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My TBR challenge list

Lately I have been suffering from what we Icelanders call valkvíði when it comes to books. The word translates into English as “anxiety of choosing” and refers to the range of feelings from apprehension to terror suffered by one who has too many things to choose from. 809 TBR books are a very good reason for having valkvíði, and so I have gathered together 50 books that
  • I have, at one time or another, started reading and then put back on the shelf with the bookmark inside, or
  • I have been reading on and off for too long, or
  • I feel it‘s time I read, either because they have been TBR for too long, or because they keep calling out to me to read them, or because I feel guilty that I haven‘t read them already.
I put the list in the side-bar, under the title TBR books I want to finish before the end of 2009. The aim is to try to finish all of them and/or cull any that are too dull or bad to finish. If any books are left over at the end of the year, they will form the core of a new list of 50 books I want to finish before the end of 2010.

While the list is meant as an aid in the “TBR-for-more-than-a-year” challenge, it is not entirely composed of books that fall under that label. Some of the books are newer than that, but most of them will have qualified for the challenge by the time I get around to reading them. They are “started reading but then stopped” and “I've wanted to read this for ages – better buy it” books that have subsequently ended up on the shelves, temporarily forgotten because something else was more interesting when the time came to read them.

I am going to try to stick to this list and not read any of my other TBR books until it is empty, with the exception of books that belong in the other two challenges: Top Mysteries (listed below this list) and Icelandic books (which I do not have a list for, preferring to leave their choosing to chance and mood). I am also allowing myself the joy of library books on any subject – which is only fair considering that I have over a thousand books on my “Not Owned TBR”, many of which are available from one or more of the local libraries.

I am planning to finish the books I am currently reading to clear the slate before I delve into the list. To make it easier to stick to this regime, I am keeping all the books on the list in my bedroom.
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