They are:
The Chalk Girl - Carol O'Connell
More Baths, Less Talking - Nick Hornby
Blood of the Wicked - Leighton Gage
Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
Stolen Souls - Stuart Neville
The London Compendium - Ed Glinert
Standing in Another Man's Grave - Ian Rankin
Broken Harbour - Tana French
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2012 - Paula Guran (ed)
Songs of Earth - Elspeth Cooper
Bitter Seeds - Ian Tregillis
The Day is Dark - Yrsa Sigurdardottir
White Heat - M.J. McGrath
The Betrayal of Trust - Susan Hill
Little Girl Lost - Brian McGilloway
Charles Dickens: A Life - Claire Tomalin
Shadowplay - Karen Campbell
They were all bought for my Christmas box, over autumn. Merry Christmas, everyone! I did receive a gift certificate also for Aamazon, so more books will be coming, which I have to hurry up and order, or I won't be able to use them for the next thing I am about to write: this is when I officially announce that for the months of January through March, I will not be buying any new books. Yes, this means I am accepting a new challenge: I am signing up for C.B. James' TBR Double Dog Dare.
Two Challenges:
As he says on his blog, Ready When You Are, " remember, especially those of you who do not participate in reading challenges, the TBR Double Dare is not a "reading challenge;" it's a dare.
We dare you, no we double dog dare you to join in the fun.
The rules are extreme, but you can change them to fit your needs. The TBR Double Dog Dare is meant to be fun, so rule number one is--have fun.
The goal of the TBR Double Dog Dare is to reduce the size of your TBR stack, to read those books you've had for years and always meant to get around to reading one day. January 1, 2013 just might be the day.
If you agree to the full Double Dog Dare, then you pledge to read only books in your TBR stack as of January 1, 2013 from the start of the new year until April Fool's Day. Your TBR stack is officially defined as the books you have purchased or have requested from the library as of January 1, 2013. This includes books that have not arrived in the mail or at the store yet."
So I have time to make that last order to Amazon books!
And I'm joining Ana's and Iris's January Long Awaited Reads challenge also
. It's not really a challenge, it's more of a fun sharing of what long awaited reads we've put aside, that we are going to read in January (and through the month while we read them). Mill on the Floss, any Charles Dickens, so many mystery series to catch up in, but I am going to try to make this about books I've had for a long time on my shelves waiting to read. I'll post the list before January, while I'm doing my round-up of my year's reading.
What about you, dear reader? Did you receive some books for Christmas? Are you feeling time-challenged to read what you have?
19 comments:
Oh wow, you have some great books to read, Susan! I have several of them as well. Since I don't have the blog anymore, I can't post about a challenge, but I am planning to read from my shelves for the first quarter of the year and maybe beyond. Of course, my shelves includes my virtual shelves on my Kindle. LOL
Hope you and your family have had a wonderful holiday season! Here's to a great 2013 - reading, reading, reading!
I really enjoyed Tomalin's bio of Dickens--he is a troubling author for me, but reading about his life (again, I read Ackroyd's bio of him years ago) helped respark an interest in reading Dickens again.
I like both your challenges, but I fear that I don't have the stuff to stick with the TBR challenge. Worthy though it is, I tend to dive down rabbit holes, chasing new interests as they pop up!
Enjoy Mill on the Floss--I finally got around to it recently and thought it fairly good, though not up to Middlemarch or Romola, imo. Next Eliot on my list is Felix Holt, which I really know nothing about.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for a book-filled new year!
Nice stack of books....great titles too.
ENJOY!!!
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
My Blog
A great stack of new books for Christmas! I haven't read any of them but would love to read the Charles Dickens bio after having my appetite whetted by Drood. Am also hoping to get to Mill on the Floss this year.
Good luck with your 'challenges'.
Yes, I was extremely pleased with my book haul this Christmas (they included 2 Nigel Slater books) and plan a post about them as soon as my visitors go home tomorrow.
Happy New Year, Susan!
Oh my goodness - what a lot of new books, you lucky thing! I had one!
I'm aiming to read more of my own to-be-read books next year too.
Wow, you received a lot of books for Christmas! I'm especially curious about the Dickens bio. I have read Claire Tomalin's biography of Austen and remember that it was of very high quality.
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog to say hi. It's always so great to discover other blogs and yours looks like one I'd enjoy a lot (Seraphina, Diana Wynne Jones!)
And I'm so happy that you are joining the Long Awaited Reads Month. It's been so encouraging to see that others will be joining us and I'm sure we'll enjoy ourselves reading books we've been waiting to get to for what feels like forever (although there are also books on my list that were released this year, but they feel like "forever" too :P).
Merry Christmas Susan!
I got the Hornby book too! I've been sneaking at it a bit, but I plan to read it in one go through once January starts. I gave my parents that Ian Rankin book (though I did not inscribe it to them!)
