The List, It's Still Not Shorter

By Veronica Vishous -


Woman Reading by a Paper Bell Shade
by Henry Robert Morland
At the start of 2013, the Wenches shared our hopes and dreams for the year to come. Well, maybe not our deepest hopes and dreams. We shared a few of the books that were on our To-Be-Read (TBR) lists, the ones we hoped to read over the next 12 months.

Many of us have TBR lists longer than the Great Wall, to be sure. But back in January, the Wenches singled out those special few that we were going to push to the top of the list. Those books that held the most promise and excitement, those books we hoped would carry us away to far off lands, or far off times, those books that would introduce us to new characters who would take over our imaginations, those books we were sure would sneak into our consciousness as we went about our real life business, counting down the hours or minutes until we could get back to our newest adventure.

Okay, maybe I got a little carried away. How carried away? Wellll... you'll have to click through the jump to find out, now won't you?



Anne: Wow... Looking back, I didn't read any of the books I said I wanted to get to. Between real life and being caught up in Ty & Zane and Supernatural fanfiction for months, I guess I didn't get to as many new books as I wanted to. But, I regret nothing! I love spending my time with Ty and Zane and Team Sidewinder.

Angela: I was looking forward to reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I haven't finished it and I've tried a couple of times to pick it up. I don't know why I'm not invested. My TBR tells me I'll love it. I have a friend who has read it and loved it, plus Zee has started it as well. I'm going to give it another crack in 2014.

Barb: I wanted to read Jane True, because Beta posted the best quotes from them. I also wanted to read Georgina Kincaid. I read four of six Jane True books, and really liked the first three. The fourth one went off into a really strange place, I thought, and I couldn't get into the fifth one so I've never finished that one or #6. Georgina just never made it onto my e-reader. Her younger sibling, Vampire Academy, did, but I haven't read those either. Work really gets in the way of my reading time.

Beta: I was very excited to read the the Downside Ghosts, Lord John Grey and Mercy Thompson series this year but only managed to accomplish reading Mercy Thompson which I enjoyed very much. Other books and a busy RL (real life) just got in the way of my reading plans but hopefully I can cross the other two series off my list in 2014.

Donna:  I chose Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. It was enthusiastically recommended by a co-worker once she found out I was a Diana Gabaldon fan. Well, it ain't no Outlander! I really had to struggle to finish it. It had a similar setting to Outlander, but none of the excitement or magic. Just meh!

Kathi: I managed to read a few of the books I'd planned, but discovered lots of others that distracted me from my original intentions. I did read the Lord John Grey books and short stories by Diana Gabaldon, as well as any Outlander short story that she published this year. I also got about halfway through a reread of her Outlander series instead of trying the Donati books, because I heard from other Wenches that those would not satisfy my Outlander obsession. I delayed reading the All Souls Trilogy until 2014, when the third book is due to release. And I've been hoping to read Downside Ghosts with another Wench, so I'm waiting until we're both available for that. It's embarrassing that I haven't read that series yet—I need to make it a priority.

Veronica: A ha! Didn't I have great plans. My goal was to read the first two books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, possibly the first three. Yeah. I've read about 25% (if that) of the first book. I think because what I've read so far sticks so closely to the tv show, I'm just not that motivated to keep reading. I already know what happens! (I'm such a spoiler prude.)

Zee: I am LOVING The Name of the Wind so far... but... it gets kinda depressing, and lately I haven't been in the mood for sad. I need happy stuff.

Alas, we are witness to the curse of the voracious reader. We are forever adding books to our TBR faster than we can read them. And so we find ourselves not always that into the books we thought we'd love, sometimes we flat out don't like them. More often we get distracted by other books, or by this thing we call “real life.” And sometimes, yes, sometimes, we find a true gem.

What books did you plan to read in 2013? Were your plans successful? Did your top TBR books live up to your expectations?

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