Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Welcome to the world of LOST. There are a series of 3 rounds of this game. The first, LOST, will establish the date for the other two [FOUND and Lost & Found].

So...to get started.

Pick the 10 oldest books on your TBR. These are books that have been languishing on your To Read list for the longest. You may use any list...a paper list, a GR list, or just your home shelves.

For this game, you may DNR a book and still count it, if you gave it a try. (I have found some gems by trying a book I did not think I wanted to read after all these years.)

Participants:

Bea
Beth
Beverly
CassieV
Charity
Joanna
LaurLa
Luann
LynnB
Meg
Michelle
Nat
Rosemary
Susan
Tien

Bea's List:
The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - Owned
The Pony Wife - Owned
Staying Well With Guided Imagery: How to Harness the Power of Your Imagination for Health and Healing - Owned
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - Owned
A World Waiting to Be Born: Civility Rediscovered
The Coffee Trader
Fallen
Watch Me Die
The American Heiress
No Mercy

This list is made up of unread books over the past 3 years of LOST. It is my attempt to finish all three years! There is a mix of 3 mysteries and 3 historical fiction which should be easy as they are faves for genres, but for some reason unread in past years. They were all added to TBR Wishlist in 2011.

My goal is to read the four that I own first. I want to clear my house of books by moving them on since I am aging...and I can't do that until I read them!

LOST 2026, #1

These are from books I own or can get from the library or Libby. I've caught up to 2021 on my TBR from past LOST reading, so that’s good!

1. You Belong Here Now, Libby
2. Another Time, Another Place, own
3. Letters Across the Sea, own
4. Daughters of War, own
5. The Sweetness of Forgetting, Libby
6. The Riviera House, own
📚7. Little Souls, Sandra Dallas, 4 Jan 2026
8. Cloud Cuckoo Land, library
9. The Great Passion, own
10. The Drowning Kind, own

LOST 2026
This year I will choose the 10 oldest books on my physical shelves.

1. In the Time of Foxes
2. Wonders of a Godless World
3. Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a time of beauty and loss
4. Man Out of Time
5. The Lace Weaver
6. Birdcage Walk
7. A Fraction of the Whole
8. Cairo
9. The Hollow Bones
10. The Labyrinth

I have a (small) TBR shelf of books I'm absolutely sure I want to read, and a huge shelf called "considering." This year, I'm going to choose my LOST books from "considering," in the hopes I can pare it down a bit. I suspect that means there will be more DNF books than usual. I'm going to try to complete LOST without counting those.

Jan 1 - December 31, 2026

added in 2010:
1. Strip
2. Mary Modern
3. A Quiet Belief in Angels
4. Two Moons

added in 2011:
5. The King of Lies
6. Reality Check
7. Truesight (Truesight #1)
8. Day of Confession
9. Open Season (Joe Pickett #1)
10. The Overton Window

progress 0/10 books as of 1/01

Yes please! Most of mine are from 2019 and 2020.
Read: 4/10

✔ 1. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher, 2 Jan 26
✔ 2. I Am Dust by Louise Beech, 5 Feb 26
✔ 3. The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy, 8 Feb 26
✔ 4. Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan, 25 Jan 26
5. The First and Last Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti
6. Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
7. The Gathering by Anne Enright
8. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
9. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
10. Sum: Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman

Let me just say that I'm still stuck in 2011... I should be more ruthless, if it's not easily reachable (already on my kindle or bookshelf), off they go!

1. Rachel Caine: Firestorm (Weather Warden #5) -Read 01/05
2. Agatha Christie: The Hollow (Hercule Poirot #26) -Read 01/07
3. Rachel Caine: Thin Air (Weather Warden #6) -Read 01/07
4. Agatha Christie: A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple #4) -Read 01/08
5. Alan Carter: Prime Cut (Cato Kwong #1) -Read 01/09
6. Tony Park: Dark Heart -Read 02/12
7. Paul Ham: Vietnam: The Australian War -Read 02/16
8. Mo Hayder: Birdman (Jack Caffery #1)
9. Anne Bishop: The House of Gaian
10. Maggie Shayne: Eternity (The Immortals #1)

Progress 7/10 books as at 02/16

Jennifer Donnelly: The Tea Rose (The Tea Rose #1)
Kate Forsyth: The Gypsy Crown (The Chain of Charms #1)
Aimee Carter: The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test #1.5)

