mathgirl40's 2016 BC MTBR Challenge

I currently have 24 books on my TBR list that I'd acquired from other BookCrossers. My goals for 2016 are as follows:

• Finish all 12 books acquired before 2014, especially the 3 from 2012.
  
• End 2016 with no more than 25 books on my TBR list.

Books acquired in 2016:
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (BC link) -- to be read
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing (BC link) -- to be read
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (BC link) -- to be read
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova (BC link) -- to be read
Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora by Philip Hinchcliffe (BC link) -- to be read
Iron Council by China Miéville (BC link) -- to be read
Chain of Events by Fredrik T. Olsson (BC link) -- to be read
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (BC link) -- finished

Books acquired in 2015:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (BC link) -- finished
A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell (BC link) -- to be read
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (BC Link) -- finished
Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (BC link) -- finished
Stolen by Kelley Armstrong (BC link) -- finished
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith (BC link) -- finished
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (BC link) -- to be read
Murder in Little Italy by Victoria Thompson (BC link) -- finished
Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh (BC link) -- finished

Books acquired in 2014:
A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George (BC link) -- to be read
Stories from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean (BC link) -- finished
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (BC link) -- finished

Books acquired in 2013:
Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs (BC link) -- finished
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (BC link) -- to be read
The Element of Fire by Brendan Graham (BC link) -- to be read
American Woman by Susan Choi (BC link) -- to be read
Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage (BC link) -- finished
Heligoland by Shena Mackay (BC link) -- finished
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (BC link) -- finished
Sundiver by David Brin (BC link) -- finished
The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett (BC link) -- to be read

Books acquired in 2012:
The Death Committee by Noah Gordon (BC link) -- finished
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler (BC link) -- finished
Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (BC link) -- to be read

I've set my goals for this year: finish my books from 2012 and 2013 and end the year with 25 or fewer TBRs. I'll be starting the year with a 2012 book, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder.

I finished my second oldest book, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder! It was an interesting and fairly brief non-fiction book about the very unusual Museum of Jurassic Technology. Weschler also gives some history about Cabinets of Wonder.

I'm working on David Brin's Sundiver now.

I have Sundiver on my B shelf. Been there for a while! Let me know how you like it!

I finished Sundiver from 2013 for the January challenge, and I also managed to read Stories from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean from 2014.

>5 iwillrejoice: I thought Sundiver was pretty good, though not outstanding. Its sequels must be better, though, as they had won Hugo and Nebula awards. The alien characters and technology are really interesting, more so than the human characters. :)

>6 mathgirl40: Good to know! I'll look forward to reading it!

I forgot to report earlier that I finished Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold for the February challenge. It was terrific, as are all her books that I've read.

I just finished Death of the Mantis for the March challenge. This is the third book in the Inspector Kubu series set in Africa.

I've also started Stolen by Kelley Armstrong.

I finished one of my oldest books, The Death Committee!

Next is Firmin by Sam Savage for the May challenge.

I finished Firmin, a 2013 book. Next up is Stiff by Mary Roach for the June challenge.

I finished Stiff, a nonfiction book about cadavers, and I loved it. Mary Roach's books are full of fascinating facts about unusual subjects.

I also finally got the chance to meet up with jessibud2 and other Toronto BookCrossers today, and I had a wonderful time with them!

I finished Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh, one of her Inspector Alleyn mysteries, this one set in New Zealand.

Next up is The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett.

I finished The Magician's Assistant, one of my older books.

I'm not sure yet what I'll tackle next, but it'll be one with a new-to-me author, for August's monthly challenge.

I see the turtle is moving along.

I could never list out all my TBRs - there's too many. I don't even list 3 months of TBRs in the SIY thread on BC. Something always jumps in and hijacks the plans.

>14 nancynova: Yes, the turtle is moving, but very slowly. I guess I made the right choice with a turtle icon! I've only listed the TBR books that came from other BookCrossers. I couldn't possibly list all my TBRs either. I've got shelves and piles of unread books all over my house.

I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which was powerful, moving and beautifully written. The turtle doesn't get to move, as this was a 2014 book, not an earlier one, but I'm very glad I finally got around to it.

I finished my September challenge book, Morality for Beautiful Girls. I need to get back to some of my older books, though!

I finished my October challenge book, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy inspired by the Arthurian legends.

I finished two for the November challenge: Heligoland by Shena Mackay and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

I loved The Secret History. It was so creepy and absorbing. I also loved Tartt's later book, The Goldfinch, which I'd read last year.

>18 mathgirl40: The Secret History was a great book! I loved it for its creepiness as well. :)

>18 mathgirl40: I listened to The Secret History earlier this year which was read by Tartt herself. Great book.

>19 SqueakyChu: >20 gypsysmom: Nice to know there are other enthusiastic fans of this book!

I finished Fatal Voyage, one of my older books from 2013, and A Sleeping Life, both for the December challenge.

Thanks for hosting this group, mathgirl40. Have a wonderful holiday season!

>22 SqueakyChu: Thank you so much!

I finished Murder in Little Italy and that will probably be my last BC book of the year, as I have some other challenge and library books I need to finish in the final week of 2016.

I am pretty happy with my progress this year. I didn't meet my goal of finishing my 2012 and 2013 books, as I still have 1 2012 book and 3 2013 books to read. These will have top priority in next year's challenge.

However, through an incredible amount of self-discipline which I hadn't realized I owned, I refrained from joining too many bookboxes or wishlist-tag games and now have only 13 books on MTBR!

Now, those 13 are only the ones registered by other people. My "real" MTBR is in the hundreds and includes many books that I plan to register and send travelling. So I'll work on those in next year's challenge.

Happy holidays, and Merry Christmas, Paulina! We are thinking about a January meetup at some point (too early to *really* plan just yet, though). Hope you can join us in 2017!

>25 jessibud2: Thanks. I'd love to meet up with the Toronto BookCrossers again!

>24 mathgirl40: Good work. And great work on managing to get the rest of us motivated.