European Reading Challenge Wrapup 2024

 

 

Another ERC wrapped. I signed up for the Jet Setter level of five books, and once again surpassed that. Here's the final list:

1.) Stephen Budiansky/Journey to the Edge of Reason  (Austria)

2.) Goethe/Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (Germany)

3.) Konstantin Stanislavski/My Life in Art (Russia)

4.) Virginia Woolf/The Waves (U.K.)

5.) Carlo Levi/Christ Stopped at Eboli (Italy)

6.) Serhiy Zhadan/The Orphanage (Ukraine)

7.) Ana Blandiana/The Architecture of Waves (Romania)

8.) Josef Skvoreçky/The End of Lieutenant Boruvka (Czech Republic)

9.) James Baldwin/Giovanni's Room (France)

10.) Kurban Said/Ali and Nino (Azerbaijan)

11.) Sholem Aleichem/Wandering Stars (Moldova)

12.) J. G. Farrell/Troubles (Ireland)

13.) Kurban Said/The Girl from the Golden Horn (Bosnia)

14.) Tom Reiss/The Orientalist (Turkey)

15.) Henrik Ibsen/Rosmerholm (Norway)

The best countries this year for me were Azerbaijan and Ireland, with Ali and Nino in particular being a real surprise and delight. Troubles was a reread, so I knew the fun I was letting myself in for with that one. This is the first year since I've been doing this challenge (that's since 2018) that there's not a new country on the list, which is a little disappointing, especially since I've got a book set in Slovenia on my reading stack. 

Thanks again to Gilion for hosting! The signup for the new year is here.

European Reading Challenge Wrapup 2023

 

Well, I squeezed in one last book review just yesterday, but there will be no more squeezing in, and my bookish travels in Europe are done for the year. The final list:

1.) Henry James/The Wings of the Dove (Italy)

2.) Robert Gerwarth/November 1918 (Germany)

3.) Eric Ambler/The Levanter (Cyprus)

4.) Samuel Butler/The Way of All Flesh (UK)

5.) Victor Gruen/Shopping Town (Austria)

6.) Honoré de Balzac/Cousin Bette (France)

7.) Georgi Gospodinov/Time Shelter (Bulgaria)

8.) Robert Aickman/Go Back At Once (Croatia)

9.) Olga Tokarczuk/The Books of Jacob (Poland)

10.) Ivo Andrić/Omer Pasha Latas (Bosnia)

11.) Owen Matthews/Overreach (Russia)

12.) Anna Comnena/The Alexiad (Turkey)

13.) Josef Škvorecky/Sins For Father Knox (Czech Republic)

14.) Janwillem van de Wetering/Outsider in Amsterdam (Netherlands)

15.) Homer/The Iliad (tr. Emily Wilson) (Greece)

16.) Leah Horlick/Moldovan Hotel (Moldova)

17.) Herta Müller/The Fox Was Ever the Hunter (Romania)

Seventeen isn't my best ever number for this challenge, but is pretty good for me, and is in any case well over the five I pledged for. 

There are two new countries I haven't previously visited for this challenge: Cyprus and Moldova. There continue to be six I've visited every year: Italy, Germany, the UK, Austria, France, and Romania. This year's best visits were Poland and Italy, though Croatia was fun and quirky, too.

Thanks again to Gilion for hosting!

European Reading Challenge Wrapup for 2022

And...it's a wrap!

2022 is now over and so are my travels by book to Europe. This is one of the best challenges going as far as I'm concerned and I had a great time again with it this year. Here's my final list of books and countries:

1.) Andrey Kurkov/Death and the Penguin (Ukraine)

2.) Kate O'Brien/Farewell Spain (Spain)

3.) Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun/Memoirs (France)

4.) Charles King/The Black Sea: A History (Romania)

5.) Thomas Pynchon/V. (Malta)

6.) Marc David Baer/The Ottomans (Turkey)

7.) Douglas Dunn/The Donkey's Ears (Russia)

8.) Charles King/The Ghost of Freedom (Azerbaijan)

9.) Heimito von Doderer/The Strudlhof Steps (Austria)

10.) Gershom Scholem/Sabbatai Sevi (Montenegro)

11.) Oliver Goldsmith/The Vicar of Wakefield (U.K.)

