Hello friends!
The New Year has given me plenty of opportunities to reflect on my reading habits, and consequently on how I create my reading months. Although you know by now that I already have a formula that I’ve been using every month, this year taught me that I may need to make a few small adjustments!
So today’s post will be exactly about that. I feel the need to revisit the rules and make small changes for the lists to be more adapted to my lifestyle, so I thought I would write it down – and why not share it with you?
So here is my (new-ish) formula to create a balanced monthly TBR list that works for me, and if it has been working for me:
1. Read 1 paperback per month (UPDATED)
I’ve had this goal for a while now and let me tell you why it is important for me to follow it: I own so many physical copies of books that it’s getting ridiculous. I think it’s important for me to keep reading books in this format so I can finally reduce my book collection… but it’s not very easy to achieve this every single month.
Is this rule working? Not really if I’m being honest. In fact, the reason why I’m writing this post is in essence because of this rule! Overall, this has been a very difficult thing to achieve some months, because I can’t bring my physical books with me as easily as I do my ebooks and audiobooks. Meaning, I don’t grab my physical copies as often as I do for other formats.
The change: Instead of committing to reading 2 physical books per month, I’m committing to reading only 1. Of course, it depends on the month, but overall this has been a very difficult thing to achieve, so I’m making my life a little easier and stress-free with this decision. I still want to tackle my physical TBR by being consistent, but I’ve come to terms that it is probably going to be a long process, so I’ll just do it slower! This is going to take off the stress I’ve been feeling for not accomplishing this every single month.
2. Listen to 2 audiobooks
This “rule” is also important to me but for a different (similar) reason. Yes, my physical TBR is long, but my overall TBR is way longer. By listening to audiobooks I’m able to finally get to books I really wanted to read that I don’t necessarily have in the physical format. This is a huge advantage also because I can listen to them while running errands, doing what I call “no-brain” tasks, and even monotonous work. All benefits!
Is this rule working? Yes! This is probably the format that is easier to grab for me because I can do other things at the same time (cleaning, working out, driving, etc.). So this is not difficult for me to achieve, so no changes are necessary.
3. Read 1 ebook
My e-reader is a very special tool to me and I love it so much that I always take it with me everywhere I go – grocery shopping, the gym, on walks… you never know when you’re going to need entertainment! My goal is to read one book per month in it because, not only do I take it with me everywhere, but it’s also good to read books that I don’t have physical copies for and for books I don’t feel like listening on audio. That way I can cover a lot of books!
Is this rule working? Another yes! This format is still easy for me to grab because my small Kobo follows me everwhere. No changes here either!
4. Pick at least 3 different genres every month
This is another important “rule” for two reasons. The first one is how I always try to read different genres. I always wanted to be a diverse reader, so if I try and read at least 3 different genres every month, I’ll be more than happy! The second reason is that when I first started reading multiple books at the same time, I started to mix stories if they were similar. This was something that I noticed and quickly fixed: I no longer read similar stories (similar characters, atmosphere, environment) at the same time. That is also easier to fix if I read different genres.
Is this rule working? This was always easy to achieve, so I’m keeping this as it is! Since I pick 6 books every month to read, it’s easy to just pick 3 different genres.
5. Read manga every month
I have so many manga series that I want to read, that I decided I should always be reading at least one month. A quick note: this doesn’t mean that I’ll be finishing an entire series every month. The goal here is for me to just pick at least one volume from the current series I’m reading and read it throughout the month. If I don’t finish the series that month, I’ll continue the next month until it’s finished. I love manga and I believe it’s a great palate cleanser to read between books!
Is this rule working? Although I’m having a small break for the holiday season, this rule is also working very well for me. Mangas are easy to read and I always have a manga ready on my phone to pick up. So this is another goal I’m not touching.
6. Read 1 book from my “30 Oldest Books on my TBR” list
If you don’t know, I’m keeping a list of the 30 books that have been on my TBR for the longest time, and I want to tackle them slowly. They deserve to be read, and I’m determined to read at least 10 of these before I get an updated version of the list again! I have the tendency to pick more recent books, so the goal here is to make sure I’m reading some of the oldest books on my TBR, and give them the love they deserve!
Is this rule working? Overall… it is working. To be honest, at first, I was thinking about changing this goal and make a little more flexible by making it optional. But I know myself, and that would mean they would be at the bottom of the list for way longer! So after some thought, I decided to leave it untouched because it’s been really nice to see the older books getting out of the list!
I guess the only difficulty I’ve had here is that sometimes I’m not in the mood to pick a book from that list because I want something that has caught my eye more recently. But at the end of the day, I’m also just committing to a single book… so can I really complain? I’ll make an effort to keep this goal going!
7. Read 1 book from a series
As I told you multiple times, I have a hard time reading the series – I have bookish commitment issues. So if I try to read at least one book from a series per month I’ll be making progress with a series! It doesn’t matter the format, as long as I read a series!
Is this rule working? Another staple in this list that will kept untouched. This is very easy to do as well, so no need to make changes here.
So as you can see, only the first point is going to be updated to be a little more stress-free, but I’m still keeping the other goals untouched. I think it’s important to remind (mostly myself) that life happens and sometimes things don’t work out the way we want. With that said, I’m going to try and follow this format whenever possible!
What about you, do you have any “reading rules”? Tell me all about it!
Thank you for reading friends! See you in the next one.
Sprayed Edges 