Hello!

Even though it’s March and ‘ins and outs’ is more of a New Years thing, my watch later playlist on YouTube is so long that essentially I’m still watching New Years content so coming up with the things for this post was surprisingly easy (and it all explains why I still feel like I’m in New Years mode even though we’re three months into the year…).

Whilst I’m all over setting goals and making plans to better myself and grow, I don’t really set reading related goals – I have the obvious number goal in trying to read a certain amount of books per year (I’m aiming for 60 this year) and trying to tackle my TBR, but with my TBR being my priority there’s not many goals I can set that stick within the confines of my physical TBR. But I feel like the ‘ins and outs’ concept is more of a mentality and less about reading X amount of classics/non-fiction/out of my comfort zone books or reading the rainbow.

So here are a few things I want to do more and less of in the remaining 75% of 2025!

In! Not buying a book because it’s long

I know that no matter how much I love the concept or how many good reviews I’ve seen, I will be intimidated by size and I will put off reading it so it will be another book gathering dust on my physical TBR. There’s a time and a place for long books, but I know I’d rather read them on my Kindle so the length feels less obvious, but also my TBR is intimidating enough – if I still care in 7 years when my physical TBR is more manageable, I can buy it then. I don’t want to be one of those people that judges by length, but for now – I will and I’m okay with it.

Out! Only choosing short books to read

To be honest, I’ve been using more and more methods to take the decision making element out of my reading (not a mood reader in sight here), but I want to stop opting for the shorter books in my collection because even though it means I’ll get through a decent amount in a shorter amount of time, it means I’ll be left with all the long, aforementioned intimidating books and that’s a sure fire way to put me into a slump so by eliminating the decision of choosing short books, the random methods of decision making will hopefully balance how many shorter vs longer books I read!

In! Buying books on my kindle

I love reading on my Kindle but where I’m generally prioritising my physical TBR, my Kindle often gets neglected. But as someone who quite often uses pre-ordering a book as a loop hole to my book buying ban, I’m trying to pre-order the ebook rather than a physical book. Don’t get me wrong – if I love a book on my Kindle, I will absolutely buy a trophy edition, but similarly if I don’t love it, I’m quite happy just having the ebook. The caveat here is that if there’s a pretty special edition, I will probably pre-order that and I’m not ashamed. There’s a balance and more ebooks will make it all even out, I think.

Out! Pretending I’m a mood reader

As previously mentioned; I don’t like making decisions, which does not align with mood reading at all. I like planning and that’s fine and allowed! There needs to be an actual term for whatever the opposite of a mood reader is, because that is definitely me. With my wedding library book club, I choose each month’s book using a spinner, with the book club I have with my sibling, we choose together, with my 25 in 2025 books I have a mini TBR jar, for the rest of my TBR I have a big TBR jar – I have a method for everything! I’m very tempted to do a monthly TBR letting my cat pick what I read – anything so I don’t have to make a decision! Don’t get me wrong – if I’m really not in the mood for a book, I won’t read it; I won’t force myself to read something just for the sake of it, but perks of my no-decision-choices – I can spin again or pick something else from the TBR jar!

In! Reading during the day

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t get a lot of opportunities to read throughout the day. I have a part time job, I have freelance work, I have content to make and edit, but sometimes I do finish my to do list and there’s just something magical about sitting in the afternoon with a nice drink and a snack and diving back into a book I’m enjoying. It’s very peaceful and I definitely need to manage my time to be able to do this more often.

Out! Engaging with content that hates for the sake of it or shames other readers

There seems to be so much content all over social media at the moment that just belittles books for the sake of it – it’s like people are hate-reading for likes and engagement and I don’t understand for a multitude of reasons. 1) If someone doesn’t enjoy something, why continue engaging with it? That sounds like a pretty miserable life. 2) Who made them so important that their opinion is now fact? That’s not how opinions work. 3) Judging the people who have different opinions and belittling them for liking something they didn’t is pathetic and mean – bullying wasn’t cool in primary school and it’s even less cool when shitting on people online.

Generally, if a video I’m shown on TikTok is negative for the sake of anger-baiting, I’ll scroll. If I’m recommended a YouTube video that says ‘Booktok is destroying Literature’ or ‘why are all the books in the Goodreads Choice Awards ‘Romantasy’ category bad?’ I won’t watch it – if someone doesn’t enjoy any of the books in the romantasy category, I’d refer to that quote about insanity; “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I just don’t need that negativity!

And those are my ins and outs – although I love a New Year reset, every day is a new day for a new start (sorry, I know – super cheesy) and I think making these changes, minor shifts in my focus will probably be good for my mental health and anything that makes me feel better mentally is a win!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx