Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Here’s how it works: Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic for each Tuesday. If you check this link, you’ll find she’s assigned topics for several future weeks so you can plan ahead. She adds, “create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list . . . Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you!”
Each week Jana posts a Linky on her blog where you can (if you want) share a link to your post and check out other bloggers’ posts.
(Feature photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash)
Today’s assigned topic is Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library. But I don’t work that way. If I’m reading a library book, I take the notes I’ll need from the book before I return it. I don’t think just owning a book for the sake of owning it makes much sense. If I buy a book and then read and annotate it, that’s one thing. But if it’s not marked up, what’s the point of having it on my shelf? Perhaps if at some point in the future I decide to reread a particular book, I may buy a copy then. But in the meantime, by TBR shelves are way too full for me to buy more books just because I want to own them.
Therefore, I’m going with something entirely different, something I need to do to help myself get back on track with regular blogging.
Back in early January I decided to make 2022 My Year of Unplanned Reading. I said I intended to focus on projects rather than specific goals. One of those projects was “to catch up on reviewing some of the books I read in both 2021 and 2020.” And that’s as far as I got with that intention.
But I really need to gear up Project Pandemic Reviews. Here, then, are 20 reviews I have left to write of books read during 2020 and 2021. I hope that making this list will help me get my writing act together.
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Survivors by Jane Harper
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda
We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
Who Is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
© 2022 by Mary Daniels Brown
I feel much better now, knowing that I am not alone in having a long back list of reviews to write Mary. I’m 16 behind…
And now I, too, feel better knowing I’m not the only one. And these are just the ones that really need to be written. Thanks for reading and commenting
I’m cheering you on. Good luck!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-loved-so-much-i-had-to-get-a-copy-for-my-personal-library/
Thanks for the good wishes, Lydia. I enjoyed your post about physical copies of ebooks this week.
Like you, I hardly wrote any reviews last year though I read some great books. Maybe this is the kick in the pants to tell me it’s never too late – if I have something to share, share it, no matter when I read the book. Sheesh…sounds good till I start thinking about the work involved. sigh. But, those books on your list? Those would be some of the same ones I read last year! There are some good reads on that list. I’ll be watching for those reviews and then I’ll get busy on mine! 🙂
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/ttt-book-blogger-recommendations
Thanks, Terrie. My critical blogging was almost non-existent all through 2020 and 2021. I was able to read long before I was able to focus enough to write. (In fact, getting myself to focus on writing is continuing to be a problem. Hence, the list.) I enjoyed your focus on this week’s Top Ten entry. Do you use a spreadsheet to keep track of all these recommendations and who made them?
I am actually awful at procrastinating and leaving a pile of reviews in my need-to-do pile. If I don’t write a review within a few weeks, I often lose all incentive to do so. Good luck with your project.
Thanks, Anne. This list includes only the truly significant books I need to blog about. There are lots of others that might have gotten a brief, summary type of review, but these are the ones I really need to get to.
Good for you for making this list. I can’t face doing that! I’m soooo behind on reviews that I’ll never catch up. Good luck to you, though.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Thanks for your good-luck wishes, Susan. I liked your emphasis this week on educational nonfiction. I need to read more nonfiction (she says for the umpteenth time), and all of your suggestions sound good. Thanks for reading and commenting.