Mount TBR 2021 discussion
Mount Blanc (24 books)
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Sam goes hiking yet again
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Aww, Bev, I wouldn't want to miss it. As nice as the idea of a TBR of 0 might sound, I'm not sure I'll ever get there. And this challenge has always been a great pleasure, thank you so much for organizing it year after year!Instead of seeing my TBR as a to do list that I must tick off one after the other, I'm slowly getting to the point where it is just one more source of things to read. I just have to remind myself not to let the pile grow over my head again :)
Welcome back, Sam! Honestly, this challenge has become a fixture for me as well, and a year without a mountain to climb seems dreadful. I guess we all like the adventure, the scenery...and having lots of books waiting to be read. Good luck with your climb!
As the reading plans for 2021 take shape I realized there are plenty of books on my unread shelves and my to re-read shelves to reach Mt. Blanc. 2020 has been a pain in every respect (I'm barely reaching Pike's Peak) and I want to focus more on this challenge next year.So I moved this thread to the Mount Blanc folder. Setting the goal of 24 books from the beginning will hopefully motivate me further.
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Hopefully 2021 will be a better year for all of us! Good luck with Mt. Blanc!
01. Ninefox GambitThis is the best book I ever DNFed. It has interesting and diverse characters, great storytelling and some really mindbending ideas. Which is, sadly, exactly the reason I have to put it down. There is no translation available where I live and reading it in English just is a little too hard for me to be enjoyable. So I'm hoping for a translation to come and save me, for I'd really love to read and understand more of it (without slowcooking my brain in the attempt).
02. Wilde: Complete Fairy TalesAnd another book finished before the end of January. This is a collection of Wilde's fairy tales, some shortes stories and prose poems. Overall Wilde's mixture of cynicism and kitsch is enjoyable. This edition came with beautiful art nouveau title illustrations by Heinrich Vogeler.
03. The Left Hand of DarknessNot always an easy read, but a profund one. In the end I can savely say I loved it. In my mind I kept using genderneutral pronouns for the Gethen characters instead of the generic masculine form used in the book, that being the only caveat of an otherwise thoughtprovoking and poetic novel.
04. WintersmithA quick but not very pleasant reread of book three in the Tiffany Aching series. This is the final installment in my personal collection, now on to the books I haven't read. I don't own them, so they won't appear here.
05. The Three MusketeersIt's hard to believe I finally made it through this chunk of a swashbuckler. I'm still recuperating from the final not all too happy pages.
06. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood PalIt is always fun to reread Lamb, and it is especially fun to read this with and to others. After a few years I tend to forget whole parts of the story, a great advantage when it comes to rereading.
It is astonishing how many details of historic dispute Moore managed to work into this reimagining of Jesus' life. For example, Judas in his story is not a traitor, rather Jeshua told him what to do. In the original texts the verb used here can mean "betray" but also "give over to". It has been translated as "betray" only in connection with Judas' story. In other parts of the texts when this particular verb is used, it was translated in the latter meaning. Therefore, it is not clear if Judas betrayed anyone, but this meaning was superimposed.
There are other examples of Moore's research, some of them mentioned in his afterword.
07. Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock StarsThe construct of this book is as appealing as it is flawed: Each chapter covers one year in rock history and one topical rock star to represent it. It became obvious that the author was more prepared to write about some topics than others. There was a particularly bodacious chapter on the first meeting of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, describing the mechanics of teen culture in the UK at that time. Others weren't as strong, but the writing made up for it mostly. A pleasure to read and also to listen to, as every chapter is accompanied by a ten piece playlist for that year. The book also comes with a very detailed bibliography for further reading. I only wish it included the video interviews and stage acts mentioned.
08. QualityLandAs preparation for QualityLand 2.0, I reread this absolute gem of german fiction (I haven't used this book in previous Mt. TBR challenges). It's a minute observation of our sometimes technocratic society and the destructive potential of the technologies we trust and use every day. But instead of a pondering literary effusion, this dystopia is a comedy that knows its facts. The only caveat for me is that there are not enough female characters, the story is unnecessarily overpopulated by male characters. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the new installment.
09. QualityLand 2.0This is a new story yet feels very much like an update on all the subjects Kling didn't have the time or space to put in the first book. Also some more female POVs, but still not enough to silence my criticism. It is an okay sequel, but not as funny as the original. This audiobook is not, like book one, a live recording with an audience chuckling along and this might have made a difference, like watching a movie in a cinema vs watching it on your home screen. I know I won't be going back to this installment as often as to Qualityland, which remains genius.
10. AmericanahI finally read and loved Americanah! It has been the oldest book on my tbr following The three Musketeers (milestone 5 on this ascend). To be honest I was amazed at how readable it was considering the heavy topics it covers, and how much I felt connected with its protagonists even though we have not much in common. I enjoyed Adichie's writing immensely and will pick up more of her books in the future.
11. The AffirmationNot really sure what happened. I LOVED The Prestige (book, not movie, although the adaption is good). This earlier work of Priest hints at many of his later themes and motifs I guess, but the ideas didn't gel for me, it was all too nebulous. I want to give the author another shot and try one of his later novels.
12. Das Schwert im SteinThe Once and Future King is one of my alltime favourite audiobooks. No, scratch that. Is is paramount and I love it to pieces. So you might have guessed by now this was a reread for me. When I read this series for the first time I had borrowed it from the library, but sometime after, I got my own copy. White really knows his medieval sources and combines silliness and philosophy in a way that just works. Or at least it works in the German audiobook read by the wonderful comedian and wielder of words Jochen Malmsheimer. Needless to say I am currently listening to book two.
13. The Female ManThis is a weird one. For the most part I had no idea what was going on plotwise. But Ross' excellent observations and piercing style made me read this in a short amount of time. I've never read anything quite like it. I certainly wish there was a German translation not gone out of print for ages.
14. Die Königin von Luft und DunkelheitThe second book in the Once and Future King series is considered by many readers to be the weakest installment. But I love it. I foreshadows much of the coming darkness while providing philosophical insights as well as lighthearted slapstick.
15. The Book of NightsMy first encounter with this literary dark magical realism family saga was one of the most profound reading experiences of my teenage years. The Péniel family history is twisted and tragically interwoven with France's ballistic history. Germaine's language was a revelation to my fairy-crazed, romantically inclined teenage brain. Revisiting it for the first time after what must be 17 years (gosh!), I was delighted to return, astonished at some of the details I did still remember, and also excited at the scenes I view with a bucketload more criticism. I have grown as a reader in the past one and a half decades, heck, I even studied literature. But even with this knowledge and experience, Sylvie Germaine's novel remains mysterious and undecipherable in parts. Which might just be the best part about it.
We are halfway into the challenge and I'm pleased with my progress. So far I acquired 7 new books, but have already read 2 of them.
Counting rereads for this challenge really made a difference for my reading. Usually I don't reread much as not to lose time on new reads. Which is sad, because I was a huge rereader before I came to Goodreads. Also, using rereads for Mount TBR means I will be able to participate in this challenge for years to come. And that is the best part of it :)
16. Among OthersWhat an unusual novel. Don't read this if you dislike loose ends. Many many SFF references here, I think I'm going to put together a reading list from the mentioned titles. I imagine that reading this novel with all the referenced literature under your belt must be more meaningful, adding another layer. I enjoyed the whole experience.
ETA:17. Der missratene Ritter
Somehow I forgot to include book three in the series even though I reread this one too,for obvious reasons.
18. Die Kerze im Wind
The fourth book of the Once and Future King is my final reread before heading to The Book of Merlyn, which I haven't read before. This fourth installment is so melancholic, I just love the ending so much. Always a joy.
19. The Book of MerlynI must say I prefer the ending of the fourth book. It is a lot less lofty and a lot more entertaining. This fifth book feels very unfinished, like a rough idea that needs some story to fold out onto. It was nevertheless very interesting to further dive into White's mind and I tremenduously enjoyed reading the foreword detailing the evolution of the whole series.
20. Briefe in die chinesische VergangenheitA Chinese guy from the 9th century time-travels to 1990s Munich. Entertaining enough, but sure hasn't aged that well. Also it became apparent that the author wasn't sure what to write about contemporary literature, using the classics as a stand-in. Rosendorfer was completely at a loss when one of Kao-Tai's friends used his time-travelling device to visit the future. He literally didn't find words to decsribe what he had seen, a missed opportunity a real weakness.
21. Signal to NoiseI know Meche is a real fucked up character and this shouldn't have turned out the way it did. But when I started listening to the soundtrack of the book while reading it, I was almost there in 1988's Mexico. I'm a huge music nerd and this playlist was a perfect selection of classics and time pieces conjuring up a time and place I never knew but every bit as real as if I knew it.
So all things considered, Signal to Noise got me really excited to read more of Moreno-Garcia's work.
22. House of LeavesA reread after roughly 9 years. Not one can call this madhouse of an experience even reading. It is always interesting to return to a challenging book after a long stretch of time: Many things have changed in the meantime, you bring different things to the book and have become a different person altogether. The first time I scribbled my notes with a pencil, this time I commented with a biro. I'm already looking forward to revisiting my notes along with the main text maybe ten years from now.
23. Die Eleganz des IgelsOn a whim I revisited my audiobook copy of The Elegance of the Hedgehog. The story is highly pretentious, but I enjoy both narrators so much, they bring the characters to life in such a charming manner.
24. The Little FriendThe final Tartt book I had yet to read was a disappointment. Mostly the harm was done by the very misleading and plain wrong description provided by the publisher, but even with this in mind the story wasn't my cup of tea.
Mount TBR 2021
Books mentioned in this topic
The Little Friend (other topics)Die Eleganz des Igels (other topics)
Der kleine Freund (other topics)
Die Eleganz des Igels (other topics)
House of Leaves (other topics)
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ETA: I moved this thread from Pike's Peak to Mount Blanc. All books considered, there are enough miles on my mountain to go for 24 books and I'd rather have that goal in sight from the beginning instead of going in stages.
My owned unread books*
*) Not all of them are eligible for this challenge, but it would feel wrong not to list them together.
The very dusty ones: 2015-2017 (3/3) ✓
The Three Musketeers*Americanah*City of Golden ShadowProlonged shelf life: 2018-2019 (7/10)
The Left Hand of Darkness*The Luminaries*The Little Friend*Mythago Wood*The Affirmation*The Female Man*Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars*London: The Biography*The Book of Merlyn*Ninefox GambitLeftovers from 2020 (5/7)
Signal to Noise*Wilde: Complete Fairy Tales*Among Others*Letters Back to Ancient China*Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures*QualityLand 2.0*The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939Snapshots from the ascend (24/24)*
*) Contains rereads.