So, About That 2018 TBR…

November 16, 2018

As many of you know, one of the themes for my reading this month was following Kathy’s Remember November challenge, where I would focus on picking up books I meant to read earlier this year, but didn’t get to yet.
hat hasn’t worked out well for me so far—we’re now halfway through November, and I’ve spent the entire freaking month slumping!—but it got me thinking about my 2018 TBR, and it made me wonder: how am I doing with those, anyways?
So, today, we’re going to take a peek at a few lists I made at the end of 2017:


24 must-read titles:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy // Shutter // Six of Crows // Tithe // City of Bones // Traitor’s Blade // The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer // It Ends With Us // The Rising // The Long Walk // The Alchemists of Loom // Nevernight // Shatter Me // Winter // Sabriel // Name of the Wind // The Foxhole Court // A Gathering of Shadows // The Mime Order // History is All You Left Me // The Scorpio Races // The Hobbit // A Head Full of Ghosts // The Thief

Almost everything that’s been marked off on this list was read in the first 3-4 months of 2018, which shows that I did really well with this list at first, but lost steam fast.

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most anticipated 2018 releases:

The Cruel Prince // Reign of the Fallen // Heart of Iron // All Out // Obsidio // Ace of Shades // Beyond a Darkened Shore // A Court of Frost and Starlight // On the Come Up // Bright We Burn // City of Bastards // Contagion // Toil & Trouble // Escaping From Houdini // What if it’s Us? // The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy // Blanca & Roja // The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

So, this one is a lot better! Technically, Beyond a Darkened Shore is one of my current reads, but I’m letting it stand. A few interesting notes about this list:

  • On the Come Up was pushed back to 2019, so I couldn’t read it this year as planned
  • City of Bastards, I read the first few chapters of before deciding I was happier with how the first book ended, so I left it like a standalone
  • I realized most of my appreciate for The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue came from buying into the hype, and that I didn’t like it that much and couldn’t stand Felicity, so I decided not to read Lady’s Guide at all

I definitely want to do a most anticipated 2019 releases list as well and see if I can do even better with that one.

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“books I want to reread this year”:

House of Leaves // Twilight // Eragon // Sabriel // Tithe // Fruits Basket, Vol. 1 // The Hunger Games // North American Lake Monsters // Gemina // Cress

Not too shabby for this one! House of Leaves is one I almost reread this year but decided to put off until a GR group I’m in reads it together next year. I still want to try fitting in North American Lake Monsters and Cress within the next few months, but probably not in 2018.

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I think I actually did better than I would have guessed I did! I definitely want to re-do all of these lists for 2019. I think my yearly TBR is going to be bigger in 2019 than it was in 2018, but I have something special planned for that. Stay tuned… 🙂


Did you make any yearly TBRs for 2018? If so, how are they going? Will you be making a 2019 TBR? Let me know in the comments!

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More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

58 Comments
    1. You’re doing great! I make a TBR every month, I need to break it down into more manageable bites? But I do love looking forward and I have already posted a couple of 2019 anticipated lists.

      1. Thank you, Tammy! Hahaha I feel you, I do monthlies too, though I’m sooo bad at sticking to them lately! I think in 2019 I’m re-trying my goal of limiting my monthly TBR to 10 books or less, no exceptions, because I’ve been making huge TBRs lately and then putting myself into slumps over them.

    1. I think you are doing pretty good on your Yearly TBRs! You might not get them all, but I think getting a 2/3rds of the way through a TBR is always a great feat ^_^
      I suppose the closest thing I have to a Yearly TBR is my challenge to finish some completed series on my TBR. It is going… okay. I’m halfway through, if only because I’ve DNF some of those series (whoops!).
      Next year I might do a more formal Yearly TBR. Maybe it will help keep me on track!

      1. Thank you, love! 😀 Oh no, sorry you DNFed some of the series! I love the idea of a series TBR for the year, though. I might have to borrow that because I have a LOT of ongoing series I need to finish! I hope you do try a yearly TBR, I’d love to see what you put on it, even if you just do a handful of books!

        1. I like doing Series TBRs because I feel like I start so many series over a year and then never finish anything. So, DNFing some series kind of sucks, but at least I know and those books aren’t still sitting on my TBR shelf 🙂 I’ve already got some potential series picked out for next year!

