Down the TBR Hole #9

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Hello Hello! How are you?

The days have started to merge into one another now that I’ve finished my assignments for university, and honestly, if I didn’t have this blog and my calendar with all my posts scheduled (yes I’m that crazy organised person), I would be LOST.

Today is another Down The TBR Hole post day, a round of applause, please! I had to move this forward to Thursday because I have a blog tour tomorrow, but I think my shelf needs a purge right now because I’ve been shamelessly adding books to the list in the past week. Did any of you see that list of 24 historical fiction books on Goodreads recently? I’m that person who added every single one to my TBR, please don’t judge, I didn’t want to lose them so I added them all… oh well aha!

If you haven’t heard about this post before, head over to my first ever edition to find out all about it and join me on my Goodreads TBR purge journey! So, last Friday, at the end of my 8^th edition of Down the TBR Hole, I was at 4,414 books, which is a really good improvement on week 1. Drum roll for laughter. I’m now at 4,442 books… I’ll be starting the post today at #96 and working my way through the next 20 books on my list! I’m really excited for today’s post, I don’t think I’ll be removing very many books, but I do think that I’ll be reminded of some great titles I need to get to! Here goes nothing!

GOODREADS “WANT TO READ SHELF”

The Upside of Unrequited by Becki Albertalli

Apparently this is the second book in the Simonverse series… but I’ve seen loads of people read these books in no particular order, and having read the blurb I don’t think I have to read this as the second book, please tell me if I’m wrong though! This one has been on my list for so long, it sounds like a great read, easy and fun and I really need to get to it soon!

KEEP

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

I feel like I’ve seen this book make its rounds on book Twitter and Instagram for a few years now and I added it to the TBR because of the cover, I didn’t even really know what it was about until a few minutes ago. I honestly don’t read that many books with mental health rep, but this one sounds really interesting and I think it could end up being really heart-warming, probably a bit of a tough read, but I really want to give it a go!

KEEP

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

This is another book that I added to my TBR because of the cover, and also because at this time I was obviously on a contemporary book bandwagon, which I’ve actually moved away from a lot in recent years. I’ve always loved reading, but for a few years in secondary school, I felt self-conscious about my passion for reading because the kids at my school in France were totally against thinking that reading was cool, and the people who did read and said so openly were shamed, it’s really sad, but that’s how it was. So I stopped reading for the longest time, only probably reading a book or two a year but hiding in my room to do so. But when I went to high school, I found that people weren’t as judgemental and a lot of girls in my dorms actually read, in their rooms, with the other girls knowing about it, and not caring. So this is when I started reading again openly and I didn’t know what I really liked so I went for contemporary, not even knowing that there was such a thing as genres. As I went through high school and followed a literary course of study (it’s complicated in France but in high school, you either do manual studies like mechanics, engineering, woodwork, etc, or general studies either economics, sciences or literary studies and I did the latter) which taught me a lot of things about books, and made me discover some fantastic reads (that’s actually a good idea for a post!), I started to find more books that I liked. Fast-forward (yes I had to count on my fingers at this point), 5 years, I’m a fantasy buff and don’t read much contemporary, but LONG STORY SHORT, I want to read this one! I do generally like contemporary novels with LGBT rep, and the blurb has just captivated me, I need to read this one soon! Sorry for the longggggggg run down of my life aha!

KEEP

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

See what I meant about the contemporary bandwagon? Will I ever learn? Probably not! This book sounds like it could be a really hard-hitting, difficult read, I don’t usually read these types of books, and I haven’t heard anyone speak about it I don’t think, but I’m really intrigued. I want to learn all about Carver and experience the Goodbye Day he has with Blake’s grandmother. I think it could be a really nice book even though it’s probably very emotional!

KEEP

Strange the Dreamer (#1) by Laini Taylor

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! FANTASY!!! FINALLY!! Sorry, Hihi! I’ve waited for 9 WEEKS to get on the fantasy bandwagon so I hope this one lasts longer than the previous ones! I haven’t read this book yet… it’s been on my list for actual years, I’ve definitely missed the boat, but, Noly (The Artsy Reader) and I host a monthly Readathon (Hype-A-Thon Readathon) where we read hyped books that we haven’t had a chance to get to yet, and this one could be a contender (pretty please Noly)! I want to read about Lazlo Strange, I have heard SO MUCH about this story, so many people love it, rate it as their favourite fantasy series, I’ve received innumerable amounts of Strange the Dreamer fandom items from book boxes… but I’ve not read it, I promise that I will soon! I’ve already removed the sequels so now I just have to get to this one.

KEEP

Wintersong (#1) by S. Jae-Jones

Another oldy, but is it a goody? The blurb for this book is giving me The Cruel Prince and Every Heart A Doorway vibes. I am a SUCKER for books described as dark, faery fantasies, so I hope I can get to this one in the coming months (or years, who am I kidding?) but it’s at the top-ish of the list now, so it shouldn’t take me too long!

KEEP

La Belle Sauvage (#1 The Book of Dust) by Philip Pullman

I absolutely (ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY) want to read this book, but, as you probably know, I have a thing about reading books by the same author in the (in my opinion) incorrect order according to the date of publication, and I can’t bring myself to read this book before I get a chance to read the His Dark Materials trilogy first. I know this is strange, but I’m a strange book nerd! I’m going to remove any other books by him that were published after the first book in the HDM trilogy and add them again once I’ve gotten a chance to read that. I’ve got the bind-up here in Scotland and have it on the Book Tempter’s Challenge, so I should get to it before the end of June!

REMOVE

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

I read the first book in the Grishaverse last year and I have to say… I was a bit disappointed, people go on and on and on about this world and I just didn’t really get it, but I’m going to read the second book, Siege and Storm this year hopefully and see if my opinion changes. I read Ninth House at the start of the year and really liked it, so I know that I like her writing, I just think that Shadow and Bone had a slow start. I’ve wanted to read these short stories for a while, and I know I hope I can get to it soon! What order would you recommend reading this book? Before the rest of the Grishaverse books, of after them all?

KEEP

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

No, I haven’t read any Maggie Stiefvater books yet, yes, I know I’m a bad person aha! And I’m going to be an even worse person and say that I have to take this off the list because its one of her more recent books and I have to read the Raven Cycle books first (No, I haven’t read that series either), but I’ll come back for this one, I promise!

REMOVE

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

I have to say that I don’t remember putting this one on the TBR. I started reading the blurb and right now I’m in the type of mood that if the blurb doesn’t captivate me within the first 2 lines, I can’t deal with it, and this is one of those. I’m sure it’s a great book, but I’m honestly not a fan of mermaids, I can do pirates, faeries, elves, goblins, and all manner of different magical creatures, but there is something about mermaids that just makes me feel uneasy (I like The Little Mermaid, but that’s about as far as it goes), so I’m going to remove this book, it doesn’t sound like a book for me and I haven’t heard anyone speak about it AND I don’t even know what the synopsis is about because I couldn’t be bothered to read it aha!

REMOVE

See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng

I haven’t seen a middle-grade/ children’s book on this list yet, I’m glad I stumbled upon this one. In the blurb, this book is compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I read it so many years ago and have such fond memories of that book, I don’t even need to know anything else about this book, it sounds like it could be a great read and I want to try to read some more MG books this year, so this is high on the list! Have any of you read this one yet? What did you think?

KEEP

Beyond The Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk

Apparently, we have left the fantasy bandwagon and are now making a journey on the middle grade/ children’s book bandwagon, this should be fun! I have NEVER read an MG historical fantasy book, so this immediately piqued my interest. I feel like I’ve already heard about this book, or it sounds the same as a young adult book I’ve already heard about, but the blurb fascinated me. I like reading about characters who don’t know where they come from and have to go on a journey to discover the truth and this one sounds like it could be great!

KEEP

All The Things I Never Said by Mae Krell

I had a poetry week a few posts ago, and I found some really great-sounding poetry collections on my list, but this just doesn’t really do anything for me and I’m sure I have loads of other great poetry books in the list that I will enjoy much more!

REMOVE

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

I’ve started trying to read some more nonfiction this year, and I had no idea that this book was a memoir, and written in verse, it sounds mesmerising and I’m really looking forward to getting to it one day. I’ve heard so many people say that it was beautiful!

KEEP

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 & 2 by J.K. Rowling

I already have this book at home, I bought it as soon as it came out and it was one of the ONLY English books in my French bookstore, yes it’s shameful aha! I want to read this book really soon!

KEEP

The Hobbit (Or There and Back Again) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Are you going to hate me if I admit that’s I’ve never seen the Lord of the Ring films or even read the books? I hadn’t even read or seen Harry Potter until a few years ago… yikes! I bought a really nice box set of the Lord of the Ring books a few years ago and I really want to pick this up soon. I might get some hate from this, I don’t know lol, but I’ve decided to read this book before the first book in the Lord of the Rings series because it was published nearly 20 years before The Fellowship of the Ring, so it makes sense in my mind to read it before, but I have been shot down like a criminal before for saying this, so please be kind.

KEEP

Walk On Earth A Stranger (#1) by Rae Carson

The MG bandwagon didn’t last very long, did it? Back to some gold old fantasy! Now, this totally sounds like a book I’m going to love, a girl with a secret – she can sense gold in the earth – ohhhhh! I like it, I wouldn’t mind some of her powers myself aha! I’m really intrigued to read the first book in this series, I don’t think I’ve heard many people talk about it, but it sounds so original and I want to know more! And that cover is soooooo BEAUTIFUL!

KEEP

The Archived (#1) by Victoria Schwab

YESSSSS! I don’t have anything else to say really, but this has been on my list for years, and years, and years, as have all her other books (don’t worry, I already removed all the sequels) and I need to read this NOW! 😊 Also, I’ve just read the blurb for about the thousandth time and it just reminded me that I really need to read this one soon, it is giving me Peculiar Children vibes and I need this series in my life!

KEEP

Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas

I really didn’t want to see another thriller on this list for a while, but I suppose that I can’t help my past self being an idiot and adding a million books. I have never seen or heard anything about this book before, so I was surprised to actually realise that this book is not what I was expecting for the cover and I have absolutely no desire to read it, that was an easy choice!

REMOVE

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Last week, I removed a Kasie West book from this list because it was one of her newer books, but this is the earliest book from her that I’m actually interested in reading. I’ve had Pivot Point on my TBR shelf for years but I reread the synopsis last week and it just didn’t do anything for me so I removed it! This synopsis really drew me in and I want to pick this one up soon, I also hadn’t realised how many books by Kasie West I had on this list (you’re sick of hearing that by now aren’t you?) so I’ve removed them all except for this one and I’ll see if I want to read more after I’ve had a chance to read The Distance Between Us!

KEEP

This was a bit of a fail today, wasn’t it? It feels like I’ve gone through a million books, but I was only able to remove 5 books out of the 20 I looked through, and most were because they weren’t the first book by the author, oops. I have, however, remembered loads of books that I’ve had on this Goodreads shelf for a few years and I really need to get to.

I got distracted while I was making this post and somehow I ended up adding some more books to the list… and I’m now at 4,439 books, so I basically only managed to remove three books this week! Oh dear! I’m currently at #110, I still have an incredibly long way to go, but I’m hoping that next week will be more successful!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this edition of the shelf purge. Have you read any of these books? Tell me all about them in the comments! See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx