I have been thinking about my TBR a lot. Lauren had asked me about my TBR lists that I had done back in 2015. That led me to an old blog post of mine and to Lauren’s recent post about a TBR. It made me remember what I loved about categories since I have become a mood reader. I did this system for a year and a half and I really enjoyed myself and was able to get some books of my TBR and ensure I got blog tour and ARCs read as well. It worked for me until it didn’t.
Well, recently there was a template on Instagram stories. The template was for a follower to enter a number into your question box and then I had to post a coordinating book on my Goodreads TBR shelf that matched that number. I had 22 people play along and out of those 22 people about 18 of them ended up reminding me of books I had wanted to read that I had long forgotten about. When the question was done I realize one important thing…my TBR is neglected. I have new shiny-itis, and I need to stop and rail it in. There are so many books out that I have just forgotten about and I need to remember myself to be better.
So today, I bring you my new version of my TBR category list. My notebook (although I love it and loved flipping through it when I was creating this post) is a thing of the past. I am going to follow Lauren’s lead and do categories similar to what she is using but that are more fitting for my blogging/reading style and needs.
There will be 8 categories a month with anything over the 8 complete freebies. If I read less than 8 books, I’m looking at you February, so be it. Life happens and you deal.
New to Me: My monthly feature where I read a book some have suggested and you all vote on.
Blog Tour: Something I willingly sign-up for whether is it with a blog tour company, and author, or a publisher. Some months there may be two for this category, some months I may not need to do any.
Netgalley/Edelweiss: All the eARCs I have accumulated over the years. Spoiler alert…there are a lot
Kindle Unlimited: I subscribe to this Amazon service and I want to try and get my monies worth if I can.
TBR #: I’m going to try and read some of those long forgotten books discovered by the Instagram Stories Template
ALA/BEA: I have been to a couple BEAs and a couple ALA and have a lot of books from both. I’m going to try and read some of those long forgotten gems.
Purchased: This is the category I can get the new shiny win because it will likely be a new release and I can read it here.
Wild Card: I can pick a duplicate of any of these categories
Honestly I have no idea if this is going to work for me. I’m going to try it for a month or two and see what happens. I could have outgrown a TBR list in the years since I stopped doing it. What I do know is I need to try and see what will work once again.
Do you have a TBR list? How do you figure out what to read every month?
I do weekly TBRs, because my mood plays a big role in my reading enjoyment. Publication dates and tours drive my TBR, but so do library holds. If a hold comes through, I bump my next book, because I want to get that book back to the eLibrary ASAP, so someone else can read it.
I try to read at least ten books every month, and I give myself certain categories to choose from. For example, I like to read one book from a subscription box, one new release, one book in translation, etc. It guarantees that I’ll be able to read a lot of variety while still making sure I’m actually reading the books I’ve been accumulating over time.
Ok I love this and need to do this for myself. I think I’d have fewer categories, but I think breaking it down like this will help me read things I already own.
[…] Monthly TBR List: A Revisit @ Andi ABC’s | I bugged Andi a while back about her old TBR methods, which I loved, because I was putting together a post about it. I drew inspiration from this method (picking TBR categories for the month instead of actual books) for my ARC-related TBRs. She posted an update after we talked about it because she remembered how great of an idea it is ? […]
I’ve been trying Lauren’s categories this month and so far it’s going alright. I do really like the categories you’ve picked though. Might be a little easier for me to follow. Maybe next month I’ll try yours! Oh and don’t worry you’re Netgally isn’t the only one. Mine has been a crazy mess for a long time! Before they put a tracking number on how many reviews we added…yep it’s been that long for me. (New follower here!)