12.) Vicki Baum/Grand Hotel (Germany)

13.) Shirley Hazzard/Greene on Capri (Italy)

Over the years I've done this, thirteen is not my best number, and nor is it my worst, but in any case it is well over the five to meet the challenge. These were my first challenge visits to Malta and Azerbaijan, and there continue to be six countries I've visited every year: France, Germany, Austria, U.K., Italy, and Romania. My favorite visits this year were Malta (well, a reread for me), Austria, the U.K., and Italy.

Thanks to Gilion for hosting once again!

Are you visiting in 2023?

Back to the Classics Challenge 2022 Wrapup

 

This is not the first year I read books for all the prompts, but it is the first year I managed to blog about a book for all the prompts. Woo-hoo! Here's the list:

19th Century Classic

Sir Walter Scott's Count Robert of Paris

20th Century Classic

Thomas Pynchon's V

A Classic by a Woman Author

Willa Cather's A Lost Lady

A Classic in Translation

Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun's Memoirs

A Classic by a BIPOC Author

James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain

Mystery/Detective/Crime Classic

S. S. Van Dine's The Garden Murder Case

A Short Story Collection

Thomas Hardy's Wessex Tales

Pre-1800 Classic

Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield

Non-Fiction Classic

Edmund Wilson's The Shores of Light

Classic on your TBR the longest

Edmund Wilson's Axel's Castle

Classic Set in a Place You'd Like to Visit

Kate O'Brien's Farewell Spain

Wild Card

William Faulkner's Light in August

Chuck displays The Stack (minus the Van Dine, which I also read on the Kobo): 

As for that original set of predictions of what I might read for each category, I got three (!) correct, plus one by the same author I originally planned (James Baldwin) and one that I planned but switched categories (Willa Cather's A Lost Lady). Predicting three in advance is pretty standard for my abilities as a prognosticator...

Thanks to Karen for hosting this challenge again! I'm reachable at reese (at) reesewarner (dot) com.

European Reading Challenge 2021 Wrapup

 

Well, another year is done and that means I'm done going over the top on another European Reading Challenge. It turned out to be a very good year for traveling...by book. Here's my final list:

1.) Helen MacInnes' North From Rome. Italy

2.) Howard Pyle's Men of Iron. UK

3.) Georgi Gospodinov's The Physics of Sorrow. Bulgaria

4.) Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Sweden

5.) Alex Ross' Wagnerism. Germany

6.) R. L. Stevenson's Travels With a Donkey. France

7.) Robert Kanigel's Hearing Homer's Song. Montenegro

8.) Ivo Andrić' The Bridge on the Drina. Bosnia

9.) Patricia Moyes' Death on the Night Ferry. Netherlands

10.) Halldór Laxness' Independent People. Iceland

11.) Tacitus' Annals. Armenia

12.) Amélie Nothomb's Tokyo Fiancée. Belgium

13.) Sholem Aleichem's In The Storm. Ukraine

14.) Josef Skvorecky's Lieutenant Boruvka. Czechia

15.) Mateiu Caragiale's Rakes of the Old Court. Romania

16.) Eça de Queirós' The City and the Mountains. Portugal

17.) Longus' Daphnis and Chloe. Greece

18.) Jenny Erpenbeck's The End of Days. Austria

19.) Emma Lathen's Double, Double, Oil and Trouble. Switzerland

If I'd written about just one more, I could have gotten it up to a round 20. Oh, well...

This is one of the best challenges going for me. Thanks again to Gilion for hosting. The signup for the new version is out. I need to do it!

Back to the Classics Challenge 2021 Wrapup

It's time to wrap up for the Back to the Classics Challenge for the year. As is becoming a motif,... I read books for more prompts than I managed to write about. (Read all twelve, blogged about nine.) Here are the ones I blogged:

20th Century Classic

Ivo Andrić' The Bridge on the Drina

Classic by a Woman Author

Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

A Classic in Translation

Halldór Laxness' Independent People

A Classic by a New-to-you Author

Henryk Sienkiewicz' Quo Vadis

New-to-you Classic by a Favorite Author

R. L. Stevenson's The Black Arrow

A Children's Classic

Howard Pyle's Men of Iron

A Humorous Classic

Jose Maria Eça de Queirós' The City and the Mountains

A Classic with an Animal in the Title

Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark

A Travel Classic

R. L. Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

The Eça de Queirós and Wollstonecraft were library books and so missed their photo op. That's nine of the twelve categories of which I predicted...3 (!) in the original post. Even for me that's a particularly poor rate of followthrough.

