My Ruthless Unhaul on My TBR I Have EVER Done

In this episode of the Booktrovert Reader Podcast, Charity discusses her recent unhaul of her TBR (To Be Read) shelf. She shares her journey back to reading after a hiatus and how she accumulated over 400 unread books. Charity explains her decision to make room for new books and be more intentional about her book purchases. She also discusses how her reading tastes have evolved and how she judges books based on ratings, covers, and synopses. Charity shares the books she decided to unhaul and the reasons behind her choices. She concludes by expressing her excitement for her future reading journey.

Takeaways

✨Be intentional about the books you buy and make room for new books that align with your current reading taste.
✨Consider book ratings and reviews when deciding which books to prioritize.
✨Don't be afraid to judge books by their covers and synopses to determine if they align with your preferences.
✨Explore books from indie authors and support their work.
✨Unhaul books that no longer interest you or align with your reading preferences.
✨Avoid long and chunky books if they don't appeal to you.
✨Take recommendations with a grain of salt and trust your own reading preferences.

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Transcript

Charity (00:00.174)
So, I just went through the most ruthless book on haul I have ever done, and it's mainly focusing on my TBR. Hello readers, my name is Charity, the host of Burt River Reader podcast. I'm introverted, but willing to talk about fantasy books. On this podcast, I will do book reviews, author interviews, and fantasy book discussions. Come join me every week as I explore new rounds and talk to amazing people.

Charity (00:36.686)
I love to talk about fantasy books and introvert while doing it. If you haven't already, if you're new here, like and subscribe. I would love to have you follow my channel and my introverted shenanigans as I talk to you about all things fantasy. So that said, I recently just did a major unhaul of my TBR shelf. I'm gonna kind of break it down as to kind of how I came to my conclusion.

how I decided to get rid of books and what some of the books that I decided to get rid of because you know natural curiosity says like what did you get rid of? During my college days I did definitely take a hiatus on reading. I stopped reading and when I got married and you know went straight to work I just stopped reading altogether. I didn't enjoy it at the time and thankfully I had a co -worker that gave me a fantasy book and it just got me back on this

this trip of like just really enjoying reading again. And at the time I still couldn't, I didn't buy books. Even when I was in school, like high school, middle school and all those things, I couldn't afford to buy books. I had to get them from the library or I would request, you know, one or two books for Christmas, right? So being an adult that I am, I decided to go crazy on buying books, anything that I can get my hands on because I finally could just buy it.

And this is not sponsored at all. Thanks to thriftbooks .com, I was able to get a lot of books that I can normally not afford on my, you know, on a regular basis at full price. So I was able to get a lot of classic books, very, very cheap. I did put a link below of my referral code for thrift books, if you're interested in that. I simply adore that website. I use it on a regular basis and it helped me grow my collection.

But the problem that I had was that I bought so much that I was buying a lot more than what I was reading, obviously. And I eventually accumulated over 400 books, unread books, just sitting on my shelf, not being touched, whatever the case may be. And then now four years into reading, I have definitely evolved quite a bit.

Charity (02:54.67)
from the day I was starting to buy books and also too as well, there's a lot of new books coming in. Getting down to it, now that I have a whole bunch of books that was sitting on my shelf, I was starting to get conflicted about the books I had on my shelf that I wasn't reading and I wanted to buy new books that were coming out from indie authors or, you know.

traditionally published authors, but I would feel guilty about buying those books because I had so many books that I already had on my TBR shelf and I felt like I couldn't get into that unless I read all of them and then eventually I started noticing that I was growing my new book pile a lot faster than I was reading the books I already had. I decided to get rid of a lot of books just because I want to start making room for

new books, new books that I actually want to read that I have a passion for. I'm really into fantasy romance right now and I want to start buying first books of the series to get books on my shelf that I really enjoy. I also started to realize that my taste in books has changed since I bought a lot of these books four years ago.

I noticed that over time I'm just not into YA fantasy right now. I just don't like it. I tend to not like the writing style and I had a lot of YA fantasy books on my shelf and I was like not looking forward to reading any of them but I was holding on to those books because I was like but what if I liked it down the road and you know that may be true.

but I was just not picking them up. And it might be another two years that I might pick that book up. And I just wanted to start making more room into books that were a little bit more in line with my reading taste at the moment. Also too, some of these books has been on my shelf for over three years and I have not picked it up and I had no desire to pick it up anytime soon. So I kind of started focusing on those books.

