Cathy from 746 Books has been running 20 Books of Summer since 2014, and I’ve been taking part since 2015 (see all my lists and links here). The idea is simple: choose 10, 15 or 20 books to read and review between 1 June and 1 September, swap out and in as many as you want to and it doesn’t matter if you don’t complete as long as you enjoy yourself.

Choosing my books

While I usually go with selecting “the oldest 20 books on my TBR”, I do change that sometimes. For example, I often pick some Virago or other reclaimed-women-author presses to fit in with All Virago / All August challenge, in 2021, I went for a diversity / social justice theme for at least June and July, and in 2023 I picked 20 books I’d bought from The Heath Bookshop! But this year, I was a bit stuck. Just the first 20 again? Every xth book working through the years? I didn’t have 20 books left from 2023 that I’d bought from the Bookshop and I knew I wanted to choose books that would count towards my 2024 TBR Project. Well, what’s the point of having another person in the house if you can’t ask them to set you a challenge (even if he once challenged me to only read 52 books in a year …)? So I called Matthew and told him I needed his intelligence and problem-solving skills and left him to it …

I only had two stipulations: I wanted him to pick from books I’d acquired up until the end of 2023 (hence the front row of the bottom shelf sitting on the floor in front of him so he could see the back row), and no Dean Street Press books as I wanted to save them for Dean Street Press December. None of my Emma and my Reading Together books and of course no NetGalley books (invisible anyway, right??) and review books. How did he choose them? “Completely at random based on my own personal thought process: some of it based on spine, some on title, some on ‘juxtapositions’,” and one on a book he wants to read on Audible alongside me.

He accidentally chose 21 books so gave me right of veto on one – I picked one on exercise in menopause which I’m unlikely to read through in one go. Then – THEN – he did a terrible thing, given how I like to read my TBR in acquisition order, and MIXED THEM UP into a random order! I’m going to trust the process, though, and dig out the next book in his order each time.

The Pile

Planned for June:

Ruth Ozeki – The Book of Form and Emptiness – her latest novel, passed to me by Ali. Matthew wants to read this, too, hence its appearance at the top of the pile (Winner of the Women’s Prize)

Helen Taylor – Why Women Read Fiction – based on a study and interviews with women, why do we read fiction?

Alice Mallison – The Book Borrower – a novel about sharing books which Matthew bought me from the San Diego Public Library library sale.

Taj McCoy – Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell – a novel that was recommended by a fellow-blogger featuring a plus-size Black woman negotiating love (I’m pleased I have two novels in a row here I can hopefully pick off quickly)

Ben Waddington and Janet Hart – 111 Places in Birmingham That You Shouldn’t Miss – fairly self-explanatory

Hilary Mantel – Eight Months on Ghazzah Street – fictionalised autobiography of expat life, another one passed to me by Ali

Bob Mortimer – And Away – and actual, though probably tweaked amusingly, autobiography from the hilarious writer

Planned for July:

Susie Dent – Dent’s Modern Tribes – book on the slang and jargon used by different groups of people from football managers to train ticket inspectors

Joe Lycett – Parsnips, Buttered – the son of Kings Heath’s observations and life hacks

Dara McAnulty – Diary of a Young Naturalist – Wainwright Prize winner on life as a young nature lover living with autism

Paul Theroux – On the Plain of Snakes – vintage travel writer travels to Mexico

Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche – Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World – discussions of language and translation

Katherine May – The Electricity of Every Living Thing – a woman walks to find herself

Sophie Pavelle – Forget me Not – a low-carbon voyage looking at lost or vanishing species affected by climate change (Winner of the People’s Book Prize for Non-Fiction)

Planned for August:

Rob Beckett – A Class Act – autobiography of the comedian and discussions of class

Drew Haden Taylor (ed.) – Me Tomorrow – Indigenous views on the future

Vanessa Nakate – A Bigger Picture – climate change activism as a worldwide pursuit by a young Ugandan woman

Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne and Kadija Sesay George – This is the Canon – decolonising your reading

Kgshak Akec – Hopeless Kingdom – a novel that geos from Sudan to Geelong via Cairo and Sydney (Winner of the 2020 Dorothy Hewett Award)

Lars Mytting – The Bell in the Lake – bought for me because of the similar themes to Iris Murdoch’s The Bell

There are 6 works of fiction and 14 non-fiction, which is probably representative of my TBR as a whole although my reading tilts to slightly more fiction thanks to NetGalley. Ten are by women, eight by men and two by a mix. Four are on nature and four are autobiographies; four are prize-winners. Ten were gifts and ten I bought myself. There are 6 books by people from Global Majority / Indigenous communities, which is less than my usual balance and the balance on my TBR.

Are you doing 10 / 15 / 20 Books of Summer / Winter this year? Do you think you’ll complete? I’m not entirely sure myself …