The To-Be-Read Pile: Unfinished Business

Before I begin my post, I’d like to recommend reading this post first:
Paper Fury: Why It’s Perfectly Acceptable to Have an Enormous TBR Pile
Now, on with the post!

As I’ve stated repeatedly, I’ve gotten myself into a reading slump, I kinda figured I’d take the “first step to recovering from a problem is admitting you have one” tactic, but it’s hasn’t been doing much for me (it turns out you actually need to come up with a solution as well, who’d have thought?). The problem is that when I first started out blogging, I didn’t want my blog to be about the latest releases (mostly because I’m a poor uni student and I work in retail on a low-income wage). However, why I try to avoid books that have achieved mainstream success, even I have to concede, to a degree, that Fifty Shades of Grey is influential on the Publishing Industry, for example the book sales of Fifty Shades of Grey have resulted in a 400% increase in the sales of sex-toys, however in 2012 the Authors specializing in BDSM or Erotic Romance only received a 20% increase in book sales, Publishers found that it was difficult to entice their shoppers into buying and reading any other erotica. The fact that people are more comfortable going down to their local Sexyland store and buying a flogger, then say going down to the local bookstore and buying a book (regardless of genre) is a little concerning (people are aware you can order erotic books online right?).

However, by ignoring the newest releases, I’ve realised that I’ve been missing out on some great stuff. Like the two authors I’ll be focusing on this year, V.E. Schwab and Patrick Ness. I wouldn’t have heard about these authors unless I was actively looking through Book Blogs that review new releases, and while these posts might be great opportunities for Book Discussions, they are in fact terrible for my TBR pile, which is enormously overwhelming, there’s just so many books I haven’t read and I’ll be going back to University soon (hopefully this will be my last year but I’ll have to wait and see). Then I feel guilty about not reading, previously I found it difficult to imagine a time when I would have been actively avoiding reading, but that is precisely what happened last year. I had very little energy or motivation and was rather apathetic about the whole thing. Which would start the shame spiral up again. However, this isn’t healthy and I need to try to change this. I know this may seem weird, or even come across as me whining about a first world problem, but Reading has always been my constant and when you have a problem with something so integral to who you are as a person, it’s a difficult process for me to comprehend (not wanting to read? Madness!). However, I’m managing to get my arse into gear. So I’ve decided to just focus on specific series I may have started and want to finish and new series I want to finish.

The Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy – I figured I should finish this series, which I love, before I start on Demon Road (which also has a book two coming out).

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer – I haven’t started this, but I’ve had Cinder on my Kobo eReader for ages. I don’t think it helped that I kept confusing this author with Melissa Marr (the author who writes the Wicked Lovely series, another series I haven’t finished).

The Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown – Although I have a problem with the Stuffed In The Fridge narrative catalyst, I am loving Red Rising thus far, I seriously regret not reading this book sooner. I’m aiming to read both Red Rising and Golden Son by the end of January.

The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater – I have been meaning to read this for ages, I actually have a bad habit of buying the book then giving it to someone else as a birthday/Christmas present, but I have it in eBook format now so no more excuses.

The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas – Yeah IDK why I haven’t read this already, it sounds good and has plenty of good reviews *shrugs*

The Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo – Like with Throne of Glass, I’ve had this on my eBook Reader for a while, just haven’t had time/motivation to read it, however Six of Crows sounds very interesting but I need to read the Grisha first.

So, what series are you planning on finishing this year? Are you focusing on any specific authors? Let me know in the comments section 🙂