2021 TBR Challenges

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I'm going to continue with Bev's TBR challenges in 2021.


The Mount TBR Reading Challenge is simple: pick how high you want to go.  As always, I'll be aiming for 24 books from the pile, though that is not nearly as many as I should read

Excelsior!


Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s


My pile is bigger than ever, so I'm signing right up for 24 titles: Mont Blanc.

Titles read:

  1.  Watchers of the Dark, by Lloyd Biggle
  2. The Blazing World, by Margaret Cavendish
  3. The Time Masters, by Wilson Tucker
  4. The Entropy Effect, by Vonda McIntyre
  5. The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key
  6. Lorna Doone, by R. D. Blackmore
  7. Time Traders, by Andre Norton
  8.  Alpha Centauri -- Or Die!, by Leigh Brackett / Legend of Lost Earth
  9. Mazes and Labyrinths, by Matthews
  10. Song of Names, by Goldberg and Parshall
  11. If Truth Were a Child, by George Handley 
  12. Guards!  Guards! by Terry Pratchett
  13. Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich, by Alison Owings
  14. Old Testament Legends, by M. R. James 
  15. Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, by Fuchida and Okumiya 
  16. The Defiant Agents and 
  17. Key Out of Time (Time Traders 3 and 4), by Andre Norton
  18. The Drowned World, by J. G. Ballard
  19. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee
  20. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
  21. A Civil Contract, by Georgette Heyer
  22. The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay
  23. The Midnight Folk, by John Masefield
  24. Zoo Station, by Ian Walker (DNF)
  25. Your Sister in the Gospel, by Quincy Newell
  26. A Place to Belong, by Fluhman and Olson
  27. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?  by Frans van der Waal
  28. The Wandering Fire, by Guy Gavriel Kay
  29. The Darkest Road, by Guy Gavriel Kay
  30. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain
  31. The White Witch, by Elizabeth Goudge
  32.  The Lady of Godey's, by Ruth E. Finley
  33. The Heart of the Hunter, by Laurens van der Post
  34.  On Foot to the Golden Horn, by Jason Goodwin
  35. I'm Not Leaving, by Carl Wilkens
  36. Millions Like Us, by Virginia Nicholson
  37. The Little Grey Men, by BB
  38. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
  39. Zenzele, by J. Noripo Maraire
  40.  Blood Secret, by Kathryn Lasky
  41. The Sacrifice Box, by Martin Stewart
  42. Ravenmaster, by Christopher Skaife
  43. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, by Selma Lagerlof
  44. Lotharingia, by Simon Winder
  45. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
  46. Our Exploits at West Poley, by Thomas Hardy
  47. ---
  48. Samguk Yusa, by Ilyon


 The Virtual Mount TBR Challenge is library-based, which is good for me because my pile of library books is nearly as large as my actual TBR pile.   If the book is on your mental TBR list, and you get it from the library, it counts.  I'll be aiming for Mt. Crumpit, which is also 24 books.  Naturally, the virtual mountains are fictional.

 I decided to create a Virtual Mount TBR Reading Challenge Books for all those folks with mile-long "wish-list" of TBRs who would like a chance to climb as well. The strategy and general set-up is the same--except you don't have to own the books. Heard about a great book from a friend, took note of the title, and then never got around to reading it? Saw a book online that you thought sounded intriguing but you keep putting off ordering it up from the library? You borrowed a book from somebody and need an extra push to read it and return it? This is the place for you!
 Challenge Levels:
Mount Rum Doodle: Read 12 books
Mount Crumpit: Read 24 books 
Mount Munch: Read 36 books
White Plume Mountain: Read 48 books 
Stormness Head: Read 60 books 
Mount Mindolluin: Read 75 books 
Mount Seleya: Read 100 books
Mount Olympus: Read 150+ books 

My library-books bookshelf is just as stuffed as my TBR bookshelf, so this will be good for me.  I am pretty much going to limit myself to books from the library that I've been meaning to read since before Jan. 1, 2021.  That is a lot of books.  I'll aim for Mount Crumpit, 24 books.  Also, I think the image for this challenge is great!

Titles read:

  1. The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans
  2. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, by Christopher R. Browning
  3. Beyond the Rice Fields, by Naivo
  4.  The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Other Stories of the Tropical Gothic, by Nick Joaquin
  5. Jonah's Gourd Vine, by Zora Neale Hurston
  6. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John  
  7. The Man Who Sold a Ghost (Chinese legends) 
  8. Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City, by Rosa Brooks
  9.  Breaking Bread With the Dead, by Alan Jacobs
  10.  Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of WWII, by Svetlana Alexievich
  11. Weird Al: Seriously, by Lily Hirsch
  12. Mules and Men, by Zora Neale Hurston
  13. For Two Thousand Years, by Mihail Sebastian
  14. Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih
  15. The Book Smugglers, by David Fishman
  16. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
  17. The Unwritten Song, vol. 1, coll. Willard Trask
  18. The Third Reich in Power, by Richard J. Evans
  19. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
  20.  Last Hope Island, by Lynne Olson
  21. Harlequin's Millions, by Bohumil Hrabal
  22. Still Life, by Louise Penny
  23. The Popol Vuh
  24.  Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes du Mez
  25. Don't Label Me, by Irshad Manji
  26. Guest House for Young Widows, by Azadeh Moavani
  27. A Writer at War, by Vasily Grossman
  28. Plum Bun, by Jessie Redmon Hughes
  29. Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  30. Learning From the Germans, by Susan Neiman



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