January TBRCat - First In, Last Out

As we head into the new year, it’s time to get that book that has been unread the longest off the shelf and read. After all – at one time you really wanted to read it.

After I had been on LT for a year, I decided to add those books which I hadn’t yet read into LT. I found I was buying the same book more than once because I forgot what I had but hadn’t read yet. So, I have a few books I added the same day to choose from. And that would be July 3, 2009 – over nine years ago. (and there isn’t just one) So it’s time for me/us to get that book out and read it! Think of how long it’s been waiting patiently for you. And let us know how long you’ve had it.

Or it could be that book that you’ve been meaning to read but never seem to get to. Perhaps a classic you never read in high school that you’ve always thought you should. Or a BB you took ages ago.

I think I’ll be reading:

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger and/or
Red Dog by Louis de Bernieres.

I've been slowly chipping away at the books that I know I bought before 2013 but am not certain which specific year they were purchased. My plan for January is to read The Appeal by John Grisham since that will also work for the AlphaKit. Plus I do know that I've had it since at least 2010 since that is when it was entered into my Goodreads account. Sadly there are a few others just like it waiting to be read.

If I hadn't read The Black Arrow last year, I would be reading it in January! It was on the TBR for a mere 23 years...

I need to look at my list and see what else has been lurking for ages.

When my aunt passed away in 2006, I inherited her theater and film books (mostly monologues and plays). Many of them have been read now, but a few are still in my tbr shelves, waiting their turn. One of those still waiting is the play January Thaw by William Roos. Especially since it's a perfect fit for both this and the calendarcat, that's going to be the first book I tackle for this category. I'm also planning to read Monster of God, which I've also had for ages, but kept passing over for other books.

I've earmarked Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, for this challenge. I added the audio version, read by Hugh Laurie, to my library in January 2013. It's one of the oldest audiobooks in my collection, so I really need to read it!

I started Sarum by Edward Rutherford many years ago and maybe read a few chapters. I will have a whole year to read and finish it.

The longest resident of my physical TBR shelves is The History of Rome from its Foundation: Rome and Italy by Livy and the longest resident of my virtual TBR shelf is Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Way back in 1989 I purchased a book called Desert Fabuloso by Lisa Lovenheim and it has somehow survived the years unmolested. Not only are there no reviews for this out-of-print rarity on LT, there are no reviews on Goodreads, either. I really should find out what's in there.

After years of being on LT this is my first challenge. Thanks to all the hosts and everyone who came up with the theme ideas.

Of the oldest books in my TBR pile I've chosen a couple I think there's a good chance I'll actually read - Personal Injuries by Scott Turow (August 2007) and Black Man by Richard Morgan (December 2008).

Hard to tell my absolute oldest... I started keeping track on shelfari, and imported it all here, but everything imported here has the same added date! One of my oldest may be David Copperfield, so that's an option (if I can get the audio from the library). I'm also going to peruse my house and see what I own that might be amongst the oldest.

>10 LibraryCin: - That's true. I did go by the date I put books into LT. I didn't really keep track before that.

>5 rabbitprincess: - I don't have that in my TBR but I'd like to try and get to that book in 2019.

I think I am possibly the only person in the world who did not read this in high school! But I have never read The Catcher In The Rye. My husband's high school copy has been sitting on our shelf for oh about 20 years now, so I will make that my read.

I'll be reading Hunting Party by Elizabeth Moon which I've had for ages.

I'm going to read Dancing At Midnight by Julia Quinn. I've had it since before I joined LT (2008) so it fits well. It also fits the AlphaKit. I also hope to get to The Alexander Cipher A BB I took in November 2010.

I have so many to choose from. I will be looking at my list on here and on Goodreads.

I've checked out my shelves, and I will read one of Shakespeare's plays that I haven't read yet. They've been waiting since high school when I bought a copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare, so somewhere between 14 and 18 years. I'm leaning toward Hamlet or Othello but will entertain arguments in favor of other plays. :)

I only put books onto LT when I start reading them so can't check LT for my oldies. However, there are a few books I know I got when I was in the QR book club (mail order- pre-internet days - I got a little catalogue each month in the post and had to post back my choices!) so I'm planning on reading one of them, Chris Moon's autobiography One Step Beyond. I'm pretty sure, going by the flat I was living in when I was in that book club, that I will have had this book since the late 90s or early 00s, so around 20 years.

The oldest unread in my collection is Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. I'm looking forward to it, don't know how it managed to hide for so long.

>12 JayneCM: I've also never read "The Catcher in the Rye"! You are not alone! :-)

>17 Jackie_K: I only add books when I am reading them also. I keep my wishful TBR on Amazon, but sorry Amazon, I mostly use library books. It's just easy to create lists there. But when I first started on LT, I listed some in Under Consideration. My oldest one there is My House on First Street I look forward to finding that through the library.

I am planning on reading When the Rainbow Goddess Wept by Cecilia Manguerra, a book I heard about when I first came to Library Thing in 2008. It has been sitting on my shelves since 2010.

I've been debating how to measure this and have decided to read a book that I registered when I joined LT in 2013. I'll take anything that was added in that year. Front runners are The end of the affair which I've meant to read multiple times and Atonement which has the benefit of being a 1001 book I've not yet read.

>22 Helenliz: I'm working on the same principle, using any books I entered in 2009, the year I jointed LT. Contenders include Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky; two books by Gish Jen: Mona in the Promised Land and Typical American; and Blind Love by Wilkie Collins.

Okay, using the principle outlined by others here, I would read something I entered in 2011, my first year on LT. Purple Hibiscus just turned up in a box I found and opened this weekend, so maybe that will be my first TBR. Or A Visit From the Goon Squad.

I also used the principle of selecting a book that I entered in 2008 when I joined LT; I also sorted on the date of the book and have decided to read A. E. van Vogt's Slan, which has definitely been on my shelves for a loooong time.

>25 LisaMorr: I haven't read any A. E. Van Vogt for a long time but he was one of my favourites in my late teens/early 20s.

I have been working at downsizing my print books and based on my LT entries, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is the book that has been languishing on my TBR pile the longest, so will try to get that one read in January.

>26 Robertgreaves: I'm looking forward to it!

>22 Helenliz: The End of the Affair is also a 1001 book, so you would have two off the list.

So looking at my list on LT the earliest book I have listed is Prisoner of my desire by Johanna Lindsey. I think I might go with that one since I had joined LT prior to joining Goodreads. The entry date for this book on Goodreads is Jan. 2011 on LT it is Sept. 2008.

>12 JayneCM: Nope, you are not. I have not read it either.

>31 LadyoftheLodge: I wonder what I will think of it?!

>31 LadyoftheLodge: >32 JayneCM: I haven't either. Not sure I want to.

>33 cyderry: Me neither! But it is one of those books I feel I 'should' have read, being an anthem for American youth and all that! I have read reviews that say it is a bit dated now, that you really need to have read it at the time or need to be able to project your thought processes back to that era to see how it would have had such an influence on teenagers then. I'm interested to see - need to find the book on my shelves first! I know it is there SOMEWHERE!

>34 JayneCM: Wasn't it one of those books that was banned? I am interested to find out why.

>35 LadyoftheLodge: Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States. The book was banned in the Issaquah, Washington high schools in 1978 as being part of an "overall communist plot".
That is what Wiki says. It will probably prove to be quite tame by modern standards!

>36 JayneCM: I am thinking that is true also. I remember some of the other books on the list of banned books, which for their time were probably thought to be scandalous. When I was teaching middle schoolers, they would always want to read books that were banned!

When I joined LT in 2005, I used it to keep track of books I had read so I can't date books from then. There are a few college literature anthologies on the shelf so they are probably my oldest books, but I found The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary tucked away and pulled it down. It was a gift from my dad a very long time ago when he was cleaning out books. He read it as part of his college lit class in the 50s, and I have probably been toting it from shelf to shelf since 1996.

>37 LadyoftheLodge: That always worked for me when getting my kids to read something!

>37 LadyoftheLodge: Bad publicity is good publicity! If a book is banned, it must have something juicy in it! Hey, if it gets them reading books like TKAM, then all good with me!

I've got a copy of The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul that I'm pretty sure I picked up in a used bookstore when I was a Douglas Adams-obsessed teenager. I'll plan to read that this month.