          1. Right, I’m so bad about not finishing series!! And for me it’s usually not even DNFing the series, just… forgetting about them I guess? Or doing like I am with Throne of Glass right now where I started the finale over a week ago and am only 150 pages in because I’m scared for it to end lol!

            1. I do the same thing! I start s series and have so much else to read sometimes I forget I wanted to continue it! Only if it is so good I can’t put it down… Then I drop everything to keep reading a series. I have to update my Goodreads shelves and fictfact soon because I think I’m missing sequels o need to get to lol

            1. Exactly! I just forget about them altogether and it’s the worst lol! I almost never binge read series but I used to love binge reading them as a teen so I should get back to it, really.

            1. There are some series that I start and then feel the need to binge– and I absolutely love that. There aren’t many series that can make me feel desperation though, or at least not for more than 2 or 3 books.

      1. I’m sorry you have been slumping, too! 🙁 I feel like this fall has just been awful on so many of us readers lately, I’m seeing sooo many people slump and go on blog hiatuses lately! I hope your slump is totally gone soon!

        1. Thank you. I ended up taking a break from the blog as well. I just posted for the first time in over a week today. I hope you get out of your slump soon.

    1. Hun, you’re doing such a great job keeping up with these tbrs! I don’t even want to think at how horrendous my tbr would be if I did this! Lol!! I hope you get to Winter some time soon! I really enjoyed that one! ❤️

      1. Thank you Kelly!! Haha! 😀 I’m excited for Winter but I think I might reread Cress first because I really miss my sweet babies Cress and Thorne, they are so precious! I want to reread it and tab my favorite parts just so I can flip it open at random and revisit the sweet moments haha. I always think about the line where he tells her he won’t let her die without being kissed—freaking SWOON. ??????

        1. I would DIE for Cress and Throne, tbh. I love them so much!! <3 <3 <3 I've literally reread that book like 3 times, cover to cover, so I totally understand the feeling!

    1. This has intrigued me as to what I might have said I wanted to read this year because I have no memory of any of it… You’ve done a pretty good job so far though, and even though you’ve had a reading slump so far there’s still a whole month and a half to go before the end of the new year!

      1. I had to dig through my old blog posts because I couldn’t remember besides the list I had in my spreadsheet. ? It’s been a long damn year, Avery! And thank you! I’m not sure if I’ll get to much of these leftover titles before the year is out because I’m trying to just read ARCs until Short-a-thon, and then for that I’m reading mostly graphic novels… but I’m gonna try to get at least one more knocked off this list! 🙂

      1. Thank you, Chrissi! Haha I’m so glad this post is going over well because, just between you and me… last night it was about 2am and I realized I had nothing scheduled for today, and I was SO TIRED and didn’t want to write a review. ?? So I was like, “Okay, what is the easiest post I can think of writing right now…?”

          1. That’s still awesome! Lots of people only read one book a year, if that. 🙂 In 2016, my reading goal was 24 books and I literally only met it by reading a couple of short stories the last week of December, so it wasn’t even 24 full novels or anything!

    1. You did great! I had a vague idea what i want to read this year, but ended up reading mostly random things ?

      1. Thank you! Haha I don’t blame you ? Hell, maybe I should do that for 2019 instead of making a TBR! I just love making lists and planning things… it gives me a false sense of control ??

      1. Thank you! 😀 Hopefully I’ll be able to start getting some of those posts up in the next couple of weeks instead of saving them all for the last week or so of December like I did last year!

    1. oooh girl this is impressive!!! (also i reread Cress recently and it was Lovely)

    1. I think you did pretty good with your TBR! I did pretty well too with my tbr, there are some books I failed to read this year and it took me so long to finish my HP reread, but overall I think I managed to read a lot of books that have been on my tbr forever!

      1. Thank you! 😀 That’s awesome, congrats on doing well with yours, too! I think I might try to reread the first half or so of HP in 2019. I considered doing it in 2018 but wasn’t quite feeling it so I think I will next year! Then maybe I can finally write reviews for them 🙂

    1. You are doing great! I feel you with the slump, well I guess mine’s not a true slump, if I am actually reading I am really engrossed…..but it’s getting me there to actually pick up a book!

