So, I really enjoy cleaning and organizing. Just yesterday I did a deeper-than-usual clean of my house and now it’s time I turn to the hot mess that has become my TBR over the last year.
I really like how I did my post last year, getting rid of 10% of my TBR to be slightly less overwhelmed, so I’m going to do the same again this year! So my current TBR is sitting pretty at 647 books, so to take away 65 books leaves me at 602 books on my TBR by the end of this.
The reasons they were removed from my TBR include:
- it’s a duplicate for some reason
- the ratings are crap
- the reviews from people I trust are crap
- I’m no longer excited to read it
- it’s problematic
- I tried the author a few times and didn’t care for their work
- … or usually some combination of the above
The way I see it, the less books on my TBR the less time I waste and stress deciding what to read next. My reading time is precious and I only want to pick up books I’m keen about. I figure if I’m meant to read some of these books, they’ll make their way back to me. Now, let’s go through the ones I deleted!
Classics
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
General fiction
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Science fiction, fantasy
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Lock In by John Scalzi
Lore by Alexandra Bracken
Short stories, poetry
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Horror, thriller, mystery
The 6th Extinction by James Rollins
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
Final Girls by Riley Sager
The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Non-fiction
Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure by Monisha Rajesh
Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
The Lonely Hunter: How the Search for Love Is Broken by Aimee Lutkin
Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind by David Quammen
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by Frances Larson
Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King
No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn M. Brodie
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry by Jason Schreier
Young adult
101 Awesome Women Who Changed Our World by Julia Adams
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
The Golden Compass and His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
Historical fiction
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Photo by Fang-Wei Lin
