Organize Your TBR!

I plan ahead when it comes to the reading that I do; I actually have a full reading list, in order, and I adhere to it pretty strictly. Today, I’m going to talk not about what’s on my reading list, but about how I organize my reading list to make sure that I don’t just read what I want to, but that I read often and don’t get burned out from reading, which is something that I’ve experienced in the past on a few occasions. In some cases, a reading burnout has led to months or even years of me not reading (and is a big part of why I think that most lists of required reading for literature classes are dreadful and poorly optimized, at least from what I’ve both experienced and heard). So, how do I organize my reading list to make sure that I’m getting the most out of my experience? Let’s get into it!

https://youtu.be/CkBdNAJqVR0

Get the List

The very first thing that you need to do in order to organize your reading list is to actually have a list of things you want to read! Duh. So take a minute to sit down and think about everything that you really want to read. The longer your unread book catalog is, the longer this will take, but it’s important to have a complete list of books you intend to read ready before we start categorizing things. Even if it’s a series of books that you plan to read, break that series down into its individual books, don’t just write the entire series name.

When I make my reading list, I also take the time to research and factor in new and anticipated releases. This is easier if I have a release date for an upcoming book I plan to read, allowing me to plan around that release date.

Jade City	The Way of Kings (Reread)	Rogue Protocol
Jade War	Oathbringer (Reread)	Exit Strategy
Jade Legacy	Rhythm of War	Network Effect
Malice	The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Fugitive Telemetry
Valour	The Blade Itself	Sword of Kaigen
Ruin	Before They Are Hanged	Neuromancer
Wrath	Last Argument of Kings	Eleanor and Park
Shadow of the Gods	Snow Crash	A Little Hatred
Hunger of the Gods (April)	All Systems Red	The Trouble with Peace
Words of Radiance (Reread)	Artificial Condition	The Wisdom of Crowds
Berserk (Vol. 1)	Berserk (Vol. 2)	The Fifth Season
SURPRISE (Reread)	SURPRISE (Reread)	SURPRISE (Reread)

Break It Down by Genre

The next thing that I do is divide books into their genre. This is not a super-specific genre breakdown. I don’t break things down into grimdark and urban and high fantasy. I list them out extremely simply: fantasy, science-fiction, and contemporary are my three main genres. If you have a lot of one specific genre, you may need to break it down further (or… maybe consider branching out a little). In breaking these books down by genre, don’t forget to include the release date of anticipated releases (if you have any)!

Fantasy	Science Fiction	Contemporary
Jade City	The Fifth Season	The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Jade War	Snow Crash	Eleanor and Park
Jade Legacy	All Systems Red
Malice	Artificial Condition
Valour	Rogue Protocol
Ruin	Exit Strategy
Wrath	Network Effect
Shadow of the Gods	Fugitive Telemetry
Hunger of the Gods (APRIL)	Neuromancer
Words of Radiance (Reread)
Way of Kings (Reread)
Oathbringer (Reread)
Rhythm of War
The Blade Itself
Before They are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings
Sword of Kaigen
A Little Hatred
The Trouble with Peace
The Wisdom of Crowds
Berserk (Vol. 1)
Berserk (Vol. 2)
SURPRISE (reread)
SURPRISE (reread)
SURPRISE (reread)

Yeah, that's a lot of fantasy...

Break It Down by Challenge

Once I have genre columns, I break the books down by my expected challenge level for completing the book. Do I think it’ll take a long time to get through? Do I think it’s going to be a book with some prose that’ll make reading it much slower than other books? Or, do I think it’s going to be an extremely easy book that I could finish in one, maybe two days (novellas typically fall into this category)? How you break this down is going to be personal to you, as you know your reading rates better than anyone else does. It also won’t be completely accurate because you haven’t read these books yet, so you can’t know with certainty how challenging they’re going to be. Just use your best judgment!

You can call your challenge levels whatever you want. I have three of them and I name them after meal courses because I like food and you can’t stop me. My categories are appetizer, entree, and dessert.

