One Step Forward Two Steps Back
TBR Challenge Update
Remember how in January I told you I was going to read all the books I own? Or at least try to be better about picking books from my own shelves before buying new ones or checking out from the library?
Well, here we are at the end of March, end of Q1, and it’s time to see how much progress I’ve made. I’ve got good news and bad news.
The bad news first. I miscounted my books at the beginning of the year. Oh the humanity! Originally I thought I had 130 physical books and 160 e-books, for a total of 290. The physical book count is accurate, but there are several e-books that somehow got overlooked and the digital book start count is actually closer to 172. Which bumps the total starting amount for the TBR challenge to a whopping 302! Okay. Take a deep breath. That’s not as bad as I thought. 12 extra books to read. That’s fine. I love reading!
Now onto the good news. In general, I’ve been having a really great time reading from my own shelves. I’ve discovered some really good books that might end up on my favorites of 2025 list (though we’re still pretty early in the year to make bets on that) including, The Wildlands by Abby Geni, The Unseen World by Liz Moore, and The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church.
Additionally, I’ve been good about not buying books in Q1. Except for one book that I bought for Ryan (and then read myself) and one book I picked up off the street because it had been abandoned and I want to read it, I have only purchased books that I’m reading for my book club. I’ve also been really good about reading these books almost as soon as I buy them so my TBR count is still going down, albeit a little slower than it would if I didn’t buy or read any new books at all.
The library rule, about only checking 3 books out a quarter, has been a little more challenging for me. In part, because I started to make some Edgar Award related content for The Book Nook and ended up checking out and reading a few of the nominees for 2025. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep making content for The Book Nook at this point, and also I haven’t been enjoying this year’s nominees very much and one of my own rules for this year…that I have been struggling to follow…is to abandon any book I’m not thoroughly enjoying. Yeah. Sigh. I forgot about that rule.
This is a reminder to myself:
Rule #5. Abandon any book I am not thoroughly enjoying.
I was going to tell you that other than checking out a bunch of Edgar Nominees, I’ve been doing a good job about sticking to my 3 books a quarter rule, but then I remembered that last week I went to the library to pick up 1 of those 3 books and grabbed 2 more on a whim from the Lucky Day shelf so…
Who else loves libraries? Am I right?
If I were to give myself a grade, I’d give myself a C+. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of going to my shelves first when I need to read a new book, but I’ve also been bringing in, and then reading, 2 or more books a month. So while those technically count as reading from my shelves, it also feels a little like cheating because I’m not reading down the books I’ve had for a long time as quickly as I’d like. My entire life I’ve been an A student, so I’m going to need to step up my game in Q2.
Here’s where my TBR shelf currently stands as of April 1, 2025:
Starting Book Count in January: 302
Total Books Acquired in Q1: 7
Total Books DNF’d or Unhauled in Q1: 8
Total Books Read in Q1: 14
Total Books Left to Read: 287
I would love to have seen the total books left to read number below 280 by end of Q1, but I’ll take what I can get and honestly, I’ve been having a great time reading this year—which, regardless of how the numbers look, is a win for me! Who really cares about the metrics when the books are this good?!
Now, as for Q2, am I going to be doing anything differently in an effort to make better progress on my goal?
Well, I think I’m going to keep on going with my low buy rule. There are at least 2 books I want to buy in Q2 that I put off in Q1, and then I may buy books for my book clubs, but otherwise, I’m going to try and keep book buying and acquisition to a minimum. (Though there is a new secondhand bookstore opening near me and I’m most definitely going to have to treat myself to something from there in order to welcome them properly to the neighborhood!) It has felt good to watch space open up on my shelves and I’d like that trend to continue if possible.
I’m also going to try and stick to my 3 books a quarter from the library rule, but I’m a little behind on the Q1 library books so I think my goal will be to read those first before checking anything else out from the library. Which may mean not checking anything else out in Q2, we’ll see.
Otherwise, I’m just going to carry on with my original plan to try and read as many books from my own shelves as possible and hopefully find some more gems, and maybe by the end of Q2 I’ll be below 280! Fingers crossed!
Okay… time to get back to reading… I have a lot of books waiting for me!
I'm 45 non-fiction or fictions books and 10 craft/art books in! I've enjoyed most of them. I've put about 15 aside—a few for later, but most for never.