Down the TBR Hole #13

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Visit my to-read shelf to see how very far I still have to go!

The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to their Younger Selves by Sarah Moon

Published: May 1, 2012
On TBR Since: July 4, 2012

There are some authors I already love in this, and I’m looking forward to reading a little bit from authors I’m curious about.

Stay or Go? Stay

Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor by Hali Felt

Published: July 17, 2012
On TBR Since: July 5, 2012

I here for science history in general. Little-known women in science are even better.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Wild Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria’s Defiant Daughter by Mary Hart Perry

Published: July 31, 2012
On TBR Since: July 5, 2012

This is the first in a series that I’m not really interested in anymore.

Stay or Go? Go

Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life by Gretchen Rubin

Published: January 1, 2012
On TBR Since: July 5, 2012

It sounds like a stunt memoir, but I think Rubin goes a bit deeper than just that.

Stay or Go? Stay

A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

Published: October 2012
On TBR Since: July 5, 2012

This sounds very similar in concept to The Year of Living Biblically, but different in tone. While I do love a good stunt memoir, I don’t think this one is for me.

Stay or Go? Go

The Obesity Myth: Why America’s Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health by Paul Campos

Published: May 01, 2004
On TBR Since: July 12, 2012

The description of this is similar to the next book on the list, so I’m going to let this one go and keep the other.

Stay or Go? Go

Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Linda Bacon

Published: October 11, 2008
On TBR Since: July 12, 2012

Keeping this one and dropping the Campos book, though I’ve switched editions to the 2010 revised edition.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb

Published: April 2004
On TBR Since: July 26, 2012

Still interested in this bit of running history.

Stay or Go? Stay

A Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York by Liz Robbins

Published: October 1, 2008
On TBR Since: July 27, 2012

I definitely still want to read this, but it’s probably going to be a while.

Stay or Go? Stay

Astray by Emma Donoghue

Published: September 5, 2012
On TBR Since: August 22, 2012

I’ll read almost anything by Donoghue (still not reading Room, thanks very much), so this stays.

Stay or Go? Stay

Seven staying on the list, three going off. I’m never, ever going to reach the end of the list.

Down the TBR Hole #12

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Visit my to-read shelf to see how very far I still have to go!

Running the Edge: Discover the secrets to better running and a better life by Adam Goucher
Published: Sep 05, 2011
On TBR Since: Jun 10, 2012

This is more of a self-help book than a running book. The library doesn’t own a copy, and I don’t see myself buying it anytime soon.

Stay or Go? Go

Winged Obsession: The Pursuit of the World’s Most Notorious Butterfly Smuggler by Jessica Speart
Published:Mar 17, 2011
On TBR Since:Jun 11, 2012

Nature/science true crime, along the lines of The Feather Thief, which I loved.

Stay or Go? Stay

Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are by Katherine Sharpe
Published:Jun 05, 2012
On TBR Since: Jun 13, 2012

This looks like more of a memoir than I thought it was. I should really read it before it gets completely out of date.

Stay or Go? Stay

Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution by Rebecca Stott
Published:Jan 01, 2012
On TBR Since:Jun 13, 2012

Oooh, science history!

Stay or Go? Stay

All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Elizabeth Smith
Published: Jun 01, 2012
On TBR Since: Jun 13, 2012

I will read some Austen at some point. Promise.

Stay or Go? Go

Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection by Simon Winchester
Published: Oct 09, 2012
On TBR Since: Jun 18, 2012

I’m pretty sure I had this confused with a different book. Well, that’s embarrassing.

Stay or Go? Go

Dead Men by Richard Pierce
Published: Mar 01, 2012
On TBR Since: Jun 18, 2012

Antarctic fiction drawing on the doomed Scott expedition? Yes, please.

Stay or Go? Stay

What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright: Reflections by Alumni of Taglit-Birthright Israel Trips by Wayne Hoffman
Published: Sep 2010
On TBR Since: Jun 25, 2012

Fun fact: I went on a Birthright trip at the end of 2001. It was an experience made slightly more challenging by the fact that I was in a walking cast for a broken metatarsal. I’m very curious about this book.
Stay or Go? Stay

Better Nate Than Ever (Better Nate Than Ever #1) by Tim Federle
Published: Feb 05, 2013
On TBR Since: Jun 26, 2012

I’m super-late to the party on this one, I know.

