TBR of Doom: Reading goals (Patreon)

If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen me post the photos above. (And also lots of pictures of my dogs. I know what the people want.) I am a person who doesn't do resolutions for the new year. I do some reflection of the past year, but I've long learned that arbitrarily doing "this is the time of year where I make a big change!" tack doesn't work for me. I am a human cat. I do not like feeling forced to do a single thing. And inevitably, NYE resolutions for me felt like a change I was being forced to do and not one I was ready and fully wanted to do. So I try to make those changes all year round. Am I unhappy? Imbalanced? Feel off? What can I do to make it better?

The same thing, alas, often happens with reading. The more you tell me I just HAVE to read a book, the more I feel an internal inertia against it. Which is funny because I both recommended books as my job for actual years and continue to do so even now. Like in this post. I will say that I react differently when a friend suggests it, someone I know has similar tastes in reading. I also try to read outside my sphere on occasion. It just means that when everyone is reading that "it" book, I'm generally not. I still haven't read the DaVinci Code, despite bookstore customers telling me to do so for literal years. And when those customers would be shocked that I hadn't read the It Book when I worked in a bookstore, I would tell them that they didn't need me to do that. 8,000 people had already told them to read that book. They needed me to read the weird shit, the odd balls, the books not hitting every list so that I could recommended things for them to read when hey were done reading the It Book. 

Every single customer seemed surprised by this, honestly. They'd never thought of it. I want to make it clear that I'm not against award winning, popular books. Sometimes those books are 100% worth the hype (I'm looking at you, Firekeeper's Daughter.), it's just that I won't read them *just* because everyone is telling me to.

But my friend Chelsea Mueller (You should read her books, btw. Ha! Can't stop, won't stop.) put together this fun graphic and I thought, "Okay, cool. I never do these things. I should learn how, but also, I want to see what everyone suggests." I have some really great followers on IG and their suggestions were top notch. And because I can't follow directions and again don't like being told what to do, I chose 2 bonus books. I thought I'd post the original image here in case any of you wanted to give it a go on your own social media. 

I didn't take every suggestion, or any suggestion indiscriminately. If someone sent a book I knew I wouldn't be interested in, I know myself enough to not add it to the list and set myself up for failure. I also prioritized the books that I'd already bought and were sitting on my shelf of in my ereader aging like fine wines. (Which was six of the books.)

I haven't started reading from the list yet. So far 2023 has been brutal and I've needed very cozy books and rereads. Two members of my household had Covid, one of them being my mother, who finally today was freed from quarantine by her doctor after 15 days. (She kept running a low grade fever.) Before that we visited family in California for the holidays, and then when I got home, had to do it all over again with the in-laws. I didn't take my laptop with me to Cali, because I needed to not work. It was great, but between all that stuff, playing catch up, and prepping for up coming things, like the class I'm teaching soon, I've been exhausted. Just absolutely tapped out, ready to walk into the ocean kind of tired.

Lots of little stuff makes my anxiety spike, so I sat down this weekend and busted out my planner. Put in all the stuff coming up. Made lists. Started getting things rolling on the book I want to put out this year and other things. I'll get back to steady ground by my teeth if I have to. Learning how to manage this stuff was one of my better choices of 2022, along with getting back into therapy. 

Besides the rereading, I'll tell you I read Kowal's new book, The Spare Man. It's the Thin Man, but in space! I liked it a whole hell of a lot, and I hope she writes more. If you enjoy cozy mysteries and want a sci-fi spin on one, I recommend it. I listened to another of the Innkeeper Chronicles on Graphic Audio, but I'm caught up now to the new one, so I'm just going to read it. I liked the full cast approach, but do not enjoy sound effects and music added in. Made the kissing scenes a bit weird, to be honest. In general I found it really distracting from the solid work the actors were doing. No shade if you like this approach--it just wasn't for me.

I'm currently listening to The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell, which I think was suggested by one of you. It's funny and reminds me a bit of Christopher Moore's stuff.

If you want to add to our collective TBR's, please list your suggestions in the comments!

I hope everyone is recovering from the holiday season and being gentle with themselves.

-Lish