The first 6 weeks of 2013 have been challenging. In a case where life reflected art, the house was transformed into something ressembling the Gorbeau slum – why are decorating jobs never straight-forward? I suppose it helped me empathise somewhat with Hugo’s Les Miserables – but not much. Hugo’s wordiness drove me to distraction and if you can follow mindmaps, you will see from the picture below
that I distracted myself with many an interlude as I worked my way through the 530,892 words of the French masterpiece. Am I elated now it is done? Not really, just relieved. So relieved in fact that I have no interest in seeing the film.
Hugo’s loquacity seems to have dried up my own and It has been 6 weeks of very little blogging. Lots of reading though. The books I highlighted in pink are books read in January, those in yellow the ones read so far in February. (Reviews will follow for the best of the bunch.) Those not yet highlighted are the immediate TBR and books I intend reading before the TBR Double Dog Dare finishes at the end of March. Looks like I’m going to be spending plenty of reading time in Germany (mindmap – top left) and a goodly amount in Italy (mindmap – top right).
Choosing books by association with something already read is proving an interesting experiment. It’s certainly one way for the books in the TBR mountain range to fight their way to the summit. it also gives me the feeling of reading whimsically. Plus there’s only one unhappy face in the choices i made so far. Les Mis doesn’t count – it was a book group choice. I’m sorry, Simon at Stuck In A Book, but Cheerful Weather for A Wedding left me cold.
I think I’ll keep this mindmapping experiment going through 2013 and see where it leads me.
However, I’m not going to make it to the end of March with the TBR double-dog dare. I signed up for the whole 3 months only because Glasgow’s Ayewrite festival, the usual reason why I fail, has been scheduled for April. Then the rug is pulled from beneath and Ayewrite schedules two early taster events for March. I can only make one but I do want to read the book before attending and so it is that I shall call a halt to my TBR challenge at the end of February.
Still there’s plenty of time to add to height of the book pile on the right. It may not add up to the height of a munro by the time I’m done, but as they say every little helps in the battle against the ever increasing TBR.
I think that whittling down our TBR pile is a noble act! lol I couldn’t stay on course either – I bought some before my surgery – to console me, it was unexpectedly early also. Of course, I haven’t read any of the books yet, so I might make it through the whole double dare, which would be awesome.
Any book read off the TBR pile is such a thrill, isn’t it? I hope you have fun at the festival. Which book are they reading for it?
There’s nothing like a new book to console, comfort anf cheer, is there? Hope your recovery is going to plan.
The book that is going to break the dare for me is such an unlikely one that I’m going to keep it secret for the time being. More will follow in due course.
love your mind mapping picture and well done I could never go so long without buying books ,all the best stu
Love the mind map and the reading-by-association idea, it seems a great way for shopping your own shelves rather than raiding the new books. I’m reading in themed months this year as of March, I’m hoping it will help me find new-to-me authors that I can then branch out into the backlists of!
Alex – I thought about themed reading myself but then I found the themes I came up with a bit boring.
. The mind map, which has grown since I pictured it, is throwing up themes I hadn’t thought of. Can’t wait to get started, for instance, on books with butterflies on the dust jacket ……
Like others, I love the mind map idea. May have to steal it to deal with my TBR piles. I’ve managed to stick to the dare so far but have a gift card at my favorite independent bookstore burning a hole in mt pocket.