Last month, I decided to start a mass clean-out of my Goodreads TBR shelf! Naturally, if I’m going to spend the time doing it, I figured I might as well blog about it. I’m just doing it in small chunks to keep it manageable!
If there’s anything in this list that you think I should KEEP on my TBR, please let me know why, and I’ll consider adding it back!
TBR Tracking:
before purge 1: 1,536
after purge 1: 1,496
before purge 2: 1,534
- Unbury Carol — Josh Malerman
- I’ll still try Bird Box, but I’ve sadly started to realize Malerman’s writing doesn’t click with me AT ALL.
- Campfire — Shawn Sarles
- ELEMENTS: Fire — Taneka Stotts
- This sounds cool, but no library in my system has it and it’s $20+ for used copies online, so I know I’ll probably never get around to it.
- Salt — Hannah Moskowitz
- Zodiac Starforce, Vol. 1 — Kevin Panetta
- Glimpse — Jonathan Maberry
- I Will Always Write Back — Caitlin Alifirenka & Martin Ganda
- Not the Girls You’re Looking For — Aminah Mae Safi
- I hated what I read of her new book so much, I’m sorry but I just don’t want to touch anything else by her… :/
- Lies You Never Told Me — Jennifer Donaldson
- The Goon, Vol. 1 — Eric Powell
- Swamp Thing, Vol. 1 — Alan Moore
- This Heart of Mine — C.C. Hunter
- I’m sorry, I know a lot of my friends love this author… but I hated her latest book so much it makes me rage a little to even see her books’ covers at this point.
- Questions I Want to Ask You — Michelle Falkoff
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 1 — Hayao Miyazaki
- I think I’m content sticking to Miyazaki’s films for now!
- If You Could Be Mine — Sara Farizan
- I added this because I liked a short story from this author, but looking at the synopsis now actually makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. A girl planning to undergo reassignment surgery for her relationship? I don’t know, the apparent attitude seems… kind of shitty towards people who actually want to transition with the help of surgery?
- Sorcerer to the Crown — Zen Cho
- Swordspoint — Ellen Kushner
- Zero Sum Game — S.L. Huang
- An Accident of Stars — Foz Meadows
- The Turtle of Oman — Naomi Shihab Nye
- Shadow of the Lions — Christopher Swann
- Flight Season — Marie Marquardt
- The Resolutions — Mia Garcia
- In the House of the Dark of the Woods — Laird Hunt
- The Best Bad Things — Katrina Carrasco
- Coldfall Wood — Steven Savile
- How to Breathe Underwater — Vicky Skinner
- Long Lankin — Lindsey Barraclough
- Ten Thousand Thunders — Brian Trent
- This was an ARC I was sent without requesting it, and I added it to give it a try, but I wasn’t interested then and, sadly, am still not interested.
- Cold Iron — Miles Cameron
- The Chrysalis — Brendan Deneen
- Housewitch — Katie Schickel
- Graphic Classics, Vol. 7 — Gerry Alanguilan
- The Sword and the Dagger — Robert Cochran
- This was a very hesitant addition to begin with. ?♀️
- Tarot — Marissa Kennerson
- Next Year, For Sure — Zoey Leigh Peterson
- The Forgetting — Sharon Cameron
- Am I Normal Yet? — Holly Bourne
- Apparently there are some pretty gross ableist comments made in this. No thanks.
- A Dress for the Wicked — Autumn Krause
- Courting Darkness — Robin LaFevers
- I’d rather read the HFA trilogy before this spin-off duology!
Remaining TBR: 1,494
Jess @ Jessticulates
June 7, 2019I haven’t read Courting Darkness yet, but I’d still definitely recommend reading the original trilogy before picking it up! I still need to read Mortal Heart, but I really enjoyed Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph. 😀
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Thank you for the recommendation, I’ll definitely be sure to pick up the original trilogy first! 😀
Alexa
June 7, 2019I’m sorry, but I laughed at how you went back to almost where you were before purge 1 😀 I used to have this with my owned shelf, but than I finally convinced myself to delete A LOT of books that I downloaded for free and wasn’t actually interested in, and that helped.
I heard good things about Accident of Stars, and Salt sounds interesting, but I haven’t actually read either so I can’t exactly recommend them.
If You Could Be Mine always sounded very transphobic to me from the blurb, so naaaah. I own another book by the author, which I bought before I heard that it’s pretty biphobic, so I still haven’t read it yet :/ It sucks because WOC writing F/F stories should be awesome, but at what cost.
