Pick-a-Shelf discussion
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Moving Mountain - 2026 Ed
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Mod
Goal: 5 books
So, I have two GR "to be read" shelves: one for books I own and one for any other book that interests me - usually library or kindle books.
I will draw from each.
Top 8 from Wishlist:
1. Body Count
2. The Riders
3. The Violin Conspiracy
4. The Known World
5. "I Am a Man": Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice
6. Mad Honey
7. Pancakes and Corpses
8. Gallowglass
Top 2 from Want to Read (Owned):
9. You Don't Want To Know
10. X, Y
Moving Mountains 2026Goal: 26 Books
1/26 Read
Books Read:
✔ 1. Poems, Second Series - Read 1/8/26
(view spoiler)
Mod
I know, we're all impatient when it comes to planning ha ha ha
Mod
Progress: 7/52 books as at 02/23
Books read:
1. If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw -Read 01/22
2. The Missing Nurse (Yorkshire Murder Mysteries #1) by Roger Silverwood -Read 01/30
3. The Canopy Keepers (The Scorched Earth #1) by Veronica G. Henry -Read 02/05
4. Dark Heart by Tony Park -Read 02/12
5. Boy of Chaotic Making (Whimbrel House #3) by Charlie N. Holmberg -Read 02/17
6. Captain America: Sam Wilson, Vol. 1: Not My Captain America -Read 02/18
7. The Burrow by Melanie Cheng -Read 02/23
8. The Laeduin (Disharmony #2) by Leah Giarratano
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15.
(view spoiler)
Mod
I know, we're all impatient when it comes to planning ha ha ha"
Oops! Well, count it as the 15th's draw.
My spotMoving Mountains '26
Progress: 2/52 books as at 30/01
Books read:
1. Someone You Can Build a Nest In
2. The Dilemma
3.
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5.
6.
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10.
January Draw -
1. You, Me, and the Colors of Life*
2. Prisoners of Geography
3. The Essex Serpent
4. The Unseen World
5. A Lifetime of Impossible Days*
6. Born Into This*
7. The Dilemma*
8. Someone You Can Build a Nest In*
9. Metronome
10. Affinity
February Draw -
1. The Woman in the Waves
2. Lone Women*
3. A Children's Bible
4. The Night Parade
5. Four Seasons in Japan
6. Hester and Harriet
7. Canticle Creek
8. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead*
9. The Keep
10. The Burning Side*
March Draw -
1. Salvage*
2. Stay Awake
3. The Other Half of Augusta Hope
4. On the Calculation of Volume IV*
5. The Rush
6. The Man Who Saw Everything
7. The Gifted School
8. A Curious Beginning
9. Scythe
10. Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats
Hi Tien - can I also suggest? ... you can also skip a book on the list if the book you draw has already been included in a previous month draw
Mod
Tien wrote: "ooh yes, good one, Meg - I didn't think of that because my list is so huge that the possibility did not occur to me lol"Yeah mine is getting ridiculous - nearly 2000! This might be a good way to cut it down a bit, if something comes up and I don't want to read it I need to delete it!
Oh and I just thought of another reason you would need to skip - if the book isn't out yet. I don't want to get stuck with The Winds of Winter on my list!
I'll start with 12. I'm going to use my owned books for this one.Read: 0/12
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12.
January draw:
1. Peter Pan
2. The Nice and the Good
3. Patty Jane's House of Curl
4. Heart Songs and Other Stories
5. Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
6. Passage
7. Lady Helena Investigates
8. This Is How You Lose Her
9. Divisadero
10. Him
February draw:
1. Portnoy’s Complaint
2. The Dead House
3. Oh My Stars
4. The Eye of the Leopard
5. Supreme Courtship
6. The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
7. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
8. The Magicians
9. Keeping Faith
10. Fat Girl: A True Story
March draw:
1. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
2. The God of Animals
3. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
4. The French Lieutenant’s Woman
5. Atmosphere
6. Want
7. The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession
8. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
9. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
10. Bird by Bird
Moving Mountain 2026I will start with 12. Read: 4/12 books
Books read:
✔ 1. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher, 2 Jan 26
✔ 2. Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray, 5 Jan 26
✔ 3. The Judge and His Hangman by Friedrich Durrenmatt, 6 Jan 26
✔ 4. Longshot by Dick Francis, 17 Jan 26
✔ 5. Maigret on the Defensive by Georges Simenon, 12 Feb 26
6.