Then there were the three that got away...

I've had half a post for Major Barbara in the queue for a while, but it probably won't get published now. The Maias is the book I finished most recently and I might yet write about it, (Very good! Though tricky to write about with its couple of surprise twists...) but I won't by the end of the year.

In any case All Hail! to Karen for hosting this great challenge again. 😉 And Happy New Year to all!

Back To The Classics 2020 Challenge Wrapup

 

Time for a wrapup post for the 2020 edition of Karen's Back To The Classics Challenge. This is the first year I managed to read a book for all twelve categories; I only managed to write blog posts for ten of them, though. Here are this year's categories and what I matched up against them: (Matched up in the end. Not in the beginning...)

19th Century Classic

--Henry James' The American

20th Century Classic

--Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Classic by a Woman Author

--Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own

Classic in Translation

--Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt

Classic By A Person of Color

--James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room

A Genre Classic

--Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

Classic With A Person's Name in the Tile

--Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

Classic With A Place in the Title

--Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra

Classic With Nature in the Title

--Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country

Classic About A Family

--John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga

Abandoned Classic

--Thomas Carlyle's On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History

Classic With An Adaptation

--Charles Dickens' David Copperfield

I thought they were all really very good--no lemons in the bunch--well, they're classics, ya know? David Copperfield and Peer Gynt were rereads for me. I was a little surprised how much I enjoyed Tales of the Alhambra.

Reading a book for all twelve categories is the best I've ever done at this challenge, so, even though I didn't write about two of them--I'm still counting that very much as a success. I finished Carlyle only a couple of days ago; I'm likely to write about it soon and have half a post finished. I finished Giovanni's Room a couple of months ago now; I'll probably need to reread it before I do write about it. That only counts as ten books though for the draw. Should it be necessary I can be reached at reese (chiocciola) reesewarner (punto) com.

Thanks to Karen for hosting! Looking forward to the new version (for which I need to write a signup post...)

This is the third year I've done the challenge and I find I piled up all the books on the dining room table and took a picture with the Christmas tree in the background the first two times. Since one must keep up traditions...

European Reading Challenge 2020 Wrapup

 

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts a challenge to visit European countries by reading books set in them; this is one of the funnest challenges going as far as I'm concerned. My evidence this is true? It's the one I go the most over the top with and this year has been no different. And it was the only form of travel possible for most of this year.

The Deluxe tour is five countries. I visited a few more than that...

1.) Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. (UK)
2.) Henry James' The American. (France)
3.) Joan B. Flood's Left Unsaid. (Ireland)
4.) Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. (Spain)
5.) Arthur Schnitzler's Late Fame. (Austria)
6.) Nino Haratischvili's The Eighth Life (For Brilka). (Georgia)
7.) Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (Czech Republic)
8.) Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. (Norway)
9.) I. B. Singer's In My Father's Court. (Poland)
10.) Henrik Pontoppidan's Lucky Per. (Denmark)
11.) Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. (Russia)
12.) Anna Seghers' Transit. (Germany)
13.) Amelie Nothomb's Life Form. (Belgium)
14.) Matei Calinescu's Zacharias Lichter. (Romania)
15.) Susan Sontag's The Volcano Lover. (Italy)

My favorite countries this year were Russia, Denmark, and France.

This was my third year taking part. No surprise, I guess, that I visited the UK, France, Germany, and Italy all three years. A little more surprising was that I got to Poland and Austria each year. (Well, Austria is not that surprising. I'm a big Vienna-ophile...) The real surprise was I've been to Romania all three years. Maybe it's a sign I need to go in person? 

Thanks to Gilion for hosting! The signup for the new year is available. I need to do it!

