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March 28, 2012

TBR Double Dare Final Results

I'm finished!  Technically, the Dare ends on April first (very fitting indeed), but I know my limitations.  I know I will not read another book in the next three or four days.  I probably could if I had something I had to finish, but I don't and with the Harry Potter birthday party preparations in full on crazy mode, there's not a chance.

So let's see how I did.  First, let me mention my one exception.  Winterdance by Gary Paulsen was a book club book.  I didn't own it before the Dare began, even though I own and have read quite a number of his books.  I even met him when he was signing for Brian's Winter. But I allowed myself permission for book club books.  But since I'd bought the one for January before January 1 and already owned the March choice, I let those count towards my TBR total.

I only broke the no-purchasing rule once.  I subscribe to the Amazon Kindle Daily Deal on Twitter and they had an absurdly good deal one day on a collection I will love at some point.  I only read the introduction, C.B., I swear!

Sometime in the middle of the Dare I wrote about a new system for dealing with the stuff I want to read.  I have the books I own on there in red and the ones I want to read but don't own yet in black.  I'm down to around 20 in red out of over 80 titles.  Of course some are series, so there you go.  And I actually have many more books in my house that I own and have not read, but until they make me, they're not on the list at the moment.

Okay, here's the final count.  Lucky 13!

This Book Is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Burglar in the Rye by Lawrence Block
The Foundling by D. M. Cornish
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
Brain Cuttings by Carl Zimmer

I've added the links to all my write ups if you care.  I obviously wasn't using my system. to read these.  It's an interesting mix of older and newer titles.

I quite enjoyed this Dare.  I'm not one to go in for reading challenges, but this one let me read what I wanted to read and made me stick with only things I own.  It was something I'd been meaning to do, so it feels great to have actually stuck with it for so long.  I'm actually going to continue giving precedent to the books on my list in red as I continue to work through it (and add to it, of course).

I'm looking forward to going back to the Double Dare sign up list over the break and seeing how others did with their reading.

What's next for me?  I just started the April and May Book Club picks.  After that I plan on sticking to my system, slowly getting rid of the red ink and trying to add in more children's literature.  I'm a school librarian after all!

Thanks C.B.!