I trust you got some new books this past holiday season. What’s in your To Be Read pile? How do you decide what book to read next?
17 thoughts on “Reader Friday: What’s In Your TBR Pile?”
I have a towering stack of TBR’s, which would be much higher if I didn’t use Kindle for about half my books.
I’m in several book clubs, so I get their lists. Sometimes I manage to add a selection from my own TBR list to the group list. Score!
Friends and mentors refer books, including books on the craft of writing.
And then there’s a classics to read or re-read. To this group, I add books that are referenced in books I’m reading. I try to keep a mix of classics in with my contemporary, as well as books in the genre I’m writing.
And then I have a non-fiction stack, generally science and history.
How does everyone else work their list?
My method is just crazy. I catalog books for a living. If a description or first page catches my eye, it goes on the pile. If the book doesn’t catch me by page two, it goes off the pile and on to the shelf. So many books, so little time. 😉
I have a wild mixture of fiction books (also from writers friends), nonfiction books for my research (for the next book in series) and B2B books. And inspirational ones like “Practical Enlightenment” (which and other books by Ariel and Shya Kane I read 10-15 min in the mornings: very uplifting) and another notable is “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill BolteTailor. I read many of these (especially B2B) in parallel, sometimes letting some of them lie for a while then pick them up again. All of these books are good friends of mine. 🙂
Egads. My TBR stack is a mile high. My reading distribution is quite easily 95% non-fiction to 5% fiction, if not even a more narrow margin, I have tons and tons of titles e-stacked, mostly history and health related. But I also have a number of TBR novels.
My first priority in reading are texts I consult for research and anything for U.S. history or sincere (not fly-by-night) texts on fitness (ie. weight-lifting, movement, etc). I’m having a blast reading Bartlett’s narrative of the U.S. Boundary Commission’s exploration of the land attained after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. I know. I know. It may seem boring to some, but I’m eating it up. Especially since this material was very difficult to obtain prior to the digital revolution.
I’m also currently reading O’Melveny’s “Book of Madness & Cures.” Definitely not my usual century of or location, but I had stumbled across a book recommendation and decided to give it a try.
My wish for my Kindle app is that they develop a way to far better organize books on the app. When you have that many titles on your Kindle/Kindle app, it’s clunky to find things.
Actually, I just googled and it looks like they have improved the sorting of books since I got my first Kindle app.
Maybe I CAN get my TBR stack better sorted for 2016. I’ll work on it this weekend and see.
I have lots of books all over my house waiting to be read, but at the moment I’m working my way through Nelson DeMille’s John Corey series. Wild Fire is up now, and The Lion is next.
Got “Duma Key” from my sister. Started it last night. It’s quite…surreal. And such a potty mouth, this guy King. 🙂
I find that so unnecessary and, to be frank, not helpful to his literary rep.
Totally agree! Absolutely unnecessary.
I have a very scientific method for deciding what book to read next. I use altitude — which ever one is highest on the table.
That’s quite a TBR pile you got pictured there. Good luck with it. I’m reading John Gilstgrap’s Against All Enemies (just shy of the mirror point). And it’s hard to put one of his down. Then I have River Runs Deep by Jennifer Bradbury, a novel about the Underground Railroad at Mammoth Cave. Just the top, mind you.
The Bradbury book sounds interesting. My “people” on my mom’s side are from near there in southeastern Kentucky around the Big South Fork (Mine 18) area. Will check it out…Thanks!
Lance,
Thanks for the heads up on River Runs Deep. I hadn’t heard of the title but it sounds like one I’d really like to read! 😎
I’m a public librarian, so you know my TBR pile is rather large. 😉 Some of the ones with bookmarks and downloaded to my Kindle are:
Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie OMartian (a must after watching War Room!)
Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel
Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Choosing by Rachelle Dekker
Make Me by Lee Child
Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin
An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard) by Scott Pratt
and the list goes on…..
During the Christmas holidays, I read two S-F books from a Chinese author I did not know, Cixin Liu. They were recently translated in English: The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest. Very different from what I usually but at the same time very interesting. I can’t wait for the third volume of the trilogy “Death’s End” (English version in August 2016).
I got “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, which I’ve read several times before and have now read again, and now I’m reading it at bedtime to my wife. And Dinty Moore’s “Dear Mr. Essay Writer,” which I’ve decided to take it slowly on, dipping into it for a chapter every five days to a week, to savor it.
I did not receive any books this holiday season. My family knows I like to choose my reading. I received a lot of reading gift cards so I am deliriously happy. I, too, have a long list. Right now I’m reading Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz because I have not read any of his books in a long time and the reviews indicated this was one of his best. Frances8
I have a towering stack of TBR’s, which would be much higher if I didn’t use Kindle for about half my books.
