#0by2016

I've seen floating around Twitter the hashtag #0by2016 and for any of you who aren't sure what this is, it's ensuring that your TBR pile is exactly 0 by the beginning of 2016. I'd like to say that I'm going to make that happen, buy my TBR pile is already up to 16 physical books, and I've got around 10 Kindle books on my TBR also - even if I read 1 book a week, 26 books is never going to happen.

So, I've tasked myself to finish 5 of my TBR by 2016, which will also complete my Reading Challenge for 2015 (which I started in August...), but to make it harder for myself, I'm not going to buy any more books until I've finished these 5 - this is not going to end well for my sanity, but will work well for my bank balance.

The 5 books I have decided I'm going to read are

// The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine
I actually bought this around July/August time and have really been meaning to getting round to it. It was a recommendation from Amazon based upon the hundreds of books I've ordered through them, so I'm not sure what it's going to be like but it seems interesting enough. From what I've gathered online, Sophie begins working in London's most glamorous superstore, but just before the grand opening there is a robbery in which the Clockwork Sparrow is taken in which Sophie is prime suspect. The only way to prove her innocence is to find the true culprits and we follow Sophie's adventure in finding the criminals.

// Revival by Stephen King
This one's a little bit of a cheat as my mum bought me this from the charity shop very recently, but it's still one I'd really like to read. I've heard a lot about Stephen King but I've never really picked up any of his books. Revival is set in New England in the early 60s and the main protagonist is a young boy, Jamie, who meets the new minister, Charles, and the two develop a great bond and friendship. Decades pass and Jamie bumps into Charles again, only this time there are dramatic consequences and we are to discover that 'revival' has many meanings.

// Into the Trees by Robert Williams
I bought this purely because the cover intrigued me and it was in the £1.99 bargain bin at Sainsbury's. I'm a sucker for a good cover and one of the printed comments in this was by Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall, a book which I really enjoyed so I had to buy it. It's based a family of 4 who buy a house in the middle of a forest. The story entwines between 3 sets of people, the Norton family, Raymond (a shy man who enjoys the loneliness of forest walks) and a group of masked men who invade the Norton's home.

// Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris
I really enjoy watching the television show TrueBlood and TrueBlood is based on the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I've never picked up one of the books. I used to own the whole series/set of books, but gave them away after never opening or reading one. I picked this copy up in a book swap on the ReaditSwapit site. It's quite similar to dare I say it... Twilight, in the sense that Sookie can read minds, until Bill arrives. Sookie is unable to read/hear a work Bill is thinking and Sookie can't believe her 'luck'.

// Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
I watch quite a lot of BookTubers, and this book featured in one of Jean's videos, her YouTube handle is Jean Bookishthoughts. This is based upon/has links to the book of poems Crow by Ted Hughes. This is written part novella, part fable and part essay based around a father and two boys who lose their mother. In their moments of despair and grief they are visited by Crow.

Have you read any of these books? Are you taking part in #0by2016?