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12.
January Draw (15 Dec):
1. Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid
3. The Judge and His Hangman by Friedrich Durrenmatt
5. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
6. The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
7. Alibi Innings by Barbara Worsley-Gough
8. Maigret and the Old Lady by Georges Simenon
10. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert (ebook)
February Draw (15 Jan) (only books on TBR before 1 Jan):
1. Dead Cert by Dick Francis
2. Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
3. The Essential Difference by Simon Baron-Cohen
4. The Emigrants by W G Sebald
5. Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh
6. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
7. The Maze by Philip Macdonald
8. Once a Greek by Friedrich Durrenmatt
9. Body Breaker by M W Craven
10. The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer (ebook)
March draw (15 Feb) (only books on TBR before 1 Jan):
1. The First and Last Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti
2. Sacred Country by Rose Tremain
3. Two-Way Murder by E C R Lorac
4. Fat Boy Swim by Catherine Forde
5. Forfeit by Dick Francis
6. The Visitor by Lee Child
7. Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron
8. The Man Without Qualities vol 1 by Robert Musil
9. One By One They Disappeared by Dalton Moray
10. City Primeval by Elmore Leonard (ebook)
I have a lot of books now. This should be enough to finish the 12, and then if I want to increase the challenge, I can draw more.
I'm in! My draws below:Draws for January:
1. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
2. Quite a Ride
3. The Foxhole Court - Read 1/8/26
4. The Institute
5. The Sign of the Beaver
6. The Romanov Prophecy
7. Idoru
8. Isla and the Happily Ever After
9. Sky Masters
10. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
Mod
LOL - I took it as granted that books must be accessible (include being published) but I'll add that too :)
Games - General Thread > Moving Mountain - 2026 EdMoving Mountains '26
Progress: 0/52 books as at 01/01
January Draw:
✅ 1. Keep Out of the Woods!: Scary True Stories of the Unexplained
2. Out of the Ashes
3. Bad Blood
4. Out of Darkness
5. The Darkest Legacy
6. Return to Hoodoo
7. Wrecked
8. Dark Harvest Magic
9. Girls of Brackenhill
10. This Secret Thing
Books Read
1 - Keep Out of the Woods!: Scary True Stories of the Unexplained: Beware of the Woods by Tony Urban - 1/17/26
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Moving Mountains - 2026 Ed52 books/year
January books read:
1. I Cheerfully Refuse, Leif Enger, 5 Jan 2026
2. Somebody's Fool, Richard Russo, 9 Jan 2026
3. Two Wars and a Wedding, Lauren Willig, 25 Feb 2026
4. Magpie Lane, Lucy Atkins, 28 Jan 2026
5.
February books read:
1. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, 17 Feb 2026
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January's draw remaining:
2. Letters Across the Sea
4. The God of the Woods
7. The Book of Fire
8. The Lady with the Dark Hair
9. The Fire and the Ore
10. Hardland
February's draw remaining:
1. The Deeds of the Disturber
2. Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
3. Murder at Gulls Nest
4. Hope for the Best
5. The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee
6. The American Adventuress
7. Mad Mabel
8. In the Shadow of Vesuvius
9. The Sweetness of Forgetting
March's draw:
(Am going to use books from the Jan and Feb draws)
Mod
Mod
sorry, Susan - I missed this. We discussed this over in the mods thread so that's why you couldn't find it here but yes, correct, books drawn at any time can be read at any other time in the year (not necessarily the month they are drawn in/for)
Mod
Jan 1 - Dec 31, 2026
Books must've been added prior to 1/1/26
Books drawn can be read at any time during the year.
Using Considering shelf (TBR is too small)
goal: 52 books/year --> 4-5 books each month
✔1. Clear - fin 1/2
✔2. Carved in Bone - fin 1/12
✔3. The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II - fin 1/21
✔4. How It Unfolds - fin 2/5
5.
