Hello!

Now, as someone who regularly doesn’t read all the books on her monthly tbr’s and has a physical tbr that’s leaning a little too close to 500 (and I’m very aware of it), having yet another kind of ‘tbr’ or pile of books that make me feel a little bit guilty about not reading more seems like a silly idea, right?

Yes, it absolutely does.

(and ‘reading more’ is a silly concept – I can’t read faster than I already am and I read every night before bed, without making reading my full time job I’ve not got the hours to ‘read more’ and I imagine many other readers feel the same, so here’s your reminder that you’re doing great and all reading is valid!)

And yet I still have a pile of ‘priority’ books just in case I find myself with a finished tbr and days in the month to spare! I am very aware of how unlikely it is I will be able to get to these books, but either way I still like the idea of having a smaller pool of books to choose from if I do finish my monthly tbr. I am still really excited to read all of these and I think having this little priority tbr maintains that excitement!

The list is currently sitting at about 8 books (plus a few monthly tbr books that I didn’t manage to read!) and sits in a cart alongside my 24 in 2024 list of books that I also don’t have enough time to read, but without further ado here are my 8 priority TBR books!

The Autists – Clara Törnvall (translated by Alice Olsson)

I picked up this book on a whim when browsing the Waterstones in Liverpool on Boxing Day – I don’t often peruse the non-fiction shelves but I had time and I always love seeing if there are any good books on autism and this one immediately gripped me! Originally written in Swedish by journalist Clara Tornvall, reading about how autistic women have often been overlooked is something that sounds really interesting to me so as I sit idly by as I approach my third year on the waiting list for a diagnosis, I might as well engage with some literature on the way my own brain works!

Lessons In Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus

I know I’m so late to this hype and, ironically, what’s really incentivising me to actually read this book is the clips of the AppleTV show I keep seeing on TikTok! I think Brie Larson plays Elizabeth Zott brilliantly and I haven’t even read the source material yet! I have the beautiful special edition with the periodic table sprayed edges and if that’s not enough to actually make me read this book, I honestly don’t know what is!

Nightshade Revenge – Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider Book 14)

The most recently instalment in the Alex Rider franchise that I ‘finished’ last year – I really enjoyed reading this series at the end of 2022 into the beginning of 2023 and I rated the book before this one 5 stars, so I’m really intrigued as to how Nightshade as an enemy entity will return to cause more havoc for our teenage spy. This might be one to take on holiday if I get to have one of those this year!

The Wicked King/The Queen of Nothing – Holly Black

I did enjoy starting The Folk of the Air trilogy last year, enough to buy the rest of the trilogy, but clearly not quite enough to read them immediately! I think what it is, is that I put a lot of pressure on myself to read an unrealistic amount of books in December and I burnt out so the books that I was reading in that period have been burned by association and unfortunately that includes The Cruel Prince. I will finish it… at some stage. These ones aren’t too long either so that’s even more of an incentive.

Loathe To Love You – Ali Hazelwood

This anthology of novellas is the only thing standing between me and being able to say I’ve read Ali Hazelwood’s entire backlist. I know I’m going to like them, I think I’ll be able to read it quickly because it is three novellas and I know I love Ali’s writing style so why I haven’t read it yet is a real mystery. Maybe this is a winter one, I think one of the novellas has something to do with snow so perhaps I need to put it on a seasonal tbr!

Book Lovers – Emily Henry

I feel like I have a fake adoration for Emily Henry because I loved Beach Read, I own all of her books and I’ve pre-ordered Funny Story, her next release… but I have only read one of her books? It doesn’t make sense and putting this one of her titles on my priority TBR feels like a step in the right direction to rectify that!

Daisy Jones and The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid

Oh, TJR. One of TikTok’s favourites. And I still haven’t read a single word she’s ever written. I know I want this book to be my first TJR and I’ve also heard that it’s one that absolutely must be read as an audiobook so whilst I do own it physically, I also have the audiobook so I’ll definitely be co-reading this one (hopefully sooner rather than later!).

And those are the 8 that have made it on to my list!

Then there’s two that were leftover from my February TBR – my January Afterlight book At First Spite by Olivia Dade and the January Illumicrate book Voyage of the Damned by Frances White, so that takes it to a round 10!

Technically, I consider everything on my physical tbr a priority because the mission to reduce the number of unread books in my house is never-ending, but these are all ones that I still get really excited about at the thought of reading them so I think that’s a good sign!

Thank you for taking time out of your reading to read my ramblings,

Sophie xx