I have seen posts and videos and tweets all about the book related challenges people are taking on this year. Now, I use the goodreads goal. And I barely scraped it in 2016. I’ve decided to keep my 2017 challenge at 60 books, so I can make more time for reading and cut down my to read pile. I also have a reading list page on my blog which you can go to here to let me know what I should read next.

But right now, I’m going to focus on the 12 books that I’ve had on my TBR the longest. This works out to hopefully getting through at least one of these books a month.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

Notes From The Underground – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

These three classics I bought in the spur of the moment way back in 2015. At the time, I wanted to read more classics. And I still do. But I have such a love/hate relationship with classics that it makes me not always want to pick them up.

Birdland – Simon Stephens

Of Mice And Men: A Play In Three Acts – John Steinbeck

These are the two books that I’ve had the longest on my TBR. Of Mice And Men was a play that I saw on Broadway when I went to New York at the end of May 2014. Birdland is a play that I saw in London, right before I went to New York. And they’re both quite short compared to some other plays that I’ve read. Excuses, excuses….

Us – David Nicholls

I have read David Nicholls other three books, The Understudy being my favourite. It was long listed for the Man Booker prize back in 2015 so I hope I can enjoy it!

Paperweight – Meg Haston

When I Was Me – Hilary Freeman

These two books I picked up at the Hot Key Books stand at YALC 2015. Definitely, need to be read.

Suffragette: My Own Story – Emmeline Pankhurst

The Hawk In The Rain – Ted Hughes

I picked up these two books during my lunch break at my first job. I used to work in a library in Richmond and found a really cute independent shop called Open Books that was just down the road from the library.

The Ocean At The End of The Lane – Neil Gaiman

I picked this one up at a small pop up shop in Stratford that were, genuinely, giving away books. Most of which I wasn’t interested in, until I saw this gem. I had really enjoyed Coraline and Neverwhere but I didn’t enjoy Trigger Warnings. So I’m interested to see what I think of this one.

The Land of Stories: Beyond The Kingdoms – Chris Colfer.

Chris Colfer may sound like a familiar name to you. Not only did his turn on Glee put him in the spotlight, but he is also a fantastic writer. The Land of Stories is a middle grade/borderline YA story about twins who discover they are from a magical fairytale world. Beyond The Kingdoms is book 4 and book 5 came out in 2016. So I definitely have to catch up.

Let me know if you’ve read any of the above!

Until next time,