Hey there! It's Olivia-Savannah here from Olivia's Catastrophe and today
I’m here to tell you the reasons why I am quitting making TBRs.
So I’ve been making TBRs on this channel for a very long time. Ever since I started
my channel I have been making TBRs for every single month. And I am a mood reader. Often I
set a TBR and then I don't stick to it and that is one of the reasons why of course,
I am giving up my TBR. I am a mood reader and I want to lean into my mood reading and see
where it can take me. And as a mood reader I also have a problem where I start a lot of books and I
don't finish them because I’m in the mood for them that day and not the next day or the day after
that or the week after that. And that kind of messes up me being a mood reader as well because
then it means I don't finish a lot of books. But I really just can't make these TBR videos anymore
for several reasons. Now, I mentioned that I don't always stick to my TBR and I end up
mood reading anyway with a bit of a guideline which can be fun. But I do bear in mind that I
make TBR videos on my channel as well. And when I did my 30 books in 30 days reading challenge
what I did was I set myself my own personal TBR but I didn't make a video for it. And it went
incredibly well. Not only did I end up reading 75% of the books that I set and intended to read
for myself, I also then had 25 where I switched out my books and kind of mood read my way through
them. And that really was just so monumental to me. If I didn't feel like picking a book up I
didn't feel guilty because I hadn't told anybody I was going to be reading it. So nobody was waiting
on my thoughts on a particular book when I decided I actually wanted to read another one instead. And
I have to admit setting TBRs and making a video does create a semblance of pressure that you
put on yourself as a creator. Because you've told your audience: hey, I’m going to read these books.
And then if you don't read them you feel a little bit like you've let them down. Especially when in
the comments they mentioned being excited to hear your thoughts on those particular books. Another
thing when deciding to quit my TBRs is that I did take into account that unless I have a book haul
or an unhaul that month, TBRs are my most viewed videos. Now, I know they always say make your own
content for yourself and for what you want to do. But you do take into account your audience when
you're choosing which videos to make. And as you can tell from the fact that I am deciding to quit
making TBR videos I’ve decided to go the way of: I don't want to make them and therefore I won't.
But the only reason – like, when I was making my pros and cons list the only pro that I had was
TBR videos do well. And that's not the reason why I want to keep making them. That -- it wasn't
enough of a reason for me to keep making them. But it was a serious consideration. But I do
think I’ve reached a point in my channel where I’m mostly making content for myself, you know. I’m
not making the titles that are like, SEO friendly titles that people are going to find. I’m just
trying to make the content that I enjoy. So as you can tell from here on out there will be no more
TBR videos on this channel. I think exceptions will be when I’m hosting a readathon. For example,
if Gothtober comes back in October which I’m sincerely hoping it will, or All The World's
A Page readathon that comes back again, I will probably be making TBRs for those. But otherwise
I’ll do it in the way where I did Middle Grade March where I just made a dedicated reading vlog
to the readathon that I joined in with. I also think that my wrap-ups are going to get smaller.
I say I think because I can't be sure about this. But one thing I’ve noticed without having
university deadlines is that I’m taking reading a lot slower. I’m taking it a lot easier. And if I
am going to be mood reading it's like I’m going to be starting a lot of books, pausing them and
then coming back to them another month or later on. Because that's just the way I read naturally
at this point. So maybe I will have shorter and fewer books to talk about in wrap-ups. But
it's not going to be changing the content of my channel. I’ll still be reading the mess of genres
and age audiences that I usually read. And I’m still going to be talking about books a lot. And
they'll just be other types of videos. So I hope you'll stick around for that. But nonetheless,
now that all of that has been said I do want to talk about the books that I’m currently reading.
