#goodreads tbr buster challenge

[theinquisitxor]

I wanted to start a new challenge for 2024. This isn’t any existing challenge that I know of, but somewhat similar to a challenge booktuber Emily Fox does.

The problem: I have about 200 books in my Goodreads tbr, many of which have been on the tbr since 2018/9. These are all books that I still want to read, but haven’t taken action to reading anytime soon. I want to do something to start reading from my tbr list more.

Solution: I wrote down approximately 140 books that I want to read, cut out on little strips of paper, folded up, and put into this bowl. Each month I’m going to pick a random book and read it.

For Jan 2024, I picked The Throne of the Five Winds by CS Emmet, which has been on the tbr since 2019.

The challenge is that I have to read whatever book I pick!

We’ll see how this goes 😂 If I make it through the year, I’ll have 12 books read off my goodreads tbr

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

2022 Challenge Wrap Up

if you've been following me for a while, you know that each year I set myself a handful of challenges related to reading and books. and with only a couple days left of the year, it's time to look at how well I've done. and this year, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Buy fewer books than I did in 2021. I managed this. Just. I bought 12 fewer books in 2022 than 2021. I really wish that margin was larger.

Get my TBR under 200 books. I mean, I could be cheeky and say that because my Goodreads TBR is under 200 I met this goal. But my StoryGraph TBR is at 288 - 50 books more than I started 2022 with.

Cross off at least one series each month. I managed this but only because of my Spring of the Series challenge. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me through the course of that challenge - you definitely helped me keep on track.

Cross off the books that have been on my TBR the longest. This was successful! Participating in the #TBR Buster Challenge was a lot of fun and it was very satisfying to see the progress I made each month.

Read 100 books. Managed this, but I always manage this.

Usually, at this point, I'd outline my goals for the next year but, frankly, I haven't got a freaking clue what reading goals I want to set for next year. Looking at these ones, how I went with them, I feel like I need to up my game in 2023 but I'm not sure how to do that just yet. So I'll be back in a day or two to reveal my new goals. And hopefully I do a bit better with them than I did this year.

[collegeburnoutsuperstar]

August Wrap Up!

Goodreads Challenge: 68/30 Books Read

- Captive Prince C.S. Pacat [5 Stars]

- In Other Lands Sarah Rees Brennan [5 Stars]

- Prince’s Gambit C.S. Pacat [5 Stars]

- The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: The Apocalypse Suite Gerard Way [4 Stars]

- Brethren (Raised By Wolves book 1) W.A. Hoffman [5 Stars]

- The Old Guard, Book One: Opening Fire Greg Rucka [5 Stars]

- The House in the Cerulean Sea T.J. Klune [5 Stars]

- The Diviners Libba Bray [5 Stars]

- Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen [5 Stars]

- Wolfsong T.J. Klune [5 Stars]

- The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch [5 Stars]

TBR Buster Challenge: 13/32 Books Read

- A Conjuring of Light V.E. Schwab [5 Stars]

- Baptism of Fire Andrzej Sapkowski [4 Stars]

Currently Reading:

-The Island of the Day Before Umberto Eco

- Sailing to Sarantium Guy Gavriel Kay

- The Eye of the World Robert Jordan

- Matelots W.A. Hoffman

[beautifulpaxielreads]

January Wrap Up

Welcome to the first of my reading wrap-ups for 2020! I’ve decided to do this as a way of keeping track of my reading, in addition to the spreadsheet I’ve been creating.

I suspect I’ll change things up a bit as the months go by, but for now, this wrap-up will include:

the books I’ve finished reading this month (including ratings and links to reviews I’ve written of them)

the books that I’m currently reading

any reading and/or book photography challenges and games I’ve participated in for the month (with links)

Interesting observations I’ve made about my reading habits for the month

Any reading goals for the next month

Any followers gained in the last month

Please note that where I have included an Australian flag emoticon, that means (obviously) the author is Australian. Rainbow emoticons signify that either the authors identify somewhere on the LGBTQI+ spectrum or the book contains LGBTQI+ themes.

So, let’s get to it!

