OH. MY. GOSH.
Several weeks ago I had this sudden inspiration to tackle my outlandishly long TBR and turn it into something a bit more manageable, because, let’s be frank, there is no way that I’m going to read nearly 900 books, especially when the list is continually growing. My TBR is on a spreadsheet, so it is at least easy to edit. This whole process started because I was in the mood for a fluffy read, and realized that my list of over 800 books have zero indication as to what genre of book a title is!
So my goal was twofold: I wanted to reduce the TBR by at least 50%, and I wanted to sort the remaining books by genre, so if I’m in the mood for something specific, I can find it. The latter goal I accomplished by highlighting the titles in color code. But both goals involved looking at every single book on Goodreads, reading the synopsis, perusing the reviews, and then deciding whether or not it was worth the cut. It was definitely one of those projects that ended up being way more involved than I anticipated!
But today I finally finished my brutal reduction. While the TBR started at (an admittedly ridiculous) 889, I am now down to a mere 427! I successfully eliminated 462 books and it’s honestly a great feeling. I’m left with a list of books that I’m a lot more excited about reading and one that’s organized so I can actually find the kind of book I’m in the mood to read – although I’m sure I’ll still use some type of randomizing system for the most part. I’m cognizant of the fact that 427 is still kind of ridiculous, but here we are lol
Now my long-time readers will remember that the main TBR is only one section of the overall TBR (I’m not pretending that I don’t have a problem here). Some of the eliminated books actually just changed places – the numbers for my Series TBR and Mystery Series TBR have both gone up. However, I fully intend to tackle those lists as well, as I’m positive that several eliminations can be made there also.
In the meantime, I haven’t really been reading anyone else’s reviews, because I didn’t want to add anything to the TBR until I was finished with my housekeeping. So now there are 300-odd emails in my inbox, the majority of which are book reviews, so guess what my next task is?? So don’t be surprised to find me creeping liking/commenting on some of your older posts!
Of course, my other problem is that I randomly decided to start reading the Redwall series. All of those books are over 300 pages long, and they weren’t on any TBR anywhere, so they aren’t getting me anywhere fast as far as reading goals go, but I am enjoying them!! I’m probably going to take a break from them soon, though, as I’m not quite halfway through the series and starting to feel like I am reading to delve into something else for a while. I’m reading book #10 right now, which seems like it may be a good spot to pause and get into something else. I’m at almost three solid weeks of Redwall reading and am starting to feel a bit burned out haha
Spring has been peaking around the corner for the last couple of days, so I’ve also been busy browsing seed catalogs and sketching dream gardens. February and March are my personal favorite months for gardening: anything is possible! I’m a fantastic gardener in March.
Hope all is well with everyone out there – I’m looking forward to catching up on blog posts. And hopefully I’ll have a little Redwall post soon!
The Aroma of Books 