>>>January DNF:
Courting Mr. Lincoln
A Study in Treason
The Masked City
>>>February DNF:
Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth - couldn't find
COMPLETED 4 OF 52
MARKED DNF: 4
(view spoiler)
Goal = 52 books Using Year-Long TBR
January Draw
Sarah's Seduction
Conspiracy of Silence
Final Appeal
The Heart of Devin MacKade
Rest in Pink
The Friendship Pact
All You Need is Love
Winter of the Wolf
Saving the CEO
Wicked Need
Moving Mountain 2026I will start with 26. Read: 5/26 books
Books read:
1.Changeling Read 1/31/26
2.Bring Out Your Dead read 1/31/26
3.Blackwater Falls Read 2/12/26
4.A Spelling Mistake Read 2/18/26
5.Gentlemen Prefer Voodoo Read 2/19/26
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January Draw
1.Evangeline
2. Aged for Murder
3. Shadows of Bourbon Street
6. The Eterna Files
7. Raging Heat
8. The Book of Magic
9. Oddjobs
10. A Little Night Muse
February draw
2.A Spelling Mistake
3.Gentlemen Prefer Voodoo
4.Break No Bones
5.How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
6.Relic
7.Long, Lean, and Lethal
8.Spellbreaker
9.A Murder for Miss Hortense
10.Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives
Moving Mountain - 2026 EdChallenge Period: Jan 1 - Dec 31, 2025
Goal: 12
Read: 0/12
Books Read:
(view spoiler)
Mod
You may generate February books now
Weird question because of the on TBR prior to Jan 1 rule - I am planning a reread of the In Death books... so I have 're-added' those to my shelf this month (January)... does that count or no? 😊PS - also added my Jan draw to my sign up post (msg 23)
I finally read my first book for this challenge and it was 5 stars!I also realised that the monthly draw makes it a bit harder than other challenges because you can't accidentally read a book that works for the challenge. If you read a book in January it can't be drawn from your TBR in a later month. So hopefully I can still get 52 for the year!
Mod
@LaurLa, the intent of the challenge is to "move" off books off TBR, not re-add them back in lol. But if it works for you, why not, though there isn't a guarantee that in-death books will be drawn? Not sure how big a "shelf" you're drawing from so it may be possible, I guess
@Meg, yay! Glad you loved your first book.
I did find January to be rather slow but it's okay, as the year goes on and you draw more books, the "pool" to choose from will be bigger and it'll be easier to choose from here to hit the other challenges ;p
Mod
Mod
I also had 1 DNF :/
Pick-a-Shelf
Books mentioned in this topic
Break No Bones (other topics)How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (other topics)
Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives (other topics)
Spellbreaker (other topics)
Long, Lean, and Lethal (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Kaliane Bradley (other topics)R. Barri Flowers (other topics)
Scarlett St. Clair (other topics)
Bethany Claire (other topics)
Charlie N. Holmberg (other topics)
More...
As always, this challenge restricted books added to TBR prior to the year it's being played so books must be on TBR prior to 1 January 2026.
Go to your 'to-read' shelf on GR (or any similar shelf you've got set up) and draw 30 Random books using the GR functionality at the bottom of the page of your shelf (as shown below)
Once the page has refreshed and shown you the random selection, list the top 10 books as books qualified for you to read for this challenge.
IF any of the books listed for top 10 is:
1. series book further along in the series than you are currently on; OR
2. book added to your TBR after 31 December 2025; OR
3. book already selected in previous draw; OR
4. book you do not have easy access to (eg. not published etc)
Skip that and go onto the next book and keep listing books until you have 10 from this selection. This list is static and no change can be made to this list once done.
We will be doing this on a monthly basis starting from December 15th 2025 and the last draw will be on November 15th 2026 (ie. 12 random selections)
As usual, your annual goal can be chosen from below:
5 books (5 vowels in the alphabet)
12 books (12 characters in 'PICK-A-SHELF')
26 books (26 letters)
52 books (52 weeks in a year)
You will note that if you generate 10 random books per month, you will have 120 books you could read for this challenge. You do not have to generate your random selection each month especially if you have already met your goal. This is just to give you more flexibility in case there is any books you can't source or DNF.
If you do not have GR to-read shelves then my suggestion would be to get someone to randomly choose books off your TBR for you