Mid-TBR Takedown Crisis

I'm having a mid-TBR Takedown crisis.

Last month I updated you all on how my TBR Takedown was going. I modified my reading schedule, accounted for the library books I'd be reading, talked to you about my Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough, etc. Well, all that youthful optimism I had was thrown out the window by the time the first week of April was over - when I had only read 75 pages in seven days.

What happened? I was doing so well sticking to the schedule I had made for myself at that time, and I'd been making great headway on my TBR. Well...I'm not entirely sure what went wrong, to be honest. I started off great on April 1 - I read 75 pages of a book from my list and was totally ready to read 75 more the next day.

But then...I just lost motivation. I lost the drive to keep reading as well as I had, and that slump lasted six days. I wanted to read...but not the book I'd started. And not because it's something I think I'll have to DNF. Just because it was something I felt like I had to read. I guess that sitting down to re-evaluate my TBR Takedown schedule put things into perspective for me, and I realized I wouldn't have a lot of time for other reading if I wanted to finish my TBR by June, and all of that just kind of took the fun out of it for me. I suddenly felt like I wasn't reading the books on my list because I wanted to. I felt like I had to, like it was school reading all over again. Therefore I lost motivation.

So on the first Thursday of April, after work, I took home three different library books that I'd had my eyes on for a while for various reasons. I took them home and didn't touch them for the next 24 hours. I just let them sit there, and told myself I could read any of them I wanted and forget my TBR for a while. A couple days later I picked up The Selection by Kiera Cass and started reading. The next thing I knew I was 100 pages in, and I felt great.

Long story short, I'm now almost done with The Selection and have picked up the second book in its series to read once I'm done because I think it's safe to say that I'm hooked at this point. I've also started reading another library book at the same time...but I'll talk about that one in another post. The point is, during this mid-takedown crisis I've re-evaluated what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, the schedule I've set up for myself, and the rules and whatnot, and I've come to the current conclusion that while I should make reading my TBR books a priority, I shouldn't force myself to read them. That takes the fun out of it for me, and what's the point of going on an adventure if you're not going to have fun?

As it stands right now I haven't recreated a plan for taking down my TBR, but I do have a pretty loose structure set up that will get me through from now to the end of the summer (end of August), at which point I can take stock and set up a new Takedown if I want or perhaps try something else entirely. I'm not sure yet. Either way, it's safe to assume that I've forgone the previous setup I had as of my March wrap-up.

Pretty much my goal for right now is to finish the one TBR book I did already start this month at the very least, and then read at least two or three next month along with a couple of library books, if I so desire. In June I'll start my Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough, which I'm anticipating will take me all of June and July and probably the first half of August, taking into account both BookTubeAThon 2017 and my annual, week-long family vacation. If I can finish my current TBR by the end of the year at the very least, I think I'll be satisfied. (And at the rate I'm going, this will be the first year I complete my Goodreads Reading Challenge of 50 books in a year. That would be the best!)

So...yeah. Mid-TBR Takedown crisis, everyone. It's a legit thing. Who knew? Here's to hopefully not having another one! See you next time!