
I know what you think- ‘cull’ is a pretty strong word but I think reviewing and cutting the Goodreads TBR list is exactly this dramatic! New year, new me and all that jazz, I admit that it’s time to get my TBR list under control… somewhat…
The idea isn’t only to shorten the TBR pile by weeding out the titles that no longer interest me, the titles that I now look and think, Oh 2013 Liz, why did you ever think this was going to be your thing? – I also want to take that close look at my TBR list and actually read the titles I have added on this shelf… I know, right?
I am sure there are challenges that deal with this exact same scenario, but frankly, I was too lazy to google them so I thought, I’ll just wing it somehow, and this is how I will play it out…
For every (monthly? bi-monthly? when the lord guides?) post of this feature, I will look at 10 books in my TBR pile, cull the ones that no longer make sense and pick one book (hey! it’s a start) to finally read.

Freakonomics: truth is- I may not get around to this book for years to come, but I am reluctant to cull this title. I am curious, I want to know what (crazy) theories this book holds. So, it stays!
Memoirs of a Geisha: OK, so it looks like everyone and their mother has read this book and general consensus is that it’s loved! I must go with the flow/masses and keep it on the list!
A Grief Observed: Cull. Sorry. There was a time when I wanted to read this, but at this moment in time- it’s a no. Life will have hardships for everyone aplenty and this will probably feel too close for comfort. Besides I am too tired to appreciate this. Maybe I will find my way back to this book in the future.
A Man Without a Country: that’s a no-brainer; this book will stay on the list! Can’t/won’t/shouldn’t cull Gut!
Ma langesin esimesel sõjasuvel: You probably wonder- what is this weird title? Yeah, that’s Estonian. The book was published in 1979 and its theme is WW2 in Estonia. This title stays!

The Secret Life of a Satanist: ahhhh, this is a tough one. On one hand I would like to read this, on other- am I really that pushed to know? OK, decision made- cull time!
Dissecting Marilyn Manson: Cull. Not because I don’t love MM anymore, the love is still strong, but since adding this book, I have read MM’s autobio and spent countless hours on youtube watching documentaries and interviews… I think I have enough to go on!
Eye of the Red Tsar: Yes, I would love to read this book, but in my heart of hearts I know it will probably never happen… or will it? damn it… OK, I read the blurb again and I am keeping this one! It sounds too interesting to cull 🙂
The Eden Express: As above- can’t/won’t shouldn’t cull Gut!
Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground: yeahhh… this is totally staying on my TBR pile!
TBR Count Original: 589 // Cull: 3 // TBR Count New: 586
Book I chose to read next: Eye of the Red Tsar
I like the new look of the blog. 🙂
589 all the way down to 586? You are out of control, culling lady!
Just kidding.
Happy Reading in 2019!
~Icky. 🙂
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Thank you! I quite like the new look too… it’s kind of neat! 🙂
hahaha, 3 books off the list is a start! XD Interesting exercise, this is, the culling of the list…
Thank you! Happy New year to you and yours! Happy reading&writing! 🙂
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Think I’m going to doing my best to read the ones I savecas well. No sense keeping it just to make a TBR page look pretty 🙈
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hahaha, yeah, best try and read some too 😉 Good luck!
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I think I still have Memoirs of a Geisha on my readlist too but I think I saw the movie so now I don’t know whether to keep or cull from my list. I think it’s a pretty great idea to take them 10 at a time but I already removed so many last year.. I only kept those with a rating over 3.8 of my list.. I know it’s a weird system but I’m not good at choosing :-). I still have way too many books I want to read!
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Ohhhh… you’ve seen the movie… hmm.. maybe I should just watch the movie too and cull the book! *gasp* 🙂
You had interesting tactics for your TBR clean up! Maybe I should factor the rating in for the next round! 🙂
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My tbr is never under control it keeps growing day by day. And now i think this new year i have to check cut down few titles which I’m not going to read. Happy new year with new blog look which is amazing and reading challenge
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Thank you and good luck with your own untameable TBR pile 🙂 Happy New year!
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This is a great idea! It has been awhile since I’ve gone through my TBR shelf and I need to clean it up.
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🙂 it’s amazing some of the books you see you’ve put into TBR… 🙂
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I’m glad you’re keeping Freakonomics on. It’s a lot of fun.
A Happy New (reading) Year!
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brilliant! that’s good to know 🙂
Happy new year! 🙂
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This is a great idea! I really should do this as well to see if I can decrease my Goodreads to-read shelf, which is currently at *cough* 1211 *cough* titles. Not all that many right? xD Also, I haven’t read Memoirs Of A Geisha either. 😉
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hahaha, the TBR lists, hey! I knocked 3 books off 2 days ago and in those 2 days I have added 3 new books to the list… XD By the time I get to the end of the list, I wonder will I keep those 3 or remove them? XD
Glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t read the Geisha book… I think I am tempted to just get the movie and watch that 🙂 cheater, hey!
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Haha I know the feeling; every time I try to take off titles I end up adding more new ones instead. xD
And it isn’t cheating if you are not planning on reading the book any time soon. 😉
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🙂 I would agree!
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Yay for three books culled! I did a cull of physical books a couple of weeks ago and pulled over 125 books to go to the library’s used book sale and the community center’s Little Free Library. 👍✨
I was doing that Down the TBR Hole feature. I think I only did two, but you have inspired me to start doing them again! 😊
I want to read Freakonomics, and Memoirs of a Geisha, too. 📚
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125!!! wow oh wow! that’s a big pile of books! But they went to a good place… The recent physical book cull I did was a month or so ago, preparing for my big move and I got rid of about 80 and that was already quite the pile! but it feels great to know that the books go to a good place… 🙂
I used to never felt the … mm… passion for this kind of feature.. don’t know why, silly me! but after the first round it’s actually quite interesting to ‘go back in time’ and see what the reading taste were! I think mainly, I want this feature to help me actually pick up and read some of those books!
❤
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I didn’t know you were moving!
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🙂 I haven’t told to people yet, really… very few know and now you 🙂 but yeah, hoping to leave Ireland by end January, Estonia-bound with the husband 🙂
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Oh my! 🙌🙌🙌
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🙂 big and scary but exciting change 🙂
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Great idea!
I try to do a “purge” every other month, or just whenever i feel like, and it was super helpful. I also moved some titles under a new category “interested”, so that i don’t actually delete them, cuz for some reason i want to keep them in mind, but are not sitting on the “to be read” list. Hehe.
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Yeah, I’ve seen a few people having the ‘interested’ shelf and it looks like a good idea… unless one is a crap decision maker in which case one would spend 15 minutes deciding whether the book should go to ‘interested’ or tbr shelf XD hahaha…
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I have a “looks interesting” GR shelf.
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You do, La La! 🙂 I think you were the first one I saw using this shelf on Goodreads!
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I think this is a really good idea! Phew that you’re keeping memoirs though- I love that book! (I’m obviously a great influence when it comes to trimming a tbr, cos if you’d have cut it, I’d have been like “nooooo” 😉 )
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Haha I love that you only culled a grand total of three books! 😛 It’s so difficult, though, isn’t it? I mean, what if you end up culling something that you would really enjoyed! Happy reading for 2019! ❤
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Now I’m curious about The Secret Life of a Satanist! xD
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hahaha, yeah, I don’t blame you… I am curious too, even though I know bits&bobs about LaVey… mindblowing, insane stuff! XD
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Love the feature, Liz, and how you designed it! I totally want and need to read Freakonomics and Memoirs of a Geisha! 😮 Yep… Haven’t read them too…
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