Back To The Classics Wrapup 2019

So once again I completed ten (well, nine and a half-ish) categories this year for Karen's Back to the Classics Challenge. Here's the list:

Classic in Translation:

Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso

Classic Play:

George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion

Classic From Africa:

Ngugi wa Thiong'o's The River Between

Classic From The Americas:

Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano

Twentieth Century Classic:

Hermann Broch's The Death of Virgil

Very Long Classic:

J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Classic by a Female Author:

George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life

Classic Tragedy:

Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth

Classic Comedy:

Henry Fielding's Tom Jones

(though I've only just finished the last one & haven't blogged about it yet.)

Thanks to Karen for hosting! I guess that's two entries. Should it come up I can be reached by email at reese (at) reesewarner (dot) com.

2019 European Reading Challenge Wrapup

It's been quite the European tour this year, but it's time to acknowledge it's over...I didn't go quite as over-the-top as I did last year, but I still passed the Five Star level and then some, for a final total of twelve countries. Still I wonder more at the ones I missed. (What? Nothing from Russia this year?)

Here's my final list:

1.) Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday. Austria.
2.) Robert Gerwarth's The Vanquished: Why The First World War Failed To End. Latvia.
3.) Boreslav Pekic' Houses. Serbia.
4.) Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Italy.
5.) Endre Farkas' Never, Again. Hungary.
6.) Stanislaw Lem's The Cyberiad. Poland.
7.) Eric Ambler's The Light of Day. Turkey.
8.) Mircea Cartarescu's Blinding. Romania.
9.) Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian. France.
10.) Hannah Arendt's Men in Dark Times. Germany
11.) George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life. UK.
12.) Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. Monaco.

Thanks to Gilion for hosting and looking forward to the new edition!

Read It Again, Sam 2018 Wrapup

The third challenge from Bev's smorgasbord of reading challenges was the Read It Again, Sam challenge. I went all-in for this one at 16+ and got there and one more.

The complete list is here. A couple of the rereads near the end of the year didn't get posts.

Needless to say, I liked all of them, but particularly fun for me were Italo Calvino's The Baron In The Trees, which I actually reread twice last year, once in the new translation by Ann Goldstein and once (the proper reread) in the original Archibald Colquhon translation, and Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower. I also reminded myself how great Ellery Queen's The Greek Coffin Mystery was.

Longest since I first read it? That had to be The Portrait of Dorian Gray, which I hadn't read since high school. Still pretty good, though, boy, was I hard on books in high school.

And again, thanks to Bev for hosting!

Just The Facts, Ma'am 2018 Wrapup

Here's my wrapup post for Bev's Just The Facts, Ma'am challenge of 2018. I'm a Detective Sergeant in the Gold era, but a mere Constable in the Silver. Well, I did expect to do better in the Gold era. Here's the list of books:

Gold

Who

1.) E. R. Punshon's Music Tells All. 1948. Crime-solving duo.
2.) Rex Stout's Not Quite Dead Enough. 1944. In the Armed Services

What

1.) Michael Innes' The Secret Vanguard. 1940. Pseudonymous author.
2.) Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of The Haunted Husband. 1941. Alliterative title.

When

1.) Michael Innes' Lament For A Maker. 1938. During a recognized holiday.
2.) Nicholas Blake's The Corpse In The Snowman. 1941. During a weather event.

Where

1.) Patricia Wentworth's Eternity Ring. 1948. In a small village.
2.) Michael Innes' Operation Pax. 1951. In a hospital/nursing home.

How

1.) Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Velvet Claws. 1933. Death by shooting.
2.) Georgette Heyer's Footsteps In The Dark. 1932. Death by strangulation.

Why

1.) E. C. Bentley's Trent's Last Case. 1913. 'Best of' list.
2.) Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood. 1870. Favorite author.

Silver

Who

1.) Michael Innes' The New Sonia Wayward. 1960. In the Armed Services.

What

1.) Julian Symons' The Blackheath Poisonings. 1978. Means of murder in the title.

When

1.) Ellis Peters' Black Is The Colour of My True Love's Heart. 1967. Special event (folk festival).

Where

1.) Peter Robinson's The Hanging Valley. 1989. In a small village.

How

1.) Ross Macdonald's The Blue Hammer. 1976. At least two deaths by different means.
2.) L. R. Wright's The Suspect. 1985. Death by blunt instrument.

Why

1.) Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Curious Spinster. 1961. TBR list.