      1. Awww I’m sorry you’re having some slightly slump-y reading moods too! It’s such a pain! My slump seems to have finally ended, thank goodness. I’ve been reading a lot the last few days. A friend loaned me their ARC of The Wicked King and it seems to have been the push I needed! I hope you’re able to get back to 100% reading mood soon! 😀

        1. I’m so jealous that you are reading The Wicked King, I can’t wait for it!!!! I seem to have found my groove with Winter, I can’t seem to put it down! May that continue!!!! ?

          1. I honestly was STUNNED when my friend messaged me offering to send it to me! Like I literally squealed a little lol. It is soooo good so far, I can’t wait for it to come out and everyone to love it as much as I’m loving it hopefully! 😀 And yay, I hope you continue(d) loving Winter!

            1. I’m still sooooo jealous! And yes…Winter was so good, I’m disappointed now though that I’ve finished!

    1. I think you’ve been doing pretty well. We get distracted and it is so much easier to grab the books we just bought or that everyone is talking about. I’m going to see about my 15 of 2018 tbr at the end of the year haha.

      1. Thank you!! Yeah it really is haha. I thought about doing a huge list for 2019’s TBR but maybe I should just stick to a smaller list like 15 like you said since I wasn’t able to finish the 24 I had planned this year. I think part of my issue was that I kept forgetting I had made the TBR and the other part of the issue was that the TBR had no 2018 releases, they were all backlist titles, but I spent way too much of this year just reading ARCs! I want to read less ARCs next year, really.

        1. Same. I wanted to read certain books this year but had to push them back for arcs. Less requesting for next year I hope. So far I have a bunch for the start of the year though haha.

    1. “but I have something special planned for that”
      I. AM. CURIOUS. Whaaaat? How long do we have to wait to find out?
      I actually.. don’t even want to look at the lists I made for 2018? Not the ones with specific books anyway. I know I’m doing pretty darn great on the challenges I set myself, so there’s that but.. the book-specific ones? Yeah no. :’)

      1. Bahaha… not too long! Last year, I waited to do my end of year posts until right at the end of December and it made it hard to fit in anything else, so this year, I think I’ll space them out throughout the month of December!
        Bahaha… you should dooo iiiit :p

        1. Awesoooome! I’m going to look into my end of year posts soon as well but I don’t really know yet what I’ll be posting? Pretty sure I skipped that madness last year or something..

          1. I loooove reading end of year posts, but they’re such a pain to write because I’m so indecisive. It took me DAYS of rewriting to finalize my “best of” list last year. ? That post, I miiight actually save for the beginning of January, just to give a fair shot to anything I read for Short-a-thon, though I don’t THINK any graphic novels or short stories would be able to top the list I’m looking at…

            1. You could also do a separate list with short stories / graphic novels? Just a thought!
              I haven’t even started on those posts yet and already I’m dreading it. I’m glad I have my Excel-file with all the book I read + genre + top reads + whatever though. It’ll definitely help? I hope.. :’) [probably will still be a struggle but whatever.?]

            1. Oooh, there you go! People are always asking me for novella recommendations in particular, and I’ve read a lot of good GNs this year, so I could definitely do a “best of” for that. 😀 thanks!

            1. See! Simply divide all the “best of” until you’re happy with what you got and don’t have to feel like you’re ignoring other great reads, haha!

    1. oooh I wanna try and do something like this for next year so that I actually read the books I want to read instead of getting distracted!
      You did so well! I’d be really proud of myself with read so many on your lists!

      1. Thank you! 😀 And you totally should, it was fun. I just wish I had stuck to it more over the last few months like I did early in the year, but I’m hoping that I’ll do even better next year!

        1. Fingers crossed for you!
          I think I’m definitely going to focus on my owned books next year! I went never having anything at home to read because I’d read books as soon as I buy them to having almost the entirety of Rick Riordans work and still not having read a single one ??‍♀️ and lets not talk about every other book I have waiting to be read!
          why am I like this????

          1. Hahaha I feel you! As a kid/teen and even into my early twenties, I never had money for books so I might have received 5-10 per year as gifts and otherwise would only use the library. So now as an adult I think I’ve spoiled myself on being surrounded by unread books!

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