Let’s Talk: Do Reading Plans and Rules Work For You?

Hello everyone, welcome to another discussion post! ♥

At the beginning of the year like this, you must have found a lot of reading challenges and read-a-thon all across the blogosphere. You might also see a lot of posts regarding the bloggers’ TBR for those challenges. I have to say, they’re all super interesting! I want to take part in those challenges & read-a-thon but based on previous experiences, chances are I’m gonna fail. This made think about other reading plans and rules such as making monthly TBR or doing a book buying ban, and their effectiveness.

So today I’m throwing one question for us to answer : do reading plans and rules work for you? Because for me, they generally don’t. Let’s see some of these examples! ♣

Read-a-thon & Reading Challenge 

I learned it the hard way that these two don’t work for me for several reasons : (1) I’m too lazy to find the books that match the theme/prompt, (2) Getting the books is even more difficult because they’re not always available in my country & by the time I get them the read-a-thon is probably over 😂 and (3) I’m suuuch a moody reader. To be fair, I’m actually a moody person in general 😛

The ONLY read-a-thon I ever completed was the #DiverseAThon last year. Here’s my recap for that. That’s why this year I won’t be joining any read-a-thon or reading challenge. My goals are only to read more diversely and to read more about issues I care & want to learn more about (e.g. mental health, feminism, rape culture, etc) and I’ll try to find books like that as I go.

That being said, I’m not at all dissuading you from joining reading events! And instead I will provide you links to this list of reading challenge created by Nicole in case you want to join but don’t have enough information about it. There are also so many other challenges and you host or know some interesting ones, feel free to leave the link in the comment 😀

Monthly TBR

Every month I read so many posts in which bloggers share their TBRs for the following month and I… never do that. Ever. Just like the case above, monthly TBR and I don’t get along well. For me, putting a book on my TBR is a sure way to not read it immediately. I have this tendency to abandon all the books on my TBR and pick something else instead. I don’t know why those other books, the ones not on my TBR, always look way more appealing! So I thought, why bother making TBR at all? 😂

Since I’m a moody reader, I usually just go with, well, my mood. On November I was really in the mood for contemporary books, especially the ones dealing with mental illness so I set out to read books like that until I get bored and crave for something else. This month I’m currently in the mood for diverse contemporaries (especially the one with racial & sexual diversity) and something historical, and I’ve been reading those books ever since. And if I don’t feel like reading anything, I won’t. I’m simple like that 😛

TBR in General

I could say this confidently that most of us just love adding more and more books to our TBR instead of actually READING what we already have on the list, don’t we? 😛 I’ve said this repeatedly before but I can’t plan what I read. I mean, I can make a list and all that, but I’m going to end up going off tangent anyway. I have books from many years ago sitting on my TBR that I don’t even want to read anymore, but don’t we all? 😉

Book Buying Ban

Oh man, just ANOTHER thing that never works on me 😂 no matter how broke I am, book buying ban is never gonna work, especially the ones limiting you not to buy books for some periods of time. I’ve seen a lot of people said on their instagram stories or twitter that they’re not gonna buy any books until March or April or even longer. Now mind you, I don’t have anything against it. It’s just not my thing. My principle is that I buy books when I have the cash to spare OR when my parents don’t mind paying.

However, I’m actually a really reasonable spender! I don’t go around spending all my money on books or other things. I never even walk out of a bookstore with more than 5 books, except when there’s a big sale 😛 but still, restricting my book buying habit is not my way to go 😂

As you can see for yourself, no reading plans or rules ever work for me, which is weird because I’m actually a super organized person who loves to plan my life down to its minutes 😂 but with reading, I can’t do that. I guess that’s mostly because I see reading is only as my hobby. I mean, it’s my life and I love it so much, but still, it’s not something I want to take too seriously. And planning everything is a sign of seriousness. I also don’t ever want to feel pressured to read this book or that book and end up being stressed out by the thing I love the most. So, yeah, I want to just go with the flow 😛

Alright everyone, I’ve disclosed the fact that reading plans and rules NEVER work for me. Now it’s your turn!

Tell me, (1) do you join read-a-thon and reading challenge? If yes, which one are you currently doing and why? (2) if you set a TBR (monthly or in general), how often do you go off tangent? For me it’s all the time 😛 (3) do you do book buying ban? Does it work for you? and (4) is there any reading plan or rule that work/doesn’t for you? Share it with me because I’d love to hear your thoughts! ♥

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