Appetizer (F)	Appetizer (SF)
Shadow of the Gods
Hunger of the Gods
Words of Radiance
Way of Kings
Oathbringer
Berserk (1)
Berserk (2)
Surprise (1)
Surprise (2)
Surprise (3)
Surprise (4)

Dessert (SF)	Dessert (C)
All Systems Red	The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Artificial Condition	Eleanor and Park
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Network Effect
Fugitive Telemetry

Entree (F)	Entree (F)
Jade City	Sword of Kaigen
Jade War	The Wisdom of Crowds
Jade Legacy	The Blade Itself
Malice	Before They Are Hanged
Valour	Last Argument of Kings
Ruin	A Little Hatred
Wrath	The Trouble with Peace
Rhythm of War

Entree (SF)
The Fifth Season
Snow Crash
Neuromancer

Appetizers are books that I expect to be a pretty average challenge. They’re approachable and easy to read or they’re books I’ve read before. Books by Brandon Sanderson typically fall under this category.

Entrees are books that I expect to take a while to get through. They’re dense or tough to get through, even if I do enjoy them. Maybe it’s something I haven’t tried before and I’m unsure of it, or I’ve heard that the pacing is a bit slow. Usually, I put authors I haven’t read who have longer books (or a bulky series) into this category. Sometimes, authors that I have read but found to have a bit of a sluggish writing style go into this category, too.

And then, desserts are books I expect to not be a challenge at all. I believe they’ll be easy to read, easy to resonate with, and ultimately to just serve as an excellent palate cleanser. I don’t read a lot of books like this, but I try to make sure I have a few in there to break up the monotony of tougher books.

Let’s Make the List

So now that we have our books broken down into categories, it’s time to make the list. How you organize this will be personal to you, but my rule of thumb is to make sure that I am picking something new from each category for every two or three books read in one category. This will greatly depend on how many books you have in each of your blocks, but you should be able to have enough to break up your reading list to ensure there’s a lot of variety. I have a lot of fantasy in my reading list because it’s the genre I love the most, but I make sure to have enough books in the Science Fiction and Contemporary genres to get a refresher every now and then.

Additionally, I try to group books in a series close together. I’ll break them up with something if the series is longer than two or three books, but I try not to let too much time pass between books in a series since I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll forget what was happening in that series by the time I get to the next book (or I’ll just never finish the series, which is even worse). A good example is my reading of The Faithful and the Fallen. I broke this series into two parts: the first two books and the last two. Between reading Valour and Ruin, I didn’t even read, I just played Elden Ring when it was released. I planned that intermission, telling myself I’d use Elden Ring as my palate cleanser. It worked like a charm and I was so ready to get back to The Faithful and the Fallen after my week-long stint of Elden Ring indulgence.

Typically I don’t break things up with games as a cleanser, but this was a special occasion.

I mean, come on… it was Elden Ring.

My 2022 Reading List

So, here’s my reading list for 2022 (with some secret things left unnamed for now)! I also have plenty of open slots in my reading list that I’m reserving for anticipated releases without release dates yet, like the conclusion to Red Rising’s second trilogy and the third book in Evan Winter’s The Burning. I’m excited to find a chance to slot those books in when they’re published! I also make sure that I have a couple of weeks when I’m taking a breather to do something like go see a movie or play a game as I did with Elden Ring.

Jade City, Jade War, Jade Legacy

Malice, Valour

Break: Elden Ring

Ruin, Wrath

Shadow of the Gods, Hunger of the Gods (April)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Snow Crash

Words of Radiance

All Systems Red, Artificial Condition

Way of Kings

The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings

Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy

Oathbringer

A Little Hatred, The Trouble with Peace, The Wisdom of Crowds

Eleanor and Park

Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry

Rhythm of War

Neuromancer

Berserk, Vol. 1

Sword of Kaigen

The Fifth Season

Berserk, Vol. 2

Surprise (1), (2), (3), and (4)

Conclusion

I hope that this was helpful for you! I know that when I think about all the books I plan to read, it can be overwhelming. Breaking it down into these categories and then listing it out in a way that’s optimal for me to make sure I’m getting plenty of variety and breaks has really helped me read more consistently (and has allowed me to enjoy what I’m reading a lot more)! My hope is that this will help someone else burn through their list of to-be-read books, as I am now!

Anyway, I’ve got to get back to reading, now.