My problem with my TBR is, there are many that I would probably read if I could get them from the library but I don’t actually want to pay money because they don’t interest me THAT much – but they’ll most likely never end up in libraries near me, especially not in English, and the quality of translations is absymal lately. So I never know if I should take them off my TBR, because I want to READ them, but not enough to buy them when there are others that interest me more, and limited money.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019This is SUCH a late reply and feel free to ignore it, but I literally laughed out loud when your comment reminded me of how hard I FAILED at the TBR purge! I really should delete more, but at the same time, I guess I don’t really mind how high the number is as long as they’re books I’m at least somewhat interested in, so it all works out okay. ??
That really stinks that you bought one of her books and then found out it’s supposed to be biphobic 🙁 That makes me so sad. I feel lucky I hadn’t spend money on any of her books before hearing about all of this.
Oof, that’s understandable. :/ I know I have one friend who is on a pretty strict no buy and basically doesn’t add anything at all to her TBR that she can’t immediately get from the library, but I think her options must be easier going since she doesn’t have to wait on translations or anything. I can only imagine that must make your range a bit smaller and I hate that for you 🙁 I wish US-published books were easier to access internationally.
Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads
June 7, 2019A lot of these books I feel I would have added solely based on their cover (shame on me for sure) but I definitely like that you went through them and purged them. I’m bummed that you had such a bad experience with Aminah Mae Safi’s other book, and I totally saw why. I have yet to read either of them but I don’t think I could handle dealing with a bully as a main character and want to get through it either. I also like sticking with Hayao Miyazaki movies rather than books, but that’s just because I like the visuals in the movies better. Good job on the purge <3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Haha don’t feel ashamed, I add sooooo many based just on covers it’s unreal! And same on the Miyazaki films, those visuals and aesthetics are to die for ? Thank you darling!
devouringbooks2017
June 7, 2019A few of these I am excited to read. I want to read A Dress for the Wicked, The Sword and the Dagger, Tarot and Courting Darkness. I just checked and my “want to read” shelf is up to 3506 books. I have no self control LOL
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Bahahaha 3500?!?! That’s AMAZING. I honestly don’t mind how high my number is but sometimes I look at TBRs higher than mine and I’m just so impressed and in awe. ? I feel like mine has been skyrocketing lately because my mom added me to a facebook group where people post horror kindle freebies everyday and I’ve been getting a ton of those. I need a good resource for free fantasy stuff, too! I get some daily emails but they’re more for ebooks that are like $2-3 and those rack up after a while so I try to stick to freebies. 😛
devouringbooks2017
August 25, 2019I am in this facebook group called YA Book Stop and omg all the books for review look amazing! I get daily emails for free fantasy books… We Read Fantasy is a decent one! They have both freebies and sales.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 26, 2019Ohhh that’s so cool! And thank you, I’ll check that out! 😀
devouringbooks2017
August 26, 2019I want to accept all the author review copies… but I have too many ARCs as it is right now.
evelynreads1
June 8, 2019Those numbers made me laugh hahah, after the first purge you almost added the same amount hahah
But then, we always find new books that look interesting!
(Www.evelynreads.com)
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019LMAO I know! Story of my life, I just wanna read everything!
Sarah
June 13, 2019I need to do some massive purges like these tbh, my TBR is up to around 1250. To support some of your decisions: I didn’t love Nausicaa and felt like I got more out of the movie for sure annd I read If You Could Be Mine quite some time ago and thought it was okay but the plot also made me really uncomfortable from what I remember.
rachel @ typed truths
June 17, 2019the only one i’ve read of these is zodiac starforce, which i loved! i know you’re not a big superhero fan (am i remembering that right??) but it was super fluffy & sapphic.
i’m so sad to hear about the holly bourne book because i’ve wanting to try something of here’s for ages now
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Yup you remembered right, not a big superhero fan sadly! 🙁 but hearing that it’s super fluffy and sapphic has me considering adding it back lmao, I am a sucker for soft gay girls <3
eLPy
June 19, 2019Good call in making a blog out of this. Clearly people are interested in your reading habits so let’s have it. But I can’t do it, I don’t think I can clear out my TBR even as I know I should. Some part of me will want to document somewhere what I deleted in case I want to go back to it. Lol. Perhaps one day I will. That said my 250 to your 1500+? Maybe it can stay a while longer just the way it is. 😉