That Dreaded TBR #12

Like I said in my previous post, I’m trying to do this a little more often just to reduce my Goodreads ‘want to read’ shelf. There’s a lot of books on there, and I’m never going to read them all. So I’m going through in blocks of 5 and deleting any that no longer catch my interest. What I’m finding really fascinating is seeing the trends, and what books I was interested in at the time. This is the twelfth time I’ve done this, so I’ve gone through 55 books. We’re currently on the books I added in June 2013, so let’s see how we get on with this today.

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven / Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten / Part Eleven

I originally saw this on Becky’s Book Blog

Rules

Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
Order on ascending date added.
Take the first 5/10/however many books. If done again, start from where you left off.
Read the synopses of the books
Decide: should it stay or should it go?

Steelheart – Brandon Sanderson

I’ve heard good things about Sanderson, as both a writer and person, and the basic plot of this does sound intriguing, even if the Goodreads blurb is a bit bland. The name recognition here, the knowledge that this is an excellent writer, means this is a firm stay.

Status: Keep

Omens – Kelley Armstrong

I recognize this author’s name – maybe she’s popped up on one of my ‘Dreaded TBR’ lists before. But the book sounds really good, one that I think I’d definitely be drawn into, and one of the ‘questions’ on Goodreads asks about the paranormal elements – a reader answered that it was subtle, but uses mythology, especially Celtic & Welsh. That’s not something I’ve seen often, so my interest in this is high.

Status: Keep

Blue Skies – Matthew Mather

The premise of this sounds okay, but it’s a short novella meant to lay the groundwork for other stories in the same world. Although I’ve kept other series first books on my list, I hesitant to engage with one where the next book is practically a requirement. I’ve also slightly gone off (for now, anyway) SFF with a man writing a woman’s POV, unless it’s an author I know and trust. There’s just too many times where I’ve seen it done poorly, and not enough where I’ve seen it done right.

Status: Gone

Boy’s Life – Robert R. McCammon

I’m sure this book is great, and I haven’t actually read anything by McCammon, so can’t make any judgements on his writing. However, I am a little overdone on male-penned, male-focused ‘coming of age’, and burnt out on overrated male horror writers. I’d rather focus my time and attention on something else, and I don’t think this is something I’d particularly enjoy. Again, McCammon might be an excellent writer, but so many of this ‘horror masters’, I’ve found, just aren’t as good as people (mainly men) make them out to be.

Status: Gone

I, Lucifer – Glen Duncan

This one definitely required a glance at the reviews. This book was published in 2002, so it’s possible it’s been reedited since then, but from the reviews it sounds like this didn’t have any sort of editor prior to being released. In all honesty, it sounds like a mess, and the blurb itself puts me off – the main character is a depressed writer called “Declan Gunn”. I am just basing this off the blurb, but it seems like the kind of book where the author might be full of self-importance, and possibly trying to make the book ‘intelligent’ in places where it doesn’t need to be.

Status: Gone

So there we have it. 3 out of 5 books gone, which is actually really good for me – normally I only manage to delete 2! Pretty happy with how this has gone this time. As always, if you’ve read any of these, or agree/disagree with my choices, feel free to let me know in the comments!