Summer Reading TBR

In the most recent episode of the podcast, I revealed this year's summer reading challenge - to finish incomplete series you might have lingering on your "always meant to read" list. Already some people in the Goodreads group have been talking about different takes on the challenge - reading multiple books by an author that may not be in a series, or starting and reading an entire series despite not having previously read any of the volumes. I want to be clear that all interpretations are solid! The goal, as always, is to inject some inspiration and energy into our reading. Please use #readingenvysummerreading if you post about this in social media so I can find you. Or leave a comment on this post!

I have aspirations for this challenge for sure. But as of right now, all of my libraries remain closed. So I will start with the books I already have and make an aspirational TBR for that time I decide to either fill in from bookstores or regain access to libraries. Of course starting with the books I already own is always preferable, I'm just a little more limited to that this time around.

Books I own

There has been a series of podcast guests who have talked about Haruf, including me. I loved Plainsong, which I read in 2017, and I found copies of Benediction and Eventide but have yet to read them. I have the feeling they are a good match to my current reading mood.

The Alexandria Quartet is near and dear to my heart, except - - I've never finished it. I first read Justine in 2009, followed by reading Balthazar that same year. I reread Justine by listening to a new audio edition in 2015, intending to finish all of them that way, but I got distracted. So I've still never read Mountolive or Clea, but I own both of them. Time to remedy that, I think.

I own three physical books from the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French, based on the belief I would some day return to the series. It's incomplete but I bet this one is easy to find used books in.  In the Woods is book 1, and I also read that in 2014. Someone alerted me to the Book Riot recommended order of reading the series so I'm going to start there.

I own The Last Policeman series by Ben H. Winters on Kindle thanks to some daily deal a few yaers ago.  The Last Policeman is book 1, and I read it in June 2014.

I still haven't finished the Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle either. I must!

Books I would need to buy or borrow

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante are well-known. My Brilliant Friend is book 1, and I first read it in 2015.  I really loved it, so much that I had this sense of wanting to spread the following novels out. I didn't read The Story of a New Name (book 2) until 2016. Well, now it's 2020 and I have yet to read book 3 or 4!

Now I will list series I've started but would like to finish, or at least read farther than book 1! I'm sure this is incomplete, and there's no way I'll get to even half of this list (but I certainly won't run out.) I'm not a frequent series reader, honestly, as I don't read a lot of crime or mystery novels but there are some literary series of sorts, and some genre fiction sprinkled in too.

Seasonal Quartet by Ali Smith (I've read Autumn and Winter)
Seasons Quartet by Karl Ove Knausgard (I've read Autumn and Winter, hmm)
My Life by Karl Ove Knausgard (I've only read book #1 - likelihood of me tackling this collection this year? Pretty low.)
The Thomas Cromwell Trilogy (I've only read Bring Up the Bodies, which is book 2 - I have started the audio of book 3. Should I read Wolf Hall? I mean it did win the Booker Prize...)
The Winston Brothers by Penny Reid (it could be fun to finish this romance series and the other series it connects to)
Dr. Siri Paiboun series by Colin Cotterill (I've only read the first book)
Ambergris Series by Jeff VanderMeer (I own 2/3 of these)

How about you?

I'd love to hear what you are planning for this challenge!