Reading Goals & TBR Zero Check In | #2 of 2022

Books mentioned:

Good Intentions by Kasim Ali
We Do This 'Til We Free Us Mariame Kabe
White Magic by Elissa Washuta
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Sundial by Catriona Ward
Violets by Alex Hyde
Tastes Like War by Grace M Cho
The Unbroken by C L Clark
Rules of Ascension by David B Coe
The One Kingdom by Sean Russell

If you fancy it you can -

[libraryofkayla]

I love the way you've decided to shelve your books - I think it's such a clever way to being able to properly look at your tbr and how/why you pick your next read. Recently I've been changing up one of my shelves every season or so and (mostly) picking from there. I get overwhelmed with too many options but get bored with too little so I've found it really helpful.

[lyddie]

i find this type of stuff so fascinating! but it could never for me. good luck for next month!

[rinceyreads]

The library really is so tempting, I keep picking up library books instead of reading books from my physical TBR this month. It is hard because there are a lot of books coming out this year that I'm genuinely so excited about but also can't keep for too long because they have holds on them. But I really do want to keep working on my physical TBR. I am doing pretty well but I want to now keep books on there for less than a year so I need to work on some of the older ones I bought last fall

[tawnyman]

I love these kinds of videos so much. I had 23 books on my physical tbr at the start of the year but I have read exactly 0 of them this year and 100% of my reading has been done via the library. I would really love to get down to zero by the end of the year, and I may need to just ban myself from the library like you said. 23 books is only like 2-3 months of reading for me, but I completely lack self control when it comes to the physical library and the ebook system. It’s not a lot of books, but if I only get to like five in a year, who knows how long some of these books could languish on my shelves. My reading habits just prove I’m not a physical tbr person, and hopefully I can get it down and have my future reading be guilt free. Good luck with your goals, especially not using the library, I know it’s so hard! 😅

[timetoread]

I definitely keep track of page count and books in my TBR balancing/check in stuff...Cause I could buy five huge books but read ten teeny things and then...it's like not the same, lol...you know?

I love how specific you are and how much detail is in this video!!

[actual-spinster]

i think reading 1, 2, 3, 4 from your shelves is a great idea! i feel like maybe numbering the shelf u least often pick from as number one would also maybe be a good idea too, so i guess the bottom shel would be one and then then next one up would be two and so on? just to get you to read from that shelf even more easy/likely ! good luck with it as usual !! oh also maybe you already know but a good equivalent to abebooks is alibris ! im pretty sure it isnt amazon owned and is good for secondhand and new books :)

[johnsaxongitnolife]

Love this video and your amazing channel please stay safe and enjoy your reading love your Australia fan John xxx

[catdancerskaleidoscopeofbo]

Everything you said made perfect sense. If it were me, I would go 4, 3, 4, 3, 1 (the book you've had out from the library the longest), 2. Rather than going 1, 2, 3, 4 from your shelves. But then I would never dare to attempt to get my TBR below 50. 😊

[WhileJenWasReading]

I’m also trying to reduce the amount I read form the library. I found that I liked library books a lot less because I didn’t have to “commit” to a purchase so I’d read whatever was popular not what I actually wanted to read.

[emmaanstee]

Love these kind of videos! I’m the same - I always prioritize my library holds. I might as well reserve the books I’ve bought from the library, then maybe I’d read them?? 😅

[GaggingLit]

Picking one from each of your shelves sounds like a nice way to do it. As for counting how many pages or how many books I read, that seems like such a waste of time to catalogue all that when I could be spending that time reading or on youtube lol.

[theadora]

Hmm, you could also reverse the order on the shelves? Like, instead of new -> old, you go old - > new, if that makes sense. I know I would want to shelve my new books at the top too, but that's also why you pick them. Since they're the ones at eye level. I don't know if you'd aesthetically like the look of having your newer books at the bottom, but it could help if those books were the ones you see first?

[katrinaandallthebooks]

One thing that did help was listening to a book from my tbr rather than always listening to new books

[katrinaandallthebooks]

I didn’t use my library for the first 3 months of this year and got my tbr down by 60 books. I then reserved some of the Women’s Prize, got overly excited by ‘free’ books and now have 18 out and 4 reserved. I’m going to work through them and not reserve anything until I’ve finished all of these. I trying to do a similar 1234 thing between kindle and physical books, new and old, but rarely get to the pre 2021 books (some have been with me over 10 years) so I need to be stricter with myself.

[readingwithlaurane]

I've had the goal to read at least a certain number of books from my pre 2021 shelves per quarter. It worked really well in Q1, but I still have to start on the three I want to have read by the end of june... So your idea of going '1, 2, 3, 4' makes total sense in my eyes!

[jenniwhatsbookin]

I think picking from your shelves that way seems like a great idea! Especially because you can still pick a book you are excited for in that moment, just with a more limited selection. I also waffle back and forth between trying to avoid the library and relying on them too much (since it stops me from going out and unnecessarily buying a book I may not even like)

[unboundbookishnotions]

I have the same problem with borrowing from my library and not reading from my TBR. I love your idea of doing more a structure approach. Maybe just borrowing one or two books from the library and then reading predominantly from my own shelves

[adrastea]

I really love stats video I don't mind not seeing Charts ☺️

[sandra.]

Don't force 5000 pages a month too much or you'll d probably dnf too quickly and reading will become like work...give yourself some wiggle room.☺️

[p_p_p_p_]

Hey Mercedes, did you recently mention a book where a couple is going through relationship problems i think but it is unclear what the pronouns of the protoganists are? So it's playing with unconcious biases? Or something similar to that? I've tried to go back to find it but can't remember the title. Thank you!