Taming the TBR thread

Great thread, thank you for starting it @bibliomania. It's inspired me to tackle my TBR, I've pulled 7 books from the shelf and have read the first 10 pages of two today. Two keepers for me: The Birthing House by Christopher Ransome and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. The first has the potential to run out of steam but there was enough in those early years pages to make me want to give it a shot. Hamnet was a keeper almost from the first sentence. I've heard so many good reviews and I hope it won't disappoint!

I'm hoping that having a few books primed and ready to go will help speed me through the book I've currently got on the go too.

Book 2 - The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis.
Set in Edinburgh, which is usually a plus for me because I used to live there and love the city. The first ten pages were quite atmospheric and evocative but also extremely depressing. I’ve survived Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo and not sure I’m up for another neglectful alcoholic mother just yet.
Page 67 was a lot better though so I think hopefully the alcoholic mother isn’t the main focus of the novel.
Possibly one for later then.

Oh man, I'm on a roll with the keeps so far!

I didn't rate We Are Not Ourselves @MamaNewtNewt

Book 2 (Non-Fiction): Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus by Sandi Toksvig. Not entirely sure why I bought this. I mean I guess I like Sandi Toksvig, but have very little desire to know more about her via a bus journey. As the lady says herself says "If none of these things appeal to you may I gently suggest that you change seats now. Life is too short to read a book that upsets you." I mean it's not upsetting me but I just can't be bothered. CHUCK

Book 2 (Fiction): We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas. I'm intrigued enough by the American Irish Catholic family set-up to want to read the rest of this. KEEP

Today's book is Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas

I really enjoyed Mr Y and PopCo but I found this when I first tried it go be chicklitty and lightweight. I read 25% ish but this went back on the shelf and never came off again years ago.

Think I can safely ditch without tests.

Oh dear I'm tempted to jettison Greenlights after those reviews.

Today was fantasy/ science fiction
Book 4- Written by Ben Galley - elves, dragons, purple prose- permanent delete
Book 5- The Copper Promise by Jen Williams- first scene caught my attention- nice writing style- second chapter had a different but also enjoyable pov. Kept to read later.
Book 6- Wild Cards edited by George Rr Martin- I know I bought this years ago thinking it was by George RR Martin but it’s a collection of short stories - all sci-fi and alien related. I tried the start of two stories- one was okay, the other meh. I have so many things I want to read, I decided to delete.

I know these books don’t take up space as such, as they’re all on my kindle, but they irritate me- sitting there saying ‘you could read me instead of buying a new book’. This way I can make sure I only read things I really want to. I’m so grateful to biblio for setting this up. I think I will do one week a month of this until I’ve been through my whole kindle. (Several years away…)

What a great idea Vitty’s

I agree with Eine about Greenlights - it starts out well but becomes pretentious old tosh as it goes along.

I wrapped 13 books from my TBR hoard in brown paper. I pick 1 a month, give it 50 pages. So far I have picked 3 and read them all. All of them have been passed over when i've previously been choosing my next read.

Today's book is another chuck - Light by M John Harrison. Dicklit sci-fi, life is too short.

@MamaNewtNewt

Greenlights does turn out to be pretty pretentious in the long run. I did it as audio about 2 years ago

I've decided to do one fiction and one non-fiction a day.

Book 1 (Non-Fiction): Greenlight by Matthew McConaughey. I picked this as I thought it would either be really interesting or a bit wandering and pretentious. So far, so interesting so it's a KEEP.

Book 1 (Fiction): Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. I'm not keen on romances with big age gaps (the female main character is 26 and the male is early 40s in this one) plus I felt like the teacher character was a bit mocking about the children. I'm not feeling it and life is too short, it's a CHUCK.

@BaruFisher you are not missing anything with The Roanoke Girls I didn't want to say until you'd made up your own mind, but it is one of the worst things I have ever read, and is frankly just nasty and a bit disturbing.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit when I was a teenager it was really fashionable to read The Magus. I think it was pretty innovative at the time but I suspect I might find it a bit pretentious now. So I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

My first is The Magus by John Fowles, It was a gift and I've had it 20 years. I must have been put off by the print and the length. Teeny tiny and 656 pages. Liked the first page and page 67. It's gone back on the shelf with the proviso it has to go at Christmas if I don't read it before then.

So the first book I looked at was The Quincunx by Charles Palliser.

Wow. It's so Dickensian! The first short chapter reminded me of Bleak House or Our Mutual Friend and the second of David Copperfield. This has to be intentional; the similarities are so marked.

I like Dickens and Victorian style novels in general, so I'll be hanging on to this one and waiting for a moment when a 1200 page novel to get immersed in is just what I need.

Book 3 Dark Water - Caro Ramsay- tartan noir- interesting beginning and good writing. Also I’m a sucker for a Scottish detective. I kept this one to read later.

Book No1, The King's Painter by Franny Moyle - the life and work of Hans Holbein. Decent introduction and first 10 pages, but page 67 was an example of what I found off-putting when I tried this book a while back - so little is known about Holbein that that author has to pad it out with details about religious and cultural change in 16c Switzerland and Germany, in which I have no interest at all. Undecided. I'm finding the style a bit pedestrian, as well.

I'm in! Like Sadik, I have a few books that I have been given or lent that I feel obliged to read. If I get on well, I think I also have some books that were pushed on me at a charity book stall that I didn't really want to buy. Aiming for one book a day reading pages 1-10 and page 67...thanks bibliomania for getting the ball rolling.

I am only bothering with physical books as there is an upside to giving them away ;clear space for me and money for a charity)

Digital books don't have much upside to removing them for me. They don't really bother me being unread -I can grab any to read on my phone if ever bored.

Good luck biblio. I wonder is it harder or easier to get rid of physical vs ebook. Is anyone doing both?

Book 1 The Roanoke Girls- read until the end of the first chapter- pg12- then read page 67. At no point does the pov character appear to have any emotions. Trying to be Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, reads more like something by Virginia Andrews. Permanent delete.

Book 2 Hermit by S R White
Aussie crime (which I normally like). Nothing that grabbed my attention in the crime and two paragraphs in a row which had ‘the’ as the first word of every sentence. Permanent delete.

I know I’m being harsh here but I need to clear the rubbish so I have more time to read good stuff. Will try to squeeze one more in today, then go to SF/F tomorrow.