January 2017 will kick off the fifth year for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and I don't seem to be getting those mountains moved at all. Despite the fact that I hope to have knocked 150 books off of my 2016 Mount TBR by the end of December, there are still whole mountain ranges lined up and down my hallway and in my back room waiting to be conquered. As fast as I read 'em and get them off the stacks, my bookaholic ways help me replace them.
So, once again, I plan to concentrate on reading primarily from my own books in the coming year. And you're invited to join me in knocking out some of those books that have been waiting in the wings for weeks....months...even years.
Challenge Levels:
Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s
And the rules:
*Once you choose your challenge level, you are locked in for at least that many books. If you find that you're on a mountain-climbing roll and want to tackle a taller mountain, then you are certainly welcome to upgrade. All books counted for lower mountains carry over towards the new peak.
*Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2017.
*You may sign up anytime from now until November 1st, 2017.
*Books must be owned by you prior to January 1, 2017. No library books.
*Rereads may count only in the following circumstances: If you did not own the book when you read it long ago and far away [based on your age, you can decide what that might mean--definitely not within the last five years...my arbitrary pick for a limit] and you bought the book pre-January 1, 2017 intending to reread it now that it's your very own. [To clarify--the intention is to reduce the stack of books that you have bought for yourself or received as presents {birthday, Christmas, "just because," etc.}. Audiobooks and E-books may count if they are yours and they are one of your primary sources of backlogged books.]
*You may count any "currently reading" book that you begin prior to January 1--provided that you had 50% or more of the book left to finish when January 1 rolled around. I will trust you all on that.
*You may count "Did Not Finish" books provided they meet your own standard for such things, you do not plan to ever finish it, and you move it off your mountain [give it away, sell it, etc. OR remove it from your e-resources]. For example, my personal rule (unless it's a very short book) is to give a book at least 100 pages. If I decide I just can't finish it and won't ever, then off the mountain it goes and I count it as a victory--the stack is smaller!
*Books may be used to count for other challenges as well.
*Feel free to submit your list in advance (as incentive to really get those books taken care of) or to tally them as you climb.
*There will be quarterly check-ins and prize drawings!
*A blog and reviews are not necessary to participate. If you have a blog, then please post a challenge sign up and link THAT post (not your home page) into the linky below. Non-bloggers, please leave a comment declaring your challenge level--OR, if you are a member of Goodreads, I will once again put together a group for the challenge there. Feel free to sign up HERE if that's where you want to participate. At the beginning of the year, I will update the sidebar link called Mount TBR Review Headquarters for current reviews and progress updates.
Bev, I'm considering signing up. Thanks for the invite.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to share your events/challenges in my new Facebook group, Sleep Less, Read More. If you're not a member, just click join and I'll approve you. Then you can post all your events/challenges. Just trying to help get the word out to the community.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/187590854980094/
Thanks, Michelle! Will do.
ReplyDeleteI am failing this year, and failed the last two, so I think I might sit out in 2017. I'm undecided yet though.
ReplyDeleteI have signed up on my blog page today and mentioned your site and challenge. Looking forward to the TBR for 2017. Have linked up. Good post. It will be fun.
ReplyDeleteBev, I'm sorry if you received my previous comment - I got a Bad Request response when I did!!! What I asked is do you want people to sign up to the challenge either here OR on the Goodreads Group page, but not on both?
ReplyDeleteI shall be doing the challenge again.
WooHoo...my first challenge sign up after being on that lengthy LOA. Thank you for hosting!!!!
ReplyDeleteMargaret--you're welcome to sign up in both places if you want to. It's certainly not necessary--and if I were you I'd just sign-up in one place (to keep things simple). But when it comes time for check-in posts (and prizes), I'd rather that you just participate through one medium.
ReplyDeleteYay, Cheryl! Glad you're coming back to challenge-land!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bev - will do.
ReplyDeleteYes! I am going to do it this year! My goal is to start off 2017 by ONLY reading books that I already have in the house. Maybe that will last for a month or two and get me through 20-30 books. I'll try to keep going for a total of 60 books for the year.
ReplyDeleteWell, I passed the 24 read point a couple of weeks back, and I'm just seeing whether I could get to Mt Vancouver - but next year I'\m still signing up for Mont Blanc! But like you, I still have more to read than I started the year with. Sigh. New Year's resolution: do not go to conventions or bookshops.... made to be broken, of course!
ReplyDeleteI found this challenge by chance, then saw it again in my Twitter feed... so I think that's a sign I need to join in. My TBR pile is obscene, both in my Kindle AND on my bookshelves. I will be back next month to link up my intentions - I'm striving for Mount Blanc at the very least. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try for 24 again.
ReplyDeleteGoing for 24 this time instead of 12. :D
ReplyDeleteSo excited for this!
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to sign up, but will wait to post a link probably after the beginning of the year. Usually I post all my reading challenges then. This has been my first year to hike along with you, and I think I'll make it to Mt. Vancouver!
ReplyDeleteI'm in! I'll be making a page for the challenge later tonight, but here's my announcement! http://jreadinglife.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-first-challenges-for-2017.html
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to sign up again! This is always a favorite!
ReplyDeleteI always plan to read more of my TBR pile than I ever do. Working in an Indy bookshop means I have to keep up with new releases (not a hardship but it keeps me from my TBR pile and simply adds more books to it!)
ReplyDeleteCommitting to 12 is more than I can came at right now - can I subvert your list by adding our highest mountain in Australia, which is still significantly smaller than Pike's Peak, Mt Kosciosko (at 2228m above sea level it's not even really in the game!)
