stack – /stak/ – a pile of objects, typically one that is neatly arranged.
confession – /kənˈfɛʃ(ə)n/ – a formal statement admitting that one is guilty of a crime.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
I’ve been chipping away at my TBR spreadsheet for months. Why did I even start? It’s the list-maker in me. I wanted to easily browse what I had. I was feeling guilty about buying books when I already had so many that I hadn’t read. Blah, blah, blah.
It stops now. I mean next year.
In 2016, I’m going to read (almost exclusively) from my impressive* TBR stack.
So what’s the ‘almost exclusively’ about? I’m giving myself some wiggle room (with rules). Without wiggle room, I might become bitter. And I won’t be able to chat about new releases.
The rules: I can buy (or get given) six new books in 2016. I’ll have to choose carefully. It may be that I blow the entire six on the 2016 Stella Prize short list (because I would like to take part in the Stella Prize book group again next year). In addition (because I’m generous), I can accept 12 ARCs.
So the list is 394 books long. Ridiculous number. It may change a little between now and January 1st, 2016 – I’ll read some before then and no doubt acquire some at Christmas but the damage remains the same – 300+ books.
I’ve got some great titles to look forward to – a bunch from last year’s best of the best list of lists, a few classics, some big 2015 releases (such as Purity), my annual Yates and Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying (the irony of this inclusion is not lost on me).
Even with the wiggle-room I’m allowing, I should cut at least 60 books from the TBR stack over the course of the next twelve months, reducing it by a seventh**.
Anyway, feel free to join me in reading from what you’ve already got in 2016 – this isn’t a reading challenge, there’s no badge or link-up but you do get to feel quietly smug.
*a nicer way of saying ‘enormous’
**okay, that sounds pathetic when I put it like that – maybe this is a two-year project…?
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