To Be Read, but when??

One of the blogs I follow promoted the TBR challenge for 2016.  Heaven knows I have more than enough books on the TBR list, between the books I own and haven’t read and the For Later shelf on my BiblioCommons list.  So here goes, with my initial ideas about what I’ll actually read in 2016, edited to accommodate the fact that I don’t read romance.

January 19 – We Love Short Shorts! (category romance, short stories, novella etc.) – Maybe Adam Gopnick’s Winter, Five Windows on a Season
February 16 – Series Catch-Up (a book from a series you are behind on) This has got to be the next in the Sharpe series
March 16 – Recommended Read (a book that was recommended to you) – Old Filth by Jane Gardam, which has been on my list forever and for some reason is being read now by several friends
April 20 – Contemporary – This must mean contemporary romance, but I’ll interpret it to mean a book set in the present, so how about Among the Ten Thousand Things, a novel set in NYC about the breakup of a marriage
May 18 – Something Different (outside your comfort zone, unusual setting, non-romance etc.) – Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart, a poet I hardly know but like, and I rarely read any poetry these days
June 15 – Favorite Trope (a favorite theme – amnesia? secret baby? fairy tale? friends-to-lovers? etc.) – I’ve read so many dystopian novels that a quick search on the catalog shows I’ve read a couple dozen of the first titles listed.  So maybe one of the myriad history/travel books on the shelves
July 20 – Award Nominee or Winner (links to past RITA finalists and winners TBA) – Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates has been on my TBR list since last summer, and now that he’s won the National Book Award for nonfiction, this  is the perfect choice

August 17 – Kicking It Old School (publication date 10 years or older) – this will be an easy one since there are so many older books I’m trying to get to.  Maybe Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club or A Welsh Childhood by Alice Thomas Ellis
September 21 – Random Pick (a built-in off-theme month – go where your mood takes you!) – too many possibilities here
October 19 – Paranormal or Romantic Suspense – way outside my comfort zone, I’ll have to think about this one
November 16 – Historical – easy peasy, how about Farthest North, the Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer by Nansen or The Wicked and the Just by Coates set in 13th century Wales
December 21 – Holiday Themes – this will fit in with Book Club, though I’m not sure I have one of these on my TBR shelf.  Maybe a nice cozy biography.