November Wrap-Up
November was another great month for me, both blog-wise and reading-wise. Traffic continued to increase, I read a whole bunch of books, and *finally* got caught up on my reviews from the read-a-thon. :)
Ye Grande Olde TBR(e) Challenge Update
I started November with 204 unread books sitting around my house. And I ended with … *drumroll* … 209! Not too shabby, considering the amount of time I spent in bookstores this month. If only I could extend that iron-clad willpower to the realm of BookMooch.
Let’s take a look at the breakdown:
**Neutral books – Read, but don’t affect the TBR pile**
Audiobooks
– Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire
– Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
Read but not owned
– Fables, Vol. 7: Arabian Nights (and Days) by Bill Willingham
– Fables, Vol. 8: Wolves by Bill Willingham
– Fables, Vol. 9: Sons of Empire by Bill Willingham
– Fables, Vol. 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham
**Changes to the TBR pile**
Cleared from my TBR pile (huzzah!)
– Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones by Brandon Sanderson
– A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
– Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
– The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
– Abarat by Clive Barker
– The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
Added to, then promptly cleared from my TBR pile (um… huzzah?)
– The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
– The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones
Other removals from my TBR pile (meh?)
– Shield of Three Lions by Pamela Kaufman – I got to page 160 and I just couldn’t get into it, so it’s getting abandoned.
Added to my TBR pile (shame!)
– Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg
– Feed by M. T. Anderson
– Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
– Tunnels by Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams
– First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
– Blindness by José Saramago
– Hitler and Mars Bars by Dianne Ascroft (from the Author)
– The Glister by John Burnside (ARC from Random House)
– In the Woods by Tana French
– Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box by Victoria Finlay
– The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann (ARC from Random House)
– The Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian
Other Non-TBR Book Acquisitions
– Inkspell by Cornelia Funke (on loan, so not pictured)
– The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Commenters
Many thanks to this month’s commenters!
Also: anonmyous, Casondra, Dave, emmegail, jessidee, Johanna, John Endicott, Justa, miki, Prinia, Taja, webwiz592
Search Terms
Not a lot to work with this month, but I’ll toss in a few:
clive cussler abarat
Ha! So it’s not just me that got this mixed up! (Abarat was actually written by Clive *Barker*.)
what are the 8 planets in “the host“
Oh, shoot… Well, Earth, the home planet of the invaders, the bat planet, the underwater planet, the bear planet… was there a flower planet, or is that the same as the underwater planet? My memory’s not that good – a little help, anyone?
pictures of stargirl herself,not the book
See, the thing is, Stargirl wasn’t an illustrated book, and, well, I hate to break it to you, but Stargirl’s not a real person.
one color crochet afghan patterns
There’s none here, but you might have some luck with the LionBrand Pattern Finder.
can fairies be included in a christian
I suppose if they ate enough of them, yes.
blog style of bram stoker
Probably lots of long, dark, rambly posts and a black color theme.
That is a beautiful pile of books. I wish you many hours of reading fun!
Look at all those Fables!
I know I say this every month, but those search terms are TOO funny!
Nancy – I love bookstack pictures, either my own or other people’s – they just feel so much more personal than a bunch of cover pictures.
Shana – Well, considering that one volume of Fables takes mebbe an hour and a half to read straight through, it’s not that huge an accomplishment. :) I don’t know why my search terms were so sparse this month – most of my traffic came from boring searches like “review of inkdeath”. Which is great, but hard to make fun of. ;)
I certainly vote for Blindness, one of my favorite books of all-time. It exposes the human frailty with no mercy.
Great month! And lot’s added to the TBR!
Matthew – I’ll give it a try, but I don’t know how well I’m going to deal with the punctuation style (or lack thereof). I might have to hunt down the audiobook from the library. I’ll definitely read it in one form or another, thought!
Natasha – *hangs head in shame* I know, I just can’t stop myself. Book blogging’s to blame for at least four of those, though. :)
wow, you had a great reading month for November :)
Fun idea with posting those search terms…I’m always over at the lionbrand site for crochet patterns…lol
Thats a great pile of TBR, enjoy it
I almost bought Tunnels. I’ll be looking out for your review!
bookworm – LionBrand is my go-to pattern-finder site, even though I only use their yarn about half of the time… even though their Homespun yarn makes the snuggliest afghans ever.
Ania – For the life of me I can’t remember where I heard about/got recommended Tunnels, but it certainly looks interesting. I was thinking about making February a YA books month (short month, short books?), so maybe it’ll get read then!