Down the TBR Hole – 01

September 24, 2019September 23, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

I’M FINALLY DOING IT. After seeing this post countless times weekly, I’ve decided today that I’m going to take the plunge and *finally* start culling some books off my Goodreads TBR! At the moment of writing this my “Want-to-Read” list sits at 1,010 books. I’m almost certain that 80% of these books were added to my list this year when I fully immersed myself in the book community. I was indiscriminately hitting that “want-to-read” button with every blurb I liked the sound of, regardless of whether it was in or out of my comfort zone! But the time has come for me to take a good hard look at this list because am I really going to read 1,010 books?! I’d obviously love that but I also know that I’ll never stop adding books to my tbr (because duh) so… It’s time to start cutting down! I kind of want to kick this off with a bang but maybe I’ll ease into it and start with five books. Is this an excuse to avoid saying bye to books? Absolutely not! 🤔

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

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

Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.

I loved this movie and it has haunted me for years! It’s always one of the first things I associate Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly with. This combo is probably one of the reasons why I want to read this book (not even sure if I read the blurb when I added it). That said, I’m not really sure if I want to read it anymore. It sounds interesting, but I’m not scrambling to get it.

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

Trainspotting (Mark Renton #2) by Irvine Welsh

Don’t shoot but I’ve never actually watched this movie yet and that’s because I wanted to read the book first. I had a sample on my Kindle a peek at and wow, what do you call it when something is written how it’s spoken? I have nothing against it, but I know I’ll be spending 90% of the time not only trying to work out what’s being said but I’ll also be trying to get the accent JUST RIGHT in my head and it’ll drive me insane! I think this might be better on the big screen?

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

Catch-22 (Catch-22 #1) by Joseph Heller

This is a classic I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I got a copy as a gift from a family friend who knew I loved reading about 9 years ago now? Oopsies! I think this book just intimidates me because I’m worried that I either won’t get it or I’ll be bored by it. Which would be worse? Lol I also didn’t realise that it was a series until just now! I hope this doesn’t end on a cliffhanger?!

Verdict: Keep!

Something Borrowed (Darcy & Rachel #1) by Emily Giffin

I remember when this came out as a movie and I was so excited to watch it but I told myself I’d read the book first. All these years later, I still haven’t done either. After reading this blurb again, I’m just shaking my head. I just don’t do cheating and I don’t want to normalise or excuse it. So… Yeah. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while now but my brain can’t seem to recall at all. I am almost certain that I read this book when I was in MS or HS but I really can’t remember if I did or not. When I read the blurb some distant bells did go off but I don’t know if that’s me being convinced that I have read it or if it’s because I actually recognise the premise? I want to (re)read it though!

Verdict: Keep!

Well, that wasn’t as painful as I expected! I thought I’d struggle to take books off my list because I have issues with letting go, but I’m proud of how decisive I was! It also feels kinda freeing! LOL

Have you read any of these books? Do you find it easy to cull your TBR list? Leave me a comment and let’s chat!

Top 5 Saturday: Over 500 pages!

September 21, 2019September 21, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

It’s time for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and this week’s topic is: books over 500 pages. I’ve decided to dive into my terrifyingly large Goodreads Want-To-Read list for this week’s post! I was surprised by how many books I had on there that were over 500 pages, but I also kind of expected more 😅 I was also surprised by which books were 500+ pages; some I really had no idea of at all (despite having some of these books on my actual shelf) That really tells you just how aware I can be! Without further ado, here are five books over 500 pages that I want to read:

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak – 512 pages
I received a gorgeous edition of this book during my first Christmas in the UK, and I got it as a Secret Santa gift too. I was definitely impressed! Seven years later, and I still haven’t touched it yet 🙈 LOL

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James – 620 pages
This is probably one of the most hyped books I’ve ever seen hyped on bookstagram and of course I was sucked in by it! I haven’t read any of James’ books despite having three of them on my shelf, and while I’m really curious, this book also scares the hell out of me. I’m worried I won’t “get” it lol

The Secret History by Donna Tartt – 629 pages
So… I still haven’t managed to finish a book by Tartt yet. The Goldfinch is still sitting unfinished on my shelf 🙈 and looking at it eats me up with guilt (sort of). But while I’ve heard people have struggled with Goldfinch, a lot of people have loved The Secret History, so I’m looking forward to it!

