Yesterday I looked back on what I read in 2021. Today I’m looking forward to what I will be reading in 2022.

I set my annual reading goal at 104, which breaks down to 2 books a week. Even though I read 165 last year and 235 in 2020, 104 will keep me reading without making it too difficult to achieve.

But my big challenge, my biggest challenge this year is that I’ve put myself on a book buying ban.

What?!

That’s right. I will not buy any new books . . .

. . . At least for a while.

Why? Because when I organized my books (like one does on 1 January), I realized I have an entire TBR bookcase.

Yes, you read that right.

Not a stack.

Not a pile.

Not just one shelf.

An entire bookcase. 112 books just sitting there waiting to be read.

One hundred and twelve books.

I have more unread books than many people read in an entire year. And this is just one bookcase! I have 5 more bookcases. But I swear those bookcases are (mostly) filled with books I’ve read. And Frostbeard candles. And funkos. And other bookish paraphernalia.

Like many booknerds, even though I have a stack of unread books sitting waiting for me, I still buy new books because, well, because books. I know my fellow booknerds all understand that sentiment.

For those of you not as bookish who may not understand this, it’s the same reason why you might have a closet full of shoes. Why do you need more than a couple of pairs? See, exactly.

But the TBRs are starting to overflow. And so no more buying until I cull this bookcase down.

To tackle my TBR bookcase, I’m participating in two Litsy reading challenges. First, #bookspin hosted by the fabulous @thearomaofbooks. And second, #roll100 hosted by the awesome @PuddleJumper. In both challenges, each month you make a list of TBR books—25 for #bookspin and 100 for #roll100. Then each month, both hosts post 2 numbers and you read the corresponding books from your list(s).

Because I’m trying to cull my TBR bookcase, I decided to use one list for both challenges. I made a list of 100 TBR books with numbers 1-25 for #bookspin and the complete list for #roll100. I also notated the non-fiction books by a (N).

The two #roll100 numbers for January are 24 and 49. (The #bookspin numbers aren’t drawn until the 2d of the month.) And that means the first book in the queue for 2022 (other than my library book, which is due back this week) is The Fountains of Silence.

I will cull my TBR bookcase with the help of these two challenges. And because of my book buying ban, any other book I read during the month will also have to come off the TBR bookcase. My challenge is I cannot buy any new books until I get under 20 books on the TBR bookcase. The one exception is that I receive a monthly OwlCrate subscription box. So I will get 1 new book every month from that subscription. That means I have to read 92 books + however many months of OwlCrate books to get under 20 TBR books before I can buy a new book.

Talk about motivation.

And there are several must-buy releases coming out this year, including Soul Taken, book 13 of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, in June; two new In Death books by J.D. Robb, one in February and one in September; and Book Lovers by Emily Henry in May.

What’s a booknerd to do? Get to reading, that’s what.

How quickly do you think it will take me to get through 92+ books? Do you think I will read over 200 books this year? It’s quite possible if I ever want to buy a new book!