Books Completed (ratings out of five stars)

Once and Future (Once and Future, #1) by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy🌈 (★★★½, review)

I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman 🌈 (★★★★½, review)

Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills (★★★½, review)

Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8) by Terry Pratchett (★★★, review)

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield 🇦🇺 (★★★, review under construction)

Promising Azra by Helen Thurloe 🇦🇺 (★★★★, review under construction)

I am change by Suzy Zail 🇦🇺(★★★★★, review under construction)

Books currently in progress

My name is not Peaseblossom by Jackie French 🇦🇺 (begun 26/01/2020)

Victoria the Queen: an intimate biography of the woman who changed the world by Julia Baird 🇦🇺 (begun 28/01/2020)

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly (begun 30/01/2020)

Challenge and Game Participation

Untitled Tag Game, January 19, tagged by @storytime-reviews )

7 Days 7 Covers Tag Game, Jan 24-30, tagged by @thereadingchallengechallenge (day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7)

January Shelf-Confidence Book Photo Challenge, Alphabetical Alliterative Adjectives, Day 19: Shakespearean Stories (challenge set by @myownlittlebookcorner)

TBR Buster Challenge, set by @bookbandit – completed Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8) and Friday Brown

GoodReads 2020 Reading Challenge – Seven books out of 70 (10%) completed. According to GoodReads, I’m 2 books ahead of schedule!

Reading Goals for February

Finish the books I’m currently reading (with the possible exception of Victoria the Queen, I suspect I’ll end up staggering my reading on that one)

Read the rest of the books I have on loan from the library – Scarlet (Scarlet, #1) by A.C. Gaughen, Dreaming of Amelia (Ashbury/Brookfield, #4) by Jaclyn Moriarty, and Song of the Current (Song of the Current, #1) by Sarah Tolcser

Participate in at least one bookish challenge on Tumblr

Try and keep my reviews up to date!

New followers

According to Tumblr, I gained 41 new followers in January, which brings my total number of followers for this blog to 617 (!). Obviously, there are far too many of you to list here, but please know that you are welcome. Please feel free to drop me a line any time, I promise I don’t bite.

Interesting observations

Out of the 10 books I’ve been reading this month, all except two (Terry Pratchett, and Cori McCarthy, who identifies as non-binary) were written by women. Of those women, five (Vikki Wakefield, Helen Thurloe, Suzy Zail, Jackie French and Julia Baird) are Australian. Yay for Aussie authors!

A lot of my reads this month have a decidedly feminist/female empowerment tone: Promising Azra, I am change, Victoria the Queen, and Stepsister (which I’ve only just started but I’ve heard it described as “fiercely feminist”). Once and Future had some decidedly badass women too.

Another thing I’ve noticed about my reading this month is that I’ve tended to read books with lots of heavy and/or dark themes: Promising Azra, I am change, Friday Brown, Stepsister. I think I need to read more light and fun books to counterbalance things a bit.

I’m really struggling with my goal of reviewing each book I read – out of the seven books I’ve read this month, I’ve only managed to finish four reviews so far. If any of you reviewers out there have any advice/consolation etc, I’d love to hear from you.

I’m disappointed that I did not enjoy reading Terry Pratchett as much as I thought I would. I think I’m going to give up my goal of reading any more of the Discworld books, sadly.

Whew, I think that’s everything. If you’ve made it to the end of this post, well done!

[josephconrads]

Book Goals for 2023

Complete the Goodreads/Storygraph 2023 Reading Challenge - My goal is set at 65 books this year. 2022 was set at 60 and was exceeded by 36 books to make a total of 96 books read. Hoping that 2023 might lead to 100 books read but we’ll see

Other Reading Challenges - TBR Buster 2023 Reading Challenge, Studyblr With Knives Jumbo 2023 Reading Challenge, and just the random Barnes & Noble Book Journal reading challenge from the 24 prompts that were in the book journals they had to give out with Xmas purchases. (ps. If anyone wants those book journal prompts let me know, I’d be happy to type them out)

Finish a Minimum of 7 series for the year - Either complete series or finish getting caught up to a series. I have a lot of them on my TBR that I keep putting off for no reason and I’d like this to be the year that I can actually accomplish those

Knock Down my TBR to a reasonable number - Ok this one may be a little ambitious seeing as my current TBR count is 1,018 but even so, I’d like to get it back in the triple digits. This leads me to my next goal

Stick to a Book Buying Ban - While there’s so much I want to read and so much on my list of items to purchase, I want to actually not buy books for at least the first 6 months of the year so as to prevent my TBR from becoming more overwhelming than it currently is.

Write Reviews - I swore that 2022 was the going to be the year of consistently posting book reviews here and for a little while I was fairly consistent until I stopped because I just kept pushing off typing up the review and then when it became weeks after reading a book that I’d post the review, I just stopped. This year I want to be fairly consistent with writing/posting reviews of what I read and hopefully capture everything I read in reviews.

I’m on Goodreads: lockethestrength and on Storygraph: locke_reads

Feel free to Friend/Follow!