Here's my filled out cards:

Thanks, Bev, for hosting!

Mount TBR 2018 Wrapup

I opted for Mount Ararat for the 2018 Mount TBR challenge, which is 48 books from off those TBR shelves. I am pleased to announce...(drum roll!)...that I read 49 TBR books in 2018 so I got to the top of Mount Ararat and then did a little victory dance that involved some leaping once I got there. But that's a long ways from Mt. Kilimanjaro, which I'm aiming for in 2019 (and is still probably a lower mountain than I should be aiming at...)

The complete list is here.

Some of the proverbial wisdom I gathered this last year...

A penny saved is...Money.

All that glitters is not...Dracula.

Two wrongs don't make...The Group.

Hope for the best, but prepare for...If The War Goes On.

When the going gets tough, the tough get...The Leopard.

Those all come from proper TBR books, but a couple of the best proverbs come from other things I read last year:

Don't count your chickens before...The Fox. (library book)

When in Rome...Behold Things Beautiful. (library book)

The squeaky wheel gets...The Blue Hammer. (reread)

Thanks again to Bev at My Reader's Block for hosting!

2018 European Reading Challenge Wrapup

Well, it's time to accept I won't be reading any more books this year for Gilion's European Reading Challenge at her blog Rose City Reader. I completed this one at five books a while back, but I was having so much fun I just kept going, ending up with a total of 16 books. And I kept thinking I'd read just one more. There's Iceland (Laxness), Denmark (Nors), and Serbia or Montenegro (Pekič) piled up by my reading chair. And I can't believe I missed Ireland. But I guess those all remain for next year.

Here's my final list:

1.) The Odyssey. (tr. by Emily Wilson) Greece
2.) Arthur Schnitzler's Casanova's Return To Venice. Austria
3.) Jorge Carrión's Bookshops: A Reader's History. Spain
4.) Italo Calvino's The Baron In The Trees. Italy
5.) Amélie Nothomb's Pétronille. Belgium
6.) George Eliot's Silas Marner. UK
7.) Duc de la Rochefoucauld's Maxims. France
8.) Olga Tokarczuk's Flights. Poland
9.) Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. Russia
10.) Herta Müller's The Land Of Green Plums. Romania
11.) Ismail Kadare's Broken April. Albania
12.) Dubravka Ugresic' Fox. Croatia
13.) Romain Rolland's Jean-Christophe. Switzerland
14.) Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Monaco
15.) Jenny Erpenbeck's Go, Went, Gone. Germany
16.) Antonio Tabucchi's Time Ages In A Hurry. Hungary

For me, the best book on that list was probably the least exotic: George Eliot's Silas Marner. Maxims and The Baron In The Trees were rereads (so I must like them.) But there wasn't a bad book on it, and Ugresic' latest novel Fox was a real revelation, as was Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. Hint: it's not too late to sign up for the new year.

Thanks to Gilion for hosting!

Back To The Classics 2018 Wrapup

Well, I'm 2/3rd of the way through Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad and I'm likely to finish it before the new year, but that isn't really going to change the overall picture. I will have read nine (and maybe ten) of the dozen classics for my first try at the Back To The Classics challenge. Since six was the minimum, I guess that's OK...

Here's the list of categories and the books matched against them:

19th Century Classic

Silas Marner by George Eliot

20th Century Classic

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

A Classic by A Woman Author

Adam Bede by George Eliot

A Classic in Translation

Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland

A Crime Classic

Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley

A Classic With a Single Word Title

Romola by George Eliot

A Classic by an Author New To Me

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

A Classic that Scares Me

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Reread a Favorite Classic

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

and (maybe) A Travel Classic

A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain

The categories I definitely missed were a children's classic, and a classic with a color in the title.

The new to me favorites were The Leopard and Silas Marner, both completely amazing.

Thanks to Karen at Books and Chocolate for hosting!

2017 Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt Wrapup

It's time for the Vintage Scavenger Mystery Hunt wrap-up. I pledged six in both categories (Golden Age mysteries--up to 1960, and Silver Age--1960-1989) and I hit that mark. As I guessed in my initial post I did much better with the Golden Age. It's been a fun excuse to read a bunch of mysteries--not that I need much excuse, but there you have it.

