I’ve signed up for two challenges in January of 2019. The Back to the Classics Challenge 2019 and The 2019 TBR Pile Challenge! #TBR2019RBR. The sum total of those challenges is 22 books.

So far I’ve read exactly 5 of them (!)  and it is now the end of October. This post is an attempt to regain some control. The sections are:

1. The books that I’ve read so far

2. Books that I haven’t started reading, but I really ought to read this year

3. Books I’ve started reading, but haven’t finished yet

4. Books that I’ve acquired since the beginning of the year after putting them on my TBR

5. Books I’m going to give up on this year

Books that I’ve read so far

1. Henry James’s “Princess Casamassima” – book review
2. Henry James’s “What Maisie Knew” – book review
3. Dodie Smith “I Capture the Castle” – book review
4. George Orwell “Animal Farm” – book review
5. Gillian Beer’s “Alice in Space” – book review

These are in order from the one I liked most to the one I liked least. I do realize there is a lot of Henry James on this list…

Books I ought to read this year

Olga Tokarczuk won the Nobel prize this year, and I’ve still only read one book of hers! Bieguni has been sitting on my shelf since 2016…. I started it once, but I struggled to get into it as there was a scene of a mother and child disappearing, which freaked me out.

Books I’ve started reading, but haven’t finished yet

1.Book title and author	Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Page count	142/ 535
Likely to finish before the end of the year?	Likely. It’s a paperback, it can be taken on a plane or train, and it’s also quite easy to read.

2. Book title and author	A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
Page count	5%
Likely to finish before the end of the year?	More likely than you’d think, as I am listening to it on Audible, so it can be multitasked

3.Book title and author	Życie Josepha Conrada Korzeniowskiego by Zdzisław Najder
Page count	Vol I , 154/ 343.  Vol II not started yet
Likely to finish before the end of the year?	I would have to speed up dramatically. It’s a big, large-format hardback book that I’m reading before bedtime.

4.Book title and author	Black and British by David Olusoga
Page count	Page 1/529 ( but there was a 22-page introduction that didn’t count as it was roman numerals)
Likely to finish before the end of the year?	Who knows?

5.Book title and author	Les Liaisons Dangeourses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Page count	Page 137/456
Likely to finish before the end of the year?	I would really, really like to finish this one before the end of the year. I’ve signed up for a French course now, and I feel like if I’m not able to read this book in the original when I’m actually in a French course… then chances are I won’t read it in French at all.

Books that I’ve acquired since the beginning of the year after putting them on my TBR

So it’s a tiny bit embarrassing if I fail to read them now…

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o A Grain of Wheat  I read a bit about Thiongo’s work and got carried away and decided to buy the book. It’s a shame I haven’t gotten round to reading yet,

William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury   I picked up a copy when it was on for 2 for 5 pounds at Fopp. Sorry, not sorry…

Władysław Reymont. Chłopi I picked up a copy because of this reading list shenanigans. But perhaps it would actually be best to read this one when on holiday in Poland?

Books I’m going to give up on this year

Friedrich Schiller Maria Stuart

I don’t own a copy and I am not entirely sure why I put it on the reading list in the first place. Possibly because I was reading a biography of Mary Queen of Scots?

Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar

I don’t have a copy to hand, and I think I need to be in a slightly calmer mood to be reading it. I really do want to read it someday though!

Patrick Rothfuss The Wise Man’s Fear (2012)

I do have a copy, but it’s a brick of a book, and I think I would actually:

a) like to reread The Name of the Wind before I tackle this one

b) like to know when the third part comes ou!

This would leave me with 19 books to read – 5 of which I have already tackled, 5 of which I’m in the process of tacking… Only two more months to go!

Are you on track with your TBR for this year? Are there books that you are struggling with?