Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week, you are sorting your TBR and checking out the books that have been sitting there the longest. For an extra challenge, you can look for books that had been one your TBR for over a year at January 2024.

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

What are you reading for this prompt?

I bought this book a couple of years ago at Fabled Bookshop in Waco, TX, and it's been sitting in my TBR bookcase taunting me. Last year, I heard the author speak at the Texas Book Festival about her newest book, The Madstone. I read it immediately and quickly learned that Crook is a great storyteller. I'm excited to read The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook.

I've had We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange for just over a year.

These two have been on my TBR for a loooong time:
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

Maybe I will finally get to East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I added it in 2017, and I keep passing it by. Should I read it or just take it off?

NancyJ wrote: "Maybe I will finally get to East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I added it in 2017, and I keep passing it by. Should I read it or just take it off?"

I can’t help you there. I haven’t read it. I’m asking myself the same question about Steve Jobs, John Adams, and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, all added in 2020.

There is no rule that you can’t prune the list of books you no longer want to read.

I have a couple hundred books that have been on my list for over a year, so I'm going back and choosing two of the very oldest -- A Sport and a Pastime, added in 2017, and The Man Who Folded Himself, added in 2015 (that one would also work well for "intriguing title").

I really enjoyed East of Eden, among the best “classics” I’ve read.

Nancy - Absolutely read East of Eden! It’s my favorite Steinbeck book. Please don’t take it off your list.

I have no idea what to read for this prompt (with thousands to choose from) but would like to go with a book that’s been on my book shelf for decades, either Foucault’s Pendulum or Sister Carrie, a gift from my mom.

I was a bit stuck on this, because for the first round of this challenge, also known as making things difficult for myself, I wanted to read a book published in 2024, and nothing on my quite short TBR fitted. Then I remembered seeing Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond in Waterstones and thinking it looked interesting, so provided I read it after April when it was published, I can count it.

For my 2016 book, I have planned The Power, which has been vaguely on my mental to read list for a while.

I’m trying to clear out some of my Owned & Unread Piles in ‘25 so I have lots of options for this prompt. Right now I have penciled in The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller. It was published in July 2021 and I added it to my book catalog in April 2022 (probably when it was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction).

I'm interpreting this as being over a year at the time I read it, but I've restricted myself with the Anniversary Challenge to reading a book published in the same year as the prompt is from. I've chosen The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka, which went on my TBR on 16 January 2024, though I probably won't read it until later in the year.

I could probably close my eyes and pick a book from my shelves and chances are, it’s been there waiting for a year or more! But I think I’ll read Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things or The Son by Philipp Meyer.

Just finished The Unhoneymooners didn't realize I read book 2 before book 1

I'll repeat what I did this year and read the #1 on my Goodreads TBR. This past year it was Kafka on the Shore, now it's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values.

I also have a general resolution for next year to try and focus on books that I own but haven't read yet, and things off my TBR. So hopefully a lot of my prompt fills will also qualify for this! Of course, I make a similar resolution every year, and as soon as I do my first trip to the library, it goes out the window!

I read Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters - book 13 of the Amelia Peabody series - for this prompt. I love this series. It is comfort reading for me. My friend had gotten me Audible credits for my birthday (awesome gift, right?!), so I spent two of them on Peabody books. I figured that this year's insanity called for comfort reads! I really enjoyed it.

I read In Five Years Rebecca Serle which I've had for almost....five years

For this prompt, I read:
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich - 4* - My Review (on my TBR since 2017)

I read The New Iberia Blues by James Lee Burke (Read March 25th; 4*) It had been on my TBR since March 2023

I read Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano, the second oldest book on my TBR at November 2023.

After a lot of moving around from different prompts, I have ended with my original plan: Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond. The author presents popular history programmes on television so I wasn't expecting the book to be as technical as it was in parts. Some interesting sections, though, particularly the finds around an old leper hospital. For my 2016 read, I used The Good Immigrant which has been hanging around my mental TBR for years. It was was an interesting and thought- provoking set of essays.

In 2024, I read All About Love: New Visions and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us

I read Sisters by a River by Barbara Comyns.

I read When He Was Wicked

I read Margo's Got Money Troubles. I started this earlier this year and in the moment it didn't work for me (I only got through one chapter). I knew I wanted to give it another go and I am so glad I did. I was so surprised by it and how much it made me think.

I used The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao - on my tbr since 2021.

I read 4 other books on my tbr since 2018-2021, and found other slots for them.

The oldest was Middlesex which I owned since it first was published, I or lent out that copy but I never forgot it,