Now that we are officially into Winter I can talk about my Fall 2022 TBR. I made the list back in September for a Top Ten Tuesday post… And here’s the thing. I suck at TBR’s. There is zero question about it. Yet, I still made the list. I even made another TBR for Winter knowing how my Fall TBR was faring. So, how badly did I do?
The Fall 2022 TBR:
- The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik: Finished Reading 10/1
- The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West
- The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan: Started, but not finished.
- For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
- The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
- The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson
- This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: Finished reading 12/11
- Radiance by Grave Draven
- A Pleasure and a Calling by Phil Hogan
- Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell
Look at me go! I completed two books and read a little of a third. Mind you throughout the rest of the fall I read like 18 bajllion Pride and Prejudice retellings, not a single one of which was on this list.
Why oh why did I read so few of these books? I am a MOOD READER EXTRAORDINAIRE. It doesn’t matter how much I want to read a book, or if I’m reading it and really like it. If I don’t feel like reading it I simply don’t read it. I will put down a book that is perfectly good, even great – I’m looking at you The Library of the Unwritten – and I will read something else that is more in line with what I want in that moment. For this reason, I cannot complete a TBR to save my life. I love making lists of books and browsing my books for things I’d like to read in the coming weeks etc. However I know that even if a book is good and I’m enjoying it, reading it when I’m not in the mood will affect how much I enjoy it as a whole and how I rate it, and it feels wrong to let myself stay on a path to potentially giving a book a worse rating than it deserves because I’m a moody reader… y’know?
Admittedly, this is one of the things about readers that interests me the most. Why are some folks like myself and read exclusively based on mood while other people can read exclusively from a list until all books are checked off without a care for what kind of mood they’re in? I feel as though this is something we’ve yet to figure out (or I’m just not looking in the right places) and really, that’s okay. I’m fine with being a mood reader. I never know for sure what book I’m going to pick up next which keeps things interesting for me. Of course, it might drive other readers bonkers!
Where do you fall on this spectrum? Are you a strict TBR follower, a definite mood reader, or somewhere in between?
Until next time, Happy Reading!
Among Stories 