In the year of our Lord 2019, I’ve been trying to make my TBR a little less unwieldy. My Goodreads TBR is all of the books (owned and not) that I want to read in the coming year (or two).
For a while, that TBR stood at 177 books. But as someone who reads about 75-85 books per year, I know I’m not going to be able to get to all of those.
And I don’t know about you, but I find that for some books, after they’re been out for a while and the hype has died down, I’m just not as interested in reading them, sadly. Others stand the test of time, and a year after their release, I still want to read them.
But for the books I’m not as interested in any more, it makes sense for me to take them off my TBR. That’s what I’ve been doing recently, in an attempt to get my TBR under 150 books (lol, I know).
These are a few of the books that I’ve removed from my to-read list.
The Alchemists of Loom
At the moment, I own a copy of Air Awakens and I still plan on reading that series, but this series has lost a bit of the pull for me.
I remember when it first came out, the premise intrigued me, so I added it to my TBR. But two years on, I don’t think I’m going to pick this one up unfortunately.
Scythe
This is another one, that I’d heard a lot about when it first released, but I never got round to picking it up. Now we’re up to the third book in the series, and I don’t think I’m interested enough to read all three.
I was also chatting to one of my friends about this series recently, and she told me that the romance seems completely superfluous. Almost like the author thought, “you know what’ll make this more engaging? A RELATIONSHIP.” And then randomly picked two characters who spend a lot of scenes together and said “now kiss”.
The Way of Shadows
I honestly don’t know why this is on my TBR. The only Brent Weeks series I’m interested in reading is the Lightbringer series, and even that one will take me ages to get to. I’ve had The Black Prism for about one and a half years and haven’t read it.
So, this one is being going. Farewell.
Uzumaki
I’m still vaguely interested in reading this one, so I may add it to my TBR again one day.
But at the moment, I don’t own a copy and I want to prioritise the books and ARCs I have physical copies of.
Stolen Songbird
I think I added this to my TBR on a whim because the synopsis sounded good. And it still does. But it’s pretty far down my TBR and I don’t think I’ll be picking it up anytime soon, so it’s been removed for now.
Magonia
If I’m honest, I still kind of want to read this. But I’ve had to many chances to buy a copy in person and I’ve never taken any of them. So I can’t be that invested in it.
Plus, I’ve also seen a lot of 1-star ratings on this book’s Goodreads page recently, which have slightly put me off.
The Doors of Stone
Y’all want to know why I’ve taken this book off my TBR?
Because after 84 years, IT STILL DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A PREDICTED RELEASE DATE.
WHERE ARE YOU PATRICK? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP RELEASING NOVELLAS AND WORK ON THIS BOOK.
Walk on Earth a Stranger
I was slightly reluctant to take this one off my TBR, because the synopsis sounds intriguing, but I just feel like I’m never going to get round to picking it up, so it has to go.
The Goldfinch
A lot of reviews have said this is easily 200 pages longer than it needs to be, and although the blurb one drew me in, it doesn’t any longer.
Daughter of the Blood
I don’t even remember adding this to my TBR?!
Rebel
This isn’t available in Waterstones, or on Amazon or BD, so I don’t think I’m going to be able to get a copy to actually read this one. Hence why it’s, sadly, come off my TBR.
You’re Welcome, Universe
I wish I didn’t have to remove this from my TBR, but it’s a classic case of ‘I added it during the hype, then lost interest’. I might still pick it up one day, but for now I’m trying to be realistic.
The Dragon’s Blade
A couple of years back, I saw a several book bloggers I admire praising this, so I read the synopsis, got excited, and added it to my TBR.
But I recently read the synopsis again and it didn’t hold the same excitement for me, so off it comes.
Pendragon
I added this thinking it was an Arthurian retelling. And it is, but not in the sense I was hoping. It’s set hundreds of years before King Arthur, and doesn’t involve any of the characters from the original legend.
As epic as it sounds, I think I’d rather spend my time reading retellings of the original story, so I’ve taken this off my TBR and added The Guinevere Deception instead.
Do you regularly have a TBR cleanse? Are there any books you’ve taken off your list recently?
Clearing out a TBR is such a good idea! I try and clear mine pretty regularly 😂 my goodreads TBR is currently at around 50 books and it is too much
I hadn’t cleared mine for a while so it was definitely time! I’ve just had another smol tidy up today and taken a few more books off it; but that’s only because I added about 5 books the other day! 😂
I do Down The TBR Hole on Sundays, but I sadly add almost as many as I remove.
Omg I really need to do a TBR cleanse too. My Goodreads has got way too out of hand!
next time we see each other ill bring uzumaki and then problem solved tbh
Love the TBR cleanse! I pretty much look at mine monthly as I’m picking out books for the next month and cut books that no longer interest me. Definitely feel you on Donna Tartt, the movie adaptation drew me in… but it’s kind of lost it’s appeal now after finding out how long the book is!!
Haha thank you! I should probably look at mine monthly, but I only take books off every few months. I tend to add books every month though, whoops 😛 Yeah, I’m just not excited for that one anymore, sadly!
That reminds me that I have 400 books on my TBR and that’s a lot when you think about it 😱 I have loved the first two Lightbringer books (but have I continued with the Series? No 😅), but I actually have no interest in the Way of Shadows as well – I also heard mixed reviews, so that has put me off as well.
I need to do a TBR cleanse as well, this is such a good post!
I had a quick look through my Goodreads TBR a couple of days ago and it needs a major detox. Some of the books I don’t even remember adding to the list haha. Stolen Songbird is one of those books that, like you, I think I added on a whim and don’t think I’ll be reading it any time soon.
A lot of these sound quite scary so I think you’ve made good choices.