Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
September Checkpoint #TBR2022RBR
Hello, TBR Pile Challengers!
As of this drafting (September 12th), we have 160 posts linked-up for this challenge. Bravo!
I wonder if you might take a moment to leave a comment this month and share your favorite book from this year’s challenge? If you’ve completed your list or made a lot of progress, share that too! We’d love to cheer you on and feel motivated too, especially those of us (cough cough) who have been stuck for a little bit.
Speaking of stuck, as summer here in the world’s hottest region begins to come to an end, I will begin to find myself more often outdoors. That usually means a rapid slowing-down of my reading progress. This is a little problematic because I’ve already had two months in a row with now challenge list progress! Teaching two literature courses plus composition courses tends to whittle away at any of my free time, but especially free/pleasure reading, because I need to read so much material for lectures, reviews, and of course I need to read student work, too. All of that is to say… I swear, it’s not my fault! (Ha ha – are you convinced?)
Progress: 10 of 12 Completed
Callooh, callay! What a frabjous day! Thanks to an extraordinarily prolific reading month in August, I’m now ahead of schedule for my reading. (I’ve already hit my Goodreads goal for the year: 65 books. Guess I need to update that!) I also forced myself to sit down and get a few blog posts written, including some thoughts on Didion’s A Book of Common Prayer, which I finished quite some time ago (in fact, I wrote thoughts for two poetry collections that I completed for this challenge after reading the Didion, before writing the Didion review. Huh!) I’m also still plugging away steadily at A Poet’s Guide to Poetry, which means I’m “in progress” on Book 11 for my main 12. I have much hope that I’ll complete my challenge with 14 out of 12 this year! But I do have two very large tomes remaining, so we’ll see how it all actually pans out, in the end.
Books read:
- Chicago Poems (1916) by Carl Sandburg
- When My Brother was an Aztec (2012) by Natalie Diaz
- Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) by Jesmyn Ward
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) by Robert M. Pirsig
- A People’s History of the United States (1999) by Howard Zinn
- The Warmth of Other Suns (2010) by Isabel Wilkerson
- Crush (2005) by Richard Siken
- A Book of Common Prayer (1977) by Joan Didion
- Madness (2017) by sam sax
- Nature Poem (2017) by Tommy Pico
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!
MINI-CHALLENGE #4 Coming Next Month
Stay tuned & keep posting those reviews to the linky below!
Roof Beam Reader 
Hi, I so enjoy checking in on these even though I did not create a specific list of 12 books on my TBR for the challenge.
I did get organized and create a Notion database of my TBR and (recent) reading history. It has a notes column and critically a “WHY did I decided to read this?”
From your list I had already read two (Sing, Unburied, Sing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (when it first came out in 1974 (high school for me)) and I’ve recommitted to reading everything Joan Didion ever wrote.
On my long running list that I attempted and still did not complete are Ulysses and Middlemarch. I’ll keep trying.
My favorite reads this year that wandered onto my radar have been:
* The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer (the book, NOT the movie–saw the movie, it wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t the story.)
* Local historical fiction author Amanda Skenadore’s latest, The Nurse’s Secret.
* Fell into Gary Paulson’s autobiography after listening to an NPR interview. Decided to read his most famous, Hatchet (YA). Quickly consumed the entire series (five books.)
* Big Magic is Elizabeth Gilbert’s (Eat, Pray, Love) venture into writing advice with a dash of memoir. Interesting and inspirational.
Balancing our reading/writing/academic indoors with time being active in the great outdoors is critical to our wellness, sanity and, yes, to our literary appreciation, don’t you think?
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I hear great things about The Tender Bar! I enjoyed both Ulysses and Middlemarch, but, surprisingly, Middlemarch was the slower read for me. It took me a couple tries and then a long time to sink into it. I loved it, though. Ulysses is one you just kind of have to let go and have fun with. Enjoy the ride.
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I too have read ten our of twelve titles, and am well into #11, but it’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and it’s huge. Chapter 4 is about alchemy and it’s book-length all on its own!
My favorite is hard to pick; I’ve enjoyed most of them. I think The Leaky Establishment was the most *fun,* though. https://howlingfrog.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-leaky-establishment.html
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Well done!
I’m also happy with my study progress. Might even be able to read my 2 alternates
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oops, I meant my steady progress!!!
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I’ve had a good reading time and finished!! Hooray!! but I’m way behind with reviewing, the two just never seem to work together, I can either read or write!
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Overall, I’m satisfied with my progress. I’ve reviewed 8 and have two more read. Great job on your progress!
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Making good progress – I’ve read 10 out of 12. The best so far is probably Ananci Boys by Neil Gaiman or The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt.
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