I finished 24 Golden Age mysteries and nine in the Silver Age. Here's the complete list:

Golden Age

Knife. Rex Stout's Over My Dead Body (1940)
Skeletal Hand or Skull. Gladys Mitchell's The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (1929)
Hat. Edmund Crispin's The Moving Toyshop (1946)
Bloodstains.  Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case Of The Deadly Toy (1959)
Bird. Rex Stout's Where There's A Will (1940)
Policeman. E. R. Punshon's The Diabolic Candelabra (1942)
Shadowy Figure. Bioy Casares and Ocampo's Where There's Love, There's Hate (1946)
Flowers. Rex Stout's Black Orchids (1942)
Suitcase/Briefcase. John Dickson Carr's The Case Of The Constant Suicides (1941)
Glove. Patricia Wentworth's Touch And Go (1934)
Jewelry. Winifred Peck's The Warrielaw Jewel (1933)
Hand Holding Weapon. Ross MacDonald's The Doomsters (1958)
Damsel in Distress. Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (1939)
Cat. S. S. Van Dine's The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1938)
Building. Graham Greene's A Gun For Sale (1936)
Revolver. John Dickson Carr's The Man Who Could Not Shudder (1940)
Moon. Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
Car/Truck. Leslie Charteris' Enter The Saint (1930)
Train. Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express (1934)
Any Other Weapon (Bomb). Leslie Charteris' The Last Hero (1930)
Tombstone. John Dickson Carr's To Wake The Dead (1938)
Blonde. Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case Of The Lonely Heiress (1948)
Hangman's Noose. Ellery Queen's Ten Days' Wonder (1948)
Brunette. Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case Of The Rolling Bones (1939)

Silver Age

Brunette. Andrew Greeley's Happy Are The Meek  (1985)

Car/Truck. Chester Himes' All Shot Up (1960)
Written Document. Simon Brett's Situation Tragedy  (1981)
Map or Chart. Carolyn Keene's The Quest Of The Missing Map  (1969)
Bird. Simon Brett's Murder Unprompted (1982)
Any Other Weapon (Pistol). Simon Brett's Murder In The Title (1983)
Bottle Of Poison. Simon Brett's Dead Giveaway (1985)
Body Of Water. Janwillem van de Wetering's The Mind Murders (1981)
Snow/Snowy Scene.  Ngaio Marsh's Tied Up In Tinsel (1971)

Very much thanks to Bev at My Reader's Block for hosting this challenge.

2017 Mount TBR Final Checkpoint

The Mount TBR Reading Challenge is a way to get books off one's personal TBR mountain hosted at My Reader's Block. I declared for Mt. Vancouver at the beginning of the year, which is 36 books.

After a slow first quarter start at the climb up my particular mountain, I was on pace at mid-year, and surging by the third checkin. I'm happy to say I'm planting my flag at the top of Mt. Vancouver (4812m) with a few extra books to spare: 42 TBR books in total. The complete list is given at the original post. That, alas, was fewer than the number of books that entered the house this past year, so it's Mt. Ararat for me in 2018.

I didn't write posts for all the books I read over the year, mostly just ones that matched a challenge, so I'm using a few books that didn't get posted on. And then some are from Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt posts only, not TBR posts. I thought about using Rogue Male for all of them, which came pretty close to working, but in the end didn't use it for any...

A Stitch in Time [is] ... Swing Time
Don't Count Your Chickens [before] ... The Claws Of The Cat
A Penny Saved [is] ... Ten Days' Wonder
All Good Things Must Come [to] ... The Big Sleep (True, I suppose, though a little grim.)
When In Rome,...Where Angels Fear To Tread
All That Glitters Is Not ... Twelfth Night (In fact, it's The Merchant of Venice.)
A Picture Is Worth ... A Room With A View
When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get ... Whipped
Two Wrongs Don't Make ... Innocence
The Pen Is Mightier Than ... [the] Boss (Royko would like that one.)
The Squeaky Wheel Gets ... All Shot Up (Someone's feeling a little impatient, are we?)
Hope For The Best, But Prepare For ... The Fire Next Time
Birds Of A Feather Flock ... Where There's A Will

It's been fun (and useful!) Thanks to Bev at My Reader's Block for hosting.