There are more excuses!
I am going to explain why it is so easy for me to make excuses for the first part of the year, and then what I feel I need to do about this. I have received a lot of comments from people who think it is funny how many excuses we can all seem to find to buy books, and I completely accept this. It is hard to have impulse control when you love something so much, when everyone is talking about it, and when you are just curious and cannot wait to find out what is happening. It is worse if you have the means to do so, or if you can find easy excuses to allow you this luxury. And that is what the beginning of the year has been like for me.
At first, this challenge went well, because I was able to make so many excuses, and didn’t feel bad about it. I did reduce my original TBR by 20 books, even if it was through unhauling or DNFing rather than reading, but I found that the actually challenge wasn’t working. The books that I had picked out for the challenge itself were sitting, mostly still unread. They were a mixture of really long books, or books that I just didn’t feel like I could fit in after work, and books that I didn’t want to get rid of because, during the summer holiday, I would be excited to read them. The challenge stalled, and this led to me wanting to buy books, but being unable, and so in the end, splurging. I ended up buying back the same amount of books I had managed to remove from my TBR. Which is impressive, given that I had unhauled around 20, and read about 16.
Each time there was an excuse: Fairyloot book doesn’t count as this is an already bought and paid for Christmas present, and it’s only 1 book anyway; preorders don’t count, because I only preorder one or two books a year and they are ones in series’ that I’ve loved for a very long time; bookclub books don’t count, because I read them in the same month and I’m going to talk about them so I need to read them; presents don’t count, because I can’t help it if someone buys me a book – unfortunately, there is christmas, and then giftcards, and my birthday is just over a month later, and I was 30 this year so more presents and gift cards. In the end, every excuse has led to a disaster of a TBR list which has increased no matter what I did to decrease it, and a very unsuccessful challenge.
However, I do not want to give up. I realised I really had to rethink this. I’m a massive mood reader, and I have been reading! I also will continue to make excuses so something needed to be changed that would allow this challenge to be more successful. So here is my revamped (after only 2 months) TBR241 challenge.
The revamped, general challenge.
Instead of purchasing a book, and then having to choose 2 books from the wheel picker to read as a forfeit for buying this book, I am changing this around. I will now have to earn ‘book credits’ before I can purchase a new book. These book credits are earned each time I read ‘3’ books from my current TBR so that my TBR will always be reduced by 2, for every 1 book that I buy. So,
The Rules:
- Fairyloot books will not count. These are a Christmas present, already purchased, and it is one book a month – so I don’t think this will really make the biggest deal.
- Current preorders do not count – at the moment this is A Court of Frost and Starlight and Midnight (Skullduggery Pleasant). I don’t have to feel bad about those, but future preorders will count.
- Any other books I buy will count – including book club books.
- I must read 3 books before I earn a credit – once I have the credit, I can store them up to use for book club or for a binge or whatever.
- Books that people give me as gifts do not count – because I cannot help this, and I’m not going to turn down the gift. However, if there is a gift giving reason, I will casually request gift cards rather than physical books, to allow me to earn the credit and then buy them at a later date if I am able…
So this is my updated TBR241 challenge, which I will now count as started from March 2nd! (because world book day binge has now been counted into the massive TBR pile). As it stands, I have read 2 books already, and plan on reading more – thanks to the readathonbyZoe which I will post about tomorrow – so I am definitely on the way to earning credits. I’m planning on saving these up to buy bookclub books next month!
Afternoon Literature 