Read What You Own Challenge

[ÚlldemoShúl]

I’m going to start a Read What You Own Challenge on the 1st of July to try and reduce down my ridiculously huge TBR both physical and kindle.
My rules for me are-

• No buying any new books after midday on July 1st
• Unsubscribe from the kindle daily deals email
• I am allowed to break it for the Booker Prize longlist when it’s announced, but must check my library for the books first.
• Keep going until August 21st as my first goal. (Maybe until 2026 in total)

These rules are specific to me and anyone who wants to join me is free to make their own set of rules for their challenge. I’m going to log each book I read here to keep me accountable. Anyone else up for it? I know some 50 Bookers are considering it…

I have finally finished my first one, I am a bit of a plodder at reading at the moment, Village Diary by Miss Read.

Now reading Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne

@ProfessionalTeaDrinkerI wouldn’t worry, you might love it. I did a quick search and several MNs loved it.
Horses for courses and all that 😁

Blood Sisters - Sarah Gristwood - I recently saw this author speak - then found i had this on my kindle from 2015!

This is about key women in the Wars of the Roses - Elizabeth Woodville, Marguerite of Anjou etc. A good read, glad i discovered it!

Finished “10 million aliens” by Simon Barnes (kindle) finally. Was fascinating but I had started to think I would be reading it for the rest of my life

Another one down, the second Solvej Balle

I’ve been reading Booker books but have also DNFed a RWYO- Snow Country by Yusamori Kawabari and am reading two others Missoula by Jon Krakauer and The Grapes of Wrath.

Decided to can Inside Job after 3 pages. I bought it in 2014 but I think I have read enough books about the collapse of Lehman Brothers etc in my life

Reading Dissolution instead, bought in 2015.

Finished The Spy and the Traitor - Ben MacIntyre which I bought in July 2020.

Just bought latest Christie challenge book so not improved my stats.

Disappointingly, I am no further forward overall as I found a whole load of books had not downloaded to my Kindle so I am in a worse place than when I started. Now have 111 unread Kindle books despite having read 10 books as part of RWYO (and thinking I only had 107 on my Kindle at outset)....

Finished To Venice with Love - Philip Gwynne Jones & We All Live Here - Jojo Moyes (both library)

I've ditched 2 Nordic thrillers and finished The Queen's Gambit bought in 2022 which the TV series is based on. It sticks very closely to it.

In another twist, DH managed to cut the wifi fibre optic wire last night while cutting wisteria, so now I not only have to read what I own, but also what I have downloaded. This has taken my list from 100 odd to 40!

What a nightmare @Stowickthevast

I’ve just finished another : Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

Oh dear, Stowick! 😅
I'm sorry, but that made me laugh.

I haven't started this challenge yet properly. I did read one book from my bookshelf recently; Agatha Christie's 'Death in the Clouds'. I haven't been borrowing any books from the library, so I will be starting on my Kindle TBR pile soon.

@Stowickthevastthat’s one way of narrowing down the TBR pile, if a bit drastic.

I’ve finished Forgotten Souls by Wes Markin - a readable detective series.

Now started The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Enjoying it so far.

Dissolution (Shardlake 1) - CJ Sansom - finished! Enjoyed this book about Tudor times, in which Shardlake works for Cromwell and is sent to a monastery on the coast to solve a murder, shortly after the death of Jane Seymour and at the start of the dissolution of the larger monasteries.

Have just finished Lessons in Chemistry. Probably last person on planet to do so. I think I was avoiding it as had been quite hyped but actually I enjoyed it.

So far this week I have read two from my backlog and started a third. ( Ready player one, The book of eve and Mrs England). But tomorrow is the day I go to Hay on Wye so all bets are off 😆

Ooo love Hay On Wye have a nice day @ProfessionalTeaDrinker I’ve been once but I’m too far away to make it a regular thing

I'm so excited. It's somewhere I've wanted to go for ages and we are finally getting there! I'm not sure how long it will be be before I get back, although would love to make the festival one year, so plan to make the most of it!

Enjoy Hay @ProfessionalTeaDrinker
Ons more down for me- Missoula by Jon Krakauer

Virgin Widow - Anne O’Brien
Historical fiction (bought in 2012) which was a fun read.

@ProfessionalTeaDrinkerhave a great time at Hay.

I’ve finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - which also ticks off one of the Goodreads summer reading challenges

I've finished 2 more, Crow Lake by Mary Lawson and Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore.

I've also DNF Rosanna by Martin Beck - Scandi thriller.

I'm going on holiday on Saturday so am going to read what I want and now own for a couple of weeks but may come back to the challenge at the start of September.

One August Night - Victoria Hislop

Should have been a DNF but I ploughing on through

i did fail this week and bought a supermarket aisle book

I gave up. It was the sex. I couldn't stand any more but would happily have finished the book otherwise.
A quick win today. I have moved all 6 Mick Herron books to DNF. I bought them after really enjoying Slow Horses on TV and couldn't get into the first book. Tried again last night and I just don't like the writing.