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Remember to stay up to date with the world, listen to those facing atrocities and help spread awareness/donate where you’re able to.

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In 2022, I read 47 books (it might be more, but I can’t remember the ones I didn’t write down. I will be picking up my Goodreads to make sure I have a better record in 2023!). This is low for me, but I’m happy with the books I read last year.

In the last couple of months, I bought a lot of books and my TBR has once again progressed over the 100 mark and stands at 140. I won’t be buying any books until I go under 100, unless it’s a sequel which I plan on reading straight away.

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Owned the Oldest vs. Owned the Newest

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Shortest vs. Longest

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What Am I a Part Of?

This makes it seem like books series don’t make up the majority of my tbr. Here, I’m just looking at how many series (for perspective the 61 series on my shelves are made up of 104 books).

The fact that I have 34 standalones makes me happy as I do like compact, single stories (it’s why I love Asian dramas a lot as they tend not to do the multiple series format). This also highlights that my non-fiction collection has grown.

I have only 3 short story collections. I hope to read more in the future, but sometimes it’s hard to find these in the UK and when I do, a lot of them feature short stories that are part of a larger series by the authors. If you have any recommendations, let me know! ♥

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Release Year

This one is quite surprising! I thought I would still have loads from the mid 2010’s but I’m actually more up to date in my behind-ness 😂 I didn’t expect to have the most books from 2021.

The release dates are pretty spread, there’s at least one book for nearly all the years in the past two decades (sorry 2001). And then I’ve a couple spread sporadically in the 20th Century and then a rogue Middlemarch from 1872.

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Genres

Please note that my classification of a book might not be the same as yours, or even right… I mostly use Goodreads and pick what I think works best for my own purposes lol

For clarification, I use the term “contemporary fantasy” for a replacement of urban fantasy. Some people use both terms for different types of book (for instance A Dance With Books), but I use it just as a catch-all for personal preference.

Magical Realism

I don’t typically read a lot of magical realism, so that’s why it only makes up 2.14% of my tbr. I’m looking forward to The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa~

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Fiction

Another genre I don’t read often is just general fiction, so again it’s a small percentage of my tbr at 2.86%. Middlemarch and Demian are classics, but they still fit. I’ve started A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, but I need to be in certain place as while it’s funny, sadness just underlies everything.

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Romance

I don’t read a lot of romance, so I have included the historical series The Hathaway’s with Love in Colour (which is a book I’m so excited to read! It’s a short story collection of love story retellings from around the world). It only makes up 4.29% of my tbr, but I am interested in reading more historical, as contemporaries aren’t really my thing.

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Paranormal Romance

While some of these could be in Fantasy or Contemporary Fantasy, I classified them here as the romance between a human and non-human is the main component and it just so happens there’s some other plot going on lol

Paranormal Romance makes up 7.86% of my tbr.

(I feel like I’ve accidentally put Daughter of Smoke and Bone in the wrong place, so just ignore that!)

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Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction is a genre I started to delve more into last year and I definitely want to keep going. I’m really looking forward to reading all of the books above!

I’m probably most excited about Vincent Van Gogh: A Life in Letters as I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for The Starry Night a lot recently! I highly recommend! – Dylan Saunders has a perfect voice and Joe Viba as Theo is ♥.♥

Non-Fiction makes up 10% of my tbr and I’ll definitely have read all these by the end of this year!

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Mystery/Horror

This one was so surprising! Mystery and horror are not genres I gravitate towards. I’m a wimp so I’m hoping none are scary… The Drowning Deep might give me nightmares, but jokes on Mira (Seanan McGuire’s nom de plume) I’m already scared of the sea~ 😂

Mystery/horror makes up 11.43% of my tbr.

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Sci-Fi/Dystopian

I’ve lumped sci-fi and dystopian together as they’re kind of the same thing to me. A lot of these books have been on my tbr for a long time (i.e. the Gone series, The Chemical Garden Trilogy and the last two books in the Divergent trilogy). A lot of these will probably stay on the tbr for a while longer…

I’m most interested in China Dream by Ma Jian which is also the most recent purchase on this list 😅

As the books have just been compiling on my shelves, this genre make up 12.86% of my tbr.

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Contemporary Fantasy

I did expect more contemporary fantasy, and it’s not surprising that I have a lot of older series here.

Some of these have been on my shelves for a while, hopefully, I can get to them soon. I’m looking forward to a couple – Dokkaebi by Kat Cho and A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth. But there are definitely some I’ve been putting off for a while!

This genre makes up 17.14% of my tbr. (I forgot to add the Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenkyo…).

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Fantasy

Fantasy has been a genre I’ve loved since I can remember, so it’s no surprise that it makes up 31.43% of my tbr.

I’ve also included some historical fantasy at the end, I just wasn’t sure where best to put it and I thought this was as good a place as any~

There are so many on this list that I really want to read soon. Ones at the top are A Restless Truth; Freya Marske, Witches Steeped in Gold; Ciannon Smart and Black Leopard, Red Wolf; Marlon James.

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My reading goal for this year is 76 and I’m dedicated to reading my current tbr to fulfil all the challenges/prompts that I’m doing. Will I not buy new books this year? No, I definitely will. However, I need to stop buying them to reward myself for very small things or because I feel sad. It will be challenge for sure!

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How are your tbr’s? Are we even or do you actually read the books you buy when you buy them?

Are there any books on my shelves you think I should pick up immediately?

Thanks for reading!

I hope you’re having a lovely day and staying safe ♥