Out of Control

March 19, 2009 @ 8:53 am | Filed under: ,

My current TBR stack. Stacks, rather, collected from around the house for one brief precarious moment.

marchtbr

A mix of review copies, library books, kid requests (“You’ve GOT to read this, Mom!”), and titles gleaned from favorite bookish blogs like Semicolon and Mental Multivitamin.

Doesn’t it make your heart go pitty-pat? Such a comfy feeling, knowing there’s plenty to choose from the next time I sit down to nurse the baby…

(And how about my super-classy bedside table? Yes, that’s the top of a bar stool you’re seeing. This is what happens when you spend your money on books instead of furniture.)


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Comments

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  1. Erin says:

    Book rich, but furniture poor? Not a bad trade-off in my opinion!

  2. Mary G. says:

    Lissa … can’t wait to see that pile dwindle and hear the reviews! I read Austenland on your rec (and really enjoyed it!) … so, I’m waiting with my library on hold to see which you like …

  3. MelanieB says:

    Delightful.

    I’m a big fan of Josephine Tey. Was that one of Jane’s recommends? I know she’s been doing Agatha Christie lately and it’s a logical jump.

    I’ve given up all but spiritually focused reading for Lent, so I’m going away now to avoid temptation. Your blog is dangerous.

  4. Jane says:

    Hey, Mom, what about ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society’? I don’t see that in the pile…

    I’m guessing that’s still on my nightstand.

  5. Melissa Wiley says:

    Oh you’re right! I knew I was missing something. How long can we borrow it for?

  6. Melissa Wiley says:

    Ooh, Melanie, sorry to be taunting you! You could post a stack of chocolate bars to get even with me. 😉

    And yes, the Josephine Tey is a Jane-suggestion. I think she actually encountered it before she discovered Christie–I pulled it off the Ambleside Year 7 reading list. She loved it (this was a year ago, I think) and urged me to read it. I forgot about it until I saw it on an end table yesterday; Jane had returned for a second (or third?) read.

  7. Penny in VT says:

    Ooooo a Double Daring book… I think I know what’s going to be in someone’s Easter basket this year…

    Yes, I put books in Easter Baskets. Doesn’t everyone???

    Awesome list 🙂

  8. Chrsitie says:

    Just this morning I decided to send back (gasp) half my TBR library books. I had thirty (that’s just the fiction, YA and Adult; I didn’t touch the cookbooks, craft books, homeschooling or zen parenting TBRs), and kept just 10. Actually, I am realizing that those were just the second tier TBRs. The first tier are kept somewhere else and I didn’t touch those either. Hmmm. Maybe I didn’t do as well as I thought I did. Doesn’t matter. I am sure the library will be happy to have those 20 books back sooner than later. I won’t just return them, though. They went onto a To Hold list. I didn’t bother to dig up one of the many such lists I already have. It is so much easier to start a new one. In the back of my mind, though, I know I won’t actually need the list, because so many other TBRs will come into the house to fill my shelves again.

  9. Kristine says:

    I went to our local library and checked out all the Roger MacBride Rose Years books to read. My husband laughs as I inhale book by book trying to get them all done in 2 weeks. I also have a stack of your books lurking in a pile to be read soon.

  10. Jeanne says:

    Inkheart! A good tale on a premise many of us voracious readers have considered but not played out quite as far as Funke does. Not precisely my kind of book, but as a read aloud to 11 yo son, fun! We’ve read the sequel, Inkspell, and await for the third in the trilogy to appear at our rural library….

  11. fiddler says:

    Super stack, Melissa. I could see a photo meme emerging out of this practice! “What books are in YOUR stack?”

    Penny in VT–I put books in Easter baskets, too. : )

    ~Christina in MA

  12. Sarah N. says:

    What a beautiful stack. I can only imagine how high mine would be if I gathered them from all around the house. And I see several here I’d like to add.

    Penny, I can’t imagine an Easter basket without books in it. I actually just placed an order today for some that will fill our baskets.

  13. mamacrow says:

    Oooo, read the Daughter of Time first! I read it as a child and was blown away! The Singing Sands is good too, but not a patch on The Daughter of Time…

    The Madaline Le Engle one looks good, I’ve read quite a bit of her fictional ones about a group of kids that have fantastical/scifi adventures, but I don’t know ‘The Love Letters’…

  14. Emily says:

    Wow, I want the Super Daring book!!! Is it already out?

  15. Heidi @ ggip says:

    My pile is also out of control. I have to read the Zookeepers wife for book club this month. I have less than two weeks so I ‘d better start it!

  16. Toni says:

    I loved Daughter of Time and so did my friends. One of favorites of last year. I should pull it out and read it again.

  17. Activities Coordinator says:

    Butterfly just read the Inkheart books and loved them.

    I very much enjoyed The Love Letters.

  18. Carmen says:

    My nightstand looks just the same. My son loved the Inkheart series and he keeps telling me that I have to read The City of Ember. No matter what you do, there will always be a bookstack and I can’t imagine it any other way. Thanks for sharing!

  19. Betty and Boo's Mommy says:

    Betty and I usually read together in my room for about 20-30 minutes before bed. She’ll read her book, I read mine. This week she added a new game to this ritual: count the number of books on Mommy’s night table.

    As of last night, it was 30.

    Obviously, I can truly relate. 🙂

  20. Beck says:

    SO JEALOUS!
    I have some books coming my way in the indefinite future but right now? I AM OUT. I’m re-reading things I’ve read MANY times before right now. Grim!

  21. radmama says:

    Oh so many ideas in one pile!

    I’m on quite a L’Engle kick at the moment. Reading the Murry books aloud to the older kidlets, the Austen books to myself and her memoirs when I can. Interesting overlaps between the three.. I have developed both appreciation and critiques.

  22. Helen (Mary Vitamin) says:

    Lissa
    I was totally inspired by this post to go to the library and take out a stack of books.

    As I leafed through one of the books I borrowed, I realized that I had to recommend it to you:

    House Beautiful’s _Decorating with Books_ by Marie Proeller Hueston.
    🙂

  23. Melissa Wiley says:

    OOOH, Helen! I’ll have to look for that! We really *have* decorated with books. Scott calls our interior decorating style “Early Library.”