Pete's 2021 can he even spell the thread right this time challenge?

My TBR (not including Kindle books or books added to the shelves by my other half) stands at 350 (which is an improvement on last year's 402)

I've divided them into categories and will be looking to reduce the number of books on the shelf for 2022 by 100 (double what I did in 2020)

My categories are:
Crime
Genre (SF&F)
Graphic Novels
LitFic
NonFic
Research
Short stories
Western

My methodology is to read at least 10 books from each category (obviously to get to 100 I'm going to have to read more than 10 in some categories)

In order for the 2022 TBR to be 100 books less than the 2021 any books that come into the house count negatively (unless read) - i.e. if I read 100 books and buy 50 then 2022 TBR only decreases by 50...

Knowing that I'll get books for Christmas and my birthday I'll probably read these shiny new ones before tackling the TBR

I'll then read Hardbacks first - aiming to reduce Hb on TBR to 0

My challenge for 2021 is to reduce the TBR by 100 books - which obviously involves reading books off the shelves and trying not to buy (too many) books

New Year New Challenge

January

Read

Through the Woods
These Savage Shores
Ro-Busters nuts & bolts volume 2
Choking Back the Devil
Out on the Wire
Syllabus
Inferno, Mike Carey
Misty by Pat Mills
Max Perkins, editor of genius
Into bones like oil
The Most Boring Book Ever Written
Jaguars and electric eels
Hostage
William Goldman 4 screenplays
The 99% Invisible City
Follow me to ground
The Burnout Survival Guide
watcha mean, what's a zine?
Going home
Procrastination
Dark Mountain Issue 17
What is an editor? Saxe Commins at work

Bought

(Birthday Presents)

Through the Woods
These Savage Shores
Choking Back the Devil
Black Water
Black Water 2
The 99% Invisible City
Out on the Wire
Syllabus
Ro-Busters nuts & bolts volume 2
William Goldman 4 screenplays
watcha mean, what's a zine?
Procrastinator's success kit

My birthday is in January so adding some books to the 'bought' pile this month

February

Read
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
Procrastinator's Success Kit
The Child finder
Word Work surviving and thriving as a writer
Who killed Zebedee
The Psoriasis Cure
Points of View
Break Writer's Block Now
Find your artistic voice
Moon in a Dead Eye
Growing Gills
Self-discipline for writers
Anna by Sammy HK Smith
Anti-story
Stop worrying, start writing
Find your why
Inventory
Clockwork Sister
reader magnets
hardcore anxiety

Bought
Clockwork Sister (Friend's book)
Maxwell's Demon Pre-order
Edited by Ellen Datlow shiny
Anna by Sammy HK Smith ARC

March

Read

Maxwell's Demon
Unfuck your brain
Comics and sequential art
Graphic storytelling and visual narrative
Understanding Comics
Edited By
I'm scared of the pig on the city farm
Million-story city
Making Comics
How to get happily published
Drawing words and writing pictures
Why You? 101 interview questions
manson's Bristol miscellany
Mastering Comics
How to get happily published
The family Hightower
Words for pictures
Advanced Triggernometry
How to Win: The ultimate professional pitch guide

Bought
I'm scared of the pig on the city farm - Book of poems from a favourite singer songwriter
Manson's Miscellany - Pre-order
How to get happily published - 2nd hand
Million-story city - ARC
Five Simple Steps to Thrive after Redundancy
How to Build a Successful Career When You Strike Out Alone
Put your mindset to work
The Freelance Bible
Emotional Intelligence
7 second CV
Why You? 101 interview questions
You're the business
Million dollar consulting proposal
How to win: The ultimate pitch guide
Advanced Triggernometry - ARC

April

Read
The Little Sleep
The art of comic book writing
No sleep till wonderland
How we are translated
Comics experience guide to writing comics
Constellation of Alarion
Notes from Underground
Judge Dredd case files 01
The language of dying
Six gun snow white
Survivor Song
Screenplay

Bought

Back of the napkin
flawless consulting
the McKinsey Way
HBR's Must Reads
Constellation of Alarion ARC
Ten Low ARC

May

Read
Ten Low
a swim a pond in the rain
Early Levy
The last house on needless street
Shadow Service
Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature
Rabbits, Terry Miles

Bought
Ten Low - ARC
a swim a pond in the rain
Early Levy
The last house on needless street
Shadow Service - ARC
Rabbits, Terry Miles - ARC
Dark State - ARC
Empire Games - ARC
The philosophy of horror
On directing film

