It’s by no means a rare thing to hear a bookworm saying they have a lot of books on their TBR. But I like the idea of pulling that number back down to double digits at least, and so when I saw Danielle’s (@ The Chronicles of Danielle) update post for her challenge of getting her TBR under 100 books, I thought I’d set myself the same challenge (I loved her post!).
So, on my Goodreads “want to read” shelf I only log the books I own and haven’t read yet (the books on my TBR that I don’t own yet are kept on my Amazon wishlist). And so, thanks to the joys of Goodreads, I know that there are exactly 118 books on my bookshelves that I haven’t read yet. Whoops.
Surely it can’t be too hard to get that number down under 100 books by the end of the year? After all, I’ll have to read quite a few books just for university alone (thanks uni, for rapidly bumping up my reading challenge). So with the uni reads and (hopefully) a couple reads here and there of my own, it can be done, right?
Well…the problem will be if I gain books. It’s all well and good reading and getting through them, but we all know it’s too easy to replace them with shiny new reads. While I don’t plan on buying many books once back at uni simply from lack of my own reading time, I can’t resist accepting ARCS when publishers offer me my anticipated reads (who could??), and I know I at least have one preorder making its way to me in November. The biggest challenges will be my spontaneous “treats” and, of course, Christmas. Can you imagine if I *just* managed to get my physical TBR under 100 books and then Christmas bumped it back over? I can see it happening.
SO. Action Plan:
- Read all my uni reads – this was going to happen anyway, so it’s quite handy really
- Use Audiobooks – I’m generally a slow reader, but reading alongside an audiobook helps me speed through the pages at a quicker pace. I tend to speed up the audio and read along with it, using both my eyes and ears to take in the story at a quicker rate than I usually would myself, especially when it’s evening-time and tiredness tries to set in.
- Aim for the short ones – I do have some huuuuuge books I want to get to soon, but I’m more likely to pick up the shorter books from my shelves whilst reading for uni anyway, just so that I don’t end up reading a book for a whole month or so
I know I won’t have a lot of spare time for my own reading, so if you have any tips for faster reading or managing to read more whilst studying at uni, I’d love to hear them!
Until next time,
A frolic through fiction 
I want to scream “holy moly” (I love English expressions, they’re fabulous) because that’s one endeavour you’re undertaking!!! I gave up so long ago… My tbr makes me feel guilty but honestly book shopping helps so much when stress kicks in!
But your plan seems the most effective to me… classic you’re bored with but want to finish, audiobook definitely helps going through them quicker! speedy, tiny books in between two huge classics, huuuuge help and stimulator!!!
I would say maybe add “rewards”? Like… two huge classics read? buy one graphic novel or a really quick read (play or ya etc)
I’d also put them somewhere specific and once you’re done you integrate them within your actual shelves… Double satisfaction: the shelves are filled bit by bit and you can watch your designated tbr place decrease in size gradually!
Good luck on your journey!
Happy reading
xx
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I’m really going to struggle I think, especially because I tend to gain quite a few books at a time so it bumps back up quickly. I’m the same with stress buying!
I do like the idea of a TBR shelf, but I like how my shelves are organised too much to do it 😆 I do have a written list of all my unread books though, which helps me both remember which books are unread (whereas I’m used to just seeing them on my shelves and may overlook them) and it acts as a sort of checklist I like to tick off.
Happy reading to you too! 🙂
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Oooh so satisfying to tick off (thanks I did not know that word I would have used check off?) the list as well! I’m a huge « list » person ahah I use them for everything in life because I have no memory 😂
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Audiobooks have helped me tremendously with my backlist, because I can listen while I do other things. My TBR will always be out of control, though, because it’s both a list of books I have and books I would love to have.
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They’re such a lifesaver! Ahaha that’s why I ended up separating mine, I’m too much of a stickler for organisation so unweildy TBRs are not fab for me 😆
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Good luck! I think you should be able to manage this, I was on a strict no buy this month and somehow ended up with 23 new books?! i gotta work harder on my TBR for sure. maybe you’ll see a post from me similar sometime soon…
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I feel like if you put yourself on a ban you’re more likely to buy loads more ahaha, that’s how it works for me anyway!
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Oh my goodness, good luck!
I feel like this is maybe something I should do haha.
Cora | http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/
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I should probably have started it much earlier ahaha, I’m going to stuggle! But thank you!
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I think it’s a really good idea to use want-to-read shelf for books I owned and haven’t read. I use it to, well, impulsively add books I wanted to read, and right now it’s around 800 books, it’s crazy!
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800 books?! Oh wow. I couldn’t manage with that many ahaha!
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This is a great idea for a challenge. My TBR has massively spiralled out of control (I’m slightly under 350) so trying to get to double digits is a way off for me. I’m currently challenging myself to read more books than I buy each month so the pile is getting slowly shorter.
Good luck with this challenge. I’ll be cheering you on!
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350 books, that’s intense ahaha! At least you have plenty of choice 😆 Hope the read-more-than-you-buy goes well! That’s something I’d like to try, but I don’t monitor my book buying as much as I should.
Thank you!! 🙂
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Intense is one word for it. Reading more than I buy has worked for 2 months out of the last six. It’s not going brilliantly
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Good Luck! especially on the not gaining to much new books part haha!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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Thank you! Ahaha yeah it’ll be hard!
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Ahh good luck! I always try to keep my TBR under 100 books so that it doesn’t end up being completely unmanageable but I also don’t own most of them, so that’s always helpful. I really hope you get to a good number under 100 by Christmas so that any presents won’t bump you back over. You have plenty of time! 🙂
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Thank you! I know if I didn’t have books I’ve owned for years on my shelves, I’d easily be under 100 books because I don’t buy as many as I read all the time. But I do think Christmas will bump me back over, so we’ll see!
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That’s quite a challenge! A fun one too because who doesn’t like the feeling of accomplishment in the end? All the best Ashleigh.
If possible, maybe you can a do a blog post or a video of the books on your TBR shelf? I’d love to see your reading list.
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It’ll be a hard one for sure!
Since there’s currently over 100 books on my TBR it might be quite a long post! But I’m happy to write one – I might put a general poll on twitter asking if anyone else would like to see a list of so many books ahaha!
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Yay! So glad I inspired you to tackle your tbr! I believe in you! You’ll definitely be able to do it I’m sure! I’m going to try and get mine under 50 next year so fingers crossed for the both of us 🤞🏼
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I saw on twitter that you’re not far from completing yours! Oooh getting it under 50 will be a good challenge, I’m intrigued to see if it can be done 😆 I bet you could!
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