TBR Takedown 2.0
First and foremost, allow me to introduce my TBR Takedown 2.0. You'll remember last year in my November wrap-up I told you about my original takedown plan, back when I only had 19 books on my TBR. By the end of the year I would have gotten it down to 16 books...but I didn't anticipate how many bookish gifts I'd get for Christmas when I sat down to plan things out. So now, between the nine physical books I received plus the $65 I got in book gift cards, my TBR has shot back up to 24 as of the beginning of the year. (The math on this might seem wonky, but just bear with me.)
That said, I had to do some serious thinking and re-planning. Did I spend the $65 immediately, max out my TBR, and go from there? Or did I wait to spend it until after I'd gotten it down to a more reasonable number? In the end I went with the latter option; however I did spend $25 of my Barnes and Noble gift card on a Membership I'd been wanting forever. So now I have $40 left to spend on actual books.
Now that I've had time to think about what I want to do in terms of reading this year, please welcome my Grand TBR Takedown Plan Version 2.0:
24 Books on TBR
January - 5 Books + Promised Library Book (19 left)
February - 5 Books (14 left)
March - 5 Books (9 left)
April - 5 Books (4 left)
May - Finish TBR
As you can see, the basic plan is to read five books a month from my TBR. However I've revised my original statement a little along with this. Instead of entirely banning myself from reading library books (I'm a librarian; I would die), I am allowing myself to read ONE library book per FIVE that I read from my TBR. That way I'm still plowing through my TBR, but I can read books that interest me from the library as well. (When you hang out around books all day, you tend to take a second glance at a handful as they come through the drop. Or at least I do.) The one thing that remains the same is I am NOT to buy any new books until my family's first trip to Montana this year, which will probably take place around March/April, at which point my TBR will be back down to a sane number.
I will get this done! I'm taking down my TBR and ain't nobody gonna stop me!
Once my TBR has been conquered, I have grand plans for things I'd like to finally do this year in terms of reading. First and foremost, this is the year I want to seriously start collecting the entire Skulduggery Pleasant series. I've mentioned before that I've only ever read the first three books, and the third book had SUCH a cliffhanger at the end and I STILL don't know what happens to Skulduggery or how Valkyrie rescues him or anything. It's been driving me crazy for years, y'all! And with the announcement of a 10th SP book on the way, I really want to be in the loop and finally finish this series.
So Goal #1 is to start collecting the rest of the series, a book at a time. I've already ordered special editions of Books Two and Three, so I'm super hyped for that. At that point it will just be a matter of getting the rest of the books one at a time when I can. (Note: These books will obviously become part of my TBR, but my plan is to wait until I have all of the books at once so I can do a massive Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough sometime towards the end of the year.) I'm so excited to finally do this! I love Mr. Pleasant SO MUCH.
Goal #2 concerns Sarah J. Maas. To this day I have yet to read ANY of her books - something that I am very sorry about, I assure you. I've heard many wonderful things about her and her novels, and I have read about them on Goodreads and elsewhere. They are definitely within my genre. So again, once my TBR is finished, one of the first things I want to do is read one of Sarah J. Maas' books and finally see what all the hype is about. Very excited to do this, as well.
Writing: The Year of the Raven
Last but certainly not least, my writing goal for the year. Of course I have plans and ideas for writing outside of this, such as my fanfiction over on Wattpad and NaNo2017. BUT I have let this particular story sit on the sidelines for way too long, and the time has come to remedy this situation. So, ladies and gentlemen. You heard it here first: I am announcing the official rewrite of Follow the Raven, the book that I have chosen to (hopefully) be my first published novel.
I don't have a writing plan at the moment, but I do intend to set one up. NaNoWriMo has recently introduced their new Goal Tracker, which is a year-round monthly word-count tracker. I've set it for 1,000 words in January, which will probably mostly be planning the story's new direction and MAYBE part of the first chapter. We'll see.
One of my biggest hang-ups with this story, I think, was the fact that I loved the original so much that I didn't want to change any of the things that didn't make sense. (This was back in 2011.) Now that I've had time to set it aside for a while and take writing-intensive classes, I've begun to piece together how I can make the story keep its original essence while also modifying it to work better in terms of character development/relationships, plot, and climax/denouement. I'm really excited about this new direction and I hope it turns out as well on paper as it does in my head.
This is the year, folks. The Year of the Raven.
That being said, we've reached the end of my first blog post of 2017! Thanks for checking out my reading/writing goals for the New Year. Be sure to check back here frequently for more book-related and nerdy posts. See you next time!