Charity (05:03.406)
Like, okay, they've been on my shelf for three years. Am I going to pick it up or not? If it's been on my shelf for three years already, am I going to pick it up in the next six months? And I was like, you know what? If I wasn't going to be willing to pick this book up in the next six months, I think it was time to go. Another thing that I, and I know a lot of people may not agree with this, but when I first purchased the book three or four years ago, they were new or the case may be they've been around for a while.

and I bought it and was intending to read it but of course I had plenty of other books come in so I never got around to it and three or four years later ratings on the book is pretty low. I know this is not the most agreeable moment because I know sometimes you can pick up a book that not a lot of people have liked but I just like in the efforts of downsizing my book collection I just got rid of anything that was kind of under 3 .75.

especially if it was like 3 .5, 3 .6 because I was like, you know, sometimes my reading taste does align with the general public of books that are read out there. Even if it's known or unknown, if the rating is low, I know I'm just not going to like that book. I'm just trusting the judgment of all the other readers that have read that book before me. And I'm like, well, if the rating is low, I think I'm just not gonna prioritize that book and just give it to somebody else that might like it more.

you know, might pick it up a lot sooner than I will. Also too, I did take the time to read the synopsis of every single book that I was choosing to unhaul. And I was finding that I was, obviously I was consistently going to books that were like YA or I just wasn't interested in the plot anymore. I just like, no, it's just like your reading taste just evolves.

And also too, I've noticed that over three or four years of me really diving into reading again, into fantasy books, I can instantly tell when I am going to like a book and when I'm not going to like the book based off of the plot, the covers and things like that. And I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but sometimes I can instantly tell if I'm going to like something or not by just looking at the cover or reading the plot in the back. I'm instantly turned off by anything that has to do with schools.

Charity (07:24.756)
I'm instantly turned off with the handsome boy shows up and I'm like, you know what? I'm in that era of handsome man, ruggish man, growling man, you know, but I'm not into the boys anymore. It's just where I'm at right now. Down the road I may be into the YA fantasy again, but at this current time I'm like I said, not interested in that. Going forward, I have definitely after accumulating a lot of books that

I, it's just sitting around right now. I have decided that when I make more room for books, I'm going to be more intentional about the books I'm going to buy going forward. There was times where I would buy a whole series before I would even read the first book. And then when I read the first book, I realized I didn't like it.

I've recently discovered that in the last three months. I had like four or five series that I purchased and I purchased the whole thing and I didn't like the first book and I had to get rid of the whole series. So I am only gonna buy one book of the series at a time. There was even a situation where I liked the books all the way up to the third book but I didn't like the fourth and fifth and because I bought the whole series, I am now stuck with...

I won't say I'm stuck with, but I have two books that I just don't like out of the whole series that I purchased. That was an interesting perspective to see that I just gonna buy one book, the first of the series. If I like it, then I'll continue buying the next book, read it, buy the next, read it. And if I don't like it or just decided to stop continuing on the series, I didn't like use all my money to buy.

whole set of series i didn't like but use that money towards a series that i am invested in and really love. i also really wanted to start investing in books that were from indie authors. now when i was buying these traditionally published books that's been out for like over 10 years i was getting it for four or five dollars so it was easy to buy lots of books very cheaply but i want to start getting indie authors books.

Charity (09:33.358)
but because they're independently published, they tend to be a little bit more expensive in that area. And I wanted to, you know, I can't buy five of those at once if they're $24 each or $18 each. So I have to take more time into, okay, do I like this book? All right, I love it. Let me continue on with the series. So I have to be more intentional about how I buy these books, especially if I'm going to in the author route.

So some of the books that I decided to unhaul, you know, some people may agree, disagree with some of my choices, but I'll just explain a little bit about why I decided to unhaul some of these books. Fable Haven, I know this is a classic for a lot of people, but I had this book on my shelf for almost four years now. I know some people, I mean, I had a BookTuber.

You know really recommend this book and a lot of people recommend it, but I'm just not getting I'm just not getting around to it and Since it's kind of like the middle school or YA feel I was just like, you know what? I'm I'm just gonna put this one down for now And if I'm interested, it's it's not a hard book to get a copy of So I just feel like this could benefit somebody else and not just me. Another one is the I don't know Iron King by Julie Cagguada. I really wanted to

read these series because I do think this has to do with Faye, but I when it said something about being in school or at home, I mean that's the first book it talked about that, I just decided to like you know what I'm not into the academia high school drama kind of thing because I just I just personally just am not interested in that.

age range at the moment and I decided to I'm gonna just unhaul these books because I know there's probably somebody that out there that really would love these books and I think I might just actually just donate these to my library so someone can get them at a very affordable rate because you know I do believe this could be a great series it's just not for me and I just I'd rather just make room for some series that might be better for my taste. So...