My LOST list for 2026. I'm at the end of 2009 and starting in on 2010. :)

1. Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
2. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
3. Scat by Carl Hiaasen
4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
✔ 5. Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen - finished Feb. 4, 2026
6. A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King
7. The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander
8. The Beggar Queen by Lloyd Alexander
9. Dragongirl by Todd McCaffrey
10. Anpao by Jamake Highwater

-----------
FINISHED: 1 of 10

I have one that I won't finish in 2025, so I'll add that plus another ten in the hopes that I can get them all done this time. (Pulling from 2012)

1/11

Extra: Middlemarch

1. The Man in the Iron Mask
2. Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
3. The Forsyte Saga
4. The Haven
5. The Last Queen
6. A Love Forbidden
7. Grace Based Parenting: Set Your Family Free
8. Twelve UNLIKELY HEROES
✔9. Becoming Marie Antoinette - Read 1/24/26
10. Tomorrow's Treasure

I'm in!!

I thought I was doing great in 2025, then fell off and only finished 5.

Here are my ten, plus some alternates:

1. The Transit of Venus
2. Typical American
3. Observatory Mansions
4. Bird by Bird
5. Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism
6. The Last Family in England
7. Life in the Undergrowth
8. The Kommandant's Girl
9. Zoli
10. Plain Truth

Alternates:
Starting Out in the Evening
Girl with Curious Hair
Swimming Upstream, Slowly
The Nice and the Good

I'm in...even though I feel like these books just roll over year to year...LOL

1. The Daughter of Time
2. The French Lieutenant’s Woman
3. If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things: A Booker-Nominated Literary Mystery Where Lives Collide
4. If This Is a Man • The Truce
5. An Instance of the Fingerpost
6. Jude the Obscure
7. Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
8. The Government Inspector
9. Wide Sargasso Sea
10. Notes from Underground & The Double - Read 1/24/26

I'm in! Mine are from my GR Want to Read (long) list from 2017-2018 that I own. The ones listed are the closest to the edition I own as far as pages. Most are the exact edition.
1. Upon This Rock: The Life of St. Peter
2. Tom Jones
3. A Map of the World
4. Through the Back Doors of the World in a Ship That Had Wings
5. Extra Innings completed 02/15/26
6. Reggie: The Autobiography
7. Astrid and Veronika completed 01/09/26
8. Sphere
9. One Summer: America, 1927 finished 02/01/26
10. Little House in the Ozarks: the Rediscovered Writings. 140+ Pieces Written between the Years 1911 and 1925 .

Beth wrote: "I'm in! Mine are from my GR Want to Read (long) list from 2017-2018 that I own. The ones listed are the closest to the edition I own as far as pages. Most are the exact edition.
1. [book:Upon This ..."

Bea, Does this replace message 3 above? Or are you planning to do two versions of this challenge? (If the latter, more power to you!)

Susan wrote: "Beth wrote: "I'm in! Mine are from my GR Want to Read (long) list from 2017-2018 that I own. The ones listed are the closest to the edition I own as far as pages. Most are the exact edition.
1. [bo..."

I think you are mixing me and Beth up. Two different people.

LOST 2026

Completed: 0/10

1. Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening (Nov 30 2018)
2. The Just City (Dec 4 2018)
3. The Summer Wives (Dec 5 2018)
4. Washington Black (Dec 9 2018)
5. The Friend (Dec 9 2018)
6. Blanca & Roja (Dec 11 2018)
7. Illuminae (Dec 11 2018)
8. Company Town (Dec 23 2018)
9. The Brotherhood of the Wheel (Dec 23 2018)
10. The Bone People (Feb 3 2019)

Bea wrote: "Susan wrote: "Beth wrote: "I'm in! Mine are from my GR Want to Read (long) list from 2017-2018 that I own. The ones listed are the closest to the edition I own as far as pages. Most are the exact e..."

Ah, you're right. I must've clicked on the wrong link above.

Widget is set up & active now

My spot - I'll be back!

LOST 2026


Completed: 0/10

All of these are from 2020.

1. The House of the Scorpion
2. The Invention of Wings
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
4. A Painted House
5. The Witness
6. The Dressmaker's Gift
7. Beach House for Rent
8. Golden Poppies
9. Pelosi
10. The Secret Letter

Extra: Daddy's Girls