Stay or Go? Stay

You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too by Tammy Strobel
Published:Aug 21, 2012
On TBR Since:Jun 28, 2012
I was given an ARC of this at a conference. That ARC is long gone, and there are other similar books I’m more interested in these days.
Stay or Go? Go

Four going, six staying. That seems to be my usual count!

Down the TBR Hole #11

I started this post back in June, and then took an unplanned hiatus. But we’re back!

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Visit my to-read shelf to see how very far I still have to go!

The Lure of Long Distances by Robin Harvie
Published: April 1, 2011
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I love a good running memoir, especially ones from amateur athletes, so this sounded ideal. After reading some of the reviews, though, I don’t think I’m going to get to it.

Stay or Go? Go

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin
Published: January 25, 2011
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I’m pretty sure this book will make me both angry and sad, and I’m also pretty sure I need to read it.

Stay or Go? Stay

Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire by Simon Winchester
Published: December 31, 1985
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

As much as I <3 Simon Winchester, I’ve already listened to parts of the abridged audiobook edition, and I think I’m going to give this one a pass.

Stay or Go? Go

Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth by James M. Tabor
Published: January 1, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

The topic sounds so good, but the writing… not so much.

Stay or Go? Go

A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique & American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s by Stephanie Coontz
Published: June 30, 2008
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I should probably actually read The Feminine Mystique before this one, so I think it’s going to hang out in the TBR for a while yet.

Stay or Go? Stay

Taking My Life by Jane Rule
Published: October 11, 2011
On TBR Since: March 28, 2012

I’m a little apprehensive about this one because it was an unfinished manuscript published posthumously, which always gives me pause. But I think I’ll keep it.

Stay or Go? Stay

When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution by Jeanne Cordova
Published: October 18, 2011
On TBR Since: March 28, 2012

A memoir of a turbulent – and not all that far in the past, really – time.

Stay or Go? Stay

Re-Dressing America’s Frontier Past by Peter Boag
Published: August 2, 2011
On TBR Since: March 28, 2012

This looks like it’s going to be pretty academic (unsurprising, given it’s published by a university press), but still interesting.

Stay or Go? Stay

Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson
Published: January 1, 2012
On TBR Since: April 4, 2012

Another one where the idea sounds interesting, but it appears to be executed better elsewhere.

Stay or Go? Go

Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics by Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim
Published: March 2, 2012
On TBR Since: May 31, 2012

This still sounds like a pretty good cross-section of my interests.

Stay or Go? Stay

Four to go, six to stay. Chipping at the backlist, even though I’ve definitely added more than four books to the other end of the TBR in the last week.

Down the TBR Hole #9

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

My to-read shelf: 1050 titles

Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life by Stephanie Staal

Published: January 31, 2011
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

The reviews on this one are pretty rough. Probably best to skip the memoir and just read those books instead.

Stay or Go? Go

Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz

Published: May 18, 2005
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

My wife and I were married in a church ceremony in 2005; the state of California joined the party three years later. (And then left the party, and then came back, thanks to a US Supreme Court ruling – that was an interesting little roller coaster.) This still looks like good reading.

Stay or Go? Stay

All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age by Hubert L. Dreyfus

Published: January 4, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

The gaps in my reading are large and strange. Name a classic, and it’s entirely possible I haven’t read it. (Unless it’s Shakespeare, which I took more than one college course on.) Not out of any conscious aversion; I seem to have had an unusual high school required reading list. And while I took a comparative literature survey course on “Masterpieces of Western Culture”, we read selections from anthologies, not whole works. So, I have a back-burner project of actually reading The Classics, and this book looked like it might be helpful. The reviews on it are definitely love-it-or-hate-it, though, and it looks like it’s not quite what I want.

Every time I look at that cover, I think of Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Poor whale.

Stay or Go? Go

On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits by Wray Herbert

Published: January 1, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

A little pop-neuroscience.

Stay or Go? Stay

Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession by Craig Childs

Published: January 1, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

The subject is interesting, but I don’t think this is one for me.

