Mount TBR 2020 discussion

It's mid-November 2019, and I'm on track to scale Mt Ararat this year ... but the TBR is still scary. That means I need to scale up in 2020.

Iola wrote: "It's mid-November 2019, and I'm on track to scale Mt Ararat this year ... but the TBR is still scary. That means I need to scale up in 2020."

Glad you've done so well this year. Look forward to climbing with you in 2020!

1. DNF for Her Hope Discovered by Cynthia Herron. It's probably a perfectly good book, but the heroine sounded too much like my entitled teenager for me to want to read it.

Yes, yet again, I count DNFs. Because the objective is to slay that TBR pile, and that's not going to happen any other way.

Iola wrote: "1. DNF for Her Hope Discovered by Cynthia Herron. It's probably a perfectly good book, but the heroine sounded too much like my entitled teenager for me to want to read it.

Yes, yet again, I count..."

You're getting rid of it, that's all that counts! One book down!

Absolutely count those DNF--off the TBR stack they go!

2. Getting into Character by Brandilyn Collins

3. Insight by Deborah Raney

4. More than Words Can Say by Karen Witemeyer

5. Choose Me by Marion Ueckermann - DNF at 18% after I decided I wasn't interested in a doctor/patient romance. I might have been more relaxed if the doctor had said she wasn't his patient, but he said she was ... twice.

6. Flights of Fancy by Jen Turano

You are off to a great start Iola!

Thank you :) It helps that it’s the summer holidays here in New Zealand, and it’s too windy outside to want to go to the beach.

7. A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Messiner - brilliant dual timeline women's fiction with romantic elements.

At this rate, I might have to up my target to El Toro. Don't tell my husband :)

My Kindle to-read pile is 92 books I've paid for plus 143 free downloads (plus all the books on the old Kindle, which I'm ignoring). I also have around 100 unread paperbacks. I'll get to those soon.

8. The Convenient Bride by Jennifer St George
9. Seducing the Secret Heiress by Jennifer St George

A 2-in-1 paperback, but it's two stories so counts as two :)

10. Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress

11. Together at the Table by Hillary Manton Lodge

12. Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas

I have been keeping up with my reading, but not getting to the DNF pile. On the plus side, I have been reading review copies and the books I've bought this year, which at least means Mt TBR isn't growing ... by as much as it could be (it's currently 153 free books and 95 paid-for Kindle books). But I've headed to the paperback pile this weekend:

13. Tender Vow by Sharlene MacLaren - DNF because I didn't like the heroine

14. Driftwood by Mandy Magro - DNF because I thought it was contemporary romance but it seems to be split time and I'm not interested in the historical aspect

15. Can't Beat the Chemistry by Kat Colmer - a brilliant YA romance :)

16. Engraved on the Heart by Tara Johnson - excellent :)

And I'm now on track for 60 books in the year (helped by the number of DNFs).

Duplicate post. Weird.

17. Perfectly Dateless by Kristen Billerbeck - DNF because I found the font hard to read (reading is supposed to be pleasure, not effort), and I didn't like any of the characters.

18. Love's Rescue by Christine Johnson.

19. Hope Harbor by Irene Hannon - I'd forgotten what a good writer she is.

20. Jac of Hearts by Jenny Mahoney - YA romance with suspense elements that would have been better without the nonsense suspense subplot.

21. That Certain Summer by Irene Hannon

An Alien at St Wilfreds by Adrian Plass - dated, but still funny.

23. Zenna Dare by Rosanne Hawke - excellent Australian YA.

I'm on target for my 2020 TBR total, but need to do more work on some of the subsections:

- new-to-me authors
- indie books
- writing books
- marketing books

24. Just Between You and Me by Jenny B Jones. This was on my physical TBR pile, but now I finish it and log it here on GR, I find I also used it for my 2013 Mt TBR challenge ...

I'm counting it again, and this time it's going in the donation bag so I don't make that mistake again.

25. Frozen Heat by "Richard Castle"

Interesting to read as a fan of the TV series, but not interesting enough to reread, or read the rest in the series.

It's been a busy couple of months, so I'm behind ...

26. Love Finds You in Prince Edward Island by Susan Page Davis

An enjoyable light read ... and another one for the donation bag.

27. Journey of Hope by Debbie Kaufman.

Excellent Christian historical romance in a unique setting - 1920 in Liberia.

28. Dead Heat by Bronwyn Parry - excellent suspense set in outback Australia. This was a RITA finalist, and I can see why.

Well, I am definitely behind schedule. On the plus side, I'm trying to read books when I buy them (which reduces my future Mt TBR if not the current one).

29. Healing Hannah's Heart by Preslaysa Williams
30. Kiss You Now by Jan Thompson
31. Find You Again by Jan Thompson

32. Come Rain or Shine by Tricia Stringer - DNF as I decided at the end of Chapter 1 that I didn't care enough about the chracters to care about the ending ... I then skipped to the last chapter, which convinced me I'd made the right choice.

33. Mackenzie Crossing by Kaye Dobbe - enjoyable Australian dual timeline

34. The Listener by Terri Blackstock
35. The Gifted by Terri Blackstock

Two months behind schedule, but getting there ...

36. Told You So by Kristen Heitzmann. Not her best work - it took me a week to struggle through it, which was a waste of good reading time.

37. Arise and Shine by Jane Troughton

38. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer & Annie Burrows

39. The Corinth Letters by Ben Chenoweth

Dual timeline - historical timeline was interesting, even if it included large portions of paraphrased Bible quotations. Modern timeline was somewhat preachy, and I didn't like the "hero". Proofreading excellent, but the actual novel needed a good edit.

40. Writing the Christian Romance by Gail Gaymer Martin

41. The Art of Romance Writing by Valerie Parv
42. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

43. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Amy Matayo

I spend the first 45% of the novel loathing the sole POV character. Then it changed to a new POVC who was so loathsome she was funny (which at least kept me reading). Then there was a new POV character who was at least sympathetic and likeable, but this book was a chore to finish.

44. 5 Secrets of Story Structure by KM Weiland

Short and parts were repeating her previous book on novel structure, but worth reading all the same.

45. The Sea Before Us by Sarah Sundin
46. Marrying Miss Marshall by Lacy Williams

47. 5 Editors Tackle the 12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction
48. Writing Vivid Plots by Rayne Hall