The Official 2018 TBR Pile Challenge

The Official 2018 TBR Pile Challenge is one of two challenges I’m going to work on that focus specifically on books owned but unread. (The other is Mount TBR, which I will post about tomorrow.) I have some books on my shelves that I totally meant to read, but never got around to. Book People know what I’m talking about here.

This challenge has stricter rules than most of the ones I’m attempting. There are no levels. There is no setting your own goal. There is one simple goal: read 12 books from your TBR pile within the year. Only books from 2016 and earlier are allowed; books published in 2017 and still unread do not qualify. The list of 12 – plus two alternates, in case a couple of the 12 turn out to be un-finishable – must be specified by January 15th, 2018.

My List:

1. The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
2. Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits Are Taking Over the World by Leslie Simon – Reviewed: January 3
3. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
4. The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson – Reviewed: October 17
5. The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy edited by Leonard S. Marcus
6. Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers by Carolyn See
7. The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan
8. A Study In Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes edited by Joseph R.G. DeMarco – Reviewed: April 12
9. Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices Leonard S. Marcus
10. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street by William S. Baring-Gould
11. Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson
12. Shadows Over Baker Street edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan

And the two alternates:

• Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
• A Family of Readers: The Book Lover’s Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Literature by Roger Sutton and Martha V. Parravano