Stay or Go? Go

Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality by Patricia S. Churchland

Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012
More neuroscience. Yep.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Frozen Secrets: Antarctica Revealed by Sally M. Walker

Published: October, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

Antarctica. For kids.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Peace Is Every Breath: A Practice for Our Busy Lives by Thích Nhất Hạnh

Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic by David Thomson

Published: 1977
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

An older book on the Heroic Age of Exploration. I actually don’t think I need to read this particular one.

Stay or Go? Go

 

Nomansland by Lesley Hauge

Published: June 15, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I keep thinking this book is older than it is. Possibly, I have it confused with another book.

Stay or Go? Go

 

5 out, 5 stay in. New to-read shelf: 1045 titles.

Down the TBR Hole #8

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

My to-read shelf: 1055 titles (Why, yes, that is more than I started with last week. At some point, this will start to shrink, right?)

Antarctica: Life on the Ice by Susan Fox Rogers (Ed.)

Published: September 28, 2007
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Like I’m going to get rid of an Antarctic essay collection.

Stay or Go? Stay

No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women And Their Extraordinary Journey Across Antarctica by Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft
No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women And Their Extraordinary Journey Across Antarctica

Published: September 1, 2003
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Arnesen and Bancroft were the first women to cross Antarctica on foot. Antarctic adventure memoir. I need to read this book.

Stay or Go? Stay

Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols in Antarctica and Other Unexpected Places by Madeleine L’Engle

Published: 1996
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I’m just gonna take this from the GoodReads summary: “Despite protests and warnings from friends and family, author Madeleine L’Engle, at the age of seventy-four, embarked on a rafting trip to Antarctica.”

Stay or Go? Stay

Yarn: Remembering the Way Home by Kyoko Mori
Published: 2009
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

Knitting memoir. I was definitely on-brand putting things on my TBR that particular day.

Stay or Go? Stay

Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature by Brian Switek

Published: 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I’ll probably come back to this one someday, but for now, it goes.

Stay or Go? Go

The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, edited by by Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee

Published: March 1, 2011
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

A collection of essays on “the future of books” that is now seven years old.

Stay or Go? Go

The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time by David L. Ulin

Published: June 1, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

I’m just not feeling this one anymore. Too many other things I’m more interested in reading.

Stay or Go? Go

Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard by Jack Lynch

Published: June 12, 2007
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

The “Annotated” podcast episode on “Saving Shakespeare” has reignited my interest in this one.

Stay or Go? Stay

On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica by Gretchen Legler

Published: October 25, 2005
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

Antarctic memoir. That’s all.

Stay or Go? Stay

Runners on Running: The Best Nonfiction of Distance Running by Rich Elliott (Ed.)

Published: November 5, 2010
On TBR Since: March 10, 2012

Another one that I might come back to one day, but today is not that day.

Stay or Go? Go

Four out, six stay in.  New to-read shelf: 1051 titles. Until I add more books in, like, 10 minutes.

Down the TBR Hole #7

It’s back, my friends! Life has been more interesting than usual of late, and the blog has suffered. So has my TBR, since I have fallen down a cozy mystery rabbit hole of late. But that’s another post!

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

My to-read shelf: 1042 titles (I told you my TBR was suffering.)

The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest by Dan_Buettner

Published: January 1, 2008
On TBR Since: Mar 09, 2012

I’ve read a bunch of articles drawing from this book over the years.

Stay or Go? Go

The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture by Joshua Kendall

I’m going to skip this one.

Published: April 14, 2011
On TBR Since: March 09, 2012

Stay or Go? Go

The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life’s Challenges by Paul Gilbert

There are other books on mindfulness in my TBR that I’m more interested in.

Published: March 26, 2009
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Go

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle

Another topic where there are newer books.

Published: 2011
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Go

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human by V. S. Ramachandran

I just recently put The Power of Different on my TBR (thanks for that, Jeff at Book Riot!), and I think I’ll read that one instead of this.

Published: January 17, 2011
On TBR Since:March 9, 2012
Stay or Go? Go


Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Speaking of Jeff at Book Riot… he and Rebecca have talked so much about this book that I really have to read it now. And then I can finally listen to their “Better Living through Books” podcast, too!

Published: October 25, 2011
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Stay

The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards by William J. Broad

According to the reviews, this one was “controversial”. I’m intrigued.

