I recently wrote a post about how effective my Priority Titles TBRs seem to be, and it made me wonder about my Monthly TBRs… I’ve been putting together a monthly TBR list for a long time now, but up until what point are they actually working? Or in other words: what’s the score? Below the numbers for the last two years (both how many I managed to read that month and how many titles I managed to read afterwards). And yes, I can already promise you there will be a Hall Of Shame with the books I still haven’t read yet at the end of this post. xD
2021
January: 13/15 books
I read 10/15 books last January, which is pretty good. I’ve also read 3 more of those books since.
February: 14/15 books
I managed to read 9/15 books, which could have been worse. I’ve also read 5 more of these since.
March: 14/15 books
I once again read 9/15 books last March. And like the previous month, 5 more books were read afterwards, giving another almost perfect score.
April: 13/15 books
I managed to read 11/15 books last April, and two more titles afterwards.
May: 13/15 books
I managed to read 12/15 books last May, which is an excellent score. I also read one more book afterwards.
June: 15/15 books
I managed to read 12/15 books again, and to make things even better I’ve also read the final three pending books since. Perfect score!
July: 13/15 books
I only managed toread 6/15 books last July, which is a bit disappointing. Thankfully I did read 7 more of these since.
August: 14/15 books
Last August was an almost perfect 14/15 books score! I still have to read the remaining title though.
September: 12/15 books
This is my worst result yet with only 4/15 books read. I did manage to read 8 more of these since.
October: 7/15 books
Another bad month with only 5/15 books… I blame the blogging and reading slump I had last year. I only read 2 more of these, so this is definitely my least successful TBR by far.
November
N/A (blogging break)
December
N/A (blogging break)
This graphic shows how many books I originally read from my monthly TBR in blue and how many remaining books on that TBR I read afterwards in green. As a whole I came pretty close to almost completing the TBR over time (12+ books out of 15) every single month except for October, which I’m definitely happy about.
TOTAL BOOKS UNREAD IN 2021: 17
2022
January
N/A (blogging break)
February: 11/15 books
I managed to read 6/15 books, which is pretty bad. xD I did read 5 more of those books since, bringing up the total to 11 books.
March: 15/15 books
I read a total of 12/15 books, which is a lot better than the previous month. To make things even better, I’ve also read the last three pending books on this TBR since!
April: 11/15 books
I only managed to read 6/15 books again, but this was partly due to the fact that I decided to put the DI Callanach series on hold. I did read 5 of the other titles since this post.
May: 14/15 books
I managed to get a whopping 14/15 books almost perfect score in May! While I haven’t read the final book yet (mostly because I haven’t been in the mood for fantasy), I do hope to read it some time soon.
June: 13/15 books
I read 11/15 books of my June TBR, which is great. I have read two more of these since as well, so all in all a successful TBR.
July: 12/15 books
I read 12/15 books in July, which was better than I hoped with all the ARCs. I still have to read the remaining three titles, but I hope to do so soon.
August 11/15 books
I read 11/15 books in August, which was definitely better than expected with me trying to catch up with a series and a lot of ARCs. The remaining titles I hope to read before the end of September.
This graphic shows how many books I originally read from my monthly TBR in blue and how many remaining books on that TBR I read afterwards in green. While some monthly TBRs were more successful than others initially, as a whole at least I ended up reading 11+ books of those listed over time.
TOTAL BOOKS UNREAD IN 2022 (SO FAR): 20
CONCLUSION
It seems like my monthly TBRs are mostly quite successful with almost every single month (eventually) reaching that 10/15 books mark or higher. Between the two years, I have an impressive amount of books I still need to read though… Some because I haven’t been in the mood for the genre, others because they have simply slipped between the cracks of my TBR mountain. It looks like I should keep making those monthly TBRs though, because most of the books end up being read! It’s probably because with monthly posts it’s easier to guess what genre/books I will in the mood for.
Let’s take a quick final look at the books that I haven’t read yet.
A.K.A. The Hall Of Shame
>>probably not reading any time soon<<
>>hopefuls before the end of 2022<<
Do you make a monthly TBR and how successful are those for you? Any books on my unread titles list I should read first?
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I have a monthly reading schedule, mostly to keep track of blog tour commitments or ARC publication dates, but I’m also trying to include books from my TBR pile. I know I’m much more likely to read a book if it’s in my schedule. I also find reading challenges really concentrate the mind.
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The ARCs and reading challenges are part of the reason I try to put together a monthly TBR each month… It helps giving me an idea which books I should give priority to.
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I read one book a week and that works perfectly not to have any stress. I also pick my next read when I’ve finished or almost finished my current read so that it fits my mood. Out of your unread novels I read and very much enjoyed The Corset. Which reminds me I still have to read one of hers I have on my ereader. Hopefully soon because I’ve already seen news about her newest one and it’s making my mouth water :-).
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I should probably follow your lead every once in a while… I haven’t picked up a book on a whim for too long, and I kind of miss it. I do hope to read The Corset before the end of 2022! I’ve been meaning to for so long; the only thing that’s holding be back is that I’ve hardly been in the mood for historical fiction this year.
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I totally understand, you’ll get to it when the time is right. No need to rush 🙂
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I have some historical ARCs lined up and just finished rereading What The Wind Knows, so I hope that will help me want to pick up more of the genre soon.
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I admire you for trying to stick to a tbr Yvo, it really doesn’t work for me. I remember when I was first book blogging and thought I should do it, but it just made me miserable and put me off all the books I was supposed to read. 😂 xx
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Haha I do get that! That is what mainly happens with my yearly TBRs… It’s easier to guess what books I could be in the mood for looking at it each month, but I do hope to do more mood reading in the last two months of 2022 (if I can get my ARCs under control that is haha). xx
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I love the way you keep track of your reads so much more effective (at least to me) and such nice designs! Impressive reading goals. I have had a slump the past few days regretfully but I hope September will be kind to me! Happy reading and good month reaching your next monthly goal.
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I hope your reading mojo will treat you well in September!
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You really go above and beyond tracking your reads!
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It’s mostly me procrastinating because I’ve been in a beginning slump since The Winners… Looking for any excuse to look up numbers instead of actual reading. xD
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You’ve done great, Yvonne! I’m really good at reading ARC’s but not so good at reading owned books.
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I’m mostly the same! Basically, getting an ARC is the only way to make sure that I actually read a book in a timely matter… I always try to read my ARCs before the publish date.
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The only book on your unread titles list that I have read is Billy Summers and I enjoyed it.
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That’s great to hear!
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This is amazing. I’m absolutely terrible at TBR’s with my crazy mood reading!!
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It’s been getting harder to ignore my mood reading though! I might try and do a mood reading month or two in November/December.
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It’s a great time to do that! Especially, with the holidays.
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That’s what I was thinking as well. 😉
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Overall it looks like you’re doing amazing with your TBRs!!
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It’s better than expected with all the mood reading I’ve been doing. 😉
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