I am reading Living to Tell which has been on my shelf since 2007 when I ordered some Nancy Pearl suggestions from her Book Lust recommendations which was Christmas gift in 2006. So it fits!

I’m reading Madame Bovary. I bought it years ago, but now I’m reading it as an ebook. Which of course is now free.

I'll read Tai-Pan which has been with me for decades.

I will be reading A Prologue to Love by Taylor Caldwell, which also fits this month's RandomCAT. I bought this book for my mother a few years before she died. It's been sitting in my house unread for at least 15 years.

My first book of this year: Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje 4★
Review posted: http://www.librarything.com/work/2155699/reviews/58278258

I finished my selection for this month:



The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Miriam Joseph
Well, that wasn't really what I was expecting. The title led me to believe it would be a cool discussion of the nature of language, but it's really just a grammar. And it reads like a grammar (i.e. not all that exciting). *shrug*

Post Note: Why do grammars have to be so dull?! Language is exciting and fun, so what can't the books explaining how they work reflect that? Yoicks.

I have completed my first "Cat" of the year with When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, I've had this book on my shelves since 2010 but it was one of the first "book bullets" I took when I first joined LT in 2008. It was worth the wait.

Finished my oldest TBR (at least for the books I have logged on LT): The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. While written in luminous prose, this was a challenge for me to follow in audio format. Overall, a satisfying read that may have had a larger impact on me if I had chosen to read, instead of listen, to the story.

I think I've had this since high school. That would be about 30 years...

The Parasite / Ramsey Campbell
3 stars

When Rose is a child, she is taken to a séance where something happens, but she can’t remember it. As an adult, suddenly there are odd things happening to her. She is scared and doesn’t understand what’s going on, until a friend, Diana, tries to help her understand that Rose seems to be able to leave her body and float around. Rose doesn’t believe it at first, but things soon change.

It was ok. A bit odd at times, but I thought the end (probably the last quarter of the book) was much better than the rest of it, as it sped up as things really came to a head.

I was hoping to at least start Sarum by Edward Ruherfurd but have been playing catch-up on other books.

I finished my first in/last out book. Living to Tell by Antonya Nelson. I bought this back in 2007. It’s been hanging out here on my shelf for 11 going on 12 years. I might have older ones but this one is one of the oldest.

I finished Personal Injuries by Scott Turow - it was okay. I might try and read the other book I identified (Black Man) but I have other books clamouring for my attention as well as one to read for bookclub so we'll see.

I have started The Elric saga, part one by Michael Moorcock, which has been on my shelf since before I was on LibraryThing (I have no records of accession date previous to that, much like many people above me). I didn't read it before now because, while I like fantasy, I don't particularly care for 1970s-era heroic fantasy. I have got about halfway through and will probably finish before the end of the month, it is not my favorite thing but it is readable. Pros: it has an unconventional hero, and it reads like a D&D campaign (I like D&D). Cons: it has no female characters except for the sort of love interest that only exists as motivation for the hero and possibly fantasy fodder if you like that sort of thing, and it reads like a D&D campaign (I prefer to play D&D, not read it).

I definitely bought it in the first place because the cover is highly ornamental.



I have also started re-reading The Rifter by Ginn Hale, at the same time, for a different challenge, so of course I want to compare them. Both of these books are what you might call "dark fantasy" as they are rather violent, but The Rifter has enough non-dark stuff to make it a bit less exhausting for me. The romance is much better, both characters involved are important to the story for reasons other than motivation and the romance doesn't seem to have been added just because fantasy stories are supposed to have a token romance. The leads are both male, but there are female characters who are interesting and have names and personalities, and none of them are love interests for the main characters, nor are they overly sexualized. Elric only seems to have one interesting character (even the male supporting characters in Elric aren't terribly well-rounded). I will see if that improves later on, but I suspect it won't.

I find these covers highly ornamental, too.

