Tis the season of booklists. I make it a general rule to avoid looking at the best of the year lists. My book piles are already too high to begin with and the lists tend to be so very same-y with books I have heard of already so there is no reason to even bother. This belief and bad attitude has served me well for years. While all of you have been frantically adding books to your piles and lists, I’ve been sitting back all smug-like and superior — suckers!
But if literature teaches us nothing else, it reveals time and again that even the mighty fall.
And I fell.
Hard.
It all began with NPR’s Best Books of 2014. I’ve read so many good books this year and am still waiting patiently in the library hold queue for a number of others that my curiosity got the best of me. Are my favorite books of the year on the list? Why yes, yes they are. Hooray! Oh, but what’s this book? How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson looks interesting. Oh, and The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. Euphoria by Lily King, haven’t heard much about that but Margaret Mead is a character. Have to check that out. Oh my gosh! Octavia Butler! A collection of previously unpublished stories, Unexpected Stories. Squee! And. And. And.
You get the picture.
Then I made the mistake of thinking it was only a minor slip even though I suddenly found about ten more books on my TBR list than were there previously. I was back in control with nothing to worry about so why not look at the New York Times 100 Notable Books? The list will be so conventional and uninteresting I won’t be tempted at all.
Yes, I am that daft and delusional.
I don’t even know how many more books I added to my TBR list. I lost track after five. This all happened over the weekend and I have since regained my balance and have resisted the lure of any further “best” lists I’ve come across.
But now, now just when I am recovered, fellow bloggers have gotten me messed up once again and I was completely unsuspecting. I don’t usually get overly excited about upcoming book releases but in one day I managed to fall swooning over a shelf-load of books that will be published in 2015. I don’t want to point any fingers (Ana! Jenny!) but you all need to cease and desist. Immediately. Just stop it.
In case anyone else is planning on doing an upcoming list, let me beg you to please, please, please change your mind. Keep it to yourself. Really. I don’t need any more of this nonsense. I am contrite. I have learned my lesson. Show some compassion to this fallen previously smug reader.
Don’t make me plot revenge. Cuz I will. Mean and ugly. I much prefer being kind and friendly. So I am pleading, please, don’t make me go there or we will all regret it.
Therefore, allow me to thank you in advance for your benevolence.
While I will name only one book, I may disappoint you tomorrow by citing links to lists at the Guardian and Times. Of course, you don’t have click on the links. Guess which one I will mention.
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Richard, you will put my willpower to the test! I think I might be able to guess your book. I suspect it has the word “light” in the title 🙂
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The Best Of lists from bloggers is one of my favorite parts of the end of the year. Hooray for lists!!!
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Carl, I do love the end of year blogger lists. At that point I’ve probably read all their posts about the books on the list so the damage is already done. It’s the book media and publisher’s lists I try to avoid. but when bloggers start talking about books they are looking forward to then I find myself in big trouble!
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🙂 You’ve been reading my mind. I don’t know whether I love or hate these end of the year book lists! And the “Coming in 2015” ones are the worse because I have to figure out a way to remember to check the titles at the library at various times in the new year.
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Belle, I know! I usually save my lists online but when they haven’t been published yet it is much harder. I have to save the blog post and keep checking it against the library. Inevitably things slip through but then I rely on everyone to remind me of what I have forgotten! 🙂
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What I find annoying is all of the ‘best of’ lists published in November! Don’t people read in December?!
I do read all the lists – can’t help myself. This year I collated a list of the most frequently mentioned books on all of the lists – got it? 😉 https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/the-top-22-from-the-best-books-of-2014-a-list-of-lists/
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Kate, I know! I always wonder if that means there are never any good books published or read in December too! I very much enjoyed you list compilation!
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Ahahahah SORRY but it is only because I kept seeing books in publishers’ catalogs that I was excited about, and I didn’t want to forget about them! You know how it goes!
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Jenny, I do know how it goes and I forgive you because I’d be adding those books to my list anyway as you read them so you just got me in one go!
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I rarely make lists or look at them. But like you, I’ve happened upon a few lately that have added to my wish list for Christmas or my get-to-eventually list for looking at the library.
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Jeanne, I am a great list maker. Now, actually getting around to crossing things off those lists is another story. But I was doing so well in not adding more to my library hold request list so it could calm down a bit and then, wham! My outstanding requests have shot up again.
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LOL!
As for me, I’ve been adding so many books thanks to Ana and Roberta and Litlove that I’ve had to stop whining to myself that there is nothing interesting to read. There is plenty of books to read! So many that I missed this year, too. I’m off to check out that How I Discovered Poetry (and hope my library has it), another new to me book. So, I’m just saying, I’ve already done two lists up (what I would give others this year, and my favourite mystery books so far), so there. More to come! *evil grin* mwahahahaha
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Susan, you know I began the year feeling like the new books I had been reading were only so-so and I have ended the year so very thrilled with all the really good new books. And so I should consider myself warned that you be posting some lists? I will have to mentally fortify myself before looking at them but I suspect I will crack just as I have on all the other ones lately 🙂
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I have so many books I haven’t read and the books I have saved on my kindle. Well I don’t want to even go there. It’s a mess.
