Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
August Checkpoint! #TBR2018RBR
Hello, TBR Pile Challengers!
We’ve reached month eight in our TBR Pile Challenge, which means we are now in the final quarter of the event! (It also means, for me, fall semester begins in less than two weeks — where did the summer go!?) I hope you’re all enjoying the challenge, the monthly check-ins and questions, and any reading that you’re doing from your own lists; I have to admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by my own choices.
Last month, I challenged all of us to get 200 reviews written and linked-up with the Mister Linky widget below. It looks like we almost made it, so great job! We’re sitting at 193 at the moment.
Question of the Month: Have you challenged yourself with a genre outside of your “comfort zone” this year? Did you read non-fiction when you’re usually a fiction person? Try a collection of poetry when you normally prefer prose? A classic, when you prefer contemporary YA?
My Progress: 6 of 12 Completed / 5 of 12 Reviewed
I’ve read 6 of my books and am currently reading number 7. I’ve reviewed 5 so far (just need to get my thoughts down on Pudd’nhead Wilson!) As of last month, I was sitting at 4 books read and reviewed, so I am feeling pretty good about the progress I made in the last 30 days, and I hope I can continue to read these regularly so that I complete all 14 on my list by year’s end. Here’s hoping!
Of course, with the new semester starting, most of my time goes back to prepping classes, grading papers, and doing the reading (re-reading) I need to do for my classes, especially the literature courses. I’ve got six novels to re-read this semester while teaching them, and they are all personal favorites (hooray!), but that said, it will take away from my own new/pleasure reading.
My completed reads:
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (Completed 1/3/18)
- Aristotle’s Poetics (Completed 1/10/18)
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011) (Completed 01/25/18)
- The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer (Completed 03/10/18)
- The White Album by Joan Didion (Completed 08/04/18)
- Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (Completed – Review to Come)
- Good without God by Greg M. Epstein (Currently Reading)
How are you doing?
Below, you’re going to find the infamous Mr. Linky widget. If you read and review any challenge books this month, please link-up on the widget below. This Mr. Linky will be re-posted every month so that we can compile a large list of all that we’re reading and reviewing together this year. Each review that is linked-up on this widget throughout the year may also earn you entries into future related giveaways, so don’t forget to keep this updated! At the end of the challenge, all entries will go into one big raffle for the $50 book prize!
MINI-CHALLENGE #3 WINNER
Congratulations to Jean at Howling Frog Books, whose comment last month was randomly drawn as the winner of Mini-Challenge #3. She will receive a book of her choice, up to $20USD, from The Book Depository.
Roof Beam Reader 
Congratulations on your progress! I have to admit that I’m not doing well at all in this challenge. It’s horrible. I have read a total of . . . 0 books. I hang my head in shame. But there is still time to knock a few off the list. Right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh boy! I’ve had years like that.
LikeLike
Woohoo, I won a book! I love the Depository. Now I have to pick one…
I’m at 11.5 books, but the post from #11 won’t publish for a day or two.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Congrats to Jean!!
– – – –
I’ve finished 8 reads, will be stuck in #9 for a while longer though! (Halfway through Moby Dick.)
To be honest, my list this year reflects everything inside of my comfort zone. It’s all pretty much classics, vintage reading, and one book that is the final piece of a modern series.
Tarissa
http://inthebookcase.blogspot.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m on book 7 of the challenge. The review for that one should be up this weekend or early next week.
I have enjoyed almost everything I’ve read this year and a few of them have been outside my comfort zone, or if not my “comfort zone”, then at least outside of my norm.
1. Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion because that was my first ever essay collection. (I also don’t read many short story collections.) 2. The White Stag is a mythological type tale and I don’t do those either. And I didn’t care for it. 3. Moby Dick which is a classic, and I typically like classics, but I feel like Moby Dick is in a class of its own, because I know some classic lovers hate it. 4. As I Lay Dying. I haven’t read this one yet but, Faulkner. How many people are “comfortable” with Faulkner?
LikeLike
QoTM:
I did challenge myself! I normally do not read sci-fi or fantasy as it just isn’t for me but I did include a couple books in my list that my husband has been wanting me to read for years. 🙂
My Progress:
I’ve read 12/12 books.
I also plan to continue on and read both my alternates as well.
LikeLike
Of the books I chose for this challenge, probably the one the farthest from my comfort zone was Journey to the Center of the Earth. Adventure novels aren’t what I generally gravitate to, but I really enjoyed Around the Word in 80 Days a year or two ago and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea this year. I didn’t enjoy Journey as much, but I am glad to have read it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Sunday Salon (1:2) | Roof Beam Reader
I’m on my 11th book right now – I just started The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I definitely pushed myself by including so much nonfiction. One was all about science (A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson) and I picked two biographies. The first was Assata Shakur’s autobiography, which was quite good. The second will be Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie, which is quite daunting, but I’ve roped a friend into reading it with me which I think will help. We’ll be starting it soon in September!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Song of Achilles is stunningly beautiful. I need to re-read it. And I’ve had that Bryson book staring at me for years! I meant to read it this summer but… “the best laid plans…”
LikeLike
I’m on my 8th book so that’s great, but am trying to clear the backlog of reviewing now, which is rubbish!
LikeLike
I’m slowly making progress on my list. At this point, I’ve completed 9 books and reviewed 8 of them. I feel like I’ve challenged myself more in my reading, such as tackling more classics like I Capture the Castle and Moby Dick. Also, I’ve been attempting more authors from outside of the U.S. so that’s helped expand my horizons.
LikeLiked by 1 person