Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge

My to be read (tbr) pile is huge….much bigger than I would like.  I worry that I’ll acquire books, and they’ll lounge around forever, never to be read. Thus!  I now challenge myself every year to read as many books from the bottom of the pile by the end of the current year as possible.  I define the bottom of the pile as books acquired before the most recently passed year.

For 2012, that meant I read books I acquired before 2011.  In 2012, the list had 47 books on it, and I read 14.

This year I’m challenging myself to read half of the books I acquired before 2012 by the end of 2013.  Since there is a total of 83 that means I’m challenging myself to read 42, which is….a lot more than the 14 I read last year, but that’s why it’s a challenge!

Anywho!  Below are my Bottom of the TBR Pile books!  Read and reviewed ones are crossed out with links to the review.  Also, out of my own personal curiosity, in parentheses is listed how, exactly, these books wound up on my tbr pile.

TBR Pile Books Acquired Prior to 2012

1. American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante (Brookline Booksmith)
2. Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman (Kindle)
3. Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (Kindle)
4. A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales by Ying Chang Compestine (Better World Books)
5. Bellwether by Connie Willis (gift)
6. The Better World Handbook: Small Changes That Make A Big Difference by Ellis Jones (PaperBackSwap)
7. Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker (Harvard Books)
8. Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin (PaperBackSwap)
9. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (Better World Books)
10. Chop Suey:A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States by Andrew Coe (Kindle)
11. Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan (PaperBackSwap)
12. Cowboys & Aliens by Joan D. Vinge (gift)
13. Deadtown by Nancy Holzner (PaperBackSwap)
14. Ecstasy in Darkness by Gena Showalter (CVS)
15. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood (Better World Books)
16. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis by Jeremy Rifkin (won)
17. Empress Orchid by Anchee Min (PaperBackSwap)
18. Fated by S. G. Browne (PaperBackSwap)
19. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle (Better World Books)
20. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King (Harvard Books)
21. Fudoki by Kij Johnson (Better World Books)
22. The Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison (PaperBackSwap)
23. Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope – or Worst Nightmare – for Averting Climate Catastrophe by Eli Kintisch (won)
24. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk (Brookline Booksmith)
25. The Hornet’s Sting by Mark Ryan (Kindle)
26. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (Harvard Books)
27. The Keep by F. Paul Wilson (PaperBackSwap)
28. The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You by Dorothy Bryant (PaperBackSwap)
29. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (Kindle)
30. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan (Kindle)
31. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (PaperBackSwap)
32. Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber (Better World Books)
33. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (borrowed)
34. The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter (PaperBackSwap)
35. Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (PaperBackSwap)
36. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (PaperBackSwap)
37. Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles (PaperBackSwap)
38. Music and Dance Traditions of Ghana: History, Performance and Teaching (EarlyReviewers)
39. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (gift)
40. Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler (PaperBackSwap)
41. Path Of the Assassin, Vol. 1: Serving In The Dark by Kazuo Koike (Harvard Books)
42. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover (PaperBackSwap)
43. The Postmortal by Drew Magary (Kindle)
44. Rainbow Man by M. J. Engh (PaperBackSwap)
45. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang (gift)
46. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella (*coughs* recycling bin on my street again)
47. A Room with a View by Edward Morgan Forster (won)
48. Rut by Scott Phillips (picked up for free at Back Pages Books)
49. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol J. Adams (Better World Books)
50. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (PaperBackSwap)
51. Sleeping Arrangements by Madeleine Wickham (This is the last recycling bin one, I swear.)
52. Smokin’ Six-Shooter by B. J. Daniels (gift)
53. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (gift)
54. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede (PaperBackSwap)
55. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (PaperBackSwap)
56. State of Decay by James Knapp (PaperBackSwap)
57. Steel Drivin’ Man:John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson (Kindle)
58. The Stoning of Soraya M.: A Story of Injustice in Iran by Freidoune Sahebjam (Kindle)
59. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (Kindle)
60. Trust Us, We’re Experts PA: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future by Sheldon Rampton (Better World Books)
61. Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin (Better World Books)
62. Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco (PaperBackSwap)
63. Waiting For The Galactic Bus by Parke Godwin (PaperBackSwap)
64. Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter (Back Pages Books)
65. Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization (won)
66. Watership Down by Richard Adams (PaperBackSwap)
67. We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates by Theo Coster (gift)
68. Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (PaperBackSwap)
69. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston (gift)
70. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (PaperBackSwap)
71. Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary (won)
72. Zelde M’Tana by F. M. Busby (SwapTree)
73. The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia by Peter Dendle (EarlyReviewers)

2013 Bottom of TBR Pile Books Read and Reviewed

1. Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt (PaperBackSwap) review 2/27/2013, 4 stars
2. Dagon by Fred Chappell (Better World Books) review 3/14/2013, 3 stars
3. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris (PaperBackSwap) review 5/18/2013, 3 stars
4. Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag (PaperBackSwap) review _/_/_, 4 stars
5. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harvard Books) review _/_/_, 4 stars
6. The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Ames (PaperBackSwap) review 2/16/2013, 3 stars
7. Mulliner Nights by P. G. Wodehouse (Harvard Books) review 5/01/2013, 4 stars
8. Superior Women by Alice Adams (Better World Books) review _/_/_, 3.5 stars
9. The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess (PaperBackSwap) review 3/15/2013, 3 stars
10. Where The Blind Horse Sings: Love and Healing at an Animal Sanctuary by Kathy Stevens (Kindle) review 4/18/2013, 4 stars

2012 Bottom of TBR Pile Books Read and Reviewed

1. Acacia: The War with the Mein by David Anthony Durham (PaperBackSwap)review 5/06/2012, 5 stars
2. Across The Table / Dancing On Sunday Afternoons (two books in one volume) by Linda Cardillo (…recycling bin on my street *runs, hides*) review 8/14/2012, 4 stars
3. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman (live signing at Brookline Booksmith)review 7/10/2012, 3 stars
4. A Crack in the Line by Michael Lawrence (PaperBackSwap) review 1/07/2012, 3 stars
5. Dark Life by Kat Falls (PaperBackSwap) review 1/12/2012, 5 stars
6. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (PaperBackSwap) review 5/23/2012, 4 stars
7. The Mount by Carol Emshwiller (PaperBackSwap) review 6/25/2012, 3 stars
8. Nova by Samuel R. Delany (PaperBackSwap) review 1/18/2012, 2 stars
9. The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins (won…somewhere on the internet) review 7/23/2012, 4 stars
10. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (PaperBackSwap) review 9/05/2012, 2 stars
11. Soulless by Gail Carriger (PaperBackSwap) review 10/23/2012, 3.5 stars
12. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (Better World Books) review 1/25/2012, 4 stars
13. Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead (PaperBackSwap) review 2/04/2012, 4 stars
14. Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien (PaperBackSwap) review 1/10/2012, 4 stars