Thursday 7 January 2021

TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2021

One of my favourite Reading Challenges that I joined in 2016.

I don't think Evie from the Bookish Blog still carries this on, as I can't find it on her page but her words with which she started this challenge are still true: "We all have those books. We buy them, win them, they're gifted to us. Then we put them up on a bookshelf and there they stay, collecting dust, waiting for the time when we'll finally decide to pick them up."


After five years of participation, my TBR (To Be Read) pile is still a lot longer than it should because I just can't resist buying any new books and going to the library but I have tried to attempt reading more old books than buying new ones.


I could, of course, try to tackle the 50+ challenge but we all know that is not going to happen, instead, I tried to do at least 11-20 old books in addition to the new ones I'm buying and those I get from the library and wished to be pleasantly surprised at the end of the year. That happened, I have reached the 21-30 (First Kiss) and 31-40 (Sweet Summer Fling) in the last years, maybe I can get to 41-50 (Could This Be Love?) one day.

I have read
37 books in 2016,
32 in 2017,

38 in 2018
23 in 2019 and 
25 in 2020 
of the books that had been waiting to be read for more than a year.
I hope I will manage more in 2021.
(I always add the German title in brackets for my German friends)

So far, I have already read these of my "old books" in 2021:
Austen, Jane "Sanditon" (Sanditon) - 1817
Brecht, Bertolt "Der gute Mensch von Sezuan" (German) (The Good Person of Szechwan) - 1938-40
Barbery, Muriel "L'Elégance du hérisson" (French) (The Elegance of the Hedgehog/Die Eleganz des Igels) - 2006
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Italian Journey aka Letters from Italy" (German) (Italienische Reise) - 1817
Gödde, Stefan "Nice to Meet You, Jerusalem. Auf Entdeckungstour ins Herz der Stadt" (German) - 2019
Mann, Thomas "Herr und Hund. Ein Idyll" (German) (A Man and his Dog) - 1918
Sand, George "Fadette" (French) (Fadette, aka Fanchon, the Cricket/Die kleine Fadette) - 1849
Christie, Agatha "Hercule Poirot. The Complete Short Stories" - 1923-61
Ford, Ford Madox "Parade's End" (Tetraology: Some Do Not - 1924, No More Parades, 1925, A Man Could Stand Up 1926, Last Post 1928) (Keine Paraden mehr) - 1924-28
Gogol, Nikolai (Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь, Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol) (Russian) "Gogols Mantel. Erzählungen aus Russland" (Der Mantel - The Overcoat - Шинел/Shinyeliь) - 1842
Elliot, Jason "An Unexpected Light. Travels in Afghanistan" (Unerwartetes Licht - Reisen durch Afghanistan) - 1999
Jacobs, Harriet Ann (Linda Brent) "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (Sklavenmädchen. Die Geschichte meiner Befreiung) - 1861
Binchy, Maeve "The Maeve Binchy Writers' Club" - 2010
Rhoides, Emmanuel (Emmanuel Roidis) "Die Päpstin Johanna von Ingelheim" (gr.: Πάπισσα Ιωάννα/Papissa Ioanna/The Curious History of Pope Joan) - 1866
Dickens, Charles "The Old Curiosity Shop" (Der Raritätenladen) - 1840
See, Lisa "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" (Der Seidenfächer) - 2005
Bulgakow, Michail "Der Meister und Margarita"
(The Master and Margarita - Мастер и Маргарита/Master i Margarita) (Russian) - 1929-39
Storm, Theodor "Der Schimmelreiter und andere Erzählungen" (German) (The Rider on the White Horse and other tales) - 1888
Judd, Naomi "Love Can Build a Bridge" - 1993
Lahiri, Jhumpa "The Lowland" (Das Tiefland) - 2013
Savage Carlson, Natalie "The Family Under the Bridge" - 1958
't Hart, Maarten "Het woeden der gehele wereld" (Dutch) (Das Wüten der ganzen Welt/The fury/rage/raging of the whole world) - 1993
Masood, Ehsan "Science & Islam: a history" - 2009
Simenon, Georges "Maigret Sets a Trap" (Maigret tend un piège/Maigret stellt eine Falle)
(French) (Maigret #48) - 1958
McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife" (Madame Hemingway) - 2012
Twain, Mark "A Tramp Abroad" (Bummel durch Europa: Mit einem Anhang mit Nachwort, Zeittafel und Bibliographie) - 1880
Clarke, Stephen "Merde actually" (aka In the Merde for Love /Ich bin ein Pariser) - 2005
Frost, Robert "A Boy’s Will" and "North of Boston" - 1913+1914
Elbogen, Ismar; Sterling, Eleonore "Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland"
(German) [The History of the Jews in Germany] - 1935/66
Hetmann, Frederik "Traumklänge oder Das längste Märchen, das es je gab"
(German)[Dream sounds or The longest fairy tale that ever existed] - 2004
Douglass, Frederick "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" - 1845
Ditfurth, Hoimar von "Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel: Die Evolution unseres Bewußtseins"
(German) [The mind
did not fall from the sky: the evolution of our consciousness
- 1976
Highsmith, Patricia "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (Der talentierte Mr. Ripley) - 1955
Wharton, Edith "Ethan Frome" - 1911
Rushdie, Salman "The Satanic Verses" (Die Satanischen Verse) - 1988
Christie, Agatha "Murder on the Orient Express" (Hercule Poirot #10)) (Mord im Orient-Express) - 1934
Martin, Catherine "The Incredible Journey" - 1923
Shakespeare, William "Much Ado About Nothing" (Viel Lärm um Nichts) - 1598/99
Trotter, Derek "Del Boy" (Family of John Sullivan) "He Who Dares" - 2015

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a lovely reading challenge!! I have so many older books collecting dust in my 'tbr' pile... I read 13 of my older books last year in 2020 and am hoping to still carry on and continue to read more of my older books this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've done this for years. I keep my TBR books away from the ones I already read and have the newest one on a different pile, that way I can always go to the "old" pile to choose one from there as soon as I finished one.

      The trouble, of course, is that I am in a book club and also find other newer books that I really want to read soon, so I will always keep a rather large TBR "pile".

      Still, by keeping a list, I have a bigger incentive to really tackle those books.

      Happy Reading!

      Delete
  2. I should count up the books I read from my shelves last year. I did make an effort!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure you have a good prepared list already with all your blogging about the monthly reads etc. Would be interesting to see.

      Happy listing.

      Delete