A weekly post wherein I pretend to lament the fact that I have so many books on my TBR… but in fact am secretly rubbing my hands together with delight that there are so many amazing books left to be discovered…
If it’s possible to have normal weeks in life, this was one of those weeks. I hung out with my family, sold a few notebooks, read some stuff, wrote a couple of reviews, and of course celebrated Groundhog Day.
Groundhog Day is actually a big holiday for our family. I’m not even sure how it exactly started, but sometime back when I was in my teens, my dad decided that I would love the movie Groundhog Day and that we should watch it, which we did and I did and it was brilliant. Then the next year my brother was old enough to really get it, so we watched it again… and, well, we’ve watched it every single Groundhog Day for probably somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty years. (If I’d known what a tradition it was going to become, I probably would have paid more attention about when we started!) Now we not only watch the movie, we also have a series of snacks that we eat throughout the movie that coordinate with events in the movie – usually angel food cake, popcorn, fudge, and sticky buns. 
Plus my mom makes the most adorable little groundhog pudding cups!
Last year, we even found Dad a Punxsutawney travel poster.
Anyway, back in the book blogging sphere, it was a pretty average week. I didn’t make any great strides in checking off reading projects, but I did get a few books reviewed, plus posted January’s Rearview Mirror.
Added to the General TBR:
I am once again quite behind on reading reviews, so I am sure there are even more books waiting out there to be added. Still, I managed to add six, including another book by Wendy Van Draanen (since I liked Flipped so well), and a few books inspired by random advertising emails. Two of my books were inspired by blogger reviews –
- The Literary Sisters reviewed The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy, an adaptation of that fairy tale that sets it in WWII Poland. I love fairy tale retellings and am also endlessly intrigued by stories set in random locations during WWII, so how can this not be a win??
- The other addition is also historical fiction – Following Ophelia by Sophia Bennett. Heart Full of Books reviewed this one, and I was totally hooked when they said that it was like a nineteenth century version of Hannah Montana, except without wigs. Perfect. :-D
Off the General TBR:
I reviewed two books from this category this week – Flipped by Wendy Van Draanen, which I quite liked, and The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux, which I didn’t like quite as well. I also reviewed The Swoop! (which I loved!) in my quest to read all of Wodehouse’s book in published order. Unfortunately, I didn’t have all of his books on the TBR to begin with, so some of them – like this one – don’t technically help reduce the number on that pesky list!
However, I also removed one another book that I came across – a long while back, back in the day when the TBR was just getting started, I added all of Grace Livingston Hill’s books because I have enjoyed reading some of them in the past. Now I frequently remove them without even reading them if, as in the case of The White Lady, it just sounds exceptionally lame.
Total for the General TBR: 884 – up three!
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Added to the Personal TBR:
This week I added four. Two were free Kindle books, and the other two are actually books that I got my husband for my birthday (because yes, getting him books for gift-giving occasions is a great way to add to my collection!)
- Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery is the story of Emma Gatewood who, at the age of 67, told her family she was going for a walk. She left with just a little bit of money and some clothes and went on to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail by herself without a tent, a sleeping bag, or any of the other items that most of us would consider essentials for overnight trails. At the time, the AT was minimally maintained, and the awareness that Gatewood raised helped solidify the AT’s place as a classic thru-trail. Gatewood is actually from here in Ohio, and there is a six-mile out-and-back section of trail down at Old Man’s Cave named for her that Tom and I (and Waylon) hike all the time. Tom has been reading this book already and says that it is really well-written and engaging. I’m looking forward to this one a lot.
The second book is another nonfiction title, And On That Bombshell: Inside the Madness and Genius of Top Gear by Richard Porter. Porter was a script editor for Top Gear for all thirteen years of the Jeremy Clarkson era, and tells the story from the first (dreadful) pilot episode through the crash ending that led to release of Clarkson from the BBC. Tom and I have watched Top Gear for years, and have found the new Amazon show with Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May (The Grand Tour) to also be quite entertaining and even, at times, informative. I’ve read several articles and whatnot by Porter, and he is quite humorous, so I’m anticipating an overall light read with this one.
Off the Personal TBR:
Here’s something crafty: I originally had The Mystery of the Yellow Room on the General TBR, but when I got it as a free Kindle book, I added it to the Personal TBR, too – so now it’s off both and I get credit both places! Go me!
Total for the Personal TBR: 608 – also up three!
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Total for the Series TBR: Nothing added or removed here, so holding steady at 147.
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Total for the Mystery Series TBR: Holding steady here, too, at 71.
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Total for the Nonfiction TBR: I’m displaying so much restraint that this tab, too, is holding steady – 61.
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Grand Total for the Week: With ten added and four removed, I’m only up a net of six this week. So don’t worry – I definitely have this list under control. ;-)
The Aroma of Books 