TBR Bingo and Rose Red's TBR for the Rest of 2017

I know I've written about this before but I have a physical TBR pile that is seriously getting out of hand despite the fact that I have cut back on my book buying the last three months. *whispers* As of the time of this post, I have 261 unread physical books and let's not talk about all of the unread ebooks I have on my kindle. I know that that's not bad but it's not good either.

My TBR pile has been clocking in at over 230 books for the last four years so I'm always looking for fun ways like #RockMyTBR to motivate myself to decrease it. Back in August, Dahlia Adler tweeted the following TBR reduction suggestion:

A suggestion for those who find they already own tons of books they aren't reading: make a Bingo card with the 24 you most want to get to.

— Dahlia Adler (@MissDahlELama) August 11, 2017

Soon after that the hashtag #TBRbingo became a thing. She suggested creating the bingo card and read whatever book on your card comes up on social media and in conversation first and repeat until you get a bingo or a blackout. While that is an ingenious idea, I would be stuck on reading the newest books on my TBR because that's what bookstagram is obsessed with. So I decided to just make a card with twenty-four books and I would mark them off as I read them. Doesn't that sound like fun? This is the card I've been working on since the middle of August.

The card itself was easy enough to make. I just used an online bingo card generator. A Google search will bring up a lot of sites you can use for free. The one I used is here. Picking the books to put on the card was the most difficult part. I included some new fall releases that I knew I was buying and older books I've had on my shelves for a while. A couple of them I've been meaning to read for years. *cough* Words of Radiance *cough* and *cough* The Scorpio Races *cough*

Once I had my card, I decided to treat it as an experiment. It's such a cool idea that if it worked, it would work well as one of my reading challenges for next year. And I'm so excited to say that it has helped a lot! I've read NINE TBR books over the last three months! How exciting is that?!?

This is what my bingo card currently looks like. I'm so proud of myself! I have fifteen books (7005 pages total) plus the random TBR book left and I'm going to make finishing them my priority for the rest of the year. Will I finish them all? Probably not since I have some behemoths on there but I'm still hoping to get through as many of them as I can.

This is what my TBR for the rest of the year looks like and it's kind of intimidating. My whole month of November is dedicated to 2608 pages of Sanderson goodness because I'm trying to get caught up with The Stormlight Archive before Oathbringer comes out on the 14th. After that, I have no idea what I'll read but I'm open to suggestions about what I really need to pick up next in the comments!

A post shared by Goldilox and the Three Weres (@goldiloxandthethreeweres) on Nov 1, 2017 at 9:01am PDT

Speaking about end of the year TBRs, Gretl also has a picture of some books that she wants to read up on our Instagram. You can go here to vote on which ones she needs to prioritize and you can suggest ones not pictured.

What books are on your TBR for the rest of 2017?

TBR Bingo: My Spring Recap and My Summer Bingo Card

So... let's talk about how well I did on my Spring 2018 TBR Bingo card. The answer is okay. I've been in a major reading slump since I finished Obsidio back in March and I'm just getting out of it. I'm hoping I'll do better with my Summer Bingo card. While no bingos were acquired, I read two TBR books on my card plus the random TBR book and had one DNF. So not bad considering I was in the worst reading slump I've had in over five years.

After evaluating how I did with my spring card, I realized that I read an equal amount of new releases and older books this last quarter. So I decided to put more backlist books on my summer card to catch up on my #beatthebacklist challenge. And I added a good mix of 2018 releases that I've just bought or have on pre-order. I'm also only going to use this bingo card through the end of August instead of going through September. I have a ridiculous amount of pre-orders for September and October so I'll do another card for those months. I thought I'd share seven of the books I'm hoping to get off my TBR pile in the next couple of months. While I'm hoping to get a blackout and read all 25 books on my card, these are the books that will have the highest priority.

Rose Red's Summer TBR

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

After rereading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet last month, I'm ready to finally read this beauty for the first time! I'm so excited to learn more about Pepper and Lovelace from the first book! Plus, once I finish this book, I'll be free to start A Record of a Spaceborn Few as soon as it hits my Kindle on July 24th!

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

I adored Mary Robinette Kowal's novellette, The Lady Astronaut of Mars when I read it a few years back when it won the Hugo Award. So when I heard she was writing a prequel series to that story, I was ecstatic! It's basically an alt-history space race where Washington DC is hit by a meteor and we have to speed up our efforts to colonize space before the Earth becomes inhabitable. The author says she drew inspiration from Hidden Figures and based the main character off of a lady scientist from the Jet Propulsion Lab back in the day. I'm am so here for this book and can't wait to have it in my hands!

Balefire by Jordan L. Hawk

I binge read all of the previous books in this series last summer and it became one of my favorite series of all time. I have been not so patiently waiting for this book to come out since then especially after that teaser we got at the end of Draakenwood. I have a countdown going for when this book will hit my Kindle and I need the next nine days to go by faster!

Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews

My beloved Kate Daniels series is ending next month and I am both ready and not ready for it. Reading Iron and Magic last month made me super excited to see how the series ends and how the duo of Ilona Andrews will add to this world post the Kate series. As excited as I am, I'm also sad that it'll be the end of the series as we know. Right now, my excitement outweighs the sadness so I can't wait to have this book in my hands!

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Next month we get the first of this year's two new Victoria Schwab releases and I'm so excited to read them both! City of Ghosts is her new middle grade about a girl who sees ghosts and one of them is her best friend. And it's set in Edinburgh! I really don't know much about it other than that but I know I'll probably love it like I have all the rest of the Schwab books I've read.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

I hadn't heard of this book until recently but once I did I had to get a copy! It about a washed-up treasure hunter, a galactic racer framed for murder, and a deadly secret society all racing against time to find the greatest warship ever built! Add in that it’s been compared to Firefly and I am totally here for all of it!

Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson

Last but not least, I have the Kevin Hearne and Delilah Dawson collab that I never knew I needed until they announced it. It's being touted as Shrek meets The Princess Bride and I am so ready for it! It's promised to be very punny and full of laughs and I can't wait to get to my ARC of it!

That's a few of the books I'm hoping to read for the next two months of TBR Bingo. Here's my whole card:

Can you tell that I am in a major mood to read sci-fi? I really hope I can get to all of these in the next couple of months but if I don't I'm hoping to get at least two bingos. I really am excited to read all of these and to check them off my physical TBR. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm done with my reading slump and won't slack off this round like I did the last one.

Which book should I read first?

What books are you excited to read this Summer?

TBR Bingo: My Winter Recap and My Spring TBR

 

So... let's talk about how well I did on my Winter 2018 TBR Bingo card. The answer is okay. I've been in a major reading slump since last December where the only things I've felt like reading are comics, manga, and fanfic. I'm twenty books behind where I was at this time last year and I hate that I am. Thankfully, I'm finally getting back into reading books again so hopefully I'll do better with my Spring Bingo card. I actually ended up changing my winter card up due to some DNFs and while I actually read several books off my new card, no bingos were acquired.

After evaluating how I did with my winter card, I realized I read mostly new releases this last quarter. So I decided to put more 2018 books on my spring card that I've just bought or have on pre-order. Checking seven books off my TBR pile is nothing to sneeze at. If something's not broke, we don't fix it, right? So I thought I'd share some of the newer releases I'm hoping to get of my TBR in the next three months. While I'm hoping to get to all 25 books on my card, these are the books that will have the highest priority.

Rose Red's Spring TBR

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

I haven't read a book by Catherynne Valente yet but I'm excited that my first one is going to be this one. This book is marketed as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision and the premise alone is everything I never knew I needed! I need more wild and fun sci-fi in my life and I can't wait to pick this one up as soon as I finish the ARC I'm currently reading!

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

Jenn Bennett is one of my autobuy authors and I'm so excited to finally have her newest YA romcom in my hands. This one has a goth boy, hiking, and a frenemies-to-lovers romance. At this point I would read Jenn's grocery list but two teens stranded in the Sierra Nevadas sounds like something right up my alley!

 

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

I'm still riding the Simon vs wave from seeing the movie last month so I cannot wait to read the companion sequel about Leah. I have so many questions about Leah and I can't wait to have them answered. Also, I can't wait to see my favorite characters from the first book make their appearances on the page! I'm SO ready for this book! I'm going to read it as soon as UPS delivers it to my house.

Scourged by Kevin Hearne

I can't believe that the last book in The Iron Druid Chronicles is here. I'm so excited to see how this series ends but at the same time I'm not ready to let Atticus, Oberon, and the gang go. I think there will be tears when I finish this one.

 

 

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

A post-apocalyptic urban fantasy novel that takes place on what used to be the Navajo reservation with Native characters, gods, and monsters that's also written by a Native author? YES PLEASE! GIVE IT TO ME NOW! I'm so excited to read this book! It just sounds amazing!

Furyborn by Claire LeGrand

I'll be honest. I don't really know what this book is about other than it has two timelines taking place 1000 years apart. What I do know is that it has been getting a lot of really good hype in the blogging community. I have an ARC of this and I can't wait to read it!

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

I picked up this book on a whim while on vacation and I can't wait to read it! It's about two college age characters who have the worst meet cute ever but start texting each other despite it. Honestly, I was sold as soon as I read what the premise was. I'm really hoping this one lives up to my expectations.

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

So... I picked up this book purely based on the raving of some of my best book friends, it's edited by Miriam W. at Tor, and the fact that it's blurbed by Robin McKinley. Plus, it's one of the books that was just announced as part of Tor's #FearlessWomen campaign. I really know nothing about what it's about but I can't bring myself to regret picking it up.

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

I've had this book in my possession since February and I STILL HAVEN'T READ IT! I DON'T KNOW WHY EITHER! It's ANASTASIA! IN SPACE! I really need to get my post-reading slump act together.

