In a bid to read more books from my always-growing TBR, I’ve decided to join in this year’s “20 Books of Summer” challenge, which Cathy runs at 746 Books.
The idea is to read 20 books already in your possession between 1 June and 3 September. I’m bending the rules slightly and won’t start until next weekend (I’ve got a couple of other books on the go at the moment that need to be finished first), so plan to finish on or around 11 September.
I’ve had a fun time going through my shelves to select the books I want to read*. They’re all ones I’ve purchased (in other words, they’re not copies sent to me for review) and some have been sitting here for years. They’re all literary fiction and I’ve tried to go for a mix of male and female writers, including some Miles Franklin prize-winners and a couple that feature in Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
The books I hope to read are as follows and have been arranged in alphabetical order by author’s surname:
- ‘Mr Bridge’ by Evan S. Connell
- ‘The Trick is to Keep Breathing’ by Janice Galloway
- ‘Lilian’s Story’ by Kate Grenville
- ‘Provocation’ by Charlotte Grimshaw
- ‘Hangover Square’ by Patrick Hamilton
- ‘Power Without Glory’ by Frank Hardy
- ‘The Long Prospect’ by Elizabeth Harrower
- ‘Our Souls at Night’ by Kent Haruf
- ‘The Dead Lake’ by Hamid Ismailov
- ‘Grace and Truth’ by Jennifer Johnston
- ‘Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
- The Other Side of the Bridge’ by Mary Lawson
- ‘If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things’ by Jon McGregor
- ‘The Glorious Heresies’ by Lisa McInerney
- ‘Journey to the Stone Country’ by Alex Miller
- ‘Ancient Tillage’ by Raduan Nassar
- ‘The Essex Serpent’ by Sarah Perry
- ‘The Hungry Grass’ by Richard Power
- ‘Stoner’ by John Williams
- ‘Shallows’ by Tim Winton
You can find out more about 20 Books of Summer at Cathy’s blog and see who else is participating on this linky page.
Have you read any of the books I’ve chosen? Any suggestions on which one to start with first?
* Note, I reserve the right to swap out any of these books with my existing TBR pile if I find any of these ones don’t work for me or don’t suit my mood at the time.
Reading Matters 