Reading Spree: Conquering the TBR Mountain

Last week, on a whim, I made a little poster and put it up in my classroom. It’s my TBR (To Be Read) Mountain. There are seventeen books on it, and my stated goal is to finish them all before the end of 2011.

Yeah. Seventeen of them. During the school year. And while working on writing stuff at the same time.

Good thing I’m a fast reader. Double-good thing I have a full week off at Thanksgiving.

I posted it so my students could see me setting reading goals, and they’ll be able to watch my progress as I note the date I complete each book on the poster. Hopefully it’ll be a fun little side thing to talk about in class … y’know, other than common denominators, derivatives, and quadratic functions.

While I’m at it, I might as well make my goals even more public, so here’s the list and the little bit of progress so far (in no particular order other than the order my brain remembers them since I’m not at school):

1. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness—finished 9/30
2. Goliath by Scott Westerfeld—finished 10/5
3. The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey
4. The Isle of Blood by Rick Yancey
5. Everlost by Neal Shusterman
6. Everwild by Neal Shusterman
7. Everfound by Neal Shusterman
8. The Death Cure by James Dashner
9. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan—finished 10/13
10. The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan—finished 10/17
11. Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
12. Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts
13. The Slayer Chronicles: First Kill by Heather Brewer
14. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie—finished 10/10
15. Crossed by Ally Condie
16. Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick—finished 10/7
17. Possession by Elana Johnson

And really, I’m just impressed that I remembered all 17 titles.

We’ll see how this goes.

Do you guys have any reading goals?

10 Responses to “Reading Spree: Conquering the TBR Mountain”

1. Riley Redgate says:

   October 5, 2011 at 3:27 am

   I’m so ready to see you conquer this list!

   My only goal as of now is to FINALLY get down to reading GRACELING. Gah.

   Also, the word verification for this comment is “ingestr”. XD I’m picturing an extreme eating contest: THE INGESTER!!!!

2. R.C. Lewis says:

   October 5, 2011 at 3:40 am

   Thanks, Riley. I know how much you have going on, so I think a good goal for you is “survival.” 😉

   Beware the Ingester. 😀

3. cherie says:

   October 5, 2011 at 4:02 am

   You can totally do this. Good luck! 🙂

   I have a boatload of books to read–stuff that I’ve won through giveaways and contests. Plus ebooks on Kindle. We’ll see how many books I can finish by year’s end. Writing has been taking most of my time lately, but the WIP’s almost done so I may have time to read before Nanowrimo comes along. 😉

4. Ted Cross says:

   October 5, 2011 at 9:52 am

   I love Westerfeld’s ‘The Risen Empire’ and its sequel, and I always wonder why no one else ever seems to read them.

5. Mindy McGinnis says:

   October 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

   Nice list, RC. Those are some rockin’ good books you’ve got listed there. I guarantee you’ll be done with them by 2012.

   I have a pile next to my bed, but it’s in constant flux. My goal is to have read at least one YA, one piece of adult “literaure,” and one non-fiction for every month left in the year.

6. R.C. Lewis says:

   October 5, 2011 at 4:50 pm

   Thanks, Cherie. I’m in the “marination” stage for my next WIP, letting the ideas float around until it takes a little shape, so it’s a good time to get some reading done.

   Ted, maybe because no one’s heard of it–I’ve never seen that one of Westerfeld’s in a bookstore. I’ll have to look for it.

   Mindy, if you can fit in even those three books a month with everything else you do, it’ll be very impressive indeed.

7. catwoods says:

   October 6, 2011 at 5:34 pm

   Great mountain of books there! I love the in-between stages when reading is a treat and doesn’t taint the writing process. Enjoy it while you can and good luck reaching your goal!

8. Tasha Seegmiller says:

   October 11, 2011 at 3:16 am

   I got lost in the anti-reading land for a while juggling life. I love your list – have several of the same on mine – and love that you are juggling that while teaching too. I look forward to learning how you keep all the balls in the air.

9. R.C. Lewis says:

   October 11, 2011 at 3:29 am

   @Cat, I’m definitely enjoying it. And even chipping away at a low-priority WIP a bit, too. 😀

   @Tasha, thanks for stopping by! So far the juggling’s going well. I read so few novels while in college and grad school, I think I’m still making up for lost time.

10. A.M.Supinger says:

    October 11, 2011 at 5:31 am

    I just finished reading Crossed 🙂 We’ll have to compare notes after you read it.

    Are you gonna post your thoughts on any your reading conquests?