[storytime-reviews]

1. I like doing photos for sure, but I also love doing reviews for most of the books I read, but photos is definitely dependent on my mood and inspiration a lot of the time.

2. Honestly I like responding to questions/discussions like this when they come up, although I must admit that’s also dependent on my mood and how crazy work is generally at the time...so definitely less than I’d like to.

3. I don’t generally unless it’s a book I remember them talking about a bit, I do read and reblog reviews sometimes even if it’s something I haven’t read or thought about reading. I do like reading reviews of people I follow on Goodreads after reading the book.

4. Not as a rule...I don’t like the pressure of them and I want to focus on the books I like reading or am planning on reading...so I have been doing @bookbandit​‘s tbr buster challenge the last 2 years and I enjoy that, because I’m focusing on what I like.

5. I like talking to people about what I like reading and I like seeing what other people are enjoying and getting some recs, even just by osmosis almost at times!

6. I’m probs stating things other people have mentioned already...there’s not as much interaction as there used to be which sucks, and I feel like a lot of people have left as well.

okay so as i’m getting back to being more active on booklr, i have questions for people! i’m always curious about how other people use this site so please reblog/reply if any of these questions are interesting to you:

1. what’s your favorite kind of content to make? reviews, photo challenges, something else?

2. how do you engage with other bloggers—do you leave comments (in tags or in the body of a reblog), do you send asks? how often do you engage in discussion (im defining this as anything where you leave a comment or reach out—basically anything except only liking a post or reblogging without a comment)

3. do you look for reviews from people you follow when you’re thinking about reading a book?

4. do you participate in reading challenges? why/why not?

5. what’s the main reason you’re on booklr?

6. what’s something you miss from booklr—either something you used to see or something you’ve never seen but think would be a good addition

[collegeburnoutsuperstar]

Shelf-Confidence BPC-- June 30: Sunset Glow

JOMP BPC || June 39 || Read In June

Books Read in June 2020:

Goodreads Challenge:

* The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (5/5 Stars)

* Alex in Wonderland by Simon James Green (5/5 Stars)

* The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos (3/5 Stars)

* Six of Crows [Audio book] by Leigh Bardugo (5/5 Stars)

* Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (4/5 Stars)

*Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (5/5 Stars)

* Gray Wolf Island by Tracey Neithercott (3/5 Stars)

* Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman (3/5 Stars)

TBR Buster Challenge:

* Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski (3/5 Stars)

* The Magician King by Lev Grossman (5/5 Stars)

* Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (3/5 Stars)

* The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski (3/5 Stars)

[collegeburnoutsuperstar]

September Wrap Up!

September has been such a strange month; school is back (albeit online and much more stressful); the U.S. is still a mess (and getting worse everyday!); and Wyoming can’t decide if it is going to be 90 degrees and sunny or if we’re getting three feet of snow.

This month I read eight books and two short stories (stats will be under the cut). I finally started reading The Wheel of Time! A guy I have been friends with since elementary school loved this series and spent years begging me to read it (we were our school’s resident Tolkien fans and had pretty similar reading tastes). I kept putting it off until a few months ago when one of my cousins sided with my friend and finally convinced me to read it. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to continue!

Another fun fact about my reading this month is that I read Peter and the Starcatchers while I was stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere Wyoming for five hours. 

Reading Stats:

Goodreads Challenge:

Peter and the Starcatchers | Dave Barry | 4/5 stars

Cemetery Boys | Aiden Thomas | 5/5 stars

Ravensong | TJ Klune | 5/5 stars

Blasphemy! (short story) | TJ Klune | 5/5 stars

Lovesong (short story) | TJ Klune | 5/5 stars

Fifty Shames of Earl Grey | Fanny Merkin | 3/5 stars

The Wrath and the Dawn | Renee Ahdieh | 4/5 stars

Bored of the Rings | Havard Lampoon | 5/5 stars

TBR Buster Challenge:

Kings Rising | C.S. Pacat | 5/5 stars

The Eye of the World | Robert Jordan | 5/5 stars

Average Star Rating This Month:

4.6

Total Pages Read This Month:

3,491 pages

Goodreads goal:

78/30 (I always set my goal lower)

TBR Buster Challenge:

15/32 

[collegeburnoutsuperstar]

2020 Reading Challenge

For 2020, I have set my Goodreads goal at 30 books, but I would like to get closer to 100. I prefer to keep my Goodreads goal lower to try to avoid stressing myself out.

