It seems like lately the font for book titles is more whimsical, but I didn’t just want to showcase new books that everyone is seeing on their social media accounts. I wanted to show off some of my favorite books from throughout the years. Some of these books may be over a decade old – books that a lot of people might not have heard of.
If you click on the covers it will take you to my review for each of the books.
As I predicted, it’s been a very active summer. We’ve already had 3 typhoons head our way since June 1st, with another heading our way this weekend. The incoming typhoon was listed as a Cat 5 level typhoon. So this week will be spent watching the weather, and preparing the house. Needless to say, due to the high temperature and humidity, the choppy waters, and the constant vigilance of what’s developing out in the ocean, we haven’t done much of anything this summer. We already had one trip cut short when we tried to travel right before typhoon season started, only to have a typhoon arrive on opening day. So, this summer may be less fun in the sun, and more indoors with a book. Not that I’m complaining. After taking a few years off due to school, I have enjoyed catching up on all the books I’ve been wanting to read.
This month I took a break from going through my TBR on Goodreads. I read The Cursed King and Kamisama Kiss, but that was about it. I was starting to get burnt out because the books were just not bangers for me. I can’t say it was because I wasn’t in the mood for them, because I was. I just had a hard time with the characters, the writing style, or sometimes the story as a whole, and in the end it left me wanting more. So, instead of completely burning out and needing a break from reading all together, I decided to shift my focus to my summer reading challenge, catching up on my book club reading, and took a walk through the library and snatched up a few books that caught my eye. Oh and I also signed up for a couple of ARC’s that I’m excited to read. So, thankfully, I was able to divert myself away from a reading slump.
Today I’m going through my TBR and listing some of the books that I’m most interested in reading, that were written by author’s I’ve never read before. A lot of these books are by debut authors or authors who are indie-published and may not be big household names…. yet.
This post is linked to Sunday Post, Staking the Shelves, Sunday Salon, and #IMWAYRI did a deep dive into my Goodreads TBR list this month, to go through all the books and delete ones I don’t plan to read. I have had books sitting on my TBR for over a decade. A DECADE!!! Books that I saw and thought, “That looks like a good book” but then never actually purchased it or read it. It’s safe to say that some of those books are no longer of interest to me. Most were YA, and while I still enjoy reading YA, it’s not my primary genre anymore.
So, I went through my list, and any books that I immediately went “meh” over, got the boot. Books that are not available on KU or at my library, that I was not willing to pay money for, got the the boot. I was able to knock out almost half of the books on my TBR. What was once a TBR of over 200 books is now a list of 109 books. It’s still a bit overwhelming, but I feel like it’s more manageable… as long as I don’t go crazy adding books to it again.
Therefor, I have decided that I will spend this summer going through and reading my TBR one book at a time. I won’t push myself to read anything that I’m not feeling, but I do feel like I need to give these books a chance. So many of these books have so few reviews and ratings, and I want to give them a chance to find readers. The book I’m currently reading only has 4,000 ratings on Goodreads.
So, it’s time to brush off my TBR and start giving these books a chance in the spotlight.
This summer, I actually have a few reading projects going on. Every year, I join a summer reading program challenge with my friend and her family. They come up with a cool theme each year (this year is space and planets) and we have to read books for specific categories. It’s usually things like suspense, romance, books with certain colored covers, books set in a particular place, or books released in a specific year. For the last handful of years, I did terribly at the challenge because I was exploring Japan and finishing school. Well, I finally graduated, and it looks like we may be in for a very active typhoon season with no summer traveling. So, I should have nothing but time on my hands to read!
The other thing I have going on is that I joined and became an admin for a local romantasy book club here in Japan. So, that has been pushing me to read more books. I’ve read a lot of books that haven’t been on my radar, but that I really enjoyed. It’s kind of helped me get back into the groove of reading again.
The other bookish project I’m doing is trying to go through my Goodreads TBR. I have had books sitting on that list for over a decade, and it’s overwhelming to look at. So, I recently went through and knocked out a bunch of books that no longer interest me, and I am now going through the list, dusting off the books, and giving them a chance in the spotlight. So far…. it’s not going great. HOWEVER, I’m sure there are some winners in there.
So yeah, this summer is going to be a mix of book club reads, dusty TBR books, and my summer reading challenge.
This post is linked to Sunday Post, Staking the Shelves, and the Sunday Salon.I did a deep dive into my Goodreads TBR list this weekend, to go through all the books and delete ones I don’t plan to read. I have had books sitting on my TBR for over a decade. A DECADE!!! Books that I saw and thought, “That looks like a good book” but then never actually purchased it or read it. It’s safe to say that some of those books are no longer of interest to me. Most were YA, and while I still enjoy reading YA, it’s not my primary genre anymore.
So, I went through my list, and any books that I immediately went “meh” over, got the boot. Books that are not available on KU or at my library, that I was not willing to pay money for, got the the boot. I was able to knock out almost half of the books on my TBR. What was once a TBR of over 200 books is now a list of 112 books. It’s still a bit overwhelming, but I feel like it’s more manageable… as long as I don’t go crazy adding books to it again.
Therefor, I have decided that I will spend this summer going through and reading my TBR one book at a time from oldest to newest. I won’t push myself to read anything that I’m not feeling, but I do feel like I need to give these books a chance. So many of these books have so few reviews and ratings. The book I’m currently reading now only has 83 ratings on Goodreads and only 12 on Amazon.
So, it’s time to brush off my TBR and start giving these books a chance in the spotlight.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
We’ve all been there. A book explodes onto book blogs, BookTok, and Bookstagram.
Everyone is talking about it, reviewing it, and making videos about it.
You add it to your TBR list with the best intentions.
Then… time passes.
Months turn into years, and suddenly you realize you are the last person on earth who hasn’t read it.
Today, I’m clearing the air and confessing to ten books that have been sitting on my TBR Goodreads list for way too long.
Thousands of pages later, and I am still not over these ten books. They gave me the worst book hangovers of my life, and I loved every second of it.
I have already done a post about my top three favorite book-to-movie adaptations, so today I want to talk about the ones that let me down. These were ones that I was so insanely excited for, but when I sat down to watch them I was confused and angry. I mean, let’s be honest, more often than not, something goes off course when they adapt a book to film. Sometimes it’s something forgivable like an age change, or maybe they cut some scenes/dialog out. However, these are the ones that were so WTF?! that I just can’t keep quiet anymore.
So, you might have noticed that I’ve gone a bit silent recently. If you follow my Instagram, then you know why, but for those of you who aren’t on Instagram I’ll fill ya in. So, The Mister and I went to San Diego last week to attend Comic-Con. Leading up to our trip, I was scrambling to get my costume in order, figure out a way to dye my hair purple, and make sure the kiddos and plants were all set-up for our time away. While, I did have a friend house sitting while we were gone, I still wanted to make sure everything was in order so that she didn’t have to worry about too much stuff. So, for the past month I’ve been a bit scatterbrained trying to get ready for the big convention.