Finished January Thaw, which is a play that's among the books which have been in my collection unread the longest, since 2006 when my aunt passed away (and most of her drama books ended up in my hands). This one's been looking at me from the shelf for a long time--it was a strange experience reading it because her handwriting was scattered throughout. I believe she was the understudy for one of the leads, and also worked on props for the play, probably when she was in college. I've got a few books like this one scattered into my collection, but this one was a good one to get to since its humor balanced out some of the nostalgia involved in reading a book that she obviously spent quite a bit of time with. I'm glad this challenge and the calendar cat combined to have me finally pick it up. Full review written--it was a fun comedy that, though rather old-fashioned, would probably be hilarious when seen on stage with a good cast.

The oldest books on my TBR date back to my university days, and among them was Der letzte Rebell, a western by Lee Hoffman. Surprisingly it has stood the test of time (despite the n-word, but immediately after the Civil War you are bound to run into it, I guess), but it's only a German translation, so it has left the house. And I used the opportunity to ditch another bunch of westerns I won't re-read!

Finished So Long, And Thanks for All The Fish by Douglas Adams which I've had since 2012 I believe.

February's thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/302409#

My selection for this month was The Computer Kill by Raymond Banks. I purchased this 1961 paperback original at a Salvation Army in Redondo Beach, California in the early 1990s, and yes, it's been waiting patiently ever since. It turns out that some of the book is set in Redondo Beach. I'm sure this isn't a coincidence, but I'm not sure how it came about. The story is a funny mashup of straight Spillane-type PI tale and parody of the same! Not one I'll be reading again--the RB connection was what kept me engaged.

This challenge made me want to know how many of the books I originally entered when I first joined LT in Jan. 2009 still haven't been read. (57) The oldest are The Scarlet Letter and Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I bought in Jr. High with the idea that I should be reading something more substantial than the YA romances I was collecting.
I'm coming across this late so I don't know if I can add another book this month, but I want to use that list for future TBRCats.

I finished Slan last night; published in 1940, I have a science fiction book club edition with a Boris Vallejo bookplate copyright 1977, when I was 14, which is probably about right...

I still have a bunch of paperbacks that I have not yet catalogued since joining LT in 2008 and quite a few unread - my TBR list is growing without buying a book! Looking forward to the TBRCat helping me to read a few more.

I've finished Peace Like A River by Leif Enger which I logged into LT back in Jul 09. Not sure how long I had it before then. And what a gem it was! I wonder how many others there are languishing that I will enjoy once I get to them?

I finished Veritas, second in the Victor Carl series. It was just a little too long, but it held my interest most of the time. I think this is a series where I really liked the first book and at the time thought that I absolutely must have the whole series. I logged it into LT in December of 2008. I also own books 5 and 6 so I'll read them at some point.

I finished Carney's House Party by Maud Hart Lovelace. This one has been on my TBR list since I was in Junior High School so I guess that is a long-time TBR!

>54 amaranthe: That same edition of The Elric Saga, Part 1 has also been sitting on my shelf for quite some time. I bought it, plus part 2, at a library sale back in 2009. I will have to get to it soon based on what you said about it reading like D & D. I haven't been able to play in a while, so it might be fun to read something in that vein.

So far this month, I have been slowly making my way through two other fantasy books: Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, one of the first Kindle books I purchased back in 2012. And Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook part of the omnibus, The Garrett Files which I purchased back in 2007. Since these are both print rather than audio books, they are taking longer than usual for me to finish.

I have completed Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov. I read and loved his Foundation Trilogy in the 60s and reread it several times. At some point around the turn of the century, I accumulated his later books in the series as well as the sequels to his original two robot mysteries with R. Daneel Olivaw with the intention of completing the series. These books were in my initial cataloguing in 2007. Obviously, over the ensuing 11 years I have not done that and, with the completion of this book for my challenge, I am now deaccessioning all of the later books, keeping only the originals, defined as those books published prior to the 60s. See below.

