Down the TBR Hole is a meme. It has been created by Lia from Lost in a story. The whole aim of this meme is to “clean” your virtual TBR shelf.

How it works:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go

I will remove sequels where I haven’t read the first one yet. But this doesn’t mean that you won’t see the book again soon. I might read it once I’ve started the series.

I also won’t post the covers of the book, only the links to the Goodreads page.

Number of books on the list: 3487 (WTF)

📚 – #1 – Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell | Goodreads

Synopsis:

Newspeak, Doublethink, Big Brother, the Thought Police – the language of 1984 has passed into the English language as a symbol of the horrors of totalitarianism. George Orwell’s story of Winston Smith’s fight against the all-pervading Party has become a classic, not the least because of its intellectual coherence. First published in 1949, it retains as much relevance today as it had then.

I actually own this one, so I guess that I have just to read it anytime soon. I remember saying this a few years ago. And surprise: I still haven’t read it!

📚 – #2 – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | Goodreads

Synopsis:

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work “her own darling child” and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, “as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.” The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen’s radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

I absolutely love Jane Austen’s books so I just have to read this one as well. It stays!

📚 – #3 – It by Stephen King | Goodreads

Synopsis:

Welcome to Derry, Maine …

It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real …

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

I have a physical copy at home but I’ve literally got no interest to read this anymore. It’s just too creepy for me. So for now it has to go. Maybe I’ll give it another chance in a few years but for now it leaves the list.

📚 – #4 – Seveneves by Neal Stephenson | Goodreads

Synopsis:

What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .

Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

It sounds really intriguing but right now it doesn’t sound like something I’d like to read. It goes.

📚 – #5 – Déjà Dead (Temperance Brennan #1) by Kathy Reichs | Goodreads

Synopsis:

Her life is devoted to justice; for those she never even knew. In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Temperance detects an alarming pattern and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her, her best friend and her own daughter, in mortal danger…

I’ve always loved Bones so I just have to read the books as well. I’ve already read a few but never in the right order. It has the right to stay.

📚 – #6 – The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss | Goodreads

Synopsis:

Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet’s hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

This one will stay as well.

📚 – #7 – And then there were none by Agatha Christie | Goodreads

Synopsis:

First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion:

“Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he’d stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie’s work and so of course this one has to stay!

📚 – #8 – The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot #1) by Agatha Christie | Goodreads

Synopsis:

Agatha Christie’s debut novel was also the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective.

A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie’s well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.

As I already have an Agatha Christie book in the list that I’ve kept, I think that this one has to go for now. I’m considering all Agatha Christie books to be in the same series (even though this isn’t true but to keep things simple for now, we’re doing it like this) so this one has to leave the list. However you’re probably going to see it at some point again.

📚 – #9 – Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross #1) by James Patterson | Goodreads

Synopsis:

What have we got? A missing little girl named Maggie Rose . . . a family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C. . . . the thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher . . . a psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him – even after he’s been captured.

Gary Soneji wants to commit the crime of the century. Alex Cross is the brilliant homicide detective pitted against him. Jezzie Flanagan is the first female supervisor of the Secret Service. They complete one of the most unusual suspense triangles in any thriller you have ever read.

Alex and Jezzie are about to have a forbidden love affair—at the worst possible time for both of them. Because Gary Soneji is playing at the top of his game. The latest of the unspeakable crimes happens in Alex Cross’s precinct and it happens under the nose of Jezzie and her men.

Alex faces the ultimate test: how do you outmaneuver a brilliant psychopath?

I’m usually a fan of Pattersons Thrillers but this one is a no for me.

📚 – #10 – Joyland by Stephen King | Goodreads

Synopsis:

College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life – and what comes after – that would change his world forever.

A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old – and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time. It is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.

I’m not so sure about this one so it leaves the list for now.

New stats: 3482 books

Gone5
Stayed5

Half and half isn’t bad for now!

How about your TBR? Is it also out of control like mine? Or are you a more reasonable person? Please let me know in the comments below! 🙂