So I haven’t done one of these since November 2019. I really enjoyed this and want to continue, as my Goodreads TBR is out of control. I want to keep cleaning it up but wanted to continue this, I was so conflicted.
I apologise for the terrible font and sizes and colours. For whatever reason WordPress stuffed up when I have tried editing. I have given up trying to fix it. Please ignore the inconsistancies.
Anyway, I can’t remember where I found this tag. So, here we go…
How it works
- Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf
- Order on ascending date added
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
- Read the synopsis of the books
- Decide: keep it or remove it.
Note: A little rule for myself, I must remove at least one book.
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned No
Synopsis
The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children’s voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden’s voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.
Opinion
To be honest I only added this because it is a classic. I am not sure about it but it is on a 100 Books Bucket List scratch off poster I have. So because of that, I am going to keep it. I may read it this year, I may read it in five years.
To be honest I only added this because it is a classic. I am not sure about it but it is on a 100 Books Bucket List scratch off poster I have. So because of that, I am going to keep it. I may read it this year, I may read it in five years.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned Yes
Synopsis
Perhaps the most haunting and tormented love story ever written, Wuthering Heights is the tale of the troubled orphan Heathcliff and his doomed love for Catherine Earnshaw.
Published in 1847, the year before Emily Bronte’s death at the age of thirty, Wuthering Heights has proved to be one of the nineteenth century’s most popular yet disturbing masterpieces. The windswept moors are the unforgettable setting of this tale of the love between the foundling Heathcliff and his wealthy benefactor’s daughter, Catherine. Through Catherine’s betrayal of Heathcliff and his bitter vengeance, their mythic passion haunts the next generation even after their deaths. Incorporating elements of many genres—from gothic novels and ghost stories to poetic allegory—and transcending them all, Wuthering Heights is a mystifying and powerful tour de force.
Opinion
I thought I had read this already, but not entirely sure. I really want to read this, I want to know why it is a classic. I also love gothic classics, so want to read more.
Keep
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned Yes
Synopsis
Helena, a ward of the Countess of Rousillion, falls in love with the Countess’s son, Bertram. Daughter of a famous doctor, and a skilled physician in her own right, Helena cures the King of France-who feared he was dying-and he grants her Bertram’s hand as a reward. Bertram, however, offended by the inequality of the marriage, sets off for war, swearing he will not live with his wife until she can present him with a son, and with his own ring-two tasks which he believes impossible. However with the aid of a bed trick, Helena fulfils his tasks, Bertram realises the error of his ways, and they are reconciled.
Opinion
Simple, I just want to read all of Shakespeare’s plays, so it is staying.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned No
Synopsis
The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions.
But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her — and her one-room school — as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove.
Yearning to make a difference, will Christy’s determination and devotion be enough?
Opinion
Pretty much my foster mother told me I needed to read this. I have never really wanted to read this. So off it goes.
GO
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned Yes
Synopsis
The orphan girl Pollyanna moves in with her strict aunt in New England. Despite a difficult start, Pollyanna’s exuberance and positivity affect everyone who meets her, and she spreads joy and love wherever she goes. But when tragedy strikes, Pollyanna finds her optimistic attitude tested, and she must learn to find happiness again.
Opinion
I grew up watching the movie when I was younger. I loved it, so I would love to read the book.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned Yes
Synopsis
Little House in the Big Woods takes place in 1871 and introduces us to four-year-old Laura, who lives in a log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. She shares the cabin with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their lovable dog, Jack.
Pioneer life isn’t easy for the Ingalls family, since they must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But they make the best of every tough situation. They celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do their spring planting, bring in the harvest in the fall, and make their first trip into town. And every night, safe and warm in their little house, the sound of Pa’s fiddle lulls Laura and her sisters into sleep.
Opinion
I have had these books since I was a child. Still have not read them, but want to one day. I am going to keep it on. Will probably save these to read to my children.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned No
Synopsis
Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.
Opinion
I stole that synopsis from Goodreads. I don’t think it helps describe the book. This has always been a classic that I would like to read. This has always been on the top of my classics list. The length is the only thing that keeps me putting it off.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned No
Synopsis
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable novel about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”
Opinion
The concept of this book is so interesting. I can’t wait to read it.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned No
Synopsis
Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes—imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal.
Opinion
I always said I wanted to read all of Charles Dickens’ books, but this one I am not sure about. Though, like Catcher in the Rye, it is on my 100 Book Bucket List scratch off poster. So it is staying.
KEEP
Date Added 2 January 2017
Owned No
Synopsis
The winds of change are blowing through Paris in the winter of 1789, both for France and for our hero, a striking and mysterious Gypsy boy named Yann Margoza. He was born with a gift for knowing what people are thinking and an uncanny ability to throw his voice, and he has been using those skills while working for a rather foolish magician. That work will soon end, however, and on the night of the magician’s final performance, Yann’s life will truly begin. That’s the night he meets shy Sido, an heiress with a cold-hearted father, a young girl who has only known loneliness until now. Though they have the shortest of conversations, an attachment is born that will influence both their paths.
And what paths those will be! While Revolution is afoot in France, Sido is being used as the pawn of a fearful villain who goes by the name Count Kalliovski. Some have instead called him the devil, and only Yann, for Sido’s sake, will dare to oppose him.
Opinion
This book sounds so interesting. I am obsessed with the history of the French Revolution. I would love to read this magical take on it.
KEEP
Total Books at Start 1087
Books Removed 1
Final TBR Total 1086
Ok so this time I didn’t really get it down, but I feel good for getting rid of at least one.
Also please ignore the mix of fonts etc. For whatever reason, WordPress has changed again and it’s not playing nice. Please bare with me
I've Been Booked 