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie – 647 pages
I am dying to read this book but it’s also intimidating AF. I don’t always gel with magical realism and from what I hear, Rushdie might be the king of the stuff. It scares me, but I’ve also heard incredible things about this book, so I’m determined to at least try reading it!

The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks – 659 pages
I’ve seen a lot of love for this book since I’ve joined the book community and it sounds really good. I only just realised that it’s a pretty hefty book, though since it’s fantasy, I’m really not surprised lol

What are books you want to read that are over 500 pages? Any of these? Recommendations in the comments below are very welcome!

Goodreads Monday – 12 August

August 12, 2019August 12, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads2 Comments

It’s time for another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners that invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you’re feeling it! I think from this week’s post onward, I will use a random number generator to choose the books for this weekly meme!

This week the random number generator picked #621 on my GR ‘to-read’ list, and the books is: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. Although this is #621 in a list of over 900 books, this is actually one of my more ‘recent-ish’ adds to my tbr, since I added it in December 2018! I guess I really add books quickly on GR don’t I? 😅This book has a rating of: 3.63 stars.

Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men.

‎Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life, the reasons he might have vanished.

With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egan’s first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. Manhattan Beach is a deft, dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.

Why do I want to read it?

I’m pretty sure that I added this to my GR TBR after talking to my sister one day. She offhandedly mentioned that if I was looking for a book to read, one of her close friends had just finished reading Manhattan Beach and highly recommended it, so I should check it out too! I’m a big lover of historical fiction, I love being transported to past times, and when a mystery involving gangsters and divers and other intriguing elements, is thrown into the mix, I knew that I wanted to read this! If I’m not mistaken, this book won the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction, so that’s also pretty cool. I’m definitely still keen to read this one and I’m looking forward to picking it up!

Have you read Manhattan Beach or is it also on your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and let’s chat books!

Goodreads Monday – 05 August

August 5, 2019August 11, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

This week the random number generator picked #151 on my GR ‘to-read’ list, which means the book this week is: The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill. I added this to my GR in 2017. It has a GR rating of: 3.77 stars.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one’s origins. It might also take true love.

Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1910. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen.

Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city’s underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes after years of searching and desperate poverty the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they’ll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same.

Why do I want to read it?

I’d actually forgot what this book was about until I read the synopsis just now. While I can’t say that I remember reading this synopsis before, I can now say that I really want to read this book. It’s actually said to have ‘echoes of The Night Circus‘, so I think I must’ve added it to my list before I read The Night Circus because I don’t think I would’ve added it to my list after 🙊Not saying anything against that book but I felt a bit let down by it, and didn’t end up loving it as much as everyone else. After reading the synopsis of this one, you can already see some similarities, but I think The Lonely Hearts Hotel sounds like a darker and more sinister version of TNC, and I like the sound of that! Maybe I won’t get to this one in the very near future, but I hope to get to it eventually.

Have you read The Night Circus or is it also on your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and let’s chat books!

Goodreads Monday – 29 July

July 29, 2019July 29, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

This week’s book is: What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon. This is book #747 on my GR ‘to-read’ list and it’s actually one of the more recent additions to my list (01 March 2019).

Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time.

The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar. Mistaken for the boy’s long-missing mother, Anne adopts her identity, convinced the woman’s disappearance is connected to her own.

As tensions rise, Thomas joins the struggle for Ireland’s independence and Anne is drawn into the conflict beside him. Caught between history and her heart, she must decide whether she’s willing to let go of the life she knew for a love she never thought she’d find. But in the end, is the choice actually hers to make?

Why do I want to read it?

This is a romantic historical fiction with a big time travel twist. The time travel part of the synopsis vaguely reminds me of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, but I haven’t read that book yet so I can’t be sure. That said, I love a good romance and historical fiction, and the added element of time travel was a nice surprise because I wasn’t expecting to see that in the description! On top of that, I haven’t read many books set in Ireland but that’s one place that I’ve always been interested in reading more about it. I think this book represents a perfect combination of likes and wants!