Yes, it's true. A TBR Challenge, as wonderful in so many ways that it is, cannot compare with the excitement of a piano entering into a home that has known only a keyboard for almost 20 years. But I thought I should at least lead with a partially bookish header for this blog entry.
On Monday, New Year's Eve, the new piano will enter our home and I'm so psyched. It's coming all the way from Syracuse, which is hours away to the west, in central New York. It's coming all that way because there is not a store closer that sells the piano I've been dreaming of.
Although I played the piano all through my youth and young adulthood, I have not played seriously in the past 20 years. My fingers and hands and brain will need some re-entry training. I'm planning on taking lessons for a good bit. I'm interested in classical piano primarily, but I used to play all sorts of music back a ways. So who knows? This I do know. I have a stronger desire than I've ever had to play with sensitivity and emotion.
So! As for the TBR Challenge of 2019. Adam, the blogger at Roof Beam Reader is hosting his 8th TBR Challenge for fellow readers and bloggers. Thank you, Adam, for the inspiration and the proverbial kick in the butt. Please notice that Karen, blogger at Books and Chocolate, has also signed up for 2019 (see "Blogs of Substance" sidebar). Do you have any interest in joining us? (You have until Jan. 15th to sign up and announce your book list).
I signed up officially an hour ago, and have already made a huge blunder. Do read the specifics for setting up the challenge. Dummy me did not, and I must make amends now.
Books Read in September and October 2024
59 minutes ago
Congratulations on your new piano - how exciting!! Good luck with the challenges, too. Hope whatever error you made in signing up is easily remedied :)
ReplyDeleteHi JoAnn,
DeleteThe TBR Challenge is a good one this year because so many of my Back to the Classics Challenge books have been in my library a good while. Not only that, I'm going to have to struggle to pick ONLY 12 TBR books to read. I scanned my shelves today and was so surprised at how many I would like to read this year.
It's so tricky, because I enjoy "keeping up" with what's going on in contemporary lit.
So, JoAnn, I'm wishing you a speedy return to Florida and a rewarding, enriching reading year in 2019!
Congratulations on buying a piano and returning to playing. That TBR challenge sounds like a good idea, I do choose books from my TBR shelves and read them but as we know, we can buy faster than we can read.
ReplyDeleteHi Terra,
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting!
And are you ever right on about the purchasing via reading TBR dilemma.
Best wishes to you for enchanting reads in 2019!
Congrats on the new piano; how exciting for you. I have no musical ability :(
ReplyDeleteI plan to challenge myself with reading from my shelves and reading 4-5 classics in 2019, but no more formal challenges, I'll just work off my journal.
Thanks, Diane.
DeleteThe piano arrived today and I had so much fun this afternoon. Also, I don't think I have musical ability and certainly not any talent as far as music is concerned, but I like to play and have missed playing. And I'd like to improve my skills, which is not really the same as ability.
The same goes for art for me. I love art--viewing it, talking about it, making it, but I have next to nil skills. I don't let this bother me. I take classes, where I am really the class dunce--but that's not the most important thing. Art inspires me and makes my heart soar.
Oh, Diane, I'm so curious--wondering what you mean when you say you'll work off your journal. Sounds intriguing! Is that a journal about your daily life or about your reading?
Best wishes to you, Diane, and to your CATS! How wonderful to have them. Ken and I are now searching for a new Golden. May take a while, but we're trying to be patient.
Happy New Year!!
Ooh! I'm so excited for you. I haven't pulled my keyboard out of the closet in forever. Maybe 2019 is the time to give it a good airing!
ReplyDeleteSprite,
DeleteOh, yes, do pull out your keyboard and engage with it! It's so much fun as January comes around to go back to things we once loved to do and do them again! Happy New Year!
How exciting that you are getting a new piano! I have never been musical in any way, but I can understand how fulfilling it must be.
ReplyDeleteI have been toying with joining that TBR Pile challenge for 2019. I did it in 2018 and was not very successful. I read 10 books and reviewed maybe 5 of those. But still, I find it a very appealing challenge.
Hi Tracy,
DeleteYes, the piano arrived today and it is beautiful! I straight away played for 90 minutes, only to discover afterwards that my wrist really ached. It's already better this evening, but I think I need to take on 20-30 minutes at a time, with rest breaks. Ergonomics for Older People--Darn.
Oh, do join the TBR Challenge if it tempts you. Nobody minds if you don't achieve all you'd hoped. The fun is just being a part of it. (I'm so lucky that a fair number of my Back to the Classics books have been in my TBR for at least a couple of years.)
Happy New Year to you!!
I so wish that I could play the piano, always intended to do it - we had two pianos until recently, an upright and a boudoir grande! But the grande had to go when we moved. The upright is eventually going to our eldest son who plays. Have great fun with yours. I wish I had got around to signing up with Karen.
ReplyDeleteHi Katrina,
ReplyDeleteYou know, I am having great fun with the piano. I was so lucky to get a piano teacher recommendation from friends, and I had my lesson with her yesterday. I know how to play, etc., but I need re-entry help, which she is giving me plenty of.
Katrina, I bet if you contact Karen she would allow you to join late, especially given how busy you were over the holidays.
I know I would welcome another reader if I were doing the challenge. Give it a go?