Tag: TBR

20 Books Of Summer 2025 Reading Challenge Sign-Up #20BooksofSummer2025

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Cathy at 746 Books has handed over the baton of the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge to two new hosts: Annabel at AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace. Thank you, Cathy, for hosting what has become one of my favourite reading challenges for the past ten years. Put your feet up now and read a book… or twenty.

The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st. You can find all the information you need about the challenge here where you can also sign up to participate. It’s where you can also grab the wonderful new logos to use on your sign-up post, updates and reviews. Plus there’s a bingo card if you want to make things even more challenging.

Every year I approach the challenge high on ambition and usually low on likelihood of success. But, hey, it’s supposed to be a challenge, isn’t it? I’m aiming for the full 20 books, targeting the oldest physical books in my TBR pile, quite a few of which – sadly – have appeared on previous years’ lists.

Being a stubborn old so-and-so, I like to stick to my original list and not take advantage of the option to swap books in and out. However, I am going to allow myself the freedom to DNF at the 25% point if I’m not loving a book. (I rarely DNF books usually.) I have audio versons of the two biggest books and I’m hoping this might help me get through them.

If I DNF a book, it’s going to the charity bookshop. If I finish it but didn’t absolutely love it, it’s going to the charity bookshop. That should mean lots of space created on my bookshelves. Win/win.

Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads. I’ll update them with links to my reviews when I’ve read them.

  1. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson Read
  2. The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel Read
  3. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee Read
  4. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Read
  5. The Body in the Ice by A. J. Mackenzie Read
  6. The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser Read
  7. The Dark Isle by Clare Carson
  8. Pompeii by Robert Harris
  9. The Assassin of Verona by Benet Brandreth
  10. Transcription by Kate Atkinson
  11. Force of Nature by Jane Harper
  12. The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark
  13. Appetite by Philip Kazan
  14. Tombland by C. J. Sansom
  15. Anna of Kleve by Alison Weir
  16. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
  17. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
  18. All The Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy
  19. Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
  20. The Cross and the Curse by Matthew Harffy

Wish me luck! If you’re taking part too, enjoy your summer of reading.

#TopTenTuesday Maturing Nicely – The Oldest Books On My To-Read List #TuesdayBookBlog

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is My Unpopular Bookish Opinions. Unpopular opinion (sorry), this one didn’t appeal. Instead here are the ten books (poor little things) that have spent the longest time on my Want-To-Read shelf on Goodreads.

  1. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson – this one has been on my shelf so long (ahem, since 2013) it could be in a museum
  2. Case Histories (Jackson Brodie #1) by Kate Atkinson – Kate, it’s nothing personal, honestly
  3. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey – she’s tucked away with all the other unread books on my Kindle most likely
  4. Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz – I know, shoot me Anthony, why don’t you
  5. The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel – Hilary, if you write a book nearly 900 pages long what do you expect?
  6. Any Human Heart by William Boyd – …would forgive me for not having read this yet
  7. The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor – it’s OK, there are only another five books in the series after this one, I‘ll catch up in no time
  8. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee – it took over 60 years for this to see the light of the day so the nine years it’s spent on my shelf is a mere fragment of time, surely?
  9. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave – but will I be?
  10. Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne – John, I’ve read lots of your other books, don’t make me walk the plank because of this one

See anything in my list you think I should blow the dust off, in some cases literally? What’s the oldest book you have in your TBR pile?