I’m in several book clubs, so I get their lists. Sometimes I manage to add a selection from my own TBR list to the group list. Score!
Friends and mentors refer books, including books on the craft of writing.
And then there’s a classics to read or re-read. To this group, I add books that are referenced in books I’m reading. I try to keep a mix of classics in with my contemporary, as well as books in the genre I’m writing.
And then I have a non-fiction stack, generally science and history.
How does everyone else work their list?
My method is just crazy. I catalog books for a living. If a description or first page catches my eye, it goes on the pile. If the book doesn’t catch me by page two, it goes off the pile and on to the shelf. So many books, so little time. 😉
I have a wild mixture of fiction books (also from writers friends), nonfiction books for my research (for the next book in series) and B2B books. And inspirational ones like “Practical Enlightenment” (which and other books by Ariel and Shya Kane I read 10-15 min in the mornings: very uplifting) and another notable is “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill BolteTailor. I read many of these (especially B2B) in parallel, sometimes letting some of them lie for a while then pick them up again. All of these books are good friends of mine. 🙂
Egads. My TBR stack is a mile high. My reading distribution is quite easily 95% non-fiction to 5% fiction, if not even a more narrow margin, I have tons and tons of titles e-stacked, mostly history and health related. But I also have a number of TBR novels.
My first priority in reading are texts I consult for research and anything for U.S. history or sincere (not fly-by-night) texts on fitness (ie. weight-lifting, movement, etc). I’m having a blast reading Bartlett’s narrative of the U.S. Boundary Commission’s exploration of the land attained after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. I know. I know. It may seem boring to some, but I’m eating it up. Especially since this material was very difficult to obtain prior to the digital revolution.
I’m also currently reading O’Melveny’s “Book of Madness & Cures.” Definitely not my usual century of or location, but I had stumbled across a book recommendation and decided to give it a try.
My wish for my Kindle app is that they develop a way to far better organize books on the app. When you have that many titles on your Kindle/Kindle app, it’s clunky to find things.
Actually, I just googled and it looks like they have improved the sorting of books since I got my first Kindle app.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201382780
Maybe I CAN get my TBR stack better sorted for 2016. I’ll work on it this weekend and see.
I have lots of books all over my house waiting to be read, but at the moment I’m working my way through Nelson DeMille’s John Corey series. Wild Fire is up now, and The Lion is next.
Got “Duma Key” from my sister. Started it last night. It’s quite…surreal. And such a potty mouth, this guy King. 🙂
I find that so unnecessary and, to be frank, not helpful to his literary rep.
Totally agree! Absolutely unnecessary.
I have a very scientific method for deciding what book to read next. I use altitude — which ever one is highest on the table.
That’s quite a TBR pile you got pictured there. Good luck with it. I’m reading John Gilstgrap’s Against All Enemies (just shy of the mirror point). And it’s hard to put one of his down. Then I have River Runs Deep by Jennifer Bradbury, a novel about the Underground Railroad at Mammoth Cave. Just the top, mind you.
The Bradbury book sounds interesting. My “people” on my mom’s side are from near there in southeastern Kentucky around the Big South Fork (Mine 18) area. Will check it out…Thanks!
Lance,
Thanks for the heads up on River Runs Deep. I hadn’t heard of the title but it sounds like one I’d really like to read! 😎
I’m a public librarian, so you know my TBR pile is rather large. 😉 Some of the ones with bookmarks and downloaded to my Kindle are:
Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie OMartian (a must after watching War Room!)
Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel
Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Choosing by Rachelle Dekker
Make Me by Lee Child
Reacher Said Nothing by Andy Martin
An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard) by Scott Pratt
and the list goes on…..
During the Christmas holidays, I read two S-F books from a Chinese author I did not know, Cixin Liu. They were recently translated in English: The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest. Very different from what I usually but at the same time very interesting. I can’t wait for the third volume of the trilogy “Death’s End” (English version in August 2016).
I got “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, which I’ve read several times before and have now read again, and now I’m reading it at bedtime to my wife. And Dinty Moore’s “Dear Mr. Essay Writer,” which I’ve decided to take it slowly on, dipping into it for a chapter every five days to a week, to savor it.
I did not receive any books this holiday season. My family knows I like to choose my reading. I received a lot of reading gift cards so I am deliriously happy. I, too, have a long list. Right now I’m reading Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz because I have not read any of his books in a long time and the reviews indicated this was one of his best. Frances8