Hello!

I really try not to start every monthly tbr post with ‘omg I can’t believe another month has gone by’ but that is genuinely how I’m feeling because January is meant to be the super slow month but we’re already basically in February!!

With my January TBR I absolutely had the BEST intentions – as of writing, I’ve read 2 out of the 10 books on that list. Am I hoping to get through two, maybe three more by the end of the month? Yes, but already we’re not getting off on the right foot! I’m trying to curate my functional tbr so I’m not wasting money – I feel like I’m not making enough time to read on Kindle Unlimited (because I have a lot of physical tbr to get through), I’m only listening to Audible when I’m driving which was great when I was spending two hours a day commuting to work but I’m not, so I’m currently reading about 45 minutes a week which isn’t really enough to justify what I’m paying. Then there’s my Illumicrate subscription – I’ve read 2 of the 4 books I’ve received so far and the latest one I only rated 2 stars, so maybe I need to cancel that (the January box will be the real decider for me) – maybe 2024 is the year I need to cancel my subscriptions, get through my tbr and come back to them later.

But I’m definitely not implementing that for my February TBR!

If you’re not familiar with my ‘functional’ TBR, I basically try to make my reading lists make the most of all the services I’m paying for, plus a couple of categories for my physical tbr:

• so there’s my Rocket Book Club pick (my husband and I asked for our wedding guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book so we’d have a little library of our favourite people’s favourite books and every month we take it in turns to pick a book to read and I call it a book club!)
• this year I’m reading one Famous Five book each month as we got a box set as a gift in the wedding library and I thought it would be a nice way to to get through them all
• I pick 2 Kindle Unlimited titles (this year I’m picking books that are also on my physical tbr)
• 2 Audible books (to make the most of the service)
• Any new releases I’ve preordered because if I’ve gone to the effort of pre-ordering a book, I must care enough about it to read it immediately
• the previous month’s Illumicrate subscription (for example; the January box won’t arrive until the 27th of the month, so putting it on my February tbr makes more sense to me)
• the previous months Afterlight subscription (same as above – it’s a romance subsidiary of Illumicrate that’s gone monthly in 2024!)
• and new for this year, I’m trying to read 2 of my 24 books for 2024 so I can actually get through the list

So it’s a long list, for someone who reads at a medium-pace, averaging between 4-6 books in a normal month (I read 8 books on my two week honeymoon last year, which was absolutely an anomaly). I definitely intend to reevaluate this in February – Illumicrate and Kindle Unlimited are definite potentials to be cut, I should really stop pre-ordering books but with all this in mind, these are the books I’m hoping to read in February!

Revolution – Jennifer Donnelly (book club)

This one’s been calling to me ever since we opened the books that became the wedding library. I still don’t really know what it’s about but I decided not to deliberate too much on what I was picking and just go with my gut. Finally going to figure it out this month!

Five Go Adventuring Again – Enid Blyton (book club)

In theory, I should be able to read this in one sitting – a nice, easy kids book on a Sunday afternoon perhaps! As of writing this with a few days of January left, I haven’t read the first one yet but I’m hoping it’ll become a nice cosy series I come back to.

Beastly – Alex Flinn (KU)

Yes this was on my January TBR, but I never got round to it so I’m carrying it over. This is the thing, I’m still really excited about reading it which is why I know I need to make my tbr shorter so I can actually read everything on it.

The Library – Bella Osbourne (KU)

Another one that’s on KU and my physical tbr. I could definitely just read the one on my shelf but it makes the most of my KU subscription and it’s way easier to read on my Kindle when I’m in bed so it’s a win-win all round really! I picked this book up on a garden centre trip ages ago and it sounds really sweet so I think this will be another cosy one.

The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss (Audible + 24 in 2024)

Another carry over because this is a 28 hour audiobook and I’m currently only listening to about 45 minutes a week when I drive to my ballet class, which isn’t enough really. I definitely need to make more of an effort to find other times to listen to my audiobooks – I want to make time for things like colouring and cross stitching and I think those are the perfect activities to listen to a story, just need to figure out the time.

Kulti – Mariana Zapata (Audible)

Another carry over from last month – with how long ‘The Name of the Wind’ is going to take me, I’m definitely going to need a romance break before I head back into the Kingkiller Chronicles with ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ and then I can finish off the series by reading the ‘The Slow Regard of Silent Things’ novella. I’m excited for my first Mariana Zapata though!

Bride – Ali Hazelwood (New Release)

I’m so excited for this months pre-order – I don’t think I’ve ever rated an Ali Hazelwood less than 4 stars and I’ve only seen good things from all those reading ARCs, so this is a pre-order I’m very glad I made and I can’t wait to read.

The Cheat Sheet – Sarah Adams (24 in 2024)

I needed a nice, easy contemporary romance – I’ve definitely pick an ‘easier’ tbr this month, a bunch of contemporary romances that I should be able to get through relatively quickly. Not because I’m trying to read faster for the sake of numbers, I still really want to read all these books but I have some very heavy books on my 24 in 2024 and I think I need to work up to them!

Then there’s my Illumicrate and Afterlight subscription boxes which haven’t arrived yet so I don’t know what books I’m getting there, but even if they’re a bit heavier at least I’ve picked relatively light other books so it should all even out.

It still leaves me with a 10 book tbr, even though I’ve tried to double up on categories by having ‘The Name of The Wind’ as my Audible and my 24 in 2024 book and I’ll definitely doing more of that as the year goes on but I’m really hoping that curating my TBR like this will make it more achievable.

I don’t think I can train myself to read any faster, but I definitely need to try and make more time for reading and that my biggest February goal!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx