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.