What is that ginormous thing blocking out the sun?! Well, it is only my TBR…
When it comes to shelf control – alas, I have none. I am still a bit the little child in the candy story who doesn’t get why she can’t have all of them, and sooner rather than later. I have been fighting the Mt. TBR for quite some years and book buying bans don’t seem to work. This summer I have allowed myself to get more books – since the summer plans have collapsed due to the ongoing pandemic. However, on the long run, I hope that posting my monthly additions will help me prevent them spiraling out of control again.
Only two tree books in August! Doomsday Book was a gift – I started reading it immediately but haven’t really gotten into it yet. The Boy on the Bridge I wanted to read after The Girl with All the Gifts, and it is part of my selection for the Halloween Bingo.
I didn’t show quite as much control when it came to the ebooks this month, though. There was a (little) shopping spree in the beginning of the month, and then I added some more just for good measure during the rest of the month.
The shopping spree included:
- All the Binti books which I have wanted to read for quite some time now.
- Bloodchild, a short story from Octavia E. Butler that was free and I wanted to get a taste of her writing.
- The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and The Black God’s Drum, after the Hugo awards were announced.
- Rosewater, which I wanted to read for a while after reading the Molly Southbourne books.
- Americanah, after reading Why We Should All Be Feminists
- And The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps books, as well as The Bone Ships and the Empress of Salt and Fortune because they sounded really nice.
The Pursuit of William Abbey and Darius Grey is Not Okay I got in daily deals, The Crying of Lot 49 was the new selection for my bookclub. Riot Baby was August’s selection for the Tor.com ebook club, and I already read it. Drowned Country I got as it was published, since I enjoyed Silver in the Wood so much.
Virgina Woolf is a PigeonHole read on my phone (the group read part of it I miserable failed, but I hope to finish it sometime soon).
Wuthering Heights is another selection for the Halloween Bingo which I got via Project Gutenberg, and Graveyard Shift is for the Bingo as well.
Finally, the Agatha Christie’s are a part of the preparations for the Agatha Christie group reads that will start from next month.
All in all, a great haul but so many books to read!
The final category is Netgalley ARCs. I used to go quite wild with these, so many books that look cool and they are all free. So I try to keep the requesting down a bit. Still, this was the month in 2020 with the most new ARCs for me. However, the three comic books I already read. I almost finished Breath of Salt as well, and several of the other books are in my Halloween Bingo selections. So, I hope to finish all of these soon!
Well, these were all the books I added in the last month, but how many did I add to the TBR? Here is a breakdown of the books:
I added 30 books and read 14 books, 5 of which were new. So – I am ashamed to admit, my TBR is now 21 books higher (and slightly closer to the moon) compared with last month. On the bright side, it is the fifth of the month already and I haven’t added a single book yet!
How many and which books did you add last month? Have you read any of them? Which should I read first? – Let me know in the comments!
Url Phantomhive 
How are you getting on with Mrs Dalloway?
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I hope to finish it during the long weekend (though weekend is relative – there is an online conference I am following).
I like it a lot – especially Septimus’ parts – but the stream of consciousness is something I really need to stay focused on, and I don’t always have that focus at the moment…
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I really liked Septimus’ parts, too.
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One day you will conquer your tbr or it will conquer you
Zen-koan of Bookstooge on the Road
For me, I don’t add books to my tbr anymore unless they are a finished series or are really something I want to check out. It is amazing how many times I wait for a series to finish, read the first book and decide the rest aren’t worth it. So my tbr goes down quickly. I also regularly comb through my tbr to see if there are books that I have no idea why they are there. If I can’t remember, whooosh, out it goes.
Complete and Utter Ruthlessness is the key to tbr control. Or, you decide right now that it doesn’t matter and you don’t worry about it ever again and become one of those people with 10,000 books on their tbr, of which 8473 they will never actually read 😉
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I wish I could step away from it so easily – I am still in the phase where I am convinced that one day I can read them all (it would take me years at this point but let’s not get bothered with details like that).
I am just trying to pay attention to what I add – although last month I felt a bit YOLO with the pandemic so I just let myself go a bit with the books… Normally, this month should be better again.
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This is a great list! And “Mt. TBR” is quite appropriate for a title! 😂❤️🐝
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It is a mountain for sure. Last month I let myself go a bit, I hope it will have some more control next month. So far, so good. 😉
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I love buying books and I will be honest I don’t bother with self control anymore. I know I will never conquer my TBR pile but I find it comforting that there are so many lovey books waiting for me to choose from.
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I once was at home for some longer period of time, when almost all my books were at my student place, I felt stress because I was literally running out of things to read at that point.
With the ereaders now and the Mt. TBR, I can safely say that will no longer happen 😂
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