The "To Be Read" Challenge

This looks like fun, so I’m doing it. The “To Be Read” Challenge from MizB of Literary Cache. I found it via Wanderings of a Student Librarian.

The idea is that before 1 January 2007, you list in your blog 12 books that have been on you TBR list for more than 6 months. Then, you read one per month. And..there’s a sweetener from MizB:

Every 3 months, for the duration of the challenge, I will pick one challenge participant’s name from a “hat”. That person –if they’ve read the amount of books for that time (ie: 3 books in 3 months; 6 books in 6 months, etc)– will receive a small gift (via snail-mail) from me.

If you have a “Staff’s favourite picks” list on your website or posted in your library, why not add a “Staff’s TBR list”? It would be great to share with your users, they’d get to know a bit more about you, about some of your bookstock and it would provide such an interesting talking point.

As I wrote the last paragraph, I thought “of course, this would only apply to public libraries”. But I’m wondering….”Why couldn’t we do it in an academic library?”. Too worried about our credibility as a research institution, or that our users don’t come to us for THAT kind of thing. If not, why not?

Here’s my list. It turned out to be harder than I thought. I’ve just found out that I’m pretty good at following up and reading books on my TBR list:

1. A delicate balance – Rohinton MISTRY
2. Tipping point: how little things can make a big difference – Malcolm GLADWELL
3. Born on a blue day – Daniel TAMMET
4. A spot of bother – Mark HADDON
5. Martini: a memoir – Frank MOOREHOUSE
6. A prayer for Owen Meany – John IRVING
7. The night watch – Sarah WATERS
8. I know why the caged bird sings – Maya ANGELOU
9. The tent – Margaret ATTWOOD
10. The bone people – Keri HULME
11. One hundred years of solitude – Gabriel GARCIA MARQUEZ
12. History of Western Philosophy – Bertrand RUSSELL

Special mentions, but published in the last 6 months:

1. The inheritance of loss – Kiran DESAI
2. Chart throb – Ben ELTON
3. Moral disorder – Margaret ATTWOOD

UPDATE 29.12.06: This one has been sitting on my bedside table so long that it’s become part of the furniture:

• Johnathon Strange and Mr Norrell – Susanna CLARKE