I’ve taken a break from doing monthly reading plans and TBRs because 2020 has not been conducive to my reading habits. I had a number of months where my anxiety and stress were so bad that it threw me into a major slump.

Well, I’ve decided it’s time for them to come back! This is for a number of reasons – firstly because I like having some kind of plans, but also because I really want to tackle my ‘backlist’ and have something outside of review books.

I’ve been seeing a ton of TBR games floating around on booktube and thought some of them looked so fun and I decided that the best one for me to try would be using a deck of cards to determine my TBR. This is in no way an original idea, I saw versions of this on both Maddi’s and April’s channels. So using the same premise I came up with my own version.

On my board I have 36 total prompts which may get re-organized after a while but for now will be kept the same. There are 15 genre specific prompts, 13 more random or combo prompts and then 8 duplicates (4 from genres and 4 from random).

I then picked out prompts for what would happen if I drew the face cards or an ace. For Jack I have to read a book under 300 pages, Queens result in Calypso picking a book, King would be a book selected from a stack of 5 books that Rich has pre-selected (you can see post-its for these on the bottom right of the board) and an Ace would be a book over 500 pages. Rich and I mutually agreed that I can only draw one Ace per month. I also decided to start with selecting six – if it’s more than I can handle I will decrease it, but otherwise I’m going to stick with it. I’m also not going to give myself a punishment if I don’t complete everything (maybe in the future, but for now I want to enjoy the experience).

After helping me figure out everything and helping me make my board, Rich was just as excited as I was to select things for my December TBR – so we did it right away – here’s what happened!

• 7 of hearts – Mom pick
• 4 of hearts – Random Color Generator
• 2 of diamonds – Middle Grade
• 5 of diamonds – YA
• Queen of clubs – Calypso pick
• 7 of clubs – Contemporary

Hilariously, right after I called my mom and asked her if she was alright with there being a ‘mom pick’ it was the first one I ended up drawing – I read her the titles of five books and she picked Harrow Lake.

For random color I did a random color generator and got a pinkish tone, this one took me a while to find one that fitted, but finally I came up with Throne of Fire having a very similar color throughout its cover.

For middle grade I immediately pulled Dead Voices off of the stack sitting right behind me because I need to read it. For YA I selected one I already have a bookmark in, which is The Silence of Bones.

For Calypso’s pick I presented her with three options and let her see me putting a treat on each of them. Her decision was swift and final, The Last Final Girl it is.

And finally I came to contemporary, this one was another easy pick of one I already have a bookmark in and desperately want to get to – I Believe in a Thing Called Love.

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So there you have it, this is my December TBR (besides review books) and we’ll see how I like this new TBR game that I’m trying – I’m super excited! What do you think of TBR games or the rules I have set myself?

Happy reading!