June

Read
Employees
Tyll
Slipping
The Rats

Bought

July

Read
Portent
Assumption
Today I wrote nothing
Funny Weather
Judge Dredd Case Files Volume 3
Judge Dredd Case Files Volume 4
Judge Anderson Psi Files volume 2
On directing film
The complete book of scriptwriting
Growing things and other stories
Contraindications by Verity Holloway
Disturbing the body by Boudicca Press

Bought
Today I wrote nothing
Growing Things
Funny Weather
Church Curiosities: Strange Objects and Bizarre Legends (Shire Library)
Contraindications by Verity Holloway
The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby

August

Read
Making Comics
88 names
Emotional Intelligence
Disturbing the beast
Disappearance at Devil's Rock
Stevenson under the palm trees
Born to be bad 2
Emotional intelligence at work
The VCs Hell in the heavens
Everybody has a podcast
Judge Dredd Case files volume 5
You must write
Slaughterhouse 5
Electric State

Bought
Eye
Stevenson under the palm trees
Emotional intelligence for project managers
A manager's guide to self-development
How to write damn good fiction
Between the Lines: Master the subtle elements of fiction writing
Flash in the attic
How to take smart notes
The Pomodoro Technique
Covid-19: The pandemic that should never have happened
Emotional Agility
Insight
How to outline a novel in three hours
The best of Richard Matheson
Sisters
Piranesi
Storyland
Werner Herzog: A Guide for the perplexed
Cursed Bunny
Lenny Henry who am I, again?
My Best Friend's Exorcism
In the shadow of the phospherous dawn

September

Read
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
How to write damn good fiction
Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain
Piranesi
Judge Anderson Psi Files 1
So you want to start a podcast
The complete Nemesis the Warlock volume 1
Herzog: A guide for the perplexed
Between the lines: The subtle elements of fiction writing
My Best Friend's Exorcism
2000AD Presents Sci Fi Thrillers

Bought
Picked up at FantasyCon
congratulations you've accidentally summoned a world-ending monster
Uncanny Bodies
Project Clio
The Angels of L19
In conversation writers of horror
Out of the darkness

October

Read
The Angels of L19
The back of the napkin
How to take smart notes
Writing the Uncanny
Uncanny Bodies
In conversation writers of horror
The shining
The importance of being interested
Foe
The formula
Insane success
Writing Alone, Writing Together
Asleep in the sun

Bought
Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year (all 13 volumes) were available as a bundle so I couldn't resist (5000 pages of stories!!)
Best Weird tales of Hoffman

November

Read

Writing Group Book : Creating and Sustaining a Successful Writing Group
What if? Writing exercises
The eye of the story
Nemesis volume 1
Nemesis volume 2
Writers block and how to use it
Writer as an artist

Bought
Janus Cycle
Brilliant Kids

December

Read
Who am I, again?
Black Water 2
Networking all in one for dummies
The mushroom at the end of the world
La Perdida
Tower

Bought (Christmas presents)
La Perdida
Shute: The engineer who became a prince of storytellers
The new kings of nonfiction
By force alone
Tower

And that's me signed up for next year...

Great, LOL. Spelling looks good!

Hurrah, challenge 1 successfully accomplished!
I'm going to ignore the "not buy too many books" thing; we all know that's a myth.

Good lcuk!

Hurray, welcome back!

A+ in spelling! Good luck with the 100!

Great to see you ready for another year, Pete.

Good to see you're back! And I fully agree with >19 Helenliz: about the book-buying.

Your thread name cracked me up! It is a total pain that you cannot change them after you have set them up as I've made that mistake as well.
Happy reading and non-buying (which I agree, is not really a thing!) in 2021!

I've made that mistake too. I think you can change it if you get to the continuation point. Have a great year of reading, Pete.

Thanks all - I was quite good at not buying new books this year (but I still bought some) but yeah - 'not too many' is the point rather than 'not at all' ...

Good luck with your goals for next year, especially not buying too many books!

Good to see you are set up and ready to go. 'Not buy too many books'? Ha! I've seen that phrase a lot around here. Haven't seen it in action.

>29 VivienneR: I think my book buying has gone down a bit because all of the used-book sales I normally go to have been cancelled. I've been in a bookstore only once this year :O I have bought books online, but not as many as I would in person.

>30 rabbitprincess: I haven't bought any books in person, but my online buying has gone from one at a time to multiples at a time.

