This week’s Top Ten topic, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is books on my spring To Be Read list. Right now this list is about a mile long, and I’m in the middle of three books at once.
What’s the point of a TBR list? For me it’s a way to organize my reading, so I can stay on top of challenges and read a variety of things. It’s a way of being thoughtful about my reading, given limited time. Otherwise the temptation is pretty strong to read whatever’s new and exciting. I don’t worry about how much of my list I read, although I feel good if I stick to it. I never want a list to take the fun out of reading. This isn’t homework, and there are no deadlines. Sometimes it feels like I’m racing through books to get to the next one, and then I have to remind myself that no one’s counting how much I read.
For me, a TBR list is a place to “park” interesting titles when I hear about them. Right now I keep TBR lists in way too many places: Goodreads, Amazon, Overdrive (library wish list), and my blog. Amazon tells me when a book drops in price, the library lets me put books on a wait list, and Goodreads lets me track by category and shows what I’m currently reading. But I’d rather have one list.
Here are my reads for the next three months:
First, I’ve got three advance review copies I’ll be reading:
- The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova
- The Last Days of Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan
- The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Next, I’m reading nonfiction about current events and the state of the country:
- In the Country We Love by Diane Guerrero
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
For challenges, I plan to read these books:
- Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (for the Classics Book a Month Club)
- Orlando by Virginia Woolf (for Back to the Classics)
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (for Reading Around the World)
And finally, just for fun:
- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
- Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
That’s 13, not ten, and there are way more on my list, but I can only read so much. What’s on your TBR list? Do you make TBR lists? Why or why not?
