It’s the last day of 2018, fellow readers! Did you meet your TBR Challenge goal?

I didn’t even come close this year. Goodreads says I only read 14 books from my TBR pile out of the 36 I’d hoped to read, and only 19 books overall. I feel bad about that–I love books and reading, and this is the lowest total I’ve had since I started keeping track. But I know exactly what happened. I didn’t read enough during the first half of the year, and the second half was very stressful: writing deadlines, my own health issues, expensive car repairs, and Max’s trips to the vet wore me out. When he was diagnosed with lymphoma a few weeks ago, that did me in. I was/am just too tired to read.

I also purchased 52 books this year, so not only did I not get my TBR pile down much, but I added a considerable amount to it! I have been periodically culling the herd, so to speak, by deleting books from my ereader that I know I’ll never read and boxing up paper books for donation to my local library. That makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, at least–even if I’m not reading those books, I’m getting them off my list  🙂

Happy New Year to all of you! I’ll be back later in the week with a new TBR goal for 2019.

Month seven is coming to a close–how is your TBR Challenge going?

I have finally made some progress on mine, though I still have a long way to go. I’m up to 7 “old” (acquired before August 1, 2017) books read and 4 “new” (acquired in the past 2 months) books read for a total of 11. That gives me 25 left to go!

I’m not liking the decision to read half of my TBR books within two months of acquisition, though. Rather than reminding me to read books sooner and not let them languish on my e-reader or in a bin, it’s kind of stressing me out. Reading books is supposed to be fun, and the within-two-months stipulation made it feel more like a chore. So I’m ditching that part of my challenge 🙂  I’m sticking to my original goal of 36 books from my TBR pile, but for the rest of the year any book acquired before 2018 will count. And I’ll get to the books I bought this year as fast as I can!

A new TBR Challenge for a new year! Is this the year you finally vanquish your TBR pile?

I don’t know about “vanquish,” but I am determined to chip steadily away at my ginormous TBR pile again this year. With the added data I collected last year (the number of books I purchased was an eye opener!), I’m making another change for this year’s challenge.

1. How many books from your TBR pile will you read? I’m actually setting two numbers for this year: one for books I’ve had for a while, and one for new books. A major reason my TBR pile is out of control is because I procure books faster than I can read them, and so many of my new books end up collecting dust on a shelf or languishing on my e-reader. This year, I’m pledging to read 18 books from my TBR pile and 18 books within two months of acquiring them.

2. How long have your books been waiting? For the purposes of this challenge, the “old” books I read must have been acquired by me or placed on my library TBR list before August 1, 2017. This means I can’t buy new books in January and count them toward my TBR Challenge come September–which I found myself doing at least once during the first year, and kind of defeats the purpose of the challenge.

3. How will you hold yourself accountable? Like years past, I’ll post here once a month to share my progress and see how you all are doing. I found that creating a Goodreads shelf (this year I’ll have 2: one for “old” books, and one for “new” books) and the dedicated page on this blog to be enormously helpful, too, so I’ll do both again. I’m a very visual person and being able to see the collection of books that I’ve read gives me a nice sense of accomplishment, which makes me want to read more TBR books.

4. What about adding more books to the pile? Like last year, I’m going to keep track of how many books I purchase with a Goodreads shelf. Numbers are powerful (especially to me, with my background in math), and it will be good to have a 2018 total to compare with 2017.

Who’s next? How are you going to vanquish your TBR pile this year?