Over the last few weeks, I've been making a real attempt at making a dent into my TBR pile. (This MUST be a universal problem amongst book blogger, surely?!) And sometimes, I really just don't know what I feel like reading so I impose some sort of silly 'rule' to stick to for as long as it works (before I've used length of time I've had the book, read with a theme in mind). And for the last week and a bit the thing that's been working a treat is reading books under 250 pages. I went through my three shelves of YA books (and erm, a huge towering pile) and picked out any book under 250 pages and stuck a handful of them on my bedside table. And I've been having great success finishing them and making a little room on my bookshelves. Here are the books I've finished lately!
Girl Parts by John M. Cusick
From Somalia, With Love by Na'ima B. Robert
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick
The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan
The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruis Zafon
Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
It's a pretty strange group of books, no particular theme besides them being on the shortish side. I feel pretty satisfied all around, having cleared some of my pile, reading more books than I probably would be and reading books that might possibly get lost amongst the tide of new books arriving every week into my house. I'm loving this. I'm currently reading Dark Matter by Michelle Paver and hope to finish it soon. Here is a rather large list of possible other books that I will attempt to get through before this phase passes:
Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak
Zelah Green by Vanessa Curtis
Grace by Elizabeth Scott
Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
From Where I Stand by Tabitha Suzuma
The Lone-Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey
Lottie Biggs is Not Mad by Hayley Long
Lottie Biggs is Not Desperate by Hayley Long
Fade by Lisa McMann
Child X by Lee Weatherly
Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle
The Edge by Alan Gibbons
Mondays Are Red by Nicola Morgan
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Thursday's Child by Sonya Hartnett
The Dark Horse by Marcus Sedgwick
So there we have it. I have a separate pile (because I'm officially a sad, anal person) that I have unofficially called my 250-300 page pile of books. That I *may* attempt if I've done a well enough job with these. I'm figuring this phase will peter out pretty soon?
What do you do to make a dent in your TBR pile? Care to divulge just how large a pile it is? Have you read any of these books? Where should I start?
I really need to attempt to reduce the size of my TBR mountain but it's so hard when I keeping bringing home massive piles of books from the library! The last time I counted I had about 360 books on my shelves to read but since then I've bought loads so it's probably nearing 400 now (hides face in shame!)
ReplyDeleteI might try your trick of grabbing some books under 250 pages, see if I can get through mine as quickly too.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying a reading challenge to put a dent in my TBR pile (350 right now).
ReplyDeleteI would say start with:
Twisted because it's a personal fav.
Then read My Love Lies Bleeding because everyone needs a little vampire.
Sherman Alexie is a good writer too, I read Part-time Indian and it was funny, he knows how to lighten up depressing situations.
Definitely a universal problem. Actually when my TBR gets out of control, I *always* swear by the short-book trick. I can read three short books in about four days, and then I feel like I'm really getting somewhere, which is good. Then if there's one book I'm really desperate to read, no matter how low priority it is in terms of release date, I read that one next.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I do when my TBR gets out of control is... impose a book-buying ban. Painful, but sometimes necessary.
I got a Kindle last month, and I've taken to downloading the free sample chapters, checking whether I enjoy something, and then either adding it to my "to buy" list or deleting the sample. It's a great way of triaging books so I only buy the ones I really, really want to read :)
ReplyDeleteRachel - that's a really great idea. Triaging books :) But it would certainly keep the number of books I'd buy down and that's always a good thing.
ReplyDeleteLauren - Book buyin bans *wince* I don't even like the sound of it. Thankfully I don't actually buy that many books which makes it less of a problem for me. But short books, definitely. And reading whatever I like, I love that feeling.
Rochelle - Thank you for the suggestions! I'm a big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson, so that will definitely be towards the top end of the pile. And I have heard good things about the Drake Chronicles. I can't seem to find a copy of Part Time Indian. That's the Sherman Alexie book I REALLY wanted to read, but could only find this one :) Good luck on your reading challenge!
Emma - good luck to you, how big is your pile?
SJH - 400! Wow, you're making me feel better :) Good luck to you.