The TBR Book Tag

This one’s Cleo’s fault – over at Cleopatra Loves Books, she had a go at the TBR Tag Thread, talking about her TBR pile, consisting of 173 books. And it got me thinking – as you may recall, I tend to get a bit fascinated with statistics.

STATISTICS FACT – My blog views so far this year have already equalled the views from last year already but with only 80% of the visitors. Well, I found it interesting.

Anyway, one thing that I hadn’t worked out was the number of books in my TBR pile – my only answer was either “a lot” or “a [INSERT SWEARWORD OF YOUR CHOICE] lot”. Of course my wife’s answer is “too many”…

HOW DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF YOUR TBR PILE?

Simple answer – I don’t, really. I have a few bookcases upstairs where long-term unread books reside with a shelf downstairs for books that I might like to read sooner rather than later – the latest in a series, for example, or a book that I really ought to read. And on my kindle, there’s the equivalent – a “To Read” folder that is the first port of call. All of my review requests head straight there. After that, they are catalogued as “Cozy”, “Classic”, “Modern”, “Thriller”, “Historical”, “Translated” and “Bargains” – the last was for when I went through a phase of buying dirt cheap ebooks on the off-chance.

IS YOUR TBR MOSTLY PRINT OR E-BOOK?

Time for a count. OK, I’m going to ignore books that I’ve read that I plan to read again – even though they are To Be Read, it gets too complicated to count them. So, print books: 128 upstairs, 56 downstairs, making a total of 184 print books. As for the Kindle, 173 if you ignore the “Bargains” folder that I haven’t opened in over a year. If I do count it… 225. Which makes over 400 books to read… So ebook wins…

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHICH BOOK FROM YOUR TBR TO READ NEXT?

Books that have been sent for review or that I’ve requested from Netgalley take priority, although sometimes I’ll delay them until nearer the publication date. After that – it depends what mood I’m in. For example, I’ve some Golden Age books to review, a more modern one and after that – I honestly don’t know. Maybe the next Michael Jecks, maybe another Golden Ager… Basically, no idea. But I keep a lot of freedom by keeping my requested reviews/Netgalleys low and only doing one regular challenge – Past Offences Crimes Of The Century – it gives me a lot of flexibility to choose my own reads. And that, as I said, can mean anything – I have pretty varied tastes within the mystery genre.

A BOOK THAT’S BEEN ON YOUR TBR THE LONGEST?

Probably one of the classics that I’ve yet to get round to – The Devil In Velvet by John Dickson Carr. It’s one of his weird set-ups – a modern day man travels to the past after making a deal with the devil and winds up involved in solving a mystery. Definitely going to read it at some point…

A BOOK YOU RECENTLY ADDED TO YOUR TBR?

Not quite the most recent but the British Library sent me a copy of Christopher St John Spriggs’ Death Of An Airman which looks like a lot of fun.

A BOOK ON YOUR TBR STRICTLY BECAUSE OF ITS BEAUTIFUL COVER?

A silly question. Who buys a book JUST for its cover? Not me, that’s for sure.

A BOOK ON YOUR TBR THAT YOU NEVER PLAN ON READING?

Why would it be on a To Be Read pile if I wasn’t going to read it? Possibly some of the ebooks in the Bargain folder but I’m not going to sit on books that someone else might like to read. What I’m not so good at is passing books on that I’ve read. There are some books that I’m not going to read for a while – not going back to Ruth Rendell for a while, for example, but I will do eventually.

AN UNPUBLISHED BOOK ON YOUR TBR THAT YOU’RE EXCITED FOR?

On my TBR… I think nothing that hasn’t been published yet. But if you mean To Be Reviewed, then I’ve been getting more and more excited about The Killing of Polly Carter by Robert Thorogood. The first Death In Paradise novel, A Meditation On Murder, was one of the closest things to Agatha Christie (with a whiff of John Dickson Carr) that I’ve ever read, so when I knew a second book was on the way, I’ve been keeping an eye out for it. And once I got a review copy, I couldn’t wait to read it. I can’t put the review up until nearer publication date (December 3^rd) but I’ll tell you this – it’s even better than the first one.

A BOOK ON YOUR TBR THAT EVERYONE HAS READ BUT YOU?

Most of my fellow bloggers seem to have read Roseanna, the first Martin Beck novel, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Tried it a couple of times but never been in the right mood for the overwhelming grimness. One day…

A BOOK ON YOUR TBR THAT EVERYONE RECOMMENDS TO YOU?

See the previous answer

A BOOK ON YOUR TBR THAT YOU’RE DYING TO READ?

The next in Michael Jecks’ Templar series, The Chapel Of Bones, once I clear up a few promised reviews.

HOW MANY BOOKS ARE IN YOUR GOODREADS TBR SHELF?

My what? Don’t use it.

So, over 400 books to go – that’ll take me to my 1000^th review nicely. As if I’m not going to buy any more books in the meantime…

So, I’m supposed to tag someone to have a go at this – anyone want to take a stab at this?