January TBR + How I’m Cutting Out My TBR in 2017

I am not usually one for making To-Be-Read lists. I don’t stick to them, and I like to read more spontaneously – reading whatever I want, whenever I want – which is sometimes at odds with my pre-planned pile.

However, I feel pretty confident that I know what books I will be reading this month. Which also ties in with my second purpose for this blog post: how I plan to cut out my TBR pile this year.

But first, my January TBR!

My plan for this month is to finish off most of the books that were left on my ‘currently reading’ shelf on goodreads at the end of 2016. I had five! I have already DNF’d two for the time being, because I’m trying to be more selective in reading what I know that I will enjoy, and what I will want to make time for. That leaves me with three books to finish, two of which I plan to complete this month…

• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Additionally, I have already finished one book this month…

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling

… and am currently reading another

• A Million Worlds With You (Firebird #3) by Claudia Gray

On top of these, there are also some new releases that I am really excited about in January. Three of these are all coming out at the end of the month, on the 31st (three of my most anticipated books for the year coming out on the same day!?), so I will be pushing those into my February reads. That leaves me with one main release to get to this month:

• Wayfarer (Passenger #2) by Alexandra Bracken

This leads me on to my plans for reading in 2017 in general. I think I did pretty well with regulating the number of books that I bought last year, but I want to be even more careful with it this year. I dream of one day owning a collection of books as large as Beast’s library, and I know that this dream will be slowed down a lot with this tactic, but I am literally only going to buy books on a buy-then-read basis. By this, I mean that I am only going to buy a book if I am going to immediately start reading it. That means no more bulk-buying of books, and getting them one at a time instead.

My TBR pile isn’t outrageous by any means, but it is still very much there, staring back at me every time I look at my bookshelves. And it stresses me out! Especially when I look at these books, and feel very little desire to pick any of them up. I want a big book collection, but I want that collection to be filled with books that I have actually read. Part of the charm of owning a physical book, is that it is a physical manifestation of the memories associated with reading it. When I look at the number of books that I own that I haven’t read, I’m reminded that this isn’t how I want to keep buying books.

This probably means that I will be buying very few books this year, and only one at a time when I do. It also means that I will be going through my books and being realistic about which of them I will really read, and which of them I have just lost interest in. My goal is to have a library filled with books that I have read, and to have a collection of stories that tell their own stories too. And so I plan to dramatically reduce, if not remove, my TBR pile, and be more selective and careful about the books that I buy.

 

I’m interested in your thoughts on this! Do you like having lots of books in your collection to choose from when you want to read, or do you prefer to be more selective about what stays on your shelves?