Pick-a-Shelf discussion

A. Introduction

The longer I've been on GR, the bigger my TBR seems to be and the more preferable that reading challenges to be flexible so I can fit as many books from my TBR instead of new ones. That's not to say that I don't read new books; I do... all the time. And that's half the problem. This challenge is to, hopefully, primarily topple the top of TBR with a bit of new shiny loves.

Official Start date of this challenge is January 1, 2026. Challenge will run up to December 31, 2026.

B. TBR only 👀

We are going to specifically focus on a random category per month and all the books read for this section must be from your TBR*

*TBR - the books must have been added to your TBR at the very least the last day of the previous month. For example, for November, I can read a book I added on 31 October.

You can spin the wheels on the 15th of current month for next month's category to allow for your planning.

For the Main Category, you can follow the below link and spin the wheel:

https://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=...

There are only 6 Main Categories for which then you will need to spin another wheel, depending on what you need for the Main Category you've spun:

For letters: https://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=...

For numbers: https://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=...

For continents: https://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=...

You will then ONLY read books that fit this category for the month.

You may have 2 categories per month, if you like, BUT each book must meet both categories to qualify for the challenge.

C. New Books ✨ (Optional)

The only "New Books" you can read for this challenge are those you can make a connection to your "TBR only" books. You may be as creative as you like with these connections BUT note that total of "New Books" read must be LESS than total of "TBR only" books read.

By "New Books", it would mean the book wasn't or hasn't ever been on your TBR so if you have discovered a new author whom you'd like to read all the backlist for, this is the space for it

You make make connections to any "TBR only" books you've read throughout the year and each of these books may have multiple connections.

D. Example

Main Category:
👓 Author's initial (any position)
🎯 X or N

Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #3) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao
The Night Ends with Fire (The Dragon Spirit #1) by K.X. Song
The Wedding Forecast by Nina Kenwood

All the books above qualify under above Main Category however if we add a second category as per below, none of them qualifies...

Main Category #2:
👓Published in year containing
🎯8

A Keeper by Graham Norton
author's N initial & published in 2018
Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
author's X initial & published in 1938
12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
author's N initial & published in 1853

For "New Books", from above list of books;
I could read the backlist of Nina Kenwood's books or Graham Norton's as there are a few OR
books published in 2018 or
books with "widow" in title
etc

E. Goals & Completion

The aim of this challenge is to read as much from your TBR as possible so depending on your size of TBR, monthly goals would be different from one reader to another. Therefore, each participant is free to choose own goal (number of TBR books to be read in the month) though of course, as always, you are encouraged to be ambitious ;)

To claim Completion, please post in the Completion thread

E. Housekeeping

1. Each book read can only be claimed once throughout the challenge

2. There is no page limit for books read

4. Please post your plan/s in the monthly threads

5. Please note, the goal is flexibility so read a book from your TBR or not, that's up to you.

.

Are we allowed to read books for the next month once they are drawn? For example, if I do my February planning on January 15, can I read a February book in late January?

ah, sorry, I seem to be missing all the notifications or rather it's not ticked for me so I didn't get notification.

Yes, Amy, you may read as soon as they're drawn

Can we go back and finish a month after it is pulled? i.e. January categories pulled and posted but didn't read the book until March?

The intent was to assist in focusing (the prompt) in the month it's drawn but if you've finished your current month's goal, then by all means, go back and complete previous ones that you haven't finished