>31 VivienneR: Me too! They catch me every time by offering free shipping if you spend over a certain amount (which normally means three or four books!)

Welcome back. Have a great year of reading.

I gave up with the idea of not getting more books years ago! My husband said if I bought a new book I had to get rid of one...yeah, that didn't last long either.

>34 mysterymax: - I had the task to not buy books in 2020 - I failed, but it's an aspiration to read the books on the shelves that I've not got round to yet, I have a couple of years worth at least...

>35 psutto: Since this hasn't been a year for browsing through old book stores my 2020 reading has all been off my shelves. I have ordered books this year, this true, but I've been reading ones overlooked for years, and rereading many as well (mostly because I'd forgotten I'd read them!)

>35 psutto: - No library sales helped to keep my buying in check this year - but, oh how I missed them.

yep I've missed the book stores - we used to have a blow out every few months and go to the nearby city to wander round our favourite bookstores and buy a few books each then go for sushi and a beer in a nice old pub. Simple pleasures. I can't wait to do that again (although my bank balance might not like it)

Wishing you a wonderful year of reading in 2021!

I got a few Graphic Novels and a couple of books for my birthday a couple of days ago (see post 4) - usually it takes me most of January to read my Xmas & birthday presents - but this year, in lockdown again, I think it'll be faster.

Then I'll tackle the TBR...

Good luck with your reading challenges, Pete. Kudos to your excellent spelling. :-) It really would be nice if topic names could be altered (or topics deleted) after posting.

So far I'm doing quite well on reading the books that I got for Xmas (read them all) and my birthday but i have two massive books from my birthday left and don't think I'm going to hit my self-imposed target of finishing all presents by end of Jan

Black Water and Black Water 2 are over 900 pages each and will keep me going for a while - the way I usually tackle short stories is to read a few between books so as long as I finish these two before the end of the year I'll be happy.

My next target is to get all the hardbacks off the TBR - if you buy a hardback it should be because you can't wait for the paperback - so if they then languish on the TBR that's bad. TBF only 3 of the 10 that are on the shelf are ones I bought, the others being my partner's purchases but I aim to get the hardbacks to 0 - and so I've started with Going Home which I bought in Edinburgh at an event at which I got the author's signature. However I now realise that was in 2019 and I should have read it by now. The other two hardbacks of mine are Dark Mountain 17 and Dark Mountain 18 which is a journal I have a subscription to that comes twice a year - and they're both from 2020 so I'm slacking on reading them.

If I manage all 10 of the hardbacks (even though 3 of them are 500+ pages) then I only have 90 paperbacks to get to. Reminder that my TBR shelves are organised as:

Crime
Genre (SF&F)
Graphic Novels
LitFic
NonFic
Research
Short stories
Western

I'm going to count the hardbacks separate to that & I've read the GN TBR which leaves 7 categories which gives me a 12-13 books from each remaining category target. My best bet for doing that is to read the shorter books in each category first (my category challenge next year could well be chunksters!)

I feel that I'm getting a head start by starting properly on the TBR before the end of Jan even though I've already read 8 TBR books this year

Great job on finishing all Christmas and Birthday books! I haven't finished those, including the Thingaversary books from 2020, yet!

>42 psutto: "if you buy a hardback it should be because you can't wait for the paperback - so if they then languish on the TBR that's bad"

Most of the hardbacks on my unread shelf are secondhand, but I share your feeling about new hardbacks that languish (especially as I find paperbacks physically easier to read). Good luck with your self-challenge.

Wow - you are so organized. re: hardbacks. I generally agree but a lot of mine are ones I've picked up at library sales and many are from series that I'm not current on. Still - you've provided thoughts that might percolate for next year.

February already...

I read 22 books in January - which is more than in 2020 and 2019 but am guessing lockdown has helped increase the reading

whoops - bought 3 books this month:

Clockwork Sister (Friend's book)
Maxwell's Demon Pre-order from last year
Edited by Ellen Datlow shiny

Been buying books to help me get a new job - lost mine due to cost cutting/Covid/Brexit however have started to build a freelance editing portfolio...

>48 psutto: sorry to hear that. Hope the freelancing picks up for you. What sort of work are you looking for? Who knows, someone might be looking for you an not know it.

>48 psutto: I hope you find something soon. Good luck!

>48 psutto: So sorry about the job loss, Covid has many ramifications for our country. Hope you find something soon.