This year I am also going to participate in @bookbandit ‘s TBR buster challenge!! My goal is to read at least one book per week (4 books a month). My current TBR includes:

- Blue Lily, Lily Blue; The Raven King (Maggie Stiefvater)

- Sword of Destiny; Blood of Elves; Time of Contempt; Baptism of Fire; The Tower of the Swallow; The Lady of the Lake; Season of Storms (Andrzej Sapkowski)

- A Court of Wings and Ruin; A Court of Frost and Starlight (Sarah J. Maas)

- Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo)

- The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)

- The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan)

- The Wise Man’s Fear (Patrick Rothfuss)

- The Cruel Prince; The Wicked King; The Queen of Nothing (Holly Black)

- A Conjuring of Light (V.E. Schwab)

- The Magician King; The Magician’s Land (Lev Grossman)

- Doctor Sleep; The Stand (Stephen King)

- Water Music (T. Coraghessan Boyle)

- House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)

- The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien)

- Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

- Assassin’s Apprentice; Royal Assassin; Assassin’s Quest (Robin Hobb)

- Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer (Rick Riordan)

- Kings Rising (C.S. Pacat)

I would also like to try to get through Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive this year. 

There are a million other books that I am dying to read this year but don’t own yet, so I will not be including them in this challenge.

[beautifulpaxielreads]

March Wrap Up

Books Completed (ratings out of five stars)

Educated by Tara Westover (begun in February, ★★★)

The weight of feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore (begun in February, ★★★)

Serpent & dove by Shelby Mahurin (Serpent & dove #1, ★★★★)

All the bad apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (★★★)

The Hunger Games* by Suzanne Collins, audiobook read by Tatiana Maslany (The Hunger Games #1, ★★★★★)

Books currently in progress

Ace of shades (The Shadow Game #1) * by Amanda Foody, audiobook read by Saskia Maarleveld

Catching fire (The Hunger Games #2) * by Suzanne Collins, audiobook read by Tatiana Maslany

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

The gilded wolves (The gilded wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi

*reread

Challenge and Game Participation

Completed Historical Fantasy Fiction Bookcub Recommends quiz on listchallenges.com, set by @bookcub​ (my result on Tumblr here)

Completed the Queer Books Bookcub Recommends quiz on listchallenges.com, set by @bookcub​ (my result on Tumblr here)

Answered @lizziethereader​’s Weekly Bookish Question #173 (March 22nd-28th) - If you’re currently quarantined or self-isolating, what effect does that have on your tbr? (my response)

Tag Game - Name Your Top 5 Female Characters from novels you’ve read, tagged by @karynlibrarian​ (my response)

Ask Game – Some new bookish asks for you all, tagged by @elfspectations​ (my responses)

Shelf Confidence Book Photography, March, Day 10: Archenemies (set by @myownlittlebookcorner​)

 Answered @lizziethereader​’s Weekly Bookish Question #171 (March 8th – March 14th) – Have you already tried something new this year? A new genre, reading spot, reading project,.…? (my response)

Completed Aliteraryprincess’s 100 Best Books in YA Literature quiz on listchallenges.com, set by @aliteraryprincess (my result on Tumblr here, see my tags)

TBR Buster Challenge, set by @bookbandit​ – completed The weight of feathers

GoodReads 2020 Reading Challenge – 19 books out of 70 (27%) completed. According to GoodReads, I’m 2 books ahead of schedule. That’s 1 book down from last month where I was 3 books ahead of schedule.

Reading (and reading-related) Goals for April

Before I begin this, I should say that I’m currently in near-lockdown conditions where I am thanks to the dreaded COVID-19 outbreak, so that means I have less of an excuse not to achieve this month’s goals. And the next month – and the next…

Finish all the books currently in progress, especially the audiobooks

Read Slay by Kim Curran. It involves a boy band who have a side job as demon-slayers. Not my usual fare, but it got good reviews so it should be a fun, light read.

Read at least 1 book from my backlist

As ever, participate in at least one bookish challenge or game

MAYBE start doing reviews now I have more time to do so. Don’t hold your breath though.

Update the spreadsheet I’m using to track my reading

Try my hand at making moodboards. I have said I’d do this previously, but this time I’m really going to do it. Time to start exercising those graphic-making muscles again!

Make a start on my last book purchases this month – The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and a non-fiction book, On the Trail of Genghis Khan: an epic journey through the land of the nomads by Tim Cope. The latter book is a written account of Cope’s overland trip from Mongolia to Hungary, a trip documented in a TV series I watched some time ago and really enjoyed.

Make a start on Mockingjay as read by Tatiana Maslany. I have no doubt her work will again be excellent.

Reflections on March’s Reading Goals

Despite my not actually reading as many books this month, I did complete all but one of my reading goals, so yay me!

Didn’t start reading Northanger Abbey until the end of March and am still reading in April, so there goes that resolution. Hopefully, I should finish it by the end of this month though.

New Followers

36 new followers! Thanks one and all – as ever, know I appreciate every single one of you and please feel free to get in touch. This goes for my rusted-on followers as well – I promise I don’t bite!

Interesting observations

So I didn’t read as many books this month – instead, I thought about what books I wanted to read! That counts, right?  On a more serious note, I do want to read more that I’m under near-lockdown conditions.

On the strength of her reading of The Hunger Games trilogy, Tatiana Maslany needs to do more audiobooks. As a side note, I’ve started watching Orphan Black and it’s creepily disturbing, but so good! Thank you, Ms. Maslany!

Audiobooks seem to be a theme for me this month – I also started rereading Amanda Foody’s Ace of Shades, read by Saskia Maarleveld. I’ve downloaded Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid to listen to at some point, as it features a stellar voice cast and is – from what I’ve heard – the best way to appreciate this book.

In a review I wrote a couple of months ago, I described myself as a convert to the cult of Alice Oseman. This month I started reading Radio Silence and I have to say I’m a bit disappointed – don’t get me wrong, it’s still very well-written but it doesn’t have the same knock-out punch that I was born for this had.

That’s a wrap for March! I hope you’re all keeping well both physically and mentally during these challenging times. On to April!

[beautifulpaxielreads]

February Wrap Up

Books Completed (ratings out of five stars)

My name is not Peaseblossom by Jackie French (begun in January, ★★★)

Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird (begun in January, ★★★★)

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly (begun in January, ★★★★)

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet #1, ★★★)

Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty (Ashbury/Brookfield #4, ★★★)

Song of the current by Sarah Tolcser (Song of the Current #1, ★★★)

· London belongs to us by Sarra Manning (★★★1/2)

Books currently in progress

The weight of feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore (begun 27/2/2020)      

Educated by Tara Westover (begun 29/2/2020)

Challenge and game participation

Answered questions from a bookish ask game sent by @kandidlyrandom​

Just One More Page Book Photography Challenge, February, Day 2: Currently Reading (set by @just0nemorepage​)

 TBR Buster Challenge, set by @bookbandit​ – completed Stepsister, Scarlet (Scarlet #1), Dreaming of Amelia (Ashbury/Brookfield #4) and Song of the current (Song of the current #1)

GoodReads 2020 Reading Challenge – 14 books out of 70 (20%) completed. According to GoodReads, I’m 3 books ahead of schedule.

Reading goals for March

Finish the books I’m currently reading

Read the other two books I have on loan from the library – Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1) by Shelby Mahurin and All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Read at least one book from my backlist – I’m currently eyeing Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Participate in at least one bookish challenge

Reflections on last month’s reading goals (NEW section!)

So, I read all of the books I had on loan from the library, as well as the ones I was currently reading! I ended up finishing Victoria the Queen in February despite my earlier goal to stagger my reading.

Instead of keeping my reviews up to date, I decided to stop writing them, mostly because they took too long to write and because I lacked the motivation – and also because I had too much RL stuff going on! I may occasionally write a review if I feel strongly enough about a book, but don’t hold your breath on that one.

New followers

Forty-eight new followers, bringing my total number of followers to 683 - that’s HUGE! As it was in January, there are too many of you to list here but know that I appreciate every one of you and feel free to stop by my inbox any time.

Interesting observations

So, I decided to stop writing reviews for the reasons listed above. I can’t say I miss doing them, they were hugely time-consuming, and I got seriously behind. So, it’s a bit of a relief, to be honest.

 A side effect of my decision to stop review-writing was that I ended up posting less original content and more reblogs. I’ll try and do more original content and participate in more challenges this month – unfortunately real life gets in the way sometimes. Maybe I should start a queue so my blog can keep going while I’m away. Thoughts? Has anyone else found queuing posts useful?

 I’ve read quite a few adventure-y novels this month – Song of the current, Scarlet, even London belongs to us had that sort of feel. I swear I don’t plan these things!

 In last month’s wrap-up, I observed that I was reading books with a lot of heavy themes. Thankfully this time I’ve read more of a mix of light-hearted as well as heavy books. I think I’ve achieved a nice balance. 😊

I just noticed ALL the books I’ve read this month have been written by women – following the trend I started last month. Like I said, I don’t plan these things – but maybe it says something about me?

So that about wraps up February – and summer here in Oz! Looking forward to cooler autumn in March.

Thanks for reading – feel free to share your thoughts!