Down the TBR Hole – #2

When I did the first iteration of this challenge I got rid of 2 out of ten books on my TBR.

Currently, my TBR on Goodreads has 3,851 books on it. Which, distressingly, is even more than I had on my TBR at the end of part one of this challenge.

In case you didn’t see the last post, the idea behind it is to reduce the number of books on your TBR list.

As far as I can tell, this challenge was created by the writer at the literary blog, Lost in a Story, but it appears that the domain is no longer valid.

Here are the rules:

• 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?

Let’s get right to it.

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Verdict: Keep

Jane Eyre is a classic that I’ve always wanted to read. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, so it’s definitely staying on my TBR.

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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Verdict: Keep

The Alchemist is a much-loved novel in the book community, and I’ve heard from more than one person that this book changed their life.

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Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Verdict: Keep

This list clearly contains a lot of classics. Wuthering Heights is another keep.

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Verdict: Keep

I remember attempting to read The Catcher in the Rye in high school and not loving it, but my tastes have changed in the last decade, and I want to give it another shot. I’ve heard very mixed reviews of this book.

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The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Verdict: Keep

I promise that these Down the TBR posts will eventually get more interesting once we get out of the classics. My mother loved this book, so obviously, this is a hard keep.

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Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Verdict: Keep

Technically, I read both of these books before, in my tenth grade English class, and I loved them. However, tenth grade was sixteen years ago, so I’ve forgotten so much about them.

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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Verdict: Keep

Once again, another classic. Keep, keep, keep.

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Emma and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Verdict: Keep

I swear, eventually I’m going to get to books that I don’t want to keep on my TBR. I’m going to bypass the ten I would normally go through and just keep going until I remove something from my TBR.

I just finished Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (review coming soon) and thought it was brilliant. I can’t wait to read some of her other novels.

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The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Verdict: Keep

The Metamorphosis sounds truly bizarre, as it’s about a man who wakes up transformed into a giant insect.

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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Verdict: Keep

Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions is one of my favorite books, and I can’t wait to read Vonnegut’s classic novel, Slaughter-House Five.

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Marvel 1602 #1 by Neil Gaiman

Verdict: Toss it

This technically doesn’t even count as removing a book from my TBR as it’s a duplicate. This entry is only the first issue of the series, and I have the complete graphic novel as another book on my TBR.

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Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Verdict: Keep

I bought a hardcover edition of this book from my local thrift store, and I’ve been wanting to read more contemporaries, so this one stays.

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An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Verdict: Keep

I’ll admit that when I purchased a copy of this book that it was a cover buy. It’s hard to tell in the photo above, but the gold and blue of the cover are incredibly vibrant. After reading the synopsis, however, I’m excited to read it.

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The Curious of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Verdict: Keep

I have had a copy of this book on my bookshelf for years. I no longer even remember where I got it. This is a YA mystery novel that was originally published in 2003, and I’ve heard great things about it.

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A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin

Verdict: Keep

While I would love to wait and read the Game of Thrones series after George R. R. Martin has finished writing the series, I imagine that’s many, many years in the future. I love high, complicated fantasy novels, so I need to stop putting this off and eventually read it.

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Red Queen (Red Queen, #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Verdict: Keep

I’m intrigued by this YA fantasy novel, particularly because people are separated by their red or silver blood. It’s also a book that is rated very well, so I can’t wait to read it. I’ll probably read this book before most of the others on this list.

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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Verdict: Toss it

I know this is a much-beloved book, but I have zero interest in ever actually reading this series.

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Kraken by China Miéville

Verdict: Keep

I’d forgotten why I had this book on my TBR until I read the first paragraph of the synopsis:

With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.

I’m so excited about this synopsis that I went ahead and requested it from my library.

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Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Verdict: Keep

I’ve had a copy of Water for Elephants on my Kindle for years. I love stories with a circus setting, so it’s a keeper.

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Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Verdict: Keep

I’m shocked that I never read this book in high school or college (where I was majoring in political science with a minor in history). It’s been on my shelf for years, so I need to finally suck it up and just read it.

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So, overall, I got rid of two out of 23 books, so not great, but it’s a start.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

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