You will love Broken Harbour - it's French's best yet.
I love those dogs in that challenge poster; always been a Fisher Price fan. I'm not planning on joining that challenge, but it is a somewhat goal nonetheless. I've joined a group at librarything that is focussing on reading our own tomes (ROOT), so same idea.
Happy Reading Susan
Kay: Merry Christmas to you too, Kay. I miss coming on your blog, though I understand why you stopped it.I hope you are enjoying the new things in your life. And some new books to read! It's lovely to hear from you :-)
I second that - a 2013 filled with reading, reading, reading!
Jane: I have read A Christmas Carol and The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens. I have several on my shelf to read, and so I thought that the bio would be fun and like you say, help with understanding some of what he writes.
I am trying to limit my challenges this year, really I am! But these are irresistible because easily done, as I had decided to not buy any new books until spring. The hard part will be doing it!
I really want to read Silas Marner but am having difficulty finding it. Mill on the Floss I hope will be good, I do love MIddlemarch so much, too :-) like you.
Merry Christmas to you too, Jane!
Elizabeth: thank you! I will come check your blog out, thanks for leaving a comment so I can find you. Merry Christmas!
Cath: I am still on page - 10? of Drood? I need to get the smaller version so I can carry it around! I had planned to read it through the holidays, but not working out so far. It does look very interesting, I love the jealousy COllins has for him. I want to see your review please, Cath! lol :-D
And your book haul - two Nigel Slater books! LUCKY!!!! I so want Kitchen Diaries 2.....
Happy New Year to you too, Cath.
Margaret: One new book! Oh, I have to say, that is a little hard. I hope you make up for it by buying a whole bunch to get through January with! lol Though, you've said you want to read more of your own books this year, so I can guess you have a big to be read shelf too, right? Happy New Year.
Iris: Yes, I make sure to fill a box of books I really want for Christmas for myself, and then I can relax in the new year and just read, read, read!! i find it makes my holiday much more enjoyable.
I read the Austen bio by Tomalin too a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. I've flipped through a page here or there in the Dickens bio already (trying to choose what to read in Jan already) and I think it looks very good also.
I was looking at my shelf thinking, do only books I've owned for over a year count, or is it books I've wanted to read for ages and finally got, count too? I think it's both, from what you and Ana said. I'm so excited, either way! Thanks for doing the challenge, too.
raidergirl3: I can hardly wait to read some new Hornby!! That's great you got it too for Christmas. I have an ongoing to get list because of his other books, so I'm sure I'll be adding more after this one. Plus I love how enthusiastic he is about reading and books, and fitting it into his life. Let me know if you want to read it together or do a shared post on it :-)
Broken Harbour looks very interesting, and so does the Rankin: Rebus is in it! though I do like Fox also. I think I might do a post on the two of them.
Happy holidays and happy 2013 - hope it's filled with reading for you!
What a great haul! I only got one book for Christmas -- Radioactive by Lauren Redniss -- but I got a lot of Christmas money and I'm sure at least a portion will be going to new books. Happy New Year (a little early)!
So glad you're joining us in January! And enjoy your Christmas loot :D Jealous of the Claire Tomalin Dickens bio, which I still need to get my hands on.
Kim: Thank you! And yes, shopping for books is almost as much fun as unwrapping them! lol Enjoy whatever you end up buying :-)
Ana: you're welcome! I'm busy finding books that are on my shelves that I have wanted to read for the past few years. :-)
We both have good Christmas loot to enjoy, don't we? A fab Christmas all way round :-)
Good luck with your challenges and enjoy your new books! I didn't get a single bookish item for Christmas.
bermudaonion: was that on purpose in that people are afraid to buy books for you in case you read it, and/or did you say you didn't want any? Cause otherwise, that makes me so sad! You need to correct that asap! lol
I will enjoy my new books and I will do better posting about them this year, too. One of my resolutions.
Happy Reading Challenging! Uh oh - I kinda forgot about January being the reading month for those books I keep saying I want to read and somehow never get to. Thanks for the reminder! But I still am going to have my first book be one I just got for xmas. Happy New Year!
That is quite a wonderful stack of books, Susan! How fun!
I should probably join the TBR Double Dog Dare. I don't know if I'm brave enough though.
Have a Happy New Year!
Care: I think if you have waited a long time to receive it, and just got it, that counts too :-) Enjoy the book - what was it?
Literary Feline: It is a lovely stack, my hard part is choosing what to start with, now! lol
It took me a year to be brave enough for the double dog dare, that and buying enough books through the year that I have a huge stack of mysteries and sf and nonfiction to read :-) so I'm going to try to be good and read them first!!
Happy New Year to you too, Wendy.
Your challenges sound interesting. One of the goals for 2013 that I posted today was to continue to work on whittling down my TBR piles!
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