Last week I wrote about my 2022 reading challenge. I admitted that I have 112 unread books sitting right here on my bookcase that I have not read. And that I self-imposed a book buying ban until I get to under 20 TBRs.

Well, I might have maybe, just slightly underestimated how many TBRs I really have. My underestimation maybe, might have been just a wee bit off by nearly 50%.

Let me explain.

Today I pulled the four books for the two reading challenges off the shelf. Then I started to re-organize my list of books and realized I missed listing one book on one of the shelves. So I double-checked my list against the bookcase and then I saw one small shelf (my bookcase has sliders with small shelves) that I missed.

Then I realized I listed any sequels in a different column (because you don’t want to read a sequel first). But I didn’t count the sequels in the total number of TBRs.

So I added the missing books to the list and counted the sequels. That wasn’t too bad, only a handful more.

But then I looked at another bookcase across the room. (I may have 6 bookcases, not all the same style and in different locations around my apartment.)

You know those books that you buy because they’re classics you always meant to read but haven’t yet or because they seem smart and make you seem smart or because you just want to have them in your bookcase just because?

Maybe this doesn’t make sense to some of you, but I know the booknerds out there totally understand.

Well, I might have a few of those kinds of books. And to be true to my challenge to get my TBRs to under 20, I added all those books to the list.

Now the list now stands at 216.

That’s right, I added another 104 books to the list. That’s a gain of approximately 48%. That means I have to read 196 books to get to under 20.

My total reading goal for the year is only 104. And I’m already behind!

(I’ve only finished 1 book so far this year. Right? I know!)

This means my book buying ban will likely go through 2023 unless I start reading a lot and soon.

My best reading year was 2020 when I read 235 books but that’s thanks in large part to finally adapting to audiobooks). But take out the audiobooks and that total is only 133 (and that still includes e-books, although I read way fewer e-books).

My 10-year average (including audiobooks) is 115. And I didn’t even count audiobooks in this TBR master list. These 216 are all physical books.

What’s a reader to do?

Well, I’ve decided to stick with the book-buying ban at least through this year. I will keep my annual reading goal at 104 but I aim to read more. And I will focus on reading books from my TBR bookcase.

I’ve placed the first 4 books from the #bookspin and #roll100 reading challenges on my ottoman so I see them every time I sit down. As soon as I finish my library book (which is overdue), I plan to start Daring Greatly.

Needless to say, my mantra for the year is Read More.

That’s never bad advice.