Sign-Ups: The TBR Pile Challenge Turns Ten! #TBRYear10

Posted on November 21, 2022 by

94 Comments

#TBRYear10

The Goal

To finally read twelve books that have been sitting on your “TBR Pile” list or shelves for a year or more.

About the Challenge

I am pleased to announce that Roof Beam Reader’s official TBR Pile Challenge is back for its TENTH YEAR! This challenge started when I realized I had some MAJOR issues with buying books but never reading them (not because I don’t read – but because I have such a book buying problem!) Year after year, books would sit on my shelf untouched, and I would end up reading newer ones first. I realized I was missing out on a lot of great books because I let them sit there gathering dust instead of reading them as I bought them.

How it Works

1. Each of these 12 books must have been on your bookshelf or “To Be Read” list for AT LEAST one full year. This means the book cannot have a publication date of 1/1/2022 or later (any book published in the year 2021 or earlier qualifies, as long as it has been on your TBR pile). Caveat: Two (2) alternates are allowed, just in case one or two of the books ends up in the “did not finish (DNF)” pile.
2. To be eligible, you must sign-up with the Mr. Linky below. Link to your list (so create it ahead of time!) and add updated links to each book’s review. Books must be read and must be reviewed (doesn’t have to be too fancy) in order to count as completed.
3. The link you post in the Mr. Linky below must be to your “master list” (see mine below). This is where you will keep track of your books completed, crossing them out and/or dating them as you go along, and updating the list with the links to each review (so there’s one easy, convenient way to find your list and all your reviews for the challenge). See THIS LINK for an idea of what I mean. Your complete and final list must be posted by January 15, 2023.
4. Leave comments on the monthly posts as you go along, to update us on your status. Come back here if/when you complete this challenge and leave a comment indicating that you CONQUERED YOUR 2023 TBR LIST! Every person who successfully reads their 12 books and/or alternates (and who provides a working link to their list, which has links to the review locations) will be entered to win up to $100 of books from The Book Depository! (That’s right! To celebrate TEN YEARS of this awesome challenge, I’ve doubled the final giveaway prize from $50 to $100!)
5. Crossovers from other challenges are totally acceptable, as long as you have never read the book before, and it was published in 2021 or earlier!

*Note: You can read the books on your list in any order; they do not need to be read in the order you have them listed. Audiobooks count. Graphic novels count. Poetry collections? Essay collections? All good! As you complete a book – review it, go to your original list and turn that title into a link to the review. This will keep the comments section here from getting ridiculously cluttered. For an example of what I mean, Click Here.

Where Can I Post My Reviews? Anywhere! Tik Tok, Instagram, Mastodon, Hive, Facebook, Goodreads, a blog, YouTube, Twitter (if you haven’t abandoned it). It’s really up to you to choose the format that works for you, as long as your posts are public so that you can link them up on our Mister Linky and we can see them.

Monthly Check-Ins: On the 15th of each month, I’m going to post a “TBR Pile Check-In.” This will allow participants to link-up their reviews from the past month and get some recognition for their progress. There will also be small mini-challenges and giveaways to go along with these posts (Such As: Read 6 books by the June Check-in and be entered to win a book of your choice!) I’m hoping this will help to keep us all on track and make the challenge a bit more engaging/interactive. I started these mini-challenges in 2014, and I think they were a great success, so I am continuing them this year!

Chat: On Social Media, please use #TBRYear10

My 2023 TBR Pile Challenge List

TBR Pile 2023

The Main List

  1. Why I Write (1946) by George Orwell (Craft/Memoir)
  2. North and South (1854) by Elizabeth Gaskell (Classics/British Fiction)
  3. Pachinko (2017) by Min Jin Lee (Korean-American Fiction) (Completed 2/12/23)
  4. Sons and Lovers (1913) by D.H. Lawrence (Classics/British Fiction)
  5. The Poppy War (2018) by R.F. Kuang (Chinese Historical Fantasy) (Completed 1/10/23)
  6. With Billie (2006) by Julia Blackburn (NonFiction/Biography)
  7. Going to Meet the Man (1965) by James Baldwin (Short Stories/American Fiction)
  8. Steppenwolf (1927) by Hermann Hesse (Philosophical Novel) (Completed 4/22/23)
  9. Crazy Brave (2012) by Joy Harjo (Craft/Memoir/Native American)
  10. The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers (Ecological Fiction)
  11. Patron Saints of Nothing (2019) by Randy Ribay (YA/Filipino-American Fiction)
  12. Look (2016) by Solmaz Sharif (Poetry/Iranian-American) (Completed 3/10/23)

