Shrinking My TBR

Shrinking My TBR

So…

I’m supposed to be shrinking my TBR. In multiple posts last year, I said I wanted to get my TBR down to under 100 books by the beginning of 2023. And I was successful! I managed to get my physical TBR down to 89 books starting January 1st. I expanded that in my Bookish Goals post and decided I wanted to get my TBR down to 60 books by the beginning of 2024.

Currently, that isn’t looking like it’s going to happen.

I know it’s still early in the year. We’re not even halfway through, so if I get my butt in gear, I might be able to manage it. But if I have any hope of that, I will have to hold myself accountable.

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Can I Cut My TBR in Half? (Before The End of The Year)

Can I Cut My TBR in Half? (Before The End of The Year)

I’m someone who owns a lot of books. My physical TBR currently sits at 115 books, with another one on its way. I’m not going to bother counting my e-books and audiobooks as I know I need to start reading them, but I need to sort out my physical TBR first. The piles are dangerously high and have fallen on me a few times recently. It’s not fun.

The problem is that I don’t want to go on a book-buying ban. That doesn’t work. I then tried something akin to Maddie’s Book Buying Bingo. Also didn’t work. If I try to stop myself from buying books, I’m more likely to say “stuff it” and buy them anyway. What I’m doing instead is making myself stop and think. Am I willing to wait to get a book so I can find it cheaper? Would I be willing to borrow it from the library when I’m in the mood for it? Things like that. That way, when I buy books, I know I’m only bringing in the ones I really want. Not just a load as I went in charity shops or The Works, and I just wanted to come home with something.

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New Job? New TBR

New Job? New TBR

Whenever you start a new job, you’re going to be busy and stressed for at least the first week. Reading can be a great hobby in the evenings to help you relax, but finding the time? Yeah, that can be a bit of a pain.

I should be starting my next job next week – still waiting on a start date as I write this – and I’m so excited to do so. But with all the stress of learning new processes and meeting new people, I wanted to be kind with my reading choices.

So I’ve made a whole new TBR for the first few weeks of the job, and today I want to share it with you in case my blog posts slow down for a little bit. These are mostly books I’ve chosen to read, but I’ve also picked a couple from my jar just to get some variety. I just let myself put the book back if I pulled a thick one, ha!

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Switch Up Your TBR

Switch Up Your TBR

We all get slumpy from time to time. Whether it’s just because we’re too busy to read or we’re just not in the mood, it happens. Sometimes you’ll want to be reading, but it just doesn’t happen.

My general advice for when this happens is to just allow yourself to take a break. Watch TV, play a game, and do whatever else you’re in the mood to be doing. Then when you get back to reading, you won’t feel like you’ve turned it into some kind of chore. And I stand by that.

However, that doesn’t work for every slump or even every person. There are times we really want to read, but doing so is a struggle. In times like this, we need to change how we pick books.

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FaRoFeb – A Mini TBR

FaRoFeb – A Mini TBR

Over the last month, my review for King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair has been getting a lot of views and, that has put me in the mood to read more fantasy romance. Seeing the title in my stats so often apparently makes me think about it a lot, ha! But February was the perfect time for me to start reading more Fantasy Romance.

February is FaRoFeb, and though I won’t be picking up brand new books…I’d like to read a few and keep an eye on the events they have going on. I know some booktubers are interviewing authors, or are holding reading sprints, so they could be fun to watch.

What I’ve decided to do myself is pick a few Fantasy Romance books this month and read them. I want to try and review one or two of them too, but if not, then maybe this post will at least give you some recommendations. I’m not sure what I’ll like when it comes to Fantasy Romance, so I’m not sure which I’m actually going to like, but this is going to be fun. I won’t be following any of the bingo boards on the FaRoFeb website, but there are some on there if you do want to!

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Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021

Books I Want To Read Before the End of 2021

We’re in the final month of the year. I can’t believe we’re so close to the end of 2021! I’ve not yet completed my GoodReads challenge, and I’m not sure I’m going to, but that’s okay. I’ll just read what I can and see if I can manage it.

Today I want to list a few of the books that I plan on reading before the end of the year. I have another ARC to read, and I plan on reading a few Christmas books too, but I won’t be listing those today. These are just a few books from my physical TBR that I want to get to.

I’m not going to be listing them in any particular order. All of these books are in series. In fact, two of them are sequels, so I won’t be going into too much detail. But if anyone would be interested in a buddy read, let me know.

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Mini TBR – September Edition

Mini TBR – September Edition

Remember how last month I said I’ll go back to including book covers this month? That was before two readathons I’m interested in participating in were announced. Magical Readathon run by G at Book Roast and Bookoplathon by Becca from Becca and the Books.

I now have a massive pile of books to read through as well as a few ARCs and some extras I picked out to read before deciding I’d do these readathons. So my reading is jampacked. I’m doing every prompt for the Magical Readathon which doesn’t allow double-ups. I then did 6 rolls on the bookopoly board. I was lucky in that I mostly managed to fill the prompts with books from the TBR I had already built for Magical Readathon. I did however, have to add one more book onto the pile.

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August Mini TBR

August Mini TBR

How are we in August already?! I’m at a point in the year where I realised that I did not leave enough space for all the ARCs I would request and get in my journal. So that and needing to get my physical TBR way down has meant that I am severely limiting what ARCs I ask for now. That being said, I do still have a few for this month.

My only reading goal is to finally finish the pile of books I’ve been working through for nearly two months. The pile was massive, and with ARCs and library books on top…it just hasn’t really gone down. I am getting through it now, and I think I should get to the bottom by the end of August.

I’ll be so glad to be able to pull from the jar again. My next pile is so much smaller.

Obviously, as usual, I’ve decided to note down a few of the books that I want to read this month. This list is going to be very short, as I don’t really have many books that I want to talk about this month. Don’t get me wrong, I want to read all the books on my pile. But there are a lot of sequels.

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Fun Things To Try With Your TBR

Fun Things To Try With Your TBR

Whether you have a monthly TBR, mood read or if like me, you just create a new TBR when you’ve finished your current one, it can get a little samey. Sometimes we just want to mix things up, but we can’t always think of an obvious way to do it.

There are a lot of fun TBR games out there, and I usually want to give them a try. But it’s not always quick and easy to do so.

That doesn’t mean you can’t though. There are definitely ways you can try something different with your TBR. Even if it’s not a permanent change, you might want to try these out sometimes.

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Mini TBR – July 2021

Mini TBR – July 2021

Where has the time gone?! Seriously. I can’t believe we’re in July already. It’s my brother’s birthday this month, so I’ll have an opportunity to get out into the bookshops. I also seem to have gotten out of my reading slump. But to be safe, I’m going to keep this TBR short and sweet. Well, kind of.

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