>48 psutto: I hope you find something soon!

I'm sorry to hear you lost your job and wish you best of luck with the editing gig.

>48 psutto: Best wishes for the freelancing from me, too!

Thanks all - I'm doing some freelance editing already, I now just need to make it pay better while I look for another day job... or make it pay as well as a day job so it can be my main source of income

So - a story of mine has been chose for the best horror of the year :-)

https://ellendatlow.com/2021/04/01/the-best-horror-of-the-year-volume-thirteen-t...

>56 psutto: Congratulations, Pete!

>56 psutto: - That's really great!

>56 psutto: Woo hoo! Congrats!

>56 psutto: That‘s amazing! Congrats!

>56 psutto: wow, that's some achievement.

I've only been lurking here (apologies) but I'm decloaking to add my congrats to the pile - well done!!

Thanks all!

Congratulations!

I've signed a contract to do some more writing for hire (I submitted two novellas last year - which should be out some time this year) and I have a novel (currently unwritten) to deliver this year - so I'll have less time to read for pleasure! But I will be reading books in the genre for research so I'll continue to add books here - but it's unlikely I'll achieve my challenge

I've read 69 books so far this year - the majority off the TBR but also presents, a few ARCs and a couple of shiny new books I just couldn't resist. My reading will now slow considerably...

That is good news, Pete. Enjoy your writing.

Since my last visit I got a new job (I start 1st June) and I'm freelancing as an editor for RPG companies so my plate is rather full.

I did have a short (1 week) break in a cabin in the woods down in Cornwall and managed to read several books (see above) - I also attended StokerCon (virtually) and in a week or so I'll be at Cymera festival (virtually) for which I am feverishly reading some ARCs

I am due to have my second vaccine this week and hope that with getting a job and having tghe vaccine my life will start getting back to some degree of normal soon!

>67 psutto: Congratulations on the new job and the vaccine!

Woo hoo, congrats on the new job! Also glad you were able to grab a short break.

That sounds like excellent news.

Glad to hear the good news.

That's great news all around - congrats!

Thanks all!

Been a while since I visited - am busy on that vertical learning curve of starting a new job - also seems my reading has trailed off a bit this month... doing lots of reading for work though, not so much for pleasure. Hopefully that'll change next month

Still here. Just been head down writing - new novel deadline is pressing so lack of time to do much else. I have updated my reading for the last couple of months though and note that I've broke the 'don't buy any books' edict so will need to get back on track!

As my next book is coming out on 1st September I did an Indie book crawl round the city - the aim was for myself and my other half to buy 1 book each in each shop to support them and also show willing. So the number of books I've bought this month took a great leap forward. Whoops...

oh and here's a review for my forthcoming book: https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2021/8/30/the-museum-for-forgetting-by-p...

>76 psutto: Woo hoo for book shopping and for your new book coming out!

Congratulations on the new book!

Congratulations on your new book, Pete!

Nice excuse for a book buying spree! Good luck with the book and I hope you both enjoy your acquisitions.

I've decided that next year's challenge will be around short story books - see more here: https://petewsutton.com/2021/10/15/drowning-in-content/

>81 psutto: Good idea! I keep buying short story collections but not reading them.

second to last month of the challenge - I've failed (as expected) on not buying books) but I've done better on not adding them to the TBR so swings/roundabouts

I'll endeavour to cross off a few more TBR books by the end of the year!

Rapidly approaching the end of the challenge and hit a real reading slump - I have been reading a chapter of 1 book here, a short story there and failing to finish anything. Hence no books so far in December and a small number in November. I hope to beat the book blues though and have just started Lenny Henry who am I, Again? which is entertaining.

I'm hoping that 2022 wil not be a massive reading slump and I'm going to try and get the short story books off my TBR so I'll pop over to the 22 challenge and create a thread - see you over there

Top books I read this year:

Edited By
Inventory
The Family Hightower
Survivor Song
Ten Low

And just sneaking in under the wire is Tower which is my last read of the year - a Christmas Present.

I read 154 books if you include the 20 I abandoned - 134 books completed
5 rated Brilliant (in post above)
40 by female authors
from 15 different nationalities - including South Korean and Palestinian
63 were off the TBR (books acquired previous to 2021) - 11 my partner bought, 6 ARCs, 11 presents and 20 other freebies
I bought 10 secondhand books on Abebooks (mainly for work)

I'll now be updating things over on the 22 challenge - see you there!