I’m joining Roof Beam Reader’s TBR Pile Challenge for the first time this year, with the goal of reading a dozen older books that I’ve been meaning to read but that keep getting nudged aside by newer titles. Technically, the books on my list are not in an actual pile, or even all owned by me, but all are books published over a year ago that I either own or have listed in my little TBR notebook. They all come highly recommended, but I keep picking up other books first.
This challenge will also help me with an unofficial goal for 2012: to read more of the Massachusetts Book Award winners and Honor books from recent years. The rules include that the books have to have been on your TBR list for at least one year (I’m pretty sure these all qualify.) and that you have to read all twelve by the end of 2012. (Two alternates are allowed in case one or two on your list are duds, but I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that.) I think I’ve got a nice mix of fiction here. Just hope no one recommends more zombie (Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry) or vampire (Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro) novels to distract me!
My 2012 TBR Pile Challenge List
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
The Master Bedroom by Tessa Hadley
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey
The Whole World Over by Julia Glass
Map of Ireland by Stephanie Grant
The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett
All Is Vanity by Christina Schwarz
Codex by Lev Grossman
Third Girl from the Left by Martha Southgate
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Two Alternates
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Family Album by Penelope Lively