Last year I failed to reduce my TBR pile. In fact it increased by 55!
I start 2026 with
726 books on my TBR pile.
This year I aim to end with under 670 books on my TBR pile.
Books removed from TBR
Read and Reading- January 1st: You Don't Have to Have a Dream by Tim Minchin - £1.79 - 3/5 - 49pp
Three speeches, with commentary. Interesting.
- January 1st: Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones - £0.99 - 4/5 - 195pp (re-read)
The first written, and an excellent story/
- January 2nd: Mixed Magics by Diana Wynne Jones - £0.99 - 4/5 - 99pp
A collection of short stories. Good fun.
- January 2nd: The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones - £0.99 - 4/5 - 173pp
- January 3rd: Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones - £0.99 - 4/5 - 204pp
- January 4th: The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones - £0.99 - 4/5 - 242pp
Enjoyable magic adventures
- January 6th: No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes - £0.99 - 3/5 - 301pp
Good retelling of Jason & Medea mostly from Medea's POV
- January 10th: When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between by Ruth Jones and James Corden - £1.99 - 5/5 - 200pp
Fascinating insight into these two and their work on Gavin & Stacey
- January 11th: Sharpe's Storm by Bernard Cornwell - £0.99 - 4/5 - 227pp
Compelling historical Military fiction
- January 14th: New Under the Sun by Nancy Kress - Free - 3/5 - 162pp
A novelette that should have had more depth at the end.
- January 16th: Birds of Prey by David Drake - £3.37 - 4/5 - 306pp
Enjoyable ancient rome with aliens and time travel
- January 18th: Slow Time Between the Stars - £1.00 - 5/5 - 21pp
Brilliant short story
- January 19th: Murder in Norfolk - Free - 3/5 - 233pp
It grew on me, but not enough to get any more.
- January 21st: The Biography of Florence Nightingale by Lytton Strachey - Free - 3/5 - 26pp
Feels more like anecdote than biography
- January 22nd: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield - Free - 1/5 - 158pp
Literary Genre short stories about awful people
- January 25th: Into The Thinking Kingdoms by Alan Dean Foster - £0.66 - 4/5 - 309pp
Fun fantasy epic journey
- January 30th: A Triumph of Souls by Alan Dean Foster - £0.66 - 4/5 - 300pp
A good conclusion.
- February 1st: The Samurai Detectives by Shōtarō Ikenami - £0.99 - 3/5 - 178pp
Interesting, but the translation isn't good enough
- February 3rd: An Amateur Corpse by Simon Brett - £2.33 - 4/5 - 182pp
Charles gets there in the end.
- February 4th: Spies by Michael Frayn - Free - 2/5 - 168pp (not on unread list)
Well done, but not for me.
- February 8th: Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton - 0.89 - 5/5 - 96pp
Most enjoyable
- February 10th: Crossfire by Dick Francis and Felix Frances - £0.89 - 5/5 - 259pp
Excellent
- February 11th: No Man's Land Volume 1 by Sarah A. Hoyt - £0.66 - 5/5- 288pp
Really splendid SF
- February 13th: When the Moon hits your Eye by John Scalzi - £0.89 - 3/5 - 319pp
A bit of light fun. I'd like more story, rather than scattered incidents
- February 16th: Reflections by Diana Wynne Jones - £0.89 - 4/5 - 309pp
Fascinating insight into the author and her work
- February 22nd: No Man's Land Volume 2 by Sarah A. Hoyt - £0.66 - 5/5- 250pp
- February 23rd: No Man's Land Volume 3 by Sarah A. Hoyt - £0.66 - 5/5- 285pp
An excellent middle and conclusion to the story.
- February 24th: Translation State by Ann Leckie - £0.99 - 4/5 - 280pp
I found the multiplicity of pronounces confusing. But it was good.
- February 27th: Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson - £0.02 - 3/5 - 59pp
Some interesting, many just weird.
- March 1st: Some of the Best of Tor.com 2020 by various authors - Free - - 680pp
Discarded (0)
Books added to TBR
Freebies (
Unread)
- January 1st: The Rings of Grissom by Julia Huni
- January 1st: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
- January 2nd: The Biography of Florence Nightingale by Lytton Strachey
- January 16th: Murder in Norfolk by Sadie Norman
- February 10th: Bones at the Manor House by Emma Jameson
- February 16th: The Voyage Out, Two Stories, Night and Day, Monday or Tuesday, Jacob's Room, Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Dalloway, The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf (not added to TBR)
- March 3rd: Flim-Flam, Encyclopedia of Claims, The Truth about Uri Geller, The Faith Healers by James Randi (not added to TBR)
- March 6th: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- March 9th: The Wizards and the Warriors by Hugh Cook
Bought (
Unread)
- January (7/£9.22): Agatha Raising and the Love from Hell, Planetary Spin Cycle, Waxing the Moon of Lewei, City of Blades, Birds of Prey, Slow Time Between the Stars, The Samurai Detectives
- February (12/£19.12): Death of a Gossip, Crossfire, Reflections, When the Moon hits your Eye, No Man's Land v1, Translation State, Bones in the Blackout, A Sorceress Comes to Call, Nettle and Bone, No Man's Land v2, No Man's Land v3, Locklands
- March (7/£7.63): Crampton Hodnet, Femina, Swordheart, The Marlow Murder Club, Death Comes to Marlow, City of Stairs, Empress of Forever
- April (0/£0.00):
- May (0/£0.00):
- June (0/£0.00):
- July (0/£0.00):
- August (0/£0.00):
- September (0/£0.00):
- October (0/£0.00):
- November (0/£0.00):
- December (0/£0.00):
Analysis
TBR:
732
Books read: 29 (includes 5 freebies, 2 not on TBR, 0 abandoned)
Books otherwise removed from TBR pile: 0 (0 duplicates, 0 discarded, 0 already read)
Books removed from TBR pile: 27
Books added to TBR pile: 33 (includes 7 freebies, 0 omnibuses counted as 0)
Removed/Added: 1.00
Net reduction for 2025: -6
Non-free books read: 22 (includes 1 re-read)
Total cost of books read: £25.37
Average cost of books read: £1.15
Non-free books bought: 26 (includes 0 not added to TBR, 0 omnibuses counted as 0)
Total cost of books bought: £36.97
Average cost of books bought: £1.41
Rating System:
1: Bad
2: Only OK-ish (Or not to my taste.)
3: OK to good
4: Excellent
5: Wonderful
Pages are as given by the ADE algorithm in Calibre, or from the Amazon web page.