Tuesday, May 1, 2012

A Victorian Celebration and a Summer Challenge

Anyone who knows the least little bit about me know that I am ga-ga over Victorian anything, but I'm especially ga-ga for Victorian literature.  I'm very excited to sign-up for Allie's Victorian Celebration challenge.  Essentially my goal is to read books by and about Victorians through the months of  June and July.  Sure, I'll read other things, but my main focus will be on the Victorians.  My personal goal is to read five books by or about Victorians (fiction and/or non-fiction).

This leads into a personal challenge.


In December I had painstakingly planned out my reading challenges.  I was going to focus on several challenges from January until April and then I had hoped to wrap at least one of them up.  That didn't happen.  I'm still going to do the challenges, but not with the time constraint.  However, I'm going to stick with not adding on any title specific challenges until I wrap-up the ones I've started.  I can do things like A Victorian Celebration because I can read title I already have on my existing challenge lists.  Instead I'm going to spend the summer reading JUST FROM MY STACKS.  That's right.  I'm finishing up my current book (Memento Mori) and then I am library book ban from Now until September 1st.  In September I'll be going on a library book blitz.  Being the good library girl that I am, I tend to read library books first so I can get them back to the library in a timely manner.  This means I end up reading mostly library books.

All that will change this summer.

I spent last night organizing my TBR stacks.  I have birthday books (and more on the way!) and I needed to add them on the shelves.  Unlike other challenges I'm allowing myself to buy/receive more books, but the caveat is that they must fit -- neatly, not all willy nilly -- on my TBR shelf.  Once a book is read I will decided if it is a keeper or a book sale donation and thereby make more room on my shelves.  Here is a snapshot of my current TBR shelf (excepting the Elizabeth Bowen short story collection which is in my bag and the books that are on the way).

Let's hope I stick with it!  Let me know if you'd like to join in.  



6 comments:

*ೃ༄ Jillian said...

I've become addicted to the library lately. :)

Susan in TX said...

I'm working on this very thing at the moment. I was going to start this month, but I knew that the first two books I already had "queued up" were not from the TBR. It's these little "exceptions" that always kill me! I'm definitely going to try and keep my library reading to a minimum through the summer, though.

Karen K. said...

I'm definitely joining in, and my goal is to read books ONLY from the TBR shelves. I wish I had the discipline to cut myself from library books and new purchases cold turkey, but I work at the library and it's virtually impossible, especially since I'm running three book groups at my branch (and possibly a fourth. Don't ask). However, since I choose the books, I'm trying to choose books that I want to read, especially off my own TBR list!

Five Victorians is an excellent goal, I still haven't narrowed mine down. I have 28 Victorians on the TBR list so I hope to make some progress from that list. Probably less famous Victorians, I'm thinking about George Gissing and Margaret Oliphant, maybe Jerome K. Jerome.

Susan said...

I will think about this one - I want to read some books about the Pre-Raphaelites, and George Eliot. I'll see how this month goes and if I can get my hands on the books I want (my birthday is coming up so I'm hoping......)

Anonymous said...

I should totally join you - if only I had the willpower . . .

Amanda Roper said...

@Jillian -- I'm always addicted to the library. The problem is that I'm also addicted to buying books!

@Susan in TX -- that's my problem as well. I swear that Memento Mori is my last library book until September 1st!

@Karen -- I work at a library too and I'm the ILL person so I have the power to request all kinds of weird titles. I'm going to go ILL CRAZY in September.

@Susan -- I love George Eliot. Middlemarch is my favorite so far, but I really enjoyed Mill on the Floss as well.

@Every -- LOL! I always have good intentions, but I'm going to have to maintain my willpower.