Down the TBR Hole #2

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: 932 titles

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference – Cordelia Fine
Published: August 30, 2010
On TBR Since: September 23, 2011

I think I started reading this years ago, but I didn’t finish it before I had to return it to the library.

Stay or Go? Go

Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature – Emma Donoghue
Published: May 25, 2010
On TBR Since: September 23, 2011

Oddly, I thought I had put this on my TBR Pile Challenge List, but I did not. This is a book I own and still want to read.

Stay or Go? Stay

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It – Arthur Herman
Published: November 27, 2001
On TBR Since: September 24, 2011

Another one I own and still want to read.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Published: January 19, 2008
On TBR Since: September 24, 2011

I think the moment for this (for me) has passed.

Stay or Go? Go

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World – Edward Dolnick
Published: February 8, 2011
On TBR Since: September 24, 2011

I’m on the fence on this one. I think it might be interesting to read before reading Enlightenment Now.

Stay or Go? Stay

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things – Randy O. Frost
Published: January 1, 2010
On TBR Since: September 25, 2011

*eyes bookshelves nervously*

Stay or Go? Stay

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case – Debbie Nathan
Published: January 1, 2011
On TBR Since: October 3, 2011

I first encountered Sybil on my local library’s used book sale shelf when I was in junior high, if memory serves. I’m not feeling the need to revisit the subject.

Stay or Go? Go

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True – Richard Dawkins
Published: October 4, 2011
On TBR Since: October 3, 2011

One day, I will read some Dawkins, and it will probably be this book, mostly because of Dave McKean’s illustrations. Today is not that day.

Stay or Go? Go

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America – Shawn Lawrence Otto
Published: October 11, 2011
On TBR Since: October 3, 2011

This book came out seven years ago, and it still feels completely relevant.

Stay or Go? Stay

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood – James Gleick
Published: March 1, 2011
On TBR Since: October 5, 2011

File under: Professional Reading (Information Theory)

Stay or Go? Stay

Six staying and four going this week. Progress!