Asimov's books within the Foundation series
The Complete Robot (1982) and/or I, Robot (1950)
The Caves of Steel (1954)
The Naked Sun (1957)
The Robots of Dawn (1983)
Robots and Empire (1985)
The Currents of Space (1952)
The Stars, Like Dust (1951)
Pebble in the Sky (1950)
Prelude to Foundation (1988)
Forward the Foundation (1993)
Foundation (1951)
Foundation and Empire (1952)
Second Foundation (1953)
Foundation's Edge (1982)
Foundation and Earth (1986)

I have completed The Elric saga, part 1 by Michael Moorcock. I found it violent, depressing, and sexist, but not unreadable. (At least, I am not personally an anarchist; if you are one, it might not be depressing at all.) As to it being sexist, all of the women in the story seem to function as one or more of the following: prizes, other motivating forces (to stir up male characters' emotions), quest-givers, scenery, and Sybils (usually warning of impending doom). They are portrayed as physically and mentally weak in comparison to Elric and other male characters. The women who appear in "The Weird of the White Wolf" are slightly more interesting than the ones appearing in the other two books contained in this omnibus. In these stories at least, there is never any more than one woman in a given scene except for unnamed servants, and they are all to my mind overly preoccupied with men in one way or another and any power they wield is primarily sexual.

>65 staci426:: it resembles a dark, violent, chaotic neutral/chaotic evil-flavored type of D&D, which many people actually quite like. These books were probably written before D&D was invented, so they might have been part of the inspiration.

I looked up the author on Wikipedia. It says that in the Elric stories he was intentionally writing the complete reverse of the sort of hero that is found in Tolkien and the antithesis of Conan the Barbarian. In some ways this is true, and reasonably well done; however the sexual/gender tropes seem very little changed from the fantasy tropes of the 20th century. (If he really wanted Elric to be the opposite of Conan, Elric should be gay. Or asexual.) It seems Moorcock is still active, and I am curious whether his books have become any less sexist in the decades since these stories were written in the 1960s or '70s. There seems to be a trilogy featuring Elric and a female protagonist that was written in the first decade of this century, which I might check out in future.

Reading Brave New World, which was one of the books I originally added to LT when I joined in Jan., 2009. I'm not sure, but the 0.95 price sticker makes me think it was one of my dad's, which would mean I've had it since '86.

I finally read The Appeal by John Grisham that I know has been on my shelf since before 2010. Happy that it's off the shelf now.

>68 madhatter22: Brave New World was a "hot" book to read when I was in high school. It was thought to be a rather edgy book, and I recall kids reading it for lit class.

I have also finished The Andromeda Strain which I bought on my first or second trip to London forty years ago. Mostly because I had vivid memories of the TV movie based on it. Interesting enough, but very much of its time.

Finished Atonement which was one of the books on the TBR pile when i first joined LT. Why did I wait so long to read this????

I finished Dancing at Midnight my oldest TBR!!! Yeah TBRCat!

>70 LadyoftheLodge: I can imagine! I think there are parts that would still be considered edgy in high school (though I'm so far removed - who knows?) I was really surprised to find out it was written in 1932! For some reason I always thought it was published in the mid-to-late '50s.

I finished The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. It was more fun than I expected!

>74 madhatter22: And I thought it was published in the 60's!

I should just stick with this challenge all year! I've read When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. It went into my LT library in September 2013. I may have had it before then though.

I did manage to finish and enjoy Dragon Keeper, but won't finish Sweet Silver Blues. I did manage to finish another one, Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund. I listened to the audio from the library, but I had bought a physical copy of this back on 2/1/08.

I'm only halfway through by book for this challenge, Desert Fabuloso, but I'm still happy to finally be reading this novel.

I finished Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. I'd bought this book for an English Literature course in 1985. We had 4 months to read 10 books and I just couldn't manage to finish this one. Fortunately, there was no final exam question on it, if I recall correctly. However, being a terrible rule-follower, not having read this assigned book has given me feelings of guilt for 34 years, so I'm very happy this challenge motivated me to finally read it.

Well - I hope you all got some of those older books off those shelves to make room for some new ones.. I saw some really old books being read.

>81 dudes22: I am happy to have finally gotten to one of the ones that has been there since high school (almost 30 years ago - yikes!!). Wish I would have had time for both I had hoped for, but it's good to finally be done with one of them, at least!

>81 dudes22: I'm afraid I not only kept mine, but also bought several more books soon after reading it. The old paperbacks are very cool...

>81 dudes22: One out, four in. Sounds about right :-).

Better late than never, I finished my book for this challenge, Chris Moon's One Step Beyond.

Well done, Jackie!!