Charity (11:48.718)
The Rage of Dragons, I have no idea what this is about. I did get this for like a dollar or two at my local library sale and I thought I would try to dive into that. And I know I probably have a bookstagrammer or two that I'm friends with that would probably be like, no, you read it, it's so good. But I'm just not into this right now. I'm a very...

romance fantasy romance girly right now that's what I'm driving with and there is a video I saw that like if there's no romance and fantasy we just get bored and I do sometimes feel that way if there's no romance and fantasy I just get bored and

That's the era I'm in right now. And so I'm gonna go ahead and unhaul this one just because I'm just not jiving with this. So another one is Magic is a Seth and his Heat book. I bought these two books because I did attempt to read this back 10 years ago and I remember not even getting into it then. So I don't even know why I'm trying again to read this series when the first time.

I didn't like it. I know there has been a time or two where I have attempted to pick something up and I just never finished it and then I liked it later down the road, but I just decided that I'm just going to unhaul these ones because I think this is a classic good for somebody else. I think it's a middle school read, so I think it'd be good for somebody else to have. I know a lot of people, this is such a Brandon Sanderson classic, The Way of Kings.

but I decided to unhaul this one because I just don't have a desire to read a book this thick. I'm just being real with you. I just, I think there's just so much pressure to read a lot of the popular books out these days, but I'm just not into just pushing myself through something that is just going to drain me and just take forever to get through and not enjoy it. If I were to ever pick this up, I think I'll try this on audiobook just so I'm like not

Charity (13:49.518)
Constantly like trying to sit through this. I know a lot of people would be upset with me saying this but I just don't I don't have an interest in this right now I haven't even read anything from Brandon Sanderson and I just feel like if I were to read something from Brandon Sanderson I should probably read a smaller book. That's not over a thousand pages another one that I'm unhauling that is not fantasy is Dune

It's just the same concept as the Way of Kings. It's just a big book and I know the movie is out and I know the book is always better than the movie But I just I've had this on my shelf for four years now I'm never picking it up the part two have just came out and I haven't even seen the first movie because I'm still trying to read the book first so I might try to listen to the audiobook as well, but you know, maybe I'll enjoy it more, but I just

With it being such a big book, I just knew that I'm never going to get around reading this. I've been starting to get a little burned out on thick books lately. Sarah J Maas is the biggest culprit. She does a lot of her books, seven to 800 pages, and just reading those back to back to back, it's just, it's not making it enjoyable to read when it's like so long.

I'm just gonna go with my feelings here and just decide to skip out on anything that's really big right now. I think the only book that I probably am gonna continue to that are big chunky reads are Veloroth and that's the Blood Mercy series. I'm gonna continue reading on those but I'm just... it's time to DNF these chunky ones. So another chunky book, The Eye of the World.

Again, I might just go ahead and do an audio book on it, but again, it's on my shelf for four years now and I still haven't bothered to pick it up. I know the first and second movie has come out or the second movie or the series or something like that is coming out. And I'm just like at this point where I want to enjoy this, but I not feel like I have to read, you know, 800 pages to be able to enjoy it. So I'm going to unhaul this one. Next one is age.

Charity (15:59.68)
of myth and okay this is a little little petty but I had a youtuber a booktuber that I really followed I loved her content and she recommended me a series and she's like you have to do it and I got all six books in that series yes it is my fault for buying a whole series without reading the first book and whether I liked it or not.

but I bought the whole series and I couldn't even get past the first 20 pages. And I'm like one of those, I don't know why it angered me so much, but after that point, I was like, I don't trust any of her recommendations anymore. Our reading tastes are not the same because I can tell you right now, a lot of these books are in this pile she recommends. And I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna get rid of this cause she's like all up and down.

like recommending this book and I'm pretty sure that there's people out there that this book is great to recommend to but I'm just like, you know what? I'm gonna get rid of it because there's a good chance I'm not gonna like it if this particular booktuber recommends it. I'm just being real. But that's just my honest thoughts on that one. So the last of all these stuff, one of the books that I'm on hauling is Jurassic Park. I know this is technically science fiction.

One of the things that I've discovered about myself that if I grew up on the movie, I'm not gonna enjoy the book. It's happened with The Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, I tried reading Pride and Prejudice and I just couldn't get into it because I've seen the movie 500 different times and 500 different versions and I just don't really care for reading the book because I've seen the movie and I like the movie a lot better. So...

I've decided to unhaul this. Those are the books that out of my 75 book unhaul, making room for more of the books that make me happy and not trying to force myself to read anymore. You know, being into the book community for this long, I just want to do something that will make me more happier and not make me as miserable trying to read the books that I tried buying. I'm looking forward to moving forward with my reading journey with this perspective, just because I just want to be more intentional.

Charity (18:18.062)
And thank you for listening to my rambling. Catch you later, readers. Bye.

Charity (18:27.694)
Thank you readers for listening to my podcast on fantasy books. I hope you're enjoying the content and finding it helpful in discovering new books to read. If you have a moment, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Also, don't forget to follow me on Instagram at BooktravertReader to stay updated on new episodes and other book related content. Thank you again for your support and happy reading.