Mt Kosciosko - Read 6 books from my TBR pile (preferably from my Aussie TBR pile).
Would you be okay with that?
Brona: You are more than welcome to join us in climbing and you can link up for the check-points. I may even add Mt. Kosciosko to the options in 2018!
ReplyDeleteThank you Bev :-)
ReplyDeleteHowdy y'all, never joined any challenges online before! Totally excited ~ Jobe
ReplyDeleteSigning up at MT. Blanc level. Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteArrived here via Lory's Emerald City Book Review. I shall be climbing Pike Peak, at least to start with!
ReplyDeleteWelcome everybody!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great idea! I will be signing up shortly :) 💖
ReplyDeleteQuestion though - do only the books I bought count, or also the DRCs that I've received?
DeleteSigning up for the Mt. Vancouver level :)
ReplyDeleteI managed Mt Vancouver this year, so I've upped the challenge and am trying for Mt Ararat for 2017.
ReplyDeleteGoing for Mt.Olympus. Have waaaaaay too many books on my readers. No blog, but I will be keeping track on GoodReads
ReplyDeleteFinally cutting down on the number of reading challenges and joining yours to get rid of all these books, lol - Mt Ararat should help
ReplyDeleteI succeeded with Pike's Peak last year, so this year I will be shooting for Mount Blanc. This has been great for me, so thank you!
ReplyDeleteGoing to try El Toro!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to play it conservatively and say I'm going for Mount Blanc (24 books). Why don't library books count? I get term loans from work so some of the library books I have I've had out for over a year and still haven't gotten to them haha.
ReplyDeleteLauren: Library books don't count because the purpose of my TBR challenge is to reduce the mountains that you actually own. I developed the challenge because I have an admitted addiction to buying books and then not reading them (I currently have a personal TBR list of about 1500 books). I just love old books and can't resist giving them a home. The challenge is meant to encourage me--and others like me--to actually read the books I bring home. If folks want to read library books or "wish-list" TBR books, then they need to find a challenge that supports that {there used to be both kinds} or, if those don't exist any more, then sponsor a challenge like that themselves. I don't say this to be mean-spirited--just to point out that I developed a specific type of challenge and it's the type of challenge I want to sponsor.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have fun reading the books on your TBR mountain!
I think I'm in for Mt. Vancouver! Not sure I can count these, but I have a stack of TBR unused cookbooks... I'm trying to think of a reasonable personal rule for checking them off the TBR list! Ha. Any ideas? So far I'm thinking getting 5-10 recipes from each could work! And some of them have quite a bit of how-to prose...
ReplyDeleteJenna:
ReplyDeleteI am agreeable to you using the cookbooks--provided you come up with a reasonable equivalent of getting recipes/reading through recipes/etc to what you would normally read of a book that you decide not to finish.
I'm happy to be joining in for the second time! I got up to Mt. Vancouver last time but am only committing to Mount Blanc this year - I like to leave space for new books along the way. Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like the motivation I really, really need right now!
ReplyDeleteFirst time challengee...I've seen this & thought about it before but this year I'm doing it for real. Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI listed my blog but if you go there you will see that I haven't posted anything in many years but that was the only way it would let me sign up. Thanks for letting me join. Vicky
ReplyDeleteI totally thought I'd done this link-up early in December, when I wrote my sign-up post, but it looks like I skipped that vital step. I am super excited about this challenge! Aiming for Mt. Everest, which is about 50% of what I usually read in a year.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking part for the first time! I decided to go with the Mount Blanc level, and try to read two books every month, but I would really like to up it to Mt. Vancouver. We'll see how it goes!
ReplyDeleteA bit late in signing up but better late than never, i'm really excited to be joining you all in an attempt to lower my TBR mountain.
ReplyDeleteWelcome All!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interesting, but I'm no good at link-ups. I'm new to the blogging thing so I'm not sure what I'm doing! I usually just share on my blog instead of posting, lol! I think I'll just try this on my own and see how far I get. Great challenge, tho!
ReplyDeleteFee: Glad to have you play along. If you're up to posting later--after you get the hang of blogging--feel free to join in by links too.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done a blog post yet for my blog, but wanted to go ahead and sign up for the following challenge (I will join on Goodreads as well).
ReplyDeleteMy TBR pile is 61 books, but I am going to do Mt. Ararat (48 books) since a few of those 61 are pretty thick!
This looks like a fun challenge, but I'm curious, why is it necessary to own the books? I'm a librarian, a minimalist, and a broke mom of a toddler, so I don't buy books unless they're something that have proven they deserve a spot on my shelves. That being said, my TBR list is massive.
ReplyDeleteAllison: Not to be trite--but the reason it's necessary to own the books is because that's the way I designed the challenge. This challenge is specifically aimed at people--like me--who love books, love owning books, and tend to accumulate more books than they tend to read in a given year. The challenge is to read more from your own shelves. That is the main objective of the challenge.
ReplyDeleteOver the years there have been challenges out in the blogging world for TBR piles that are simply books that you might have heard of or always intended to read because everyone else had read them or a friend suggested or whatever. There have also been challenges that are aimed at folks who read from the library--or free electronic sources. If you want to read from your virtual TBR shelf (un-owned) and want a challenge for that--then this is not the challenge for you and you can search for such a challenge. If the folks who have sponsored that type of challenge in the past are no longer offering it, then you could sponsor one.
Going to try a few challenges this year!
ReplyDelete