Chainbreaker by Tara Sim

I have no excuse for why I haven't read this book yet. Not only did I get my finished copy a couple weeks early, I'VE HAD AN ARC OF IT SINCE LAST NOVEMBER! Actually, I know why I haven't read this yet. I'm scared of it. I've seen so many of my friends' reactions to it and I'm scared of the emotional trauma it's going to bring. I'm going to woman up here soon and read it because I need more Danny and Colton in my life.

That's a few of the books I'm hoping to read for this quarter of TBR Bingo. Here's my whole card:

I really hope I can get to all of these in the next three months but if I don't I'm hoping to at least get two bingos. I really am excited to read all of these and to check them off my physical TBR.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't get bogged down with another book slump.

Which book should I read first?

What books are you excited to read this Spring?

Our 2018 Reading Challenges

For the last few years, we've both been doing the Rock My TBR challenge to try reduce the number of unread books on our shelves. We'll recap how we did for the year in our December Month in Review post. The host isn't doing the challenge for 2018 so we're both trying something new. Here's what we're planning for 2018.

Gretl

I had to lower my Goodreads goal this year so I think I'm going to stick my two books a week since I've been able to meet that the last two years. (That's 104 books.) I feel like I need to strike a better balance between review books and fun books though, since I seem to have focused on one or the other for weeks at a time in 2017. This is the first year that I have more than a few ARCs that didn't get read. So I'm going to use my reading challenge to focus on those outstanding 2017 ARCs first and foremost. I'd also like to address the number of unread books I have from subscription boxes.

I'm doing the Beat the Backlist challenge hosted by Novel Knight. This challenge lets you set your own goals for reading books published in 2017 or earlier. (I'm going to count up those ARCs and Book Box books at the end of the year.) I've started a Goodreads shelf to keep track of my books and we'll include Challenge Recaps in our month end posts.

Beat the Backlist also has a team competition - I'm on the blue team, the Story Sorcerers. Each team earns points when members participate and has its own chat thread in the Beat the Backlist Goodreads group. And it has a weekly bookstagram prompt. (Yay!) So watch for those posts on our Instagram starting in January.

Rose Red

This year I'm keeping my reading goals as simple as possible. So like every year, I'll be setting a Goodreads goal. I like to set it to 52 books because I know that I can read at least one book a week. Most likely I'll read more than that so my unofficial goal is to read more than 200 books like I have the last couple years. Wish me luck!

I'm also doing the Beat the Backlist to help manage my physical TBR pile. At the time of this post, I have 267 unread books sitting on my shelves and I would like to get that total number down to 200 by the end of 2018. My official goal for this challenge will be to read 30 books off my physical TBR pile that have been published prior to December 31, 2017. Like Gretl, I started a Goodreads shelf for the challenge. The difference is that mine lists the books I want to get to for the challenge. Sadly, we both didn't end up on the same team. I'm am an official member of the Red Team aka the Book Bards! This challenge sounds like it's going to be really fun!

It's not really a challenge but to motivate myself to read my TBR books I'm going to do TBR bingo. I tried it out the last few months and it's been so much fun to do and I'm checking books off my TBR like crazy! Each quarter I'm going to make a new bingo card and try to read as many books on it as I can. I'll be doing a TBR post and recap for each bingo card. I'll be posting my Spring 2018 bingo card after the first of the year detailing my card. I need to see what else I get read this year before I make it.

What Challenges are you doing in 2018?

and

TBR Bingo: End of 2018 TBR Update

I posted back in November a list of books I want to read before it's 2019. I made the goal to get fifteen books read before the end of the year and I was hoping that most of them would be from that list I made. In typical Rose Red fashion, I made myself a TBR Bingo card to help motivate me to get things read.

 

As you can see on my card above, I included all of the twenty books I listed in my previous post plus Romancing the Inventor and three Random TBR Book spaces.

I'm happy to report that since I posted that list I've read eighteen books! I've made my goal of reading fifteen books before it becomes 2019. Of those eighteen books: three are rereads, eight are from my TBR post, and the remaining seven are random unread books I had on my Kindle. Here is what I've read so far:

The Random Unread Kindle Books

The Rereads

The End of 2018 TBR Books

I can't begin to tell you how good it feels to be reading again! I'm so happy with my progress so far. The best thing is that I still have 21 days left in 2018 and can totally get more books read! Currently my Bingo card looks like this:

Ideally, I want to read the fourteen remaining books on this card but in case I don't I have picked out the six I NEED to read by the end of the year.

I'm about a third of the way through Exit Strategy and I love it so far! And I'm really excited to get to the other five! I should easily get all of these done before the year ends. I'll do a wrap-up of how I did overall at the end of the month. Fingers crossed that I can keep up my forward momentum and read as much in the next three weeks as I did in the last three.

What books do you need to finish by the end of 2018?