I am in a writing mood and was trying to think of something to write on the blog when I thought about this- I should update you on where I am with my set TBR that I had for this year. When I was thinking about what books to put on my TBR at the beginning of the year, I focused mainly on getting to books that I had on my shelf, but just hadn't got to yet, with a few books I was interested in that I still needed to buy sprinkled in.
In the end, I came up with 35 books that I wanted to get through. That allowed for 15 books that I didn't have on my TBR list to cushion my 50 book goal. I figured that if I just chose 50 books that I wanted to read, i'd be more likely to deviate from it and read whatever I wanted, so I tried to keep my options open.
In my original post that I made about the TBR, (linked here- https://justyouraveragebookreview.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/projected-tbr-for-2018.html) I broke up the books into months that fit under a topic genre, for instance, "Romance", "Book-Film Adaptations", etc. Needless to say, I haven't stuck to that at all! I just kind of pick up whatever I want and am in the mood for. So, without further ado, let's see where I am...
For January, my theme was "New books from Christmas". I can't even say for sure what those books are, so I am going to move onto my next month.
February was romance in which I stuck to one of my choices- "When Beauty Tamed the Beast" by Eloisa James. I gave this book a 5/5 stars. The other books that I have listed on my original post did not make it over to my official TBR list.
March was book-film adaptations. 3 of the books from the projected TBR made it over to the final copy, "Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda", "The Help", and "A Wrinkle in Time". I have read two so far! I gave "Simon" an easy 5 stars and "A Wrinkle in Time" 4 stars.
April was Medieval reads and I kept all of the books from my projected TBR in my final TBR. I have not read "The Pillars of the Earth" or "Here be Dragons" yet (they are massive!!), but I am currently reading "The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England" and am enjoying it a lot. I think it will take me a little while to read, though, because I keep taking notes.
May was The Hobbit and LOTR. I still plan on reading all of those this year, I just haven't gotten to any of them yet.
June was LGBTQ+ reads to honour pride month. Two of the books made it over to the final TBR. I have not yet read "The Song of Achilles" but am really excited to, especially because I have heard so many amazing things about the newly released sequel. I have, however, read "History is All You Left Me" and gave it a 4 star rating.
July was contemporary reads, I had three on the initial blog, I brought all three over to the final TBR, and I have read them all! I am in such a contemporary mood this year. It's all I want to read! First off was "The Sun is Also A Star". It was my first book of the year and I gave it 5 bright shining stars, next was "Amy and Roger's Epic Detour" which was also 5 stars, and finally "An Abundance of Katherines" which I gave an average 3 stars. Not my favourite of John Green's works.
Next was August in which I had a stack of feminist reads. Turns out that I have read all of these as well. What can I say, I like woman power! First of all was "The Female of the Species" which is super underrated and deserved the 5 stars that I showered upon it. Next was "We Should all be Feminists" which was a transcription of Adichie's TED Talk speech and was incredible and a 5 star read. Then it was "The Radium Girls" which is a heart-breaking non-fiction read that will stay with you- it got 4 stars. Finally was "Angela Carter's Book of Fairytales" which was an empowering anthology full of woman power and strange Inuit tales- 3 stars.
September held "School reads" or books that I associated with school. Three of the four books made it to my finalised TBR, but I changed the 4th one from "Emma" to "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. I have yet to read "Howl's Moving Castle" and "The Thorn Birds" (if you want to know why they are under school reads, check out my original blog). However, I have read, "Outliers: The Story of Success" which I gave 3 stars, and "Pride and Prejudice" which is worth all of the classic hype and received 5 stars from me.
October is historical reads, because Autumn is arguably the best season for heart-breaking stories based on fact. I am currently reading Chernow's biography "Alexander Hamilton" is preparation for the musical in June. I also have already read "Orphan Train" which I gave a hearty 4 stars to. I still need to read "The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite" and "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr by the end of the year.
November was books that I thought my husband would like, with a special book that he chose specifically for me. I have read "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch which was an amazing 4-star read that I keep trying to get him to pick up now (I was right, he would love it). I also read "The Crossing Places" which got 3 stars from me (also something that I put on his shelf). Next is "The Martian" which I am currently 100 pages into, and his pick for me "Relentless" by Simon Kernick. I am excited to see if I like his reading pick!
Finally, December held the Mistborn trilogy. These books are massive and have an intense magical system, so I am glad that I have spread them out instead of trying to read them all in one month. I finished the first book of the trilogy "The Final Empire" and gave it 4 stars, I have part way through the second book "The Well of Ascension", and then I just have to get through the last one, "The Hero of Ages". I am excited to see how the story turns out!
In conclusion- I have finished 17 books that were on my TBR, I am currently reading 4 books, and I have 14 left to go once those 4 are read. I have saved the big chunky reads for last, so I am hoping that this will be doable!
Let me know how you are doing with your TBR of the year!
In case you want to keep up with my progress, here's the link to my Goodreads page where I keep track of my 2018 TBR reads specifically https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/44687877-abigail-woodruff?shelf=2018-tbr.