Ten Books I Randomly Grabbed from My (Virtual) TBR Shelf

May 2, 2023 Top Ten Tuesday 10

Ten Books I Randomly Grabbed From My Virtual TBR Shelf, by The Bookwyrm's Hoard

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The meme was originally the brainchild of The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf.” However, I’m not at home, so I can’t grab books from my physical shelves. Instead, I decided to pick 10 random books from my Goodreads TBR shelf, and decide whether I’m still interested in reading them.

As of yesterday, there are 1902 books on my Goodreads “To Read” shelf, and that’s not counting nearly 1500 more on my “Someday” shelf. There are some duplicates, either because I own a particular title in several formats, or because I had the book on my “To Read” shelf in one format, and then entered a Goodreads Giveaway for the print version (which automatically adds that edition to your “To Read” shelf.) But even with duplicates, it’s pretty obvious that I need to prune my list. There’s just no way I’m going to get all of those read.

I used a random number generator to come up with 10 numbers between 1 and 1902. (I left out the “Someday” books.) The numbers generated were 1118, 748, 1381, 1728, 1673, 497, 445, 515, 1102, and 700.

Ten Books I Randomly Grabbed from My (Virtual) TBR Shelf

#445: Shattered, by Kevin Hearne. I am currently participating in a read-along of the Iron Druid series, so I’ll definitely be reading or listening to this title this year! Verdict: Keep, and move it into the top 10 when the readalong gets around to book #7. (Note, however, that this is the mass market paperback edition, and I may choose to listen to the audiobook instead.)

#497: These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufmann and Meagan Spooner. I bought this one based on all the hype and blogger love, but it slipped off my radar over time. When it turned up as #497 for this Top Ten Tuesday, my initial thought was to move it to the “Someday” shelf. (I own the Kindle edition, so I’m not going to delete it from my Goodreads shelves altogether.) But then I read a bunch of 5-star reviews from reviewers I trust, like Wendy Darling, starryeyedjen, Berls, and Lenore Kosinski. So for now, I’m keeping it on the TBR list. Verdict: Keep.

#515: Dockside, by Susan Wiggs. At one point, I wanted to read all the Lakeshore Chronicles, but to be honest, I have rather lost interest in the series. And recently, I haven’t been reading much contemporary romance in general. I own the Kindlebook, so I’m not going to totally delete the book from my shelves, but it no longer needs to be on the “To Read” shelf. Verdict: switch to “Someday” shelf.

#700: Ballad, by Maggie Steifvater. I’ve been meaning to read this duology for years (the first book is Lament), but haven’t gotten around to it. I swear, I’m going to read it eventually. And I own the Kindlebook. Verdict: Keep, and think about moving it into the top 100 books on my “To Read” shelf.

#748: Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson. I started the audiobook years ago, and it was wonderfully funny, except for some reason, my iTunes scrambled the order of the tracks, and I couldn’t get it sorted out. (No, I wasn’t on shuffle play.) I also own the Kindle edition, and someday, I’m going to either read it, or borrow the audiobook from the library. Verdict: Keep, but don’t change the book’s order for now.

#1102: An Inquiry Into Love and Death, by Simone St. James. Reading the blurb, I wasn’t sure if I still want to read this gothic mystery. But then I noticed that my blogging friend Sophia Rose had given the book 5 stars and a glowing review. Since Sophia and I are currently buddy-reading a Regency-era historical mystery series that we are both loving (the Wrexford & Sloane mysteries by Andrea Penrose), I decided to take her recommendation on this novel, and leave it on my TBR list even though I don’t own it. Verdict: Keep, but revisit if I haven’t read it within a year.

#1118: Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly. I bought this for Kindle, because Hambly was popular in my younger years, and it’s a book about dragons. Yet for some reason, I have yet to read it, and I have no idea why. Verdict: Keep, but consider switching to the “Someday” list.

#1381: Well Played, by Jen DeLuca. I read Well Met (reviewed), the first book in this series, and really liked it. I definitely want to read the entire series… and I already own the Kindlebook. Verdict: Keep, and consider moving into the top 100 books on my “To Read” list.

#1673: The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, by Aliette de Bodard. A writer friend of mine recommended Aliette de Bodard’s books to me, so I bought this Kindlebook when it went on sale. I’m still interested in reading her, but I’m not currently in the mood for space opera, no matter how beautifully written. Verdict: Keep, but don’t change the book’s order for now.

#1728: The Book of Taliesin is a medieval Welsh manuscript, containing poems attributed to the 6th century poet and bard, Taliesin. I bought this book for research for my current WIP, and also because I have always been drawn to the history and literature of early medieval (pre-Anglo-Saxon) Britain, including the Arthurial legends. Verdict: Keep, and move it into the top 100 books on the list.

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10 Responses to “Ten Books I Randomly Grabbed from My (Virtual) TBR Shelf”

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you for the recommendation! With so many trusted bloggers/reviewers loving the book, clearly I need to bump it higher up on the TBR list!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Oh, de Bodard is definitely on my radar for whenever my fancy turns in that direction. Right now, I seem to be gravitating mostly toward fantasy and historical mystery, if you don’t count my current Nora Roberts rereading binge.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Oh, I sort them too, mostly — put them on various shelves. But if I haven’t read them yet, one of those shelves is either “To Read” or “Someday.” And sometimes, books on those shelves no longer interest me, and I delete the book from my Goodreads shelf. I do own more than half of the books on my “To Read” shelf, but a lot of them are books I don’t own, and would borrow from the library or buy if/when I decide to read them.

      I assign almost all my books to multiple shelves, including shelves for genre, challenges, and even content. For example, I have shelves for “witches” and “dragons” and “older-protagonist.” For a few challenges (like my #23in2023 list), I label the book ahead of time; in other cases (like Library Love or the Backlist Reader Challenge or COYER), I label it while I’m reading or after I finish, so I can easily pull up the challenge shelf to see which titles I read for it.

  5. Katherine

    What an interesting mix of books and I love your evaluation process. I’ve loved the two books I’ve read by Simone St James and really want to read her more gothic-y stories. I hope you do read that this year because I want to see your thoughts on it!