The Alternates

  1. Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Magical Realism/Colombian Fiction)
  2. The Power of Now (1997) by Ekhart Tolle (NonFiction/Spirituality)

It’s my sincere hope to complete all fourteen titles on my list, and I may or may not treat the two alternates as alternates (I might just pick-up whichever of the fourteen is speaking to me in the moment). That said, my primary intention was to choose a broad selection across all genres, times, places, people, etc. I think I’ve done a decent job of diversifying my challenge this year, and I’m really looking forward to diving into these! Some of them have been sitting on my shelves for almost a decade!

Join the Challenge!

Category: 2023 TBR Pile Challenge, Challenges, TBR Pile

94 Comments on “Sign-Ups: The TBR Pile Challenge Turns Ten! #TBRYear10”

  3. Well, I doubt I’ll join in, even if I often do get to read several of my TBR during the year. And you can’t help laugh at the irony here – challenge people to read more of their old books by enticing them with a cash prize to buy MORE books.

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  5. North and South was a good novel, which has also been adapted as a miniseries by BBC. Sons and Lovers I read for college long ago, and it had its interesting points. Steppenwolf was kind of bizarre, but if you do read it, I’d be interested in comparing opinions (I have reviewed it on Goodreads, with no spoilers, I hope).

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  7. I’m so impressed with your organisational skills! I’m definitely in, thank you for hosting Adam and 10 years, woo hoo that’s an achievement!!

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  9. Ah… you tempted me again. Just last week I’ve decided not to restrain myself with any challenges next year. Now you drop this, and I’m on the way to change my mind. See, I’m so hopeless! :))

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  15. Congrats on your 10th year! Debating if I’m going to join or not. I’ll be almost done this year with my challenge, though I’m not as good in reporting these weeks.
    I’m definitely focusing more and more on books on my TBR, but I may go into a more spontaneous way to tackle them every month. We’ll see

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  17. I’m going to sign up for this again because I enjoy it so much, even though I’ve only been able to partially participate in the last few years. But it’s a fun motivation to dust my bookshelves and sit down to read something I intended to read long ago. Thanks for putting it together for us again!

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  19. I loved Pachinko, and Steppenwolf too though each was for very different reasons! I’m putting together my sign up post now and trying to whittle my TBR down to a dozen. It’s tougher than I thought it would be. Thanks for hosting this challenge and congrats on its anniversary 🙂

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  22. I think I will sign up this year, Adam. Can’t pass by a tenth anniversary-Congrats!-, plus I have a SERIOUS problem with books on my shelf that have been there too long and I have no idea if they are keepers or should be donated. I think those are the books I will put on my list.

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  27. I will definitively participate for the 10th edition and will try to do better than in 2022 now i must select books to create my list^^. thank you for doing this ( will perhaps be lucky for once)

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  31. Wow! Ten years already? I really wanted to look into joining sooner this year, but December ran over me like a runaway train. If it’s not too late, I’ll put my list together and join in ASAP!

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  40. I’m so excited to do this because I, too, have a buying and not reading problem. I planned on “clearing my shelves” this year, at least a good chunk of them, and what a great way to do it! Super excited.

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  52. Whew! I just got signed up…I’m making a list of 101 books I want to read this year. Let’s see how many I can read. If I read more than twenty-five, I’m giving myself a gift card as a reward (to buy more books, of course).

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  54. I am in once again. I actually read 6 of 12 in 2022, though I didn’t post about most of them. One of the books from last year’s list is on this year’s list, because I really do want to read it!

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  55. Adam, thanks for hosting this challenge!
    Each book on my TBR Pile Challenge list (https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/146216551-uri-cohen?shelf=tbr-pile-challenge-2023) is the beginning of a series (whether juvenile, young adult, or adult). Most of them are fantasy, and almost all of them were personally recommended to me by a friend or relative.
    I look forward to reading each book and deciding whether to continue reading its series or not. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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