To Be (Read), or not To Be

Heading into Q4 of this challenge year, I'm being a little strategic in my approach to #VirtualMountTBR. I will definitely not read 66 titles (plus those in-progress/in my possession) in 3 months, despite a good showing so far this year. Time to winnow!

Some of the 15 foodways history and food memoir titles are a little redundant, so I thought I might choose only two or three, and hope that browsing the others satisfies my curiosity. Turns out I really liked 6 when I saw them in person: a couple that looked fun and will go quickly thanks to a third of the page count actually being illustrations or footnotes, some memoir from an undercover journalist with a flair for storytelling, and the most accessible of the nonfiction written for a lay audience with a TV remote close at hand.

My first pass resulted in a Maybe stack (to the left) and a No stack (to the right).

Further review: keep these!

I also placed holds on several delightfully horrifying novels and some short stories for the month of October, which will hopefully be read quickly. The Stephen King re-reads are something I've been looking forward to -- they won't count toward my new books read this year, but they'll help shorten the TBR list.

I've limited my NEXT year's list to 50 books (not there yet) and have an idea of a couple I'd remove if I needed space. With any that I choose to keep for another year, and perhaps even some unplanned titles, that should make a full reading itinerary for 2024.