I haven’t participated in a Readathon on quite a long time. The last time I tried was spring of 2018, and I realized throughout that I’m just not cut out for a hyper-focus reading day anymore. Since then, I’ve periodically used upcoming Readathon events to sort through teetering TBR piles, cutting them to more manageable levels.

June wasn’t the best reading month, and July has been the same. Other than Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, I’ve struggled to get into any books at all. There were two that I was reading (one print and one audio) for nearly three weeks, then they were both due back at the library and couldn’t be renewed re: other holds, and I realized that I was maybe 15% into each of them max and couldn’t be bothered to rush to finish. I decided instead to just cull them both.

That’s about when I heard that the Reverse Readathon was upcoming. Immediately, I put my entire virtual TBR pile on hold at the library. There were already quite a number of titles on there already, ones on order that haven’t hit their soon-coming publication date. There were quite a few others that had long hold lines, so I knew I wouldn’t get them in time for my little twist on Readathon. But five had arrived by last weekend, and I hoped others would follow throughout the week. I also pulled the unread books off my shelf, adding another four to the pile.

I took that photo on Sunday last weekend, knowing that yes, it was possible I’d get more books throughout the week, and I’d have to take a new photo. And then, because 1) they were sitting in a pile already and 2) I have never had any kind of patience when I get it into my head to work on a project, I started on my Readathon Culling Project nearly a week before the actual Readathon started. Because of course.

My culling method, which has served me well since I implemented it in 2010/11, goes like this: Choose a book, read the first five pages, decide if the book has interested me enough to keep on the list. There’s a yes pile, a no pile, and a maybe pile. Once I’ve been through an entire stack of books, the maybe pile gets an additional five pages read, at which point each book joins the yes or no piles. I’ve never regretted any book I’ve culled, and there have been some books in the Yes pile that I’ve eventually given up on after I pass that five page point. You can tell a lot from those first few pages – writing style, type of characters, how the author wants to draw you in, etc.

Anyway, I decided that since this was Readathon-inspired, I’d spend a little more time with each book. Especially given that my brain has just not been book-oriented since May. In this kind of mood, I can give up a book I love within a paragraph, so I have to be very careful to know when I’m actually not interested vs not interested at this moment in time.

Note that below this will go into specifics of what I did/didn’t keep reading, and some people weirdly get offended if I don’t like the writing style of a book they loved or if I find some beloved book boring, so if that’s you, perhaps don’t continue this post? Here is how my week-long culling Readathon went:

1. The Carnivale of Curiosities – I started with this because I love carnival stories and magic. It really wasn’t capturing my attention, though, so I gave it several chapters and culled it around page 17.
2. Death and the Conjuror – Unimpressed with the writing style at the beginning but suspected it might just be my summer-brain, so I kept going long past normal and decided around page 28 that I’d continue.
3. Damsel – This was always a maybe even on the plot, and I was bored right away, so I forced my way through 16 pages before culling.
4. Biased – By the time I’d finished the introduction, I’d decided to continue with this one. Unfortunately, the audio isn’t for me. Wish it was because I highly prefer audio for nonfic!
5. I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself – Read through page 44 before I stopped. This is staying on the keep pile, though I’m not sure how much is interest and how much is the one-paragraph-long sections style of writing. We’ll see if I’m still interested after a forced break from it.
6. Sign Here – Culled after 20 pages, though I knew pretty early on (maybe even the first page) that this was def not the style for me.
7. The Last Tale of the Flower Bride – I was really disappointed to cull this one, but after 15 pages, I couldn’t remember a word I’d read and the writing style irked me beyond reason. Oh well.
8. Black Candle Women – Read 27 pages before I remembered that I was only previewing! Can’t wait to get back into this one!
9. A House With Good Bones – I already knew this is one I wanted to read, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the audio is read by Mary Robinette Kowel!! An audio preview confirmed that yes, I do want to read it.
10. Saint Juniper’s Folly (not pictured) – Meh. Gave it up after 16 pages. Too young.

Takeaways: Stop buying books before I’ve read them, especially from Book of the Month, as I’ve culled 6 of the last 9 I’ve gotten, and of the other three, one was just okay. This is an old rule but I’ve taken to breaking it quite a bit in the last year or so. Suggestions from Nowhere Bookshop tend to be keepers, as 4 of the 5 kept books were all from them. I now have 4 books to read in print, and I’ll likely try to read the 3 that are library books before they need to be returned. But we’ll see, as I still have a number of others on the hold list that may come in as well! My TBR (physical and virtual) is down to around 15-20 books, excluding those that haven’t released yet, and that’s a good place for me. Goal by the end of the year is to have no unread physical TBR, no audio queue, and under 20 published books on the virtual TBR (preferably under 10).