Preping for the 48 Hour Reading Challenge...with bonus pictures of my (former) book bathtub

So this weekend is Mother Reader's annual 48 Hour Reading Challenge, which I look on as a much needed push to get books out of the tbr clusters and into permanent homes, be those homes the library book sale, the library shelves, or hard-won real estate on my own shelves....I am glad that this falls during the warmer months, because I can use the woodstove as my display area:

(Isn't the puffin nice? My older son made it in art this year, and I feel that it has a lot of personality.)

My pile is a carefully chosen mix of library books, review copies, and tbr pile books, with a bit of non-fiction livening up the sci fi/fantasy. It would be awfully nice if they all proved to be gripping fast reads, or, failing that, books whose first ten pages will let me know that I don't want to read anymore.

(The pink rose is from our thriving rose bush of unfortunate pinkness, that bloomed even more prolifically and pinkly this year. The rose bush of beautiful redness would require a ladder if I wished to pick beautiful red roses.)

There are many books that could be on this pile but aren't. For instance, there are all the books that were in the downstairs bathtub:


The family that owned our house before us didn't let little things like walls stop them from installing this bathtub in what was once the pantry--it stuck out half a foot into the dining room, inside a cupboard-like structure. Their towel cupboard stuck out a good foot, built in the space where the door used to be, blocking the way from the dinning room to the kitchen. So in any event, there was this bathtub, not being used, and of course I put books in it and all was well (?).

However, all good things come to an end. We are going to add on a new downstairs bathroom at some point, but first we are demolishing this one, and the tub is now just a memory. The demolition in progress:

(If you look closely you can see the original dining room wall paper (large leaves on a raspberry background). I assumed at first it was Victorian, but now, after having done a quick bit of research, I'm thinking perhaps 194os. Regardless, we aren't going to try to find it again).

Happily, it being summer, the woodrack inside was empty, so:

But this is clearly a temporary solution, and only a third of the books fit, and the rest are on the floor of the hall. Of course, once the dinning room and ex-bathroom walls are rebuilt (and why, I ask myself, has our nice contractor not contacted us for weeks?), there will be, for a while, all that lovely ex-bathroom space where the washer and dryer will go eventually, but for the moment, I clearly just need to read. 48 hours will help, but it is never enough....