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Do you make lists for what you're going to read in the upcoming year? Do you do challenges?
I must say, I try not to do challenges because I feel too pressured when I do. But I always make lists as ways of "promoting" various upcoming titles... but whenever I look more closely into how much I read of those lists...
Well, it's a little disappointing.
My first list was from a video of the 15 TBR books that I was going to read in 2015. It featured:
- The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
- The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
- The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
- The Chronicles of Chrestomanci vol. 2 by Diana Wynne Jones
- Champion by Marie Lu
- The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart
- Froi of the Exiles (Lumatere Chronicles #2) by Melina Marchetta
- Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
- To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
- Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
- Promised by Caragh O'Brien
- The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
- Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor
- Chime by Franny Billingsley
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Catherynne Valente
In two months, how many have I read from this list?
One: The Boyfriend List. If there are 15 books on that list and 12 months in a year, I have to read at least a book a month. Clearly I'm already behind here. I do have plans to read Chime by Franny Billingsley with Lyn from Great Imaginations. But I'm still behind according to this.
Another list I made was of the Top Ten / Eleven YA Debuts I Was Looking Forward to Reading.
- The Girl at Midnight - Melissa Grey
- The Witch Hunter - Virginia Boecker
- More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera
- Under a Painted Sky - Stacey Lee
- The Wrath and the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh
- The Sin Eater's Daughter - Melinda Salisbury
- An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir
- Court of Fives - Kate Elliott
- Dove Arising - Karen Bao
- Death Little's Deathdate - Lance Rubin
- Hello, I Love You - Katie M. Stout
Okay, this list I'm doing maybe a little bit better on? At the time that I'm writing this post (early March), I'm currently reading The Girl at Midnight... and an author friend said that she would lend me her copy of An Ember in the Ashes. So maybe better??? Or the exact same.
And my last list was of the 14 Books Being Released in 2015 That I Wanted to Read:
- The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6) by Richelle Mead - February 10th
- Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver - March 10th
- Shadow Scale (sequel to Seraphina) by Rachel Hartman - March 10th
- Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein - March 31st
- Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen - May 5th
- Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas - September 10th
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - May 5th
- Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn - June 9th
- Lair of Dreams (Diviners #2) by Libba Bray - July 7th
- The Golden Specific (Sequel to The Glass Sentence) by S.E. Grove - July 14th
- The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater - September 29th
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - October 6th
- Carry On by Rainbow Rowell - October 6th
- Winter (Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer- November 10th
At the time that I write this, I'm currently reading Shadow Scale. I can't really fault myself for being terrible at following through with this list since so many of them have not even been released yet (whereas debuts need a lot more publicity and/or have actually have ARCs vs. say, Winter & my TBR books are definitely already out).
But, let's look at the book that is out even now. The Ruby Circle. I haven't even ordered my copy yet. With the points I earn from using my credit/debit card, I choose to get the $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificate. By using my points for that and forcing myself to wait until I have that gift card, I'm helping to curb my book buying habits (#budgettips). So, I have that card and some weeks ago, I went to the B&N site and put Ruby Circle and The Glass Sentence - which I read last year and LOVED - into my cart. I was three cents away from a $25 total, which means you get free shipping.
And then I was like: well, that's just annoying. I'll wait a few days to see if one of them increases in price. THREE CENTS PEOPLE. It was a matter of principle.
Then I forgot about the book for like two weeks.
And The Ruby Circle went down by like 3 dollars when you no longer had to pre-order it and it was available everywhere (I wonder why -- is there some law that says pre-orders are so much more expensive than when the book actually releases?). So then nothing I did was going to get to that even $25. I considered buying two books from my "saved-later" cart to reach that goal but then thought c'mon, seriously? Three books all together? Like you're going to actually read all of them right when they arrive. Apparently I have better impulse control for online buying than when I'm actually in the store (e.g. see my Instagram account and book hauls from the Strand). So then I turned to the other pre-orders in my cart (e.g. The Wrath and the Dawn, on said above list), and they fit the $25 combination requirement with The Ruby Circle, but you have to bundle your books for free shipping and that means The Ruby Circle wouldn't arrive until the release date of that other pre-order and I was like hugngggghhh I'll wait.
WHY DO I MAKE NO SENSE. I sabotage my own attempts to finish reading the books on my lists.
But, okay, let's say that I count the books I'm currently reading and I've planned a read-along for and the couple I've read. That's FIVE books out of 40. Hahahahahahahaha. And we'll assume, too, for fairness that that is my record for 3 months. At this rate, I'm looking at a 50% completion rate.
YAY! I suck at following through with reading lists.
Being a mood reader sometimes really gets in the way of having concrete plans. (*sigh* but also #firstworldproblems).
Have you made lists of books that you're going to read this year? Are you following your challenge plans? Or are you like me, making them but not great at following through?