Published: January 1, 2012
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Stay

Shackleton’s Stowaway by Victoria McKernan

I keep confusing this book with other books about Antarctic voyage stowaways (I love that that is/was even a thing, really). This is a fictionalized account, not a history.

Published:February 8, 2005
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Go

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman

Just not feeling this one.

Published: June 1, 2010
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Go

The Coolest Race on Earth: Mud, Madmen, Glaciers, and Grannies at the Antarctica Marathon by John Hanc

Antarctica. Marathon. Yes, please.

Published: January 1, 2009
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Stay or Go? Stay

Seven out, three stay in. New to-read shelf: 1035 titles

Down the TBR Hole #6

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf:  949 titles

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back – Michele Simon

Published: October 19, 2006
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

This book is now 12 years old, and I’m pretty sure there’s newer material out there.

Stay or Go? Go

Running the Seven Continents: Tales of Travel and the Marathon – Clint Morrison

Published: December 1, 2006
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

This might make a return someday, but for now, I’m going to let it go.

Stay or Go? Go

Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood – Maria Tatar

Published: April 20, 2009
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Professional Reading.

Stay or Go? Stay

Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature – Julia L. Mickenberg

Published: November 1, 2008
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

More professional reading.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales – Bruno Bettelheim

Published: April 12, 1977
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Classic professional reading, and one I’d like to read before the Tatar book.

Stay or Go? Stay

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen – Christopher McDougall

Published: May 5, 2009
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

The moment has passed.

Stay or Go? Go

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World – Eric Weiner

Published: January 3, 2008
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Not quite a stunt memoir, but pretty close, since he takes a year to go traveling the world in search of “happy places”. And who couldn’t use some more happy?

Stay or Go? Stay

Wildthorn – Jane Eagland

Published: February 6, 2009
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Victorian era queer historical fiction. That’s a keeper.

Stay or Go? Stay

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything – Joshua Foer

Published: March 11, 2011
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Also something of a stunt memoir, but possibly a useful one.

Stay or Go? Stay

The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul – Dave Bruno

Published: December 15, 2010
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

– Insert joke about starting by getting rid of this here –

Stay or Go? Go

Six to stay, four to go.

March 9, 2012, was a big day for my TBR, it seems. And I clearly need to get going on my professional reading. My only Youth Services class in Library School was YA Literature, so I think at some point, I tried to put together a little crash course in Children’s Lit for myself.

Down the TBR Hole #5

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 949 titles

The Worst Journey in the World – Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Published: February 28, 2006
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

A classic in Antarctic literature. I bought a copy when I was at the Strand back in January.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole – Roland Huntford

Published: 1979
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

Yep, another book on the Heroic Age of Exporation.

Stay or Go? Stay

Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica – Sara Wheeler

Published: January 1, 1996
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

One day, I will visit Antarctica. In the meantime, armchair traveling.

Stay or Go? Stay

Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica – Nicholas Johnson

Published: June 1, 2005
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

Yes, another account of working at the South Pole.

Stay or Go? Stay

Call of the White: Taking the World to the South Pole – Felicity Aston

Published: February 3, 2011
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

Wow, I was on TBR-expanding kick that day, wasn’t I? This one is about an all-female skiing expedition to the South Pole.

Stay or Go? Stay

The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table – Tracie McMillan

Published:February 21, 2012
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

This is the book that I have on my TBR Pile list that I think I might not actually have anymore.

Stay or Go? Stay

Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents – Cami Ostman

Published: October 7, 2010
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

A running and travel memoir. Here for it.

Stay or Go? Stay

In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson

Published: June 18, 2000
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

I really enjoy Bryson’s travel writing, so I’m keeping this on the list with the knowledge that it’s still probably going to be a long while before I actually get to it.

Stay or Go? Stay

Artful Dodgers: Reconceiving the Golden Age of Children’s Literature – Marah Gubar

Published: March 1, 2009
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Tagging this one as Professional Reading.

Stay or Go? Stay

Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society – Bill Bryson

Published: November 2, 2010
On TBR Since: March 9, 2012

Another one that I thought was on the TBR Pile list, but it is not.

Stay or Go? Stay

Well, heck. Everything stays this week.

