Down The TBR Hole is a meme created by Lost in a Story, but Lia has permitted Jody’s Bookish Haven to adopt it since she is no longer blogging; the only thing changing is you can now link up to your post.
It works like this:
- Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go
I started my Goodreads account in May 2012. As you can guess, I have loads of books on the list that I’m probably no longer interested in reading, as my tastes have naturally changed in the past 14 years.
Beginning Want to Read Shelf: 502 books
1. Austenland by Shannon Hale
Summary: Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen—or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
Comments: This has mixed reviews, with many readers surprisingly preferring the movie adaptation over the book. Regardless, I’m an Austen fan, so this is an easy decision to make.
Decision: Keep
2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Summary: From its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate “poor relation.” Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.
Written several years after the early manuscripts that eventually became Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park retains Austen’s familiar compassion and humor but offers a far more complex exploration of moral choices and their emotional consequences.
Comments: I read this book as a teenager, but placed it back on my Want to Read shelf because I felt that I didn’t remember enough of the story to rate it when I started my Goodreads account.
Decision: Keep
3. Crossing on the Paris by Dana Gynther
Downton Abbey meets Titanic in this sweeping historical novel about three women of different generations and classes, whose lives intersect on a majestic ocean liner traveling from Paris to New York in the wake of World War I.
The year is 1921. Three women set out on the impressive Paris ocean liner on a journey from Paris to New York. Julie Vernet is a young French woman from a working class family who has just gotten her first job as a crew worker on the ship. Escaping her small town and the memory of war, she longs for adventure on the high seas…
Constance Stone is a young American wife and mother who has traveled to Paris to rescue her bohemian sister, Faith, who steadfastly refuses to return to America and settle down. Constance returns home to New York, having failed at the duty her father asked of her…
Vera Sinclair, a rich, ex-patriate American is leaving France after thirty-one years to live out her remaining time home in America. Over the course of the transatlantic voyage, she reflects on her colorful life and looks forward to a quiet retirement. While each of these women come from different walks of life, their paths cross while at sea in a series of chance encounters. The powerful impact these disparate lives have on one another make for a magnificent and unforgettable read.
Comments: I put this on my TBR because of its billing as “Downton Abbey meets Titanic,” both of which I enjoyed. However, this has pretty low reviews and is no longer available in my library’s e-book collection (which is surprising, since my local library’s e-book system is one of the largest in the U.S., so I’m almost always able to find any book I want, no matter how obscure).
Decision: Remove
4. Zia (Island of the Blue Dolphins #2) by Scott O’Dell
In this sequel to the beloved Newbery Medal-winning classic Island of the Blue Dolphins, readers can learn what happened to Karana after she left the island.
For years, Zia has dreamt of going to the Island of the Blue Dolphins to find her aunt Karana, her dead mother’s sister who was left alone on the island nearly twenty years earlier. It’s the reason Zia came to the Santa Barbara Mission in the first place. The reason she braves the treacherous ocean waters again and again to rescue Karana. But every time she tries, she fails.
Finally, Zia’s aunt is brought to her. Finally, her greatest dream has come true. But sometimes the reality is not nearly as sweet as the dream.
Zia tells those facts so far as they are known from the point of view of a girl who has her own story to tell.
Comments: I really enjoyed Island of the Blue Dolphins when I first read it during my survivalist interest era in elementary school (think Hatchet series, etc., for other books I was obsessed with during that time). This is no longer available through my local library, but it is available on KU, and is under 200 pages.
Decision: Keep
5. Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan
Summary: Who could tell the origin stories of the gods of Olympus better than a modern-day demigod? PERCY JACKSON provides an insider’s view with plenty of ‘tude in this illustrated collection.
A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, “Can we do this anonymously? Because I don’t need the Olympians mad at me again.” But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week.
So begins Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, in which the son of Poseidon adds his own magic—and sarcastic asides—to the classics. He explains how the world was created, then gives readers his personal take on a who’s who of ancients, from Apollo to Zeus. Percy does not hold back. “If you like lots of lying, stealing, backstabbing, and cannibalism, then read on, because it definitely was a Golden Age for all that.”
Comments: Like many other readers, I had a Percy Jackson obsession era. This seems like a fun, easy read, and I already own a copy.
Decision: Keep
Ending Want to Read Shelf: 501 books
Not the most successful, but this was helpful to remind myself of the oldest books on my TBR and mentally note that I have a few shorter ones on the list that I can pop in between longer reads and finally knock them out.
Do we share any books on my oldest TBR list? Are there any on this list you would’ve wiped instead of keep?
Goodreads | Storygraph