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Wajiha, I am glad to know I am in good company!
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Hahahaha 😀 I would say I’m sorry but that would be a lie 😛
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Ana, LOL, if I were you I wouldn’t be sorry either so I guess I will just have to find it in my heart to forgive you 😉
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I’ve got one more list to post: the list of books I didn’t enjoy. I’m thinking that one might just make it through the embargo? 😉
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Litlove, oh you are a wicked, wicked woman! 😀
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O! O! O! What? The third in the Ibus trilogy is due out? I cannot wait! I loved Sea of Poppies, but by the time River of Smoke came out, I figured I’d better start over from the beginning. Then figured I’d better wait until the third one came out before I start the re-read. The first two are in my personal library and I’ll for sure get this one. And as for the best of 2014, All The Light We Cannot See not just my favorite book of 2014 but one of my favorite books of all time. Luminous really is the right word for it. I’m also eagerly anticipating As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust – another in the Flavia de Luce series. 2015 will be so nice and I’m hoping for gift cards. (Kids? Offspring of mine? Hello? Please do not give me another pair of slippers.)
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Grad, I know I though of you when I saw it! I haven’t read the second one yet either. Now we won’t have any excuses 🙂 I hope you find lots of gift cards under the tree!
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Oh, man! I’d managed to make it through the NYT’s 100 Notable Books, patting myself on the back because there was very little there that interested me. But then you had to go and link to the NPR list, which is just a roundup of all the interesting stuff I’ve heard all year while driving around and had forgotten about until now. But I will be kind and not repay you by linking you to anymore lists. I will tell you, though, that if you haven’t read the Roz Chast, which landed on both the NPR and NYT lists, do. It’s graphic, so a quick one to put on and cross off the TBR list.
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Emily, ha! Glad to drag someone else down with me! 😉 Isn’t the NPR list good? I’m on the wait list for the Roz Chast at the library. I heard about it about couple weeks ago and immediately got in line for it.
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I won’t be a spammer with my own list, but yes, I did create a list already. I can’t help it. — Sorry, I guess I’m not that benevolent this Christmas season. 😉
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Bryan, that’s ok. Blogger’s lists always get me but not in the way the bigger lists do since I’ve probably added most of the books of interest to me to on blogger lists already when I read the original posts about them. Still, a few always slip through the net!
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I FEEL your pain…I had all my December reading plan sorted and the slowly other books began to creep up and now I have more than I can possibly fit in two weeks of holidays…Sob!! Wail!! Also I don’t want to sound cheeky…Stefanie but you too have contributed very well to that sudden spike in my TBR (Ahem! Ahem! The Narrow Road to Deep South and A Girl is a Half Formed Thing) so I DO feel your pain!! 😉
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cirtnecce, ah well, I suppose what goes around comes around and I’m only getting my turn, eh? It is a requirement of vacation reading that you have more books to read than you can possible finish. Enjoy the abundance! 🙂
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Yes, I was going through lists in the last couple of hours and added some to my library hold line. As the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them. Might as well give in to the power of lists. And… I haven’t even posted mine. Have been working on it: ‘Top Ripples 2014.’ 😉
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Sometimes it is quite good fun to have a look at the best book lists of a couple of years back, by then you will have had a chance to have read some of these books and can compare notes.
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Ian, oh that’s a great idea! Then the buzz if over and you can make a more considered choice. Plus you get reminded of the books you were interested in and forgot about. And, as you say, it’s fun to see what you have read and compare notes.
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Arti, give in to the power of lists, yes I suppose they are rather like the Borg, resistance is futile. I am looking forward to seeing your list!
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I can’t resist book lists, and my to-read list is increasing exponentially. So I feel your pain. 🙂
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Mysterious, I am glad to know I am not the only one who has difficulties resisting lists!
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I’ve been procrastinating on my year end list. This isn’t helping ☺
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laurafrey, he, sorry about that! 🙂
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Ha ha Stefanie, so glad I didn’t see this earlier. But I am sorry I missed it. The last two weeks before Christmas was party central here – the trouble when you are involved in a lot of interest groups is that they all want to get together at Christmas. Exhausting.
The thing that gets me is why do people do lists early in December? The year isn’t over. Aren’t they going to read any more books I wonder? Then I realised that of course they publish them early for marketing purposes so we can all add these books to our Xmas wish or shopping lists. I suppose that’s good for the authors but it’s still always weird to me.
Anyhow, good luck with your TBR this year — bwa ha ha ha ha!
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whisperinggums, I hear you on the Christmas business. I’m not even all that busy but this year for some reason I had a hard time getting anything I needed to done.
I have the same response to the lists coming out in early December as you do. And then yup, I realize, it’s all about Christmas and making sure people have ideas of what to buy for the holidays. Sigh. I’m afraid my TBR will always be a disaster and I should probably just work on reconciling myself to that instead of fighting it!
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That’s the spirit. There are better things to fight methinks!
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