Down the TBR Hole #4

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 929 titles

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain

Published: January 24, 2012
On TBR Since: January 12, 2012

The book on introverts, and I’ve been meaning to read it for ages.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Ready Player One  – Ernest Cline

Published: August 16, 2011
On TBR Since: January 24, 2012

I had an idea of reading this before the movie came out, but I’m not all that psyched about it.

Stay or Go? Go

 

The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity – Bruce M. Hood

Published: January 1, 2012
On TBR Since: January 26, 2012

Another brain book; I don’t even really remember hearing about this one.

Stay or Go? Go

 

The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity, and the Inquisition – Doreen Carvajal

Published: August 1, 2012
On TBR Since: January 30, 2012

I must have heard about this one at an ALA conference, since I put it on my TBR a good six months before publication, and I’m pretty sure I never heard anything about it again. Interesting as the subject (the conversos) is, I’m not all that interested in this particular book about it.

Stay or Go? Go
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed

Published: March 20, 2012
On TBR Since: January 31, 2012

I think this one is going to be my book for the 2018 Read Harder task #13: An Oprah Book Club Selection.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis – Lauren F. Winner

Published: January 31, 2012
On TBR Since: February 03, 2012

Just not interested in this one anymore.

Stay or Go? Go

 

For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women – Barbara Ehrenreich

Published: January 4, 2005 (revised/updated edition)
On TBR Since: February 8, 2012

This one, on the other hand, I am still interested in.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books – Nicholas A. Basbanes

Published: March 15, 1999 (updated edition)
On TBR Since: March 07, 2012

It’s a book about books. And about people who really like books.

Stay or Go? Stay

 

Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies – Sol Stein

Published: January 25, 2000 (paperback edition)
On TBR Since: March 07, 2012

This is one that’s on my physical TBR shelf at home.

Stay or Go? Stay

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages – Ammon Shea

Published: July 2, 2008
On TBR Since: March 7, 2012

I’m a bit on the fence with this one. Keep it for now.

Stay or Go? Stay

Six to stay, four to go. Now, if I would just stop adding things at the other end of the list….

Down the TBR Hole #3

Down the TBR Hole was originally created over at Lost in a Story.

Most of you probably know this feeling, you’re Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10, if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
  • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Current “to-read” shelf: 930 titles

The Dovekeepers – Alice Hoffman
Published: October 4, 2011
On TBR Since: October 5, 2011

Historical fiction about the women at Masada. Yes, please.

Stay or Go? Stay

Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum – Jason Felch
Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: October 11, 2011

A dive into the Getty Museum’s questionable antiquities deals. This might count for the Read Harder challenge under True Crime.

Stay or Go? Stay

Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages – Alex Wright
Published: January 1, 2007
On TBR Since: November 2, 2011

Another one to file under “Professional Reading”.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Winter of Our Disconnect – Susan Maushart
Published: May 3, 2010
On TBR Since: December 6, 2011

I’m not really feeling this one these days.

Stay or Go? Go

Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World – Dalai Lama XIV
Published: December 6, 2011
On TBR Since: December 9, 2011

Well, this sure still seems relevant.

Stay or Go? Stay

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe – Norman Davies
Published: September 1, 2011
On TBR Since: December 21, 2011

The historical shifting borders in Europe are interesting, but I’m not that interested in this particular book anymore.

Stay or Go? Go

Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners – Michael Erard
Published: January 10, 2012
On TBR Since: December 23, 2011

People who can pick up other languages are amazing. I took 5 years of Spanish and keep turning back to Duolingo for another try, and I can don’t know enough to be able to conduct a decent reference interview at the library.

Stay or Go? Stay

Shakespeare: The World as Stage – Bill Bryson
Published: November 1, 2007
On TBR Since: December 29, 2011

This one is an alternate on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

Stay or Go? Stay

The World We Found – Thrity Umrigar
Published: January 3, 2012
On TBR Since: January 3, 2012

I might come back to this one sometime, but now is not that time.

Stay or Go? Go


Connectome: How the Brain’s Wiring Makes Us Who We Are – Sebastian Seung
Published: February 7, 2012
On TBR Since: January 12, 2012

There are other books on neuroscience on my TBR that I’m more interested in.

Stay or Go? Go

Seven to stay, three to go. Progress?