Don't think they're going to be in my wrap-up for this month because maybe they will be maybe,
they won't. Who even knows. The first book I can talk about is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
And I’m buddy reading this with Serena from awanderingmind. And this one is about Jude
who is a disabled main character. I did not know that going in. And he has these three very close
friends. And it's following his life with his friends. And it's a very literary fiction kind of
book. And everybody says it's very sad and you're going to cry. And I admit it's very sad but I’m
not crying. Mostly I’m screaming in frustration while reading this book. I’m not enjoying it.
I would say I’m a bit over a quarter of the way in and I am so frustrated by the incompetence of
all of the characters around this main character. And I’m frustrated by the sheer ableism that is
being thrown in my face with how much – like, the more I read the more ableist
things that are coming right in my direction. And as far as I can see from my research the author is
able-bodied. If that is not the case please let me know in the comment section down below. I did some
research but I couldn't find anything that said otherwise. I will just keep reading because I’m
gonna read this whole thing to make my judgment on it and to see if maybe it changes some of the
ableism and it turns into a positive storyline in that regard. I have no idea. Gonna keep reading
to find out. But so far me and this book are not getting along. I’m also buddy reading The Fifth
Season by N.K. Jemisin with Jade from Jaded Reader and Soleil from Little Reader’s Corner. And this
one is this -- how do I describe this book? It's a fantastic fantasy novel where orogeny exists which
are people who can move the ground and work with earth basically. And in this world they are the
oppressed. And there's just so much to this book. I don't think I can even properly describe it yet.
But I’m reading this one and I am absolutely adoring it. I think it's genius world building,
fantastic world building. And all of the characters and their dynamics with the
person that they're paired with… because you get these character perspectives but they're traveling
with another character. They're doing something with another character. All of those dynamics are
so fascinating. I have no idea where this book is planning to go and intending to go in the future.
But I’m here for the ride. I’m looking forward to continuing reading this book. I’m also halfway
through The Diviners by Libba Bray which I’m buddy reading with Nicole from Who Picked This Book.
Yes, I do a lot of buddy reads. I find buddy reads so very fun. And this one is a historical fiction
horror kind of novel, where this dead spirit is brought back into the present day and he
is murdering people. And then we've got these diviners who have special gifts and they're trying
to figure out what is going on at the moment. And so far we're already halfway through this book and
the diviners are all still separate and all doing their own things. And they haven't kind of
come together to tackle this issue yet. But I think this book is just a lot of fun. I’m along
for the ride and I’m enjoying it. I’m not taking it too seriously. It's not too deep but it's got
the perfect creepy vibe atmosphere and I like Evie as our main character. She's fun, she's funny,
but she's also got a heart. And you are following quite a few points of view but I never find it
very confusing. So I’m enjoying this book. I just find it like, a light-hearted historical fiction
horror. Does that exist? Because if it exists it's called The Diviners. Then I’m also reading
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater. I’ve read the first half of this. And I am talking about
it in my read it backwards series so I’m not going to talk about it too much here. The first video
is up and this is the final book in The Raven Cycle series. Which is the series that is my
personality. Like you know, you've got one book series that you just adopt as your personality?
That is The Raven Cycle for me. I started this one yesterday, actually. And that is Sorcery of Thorns
by Margaret Rogerson. I was very excited for this book when it came out. I was anticipating it. I
just I needed this book in my life because I loved An Enchantment of Ravens. And then it came out and
I immediately started reading it. And I didn't get past chapter six because it was everything
I didn't expect. So I put it on pause -- I pause a lot of books -- so that my expectations
could rearrange themselves and I’d have time to appreciate the book for what it is when I next got
back into it. And I’ve decided now is the time to get back into it. So I’m starting off from where
I paused. I always do that. It has – it’s been a year or two, I think? It's been two years but I
just started off from where I paused. And I won't say what this book is about because I’ll probably
get a bit of a refreshing as I continue reading. But I picked this one back up yesterday. Quickly
blaze through this one. This is Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater. Which is the second book
in the Call Down the Hawk series. I’m not going to tell you anything about this series because I feel
like it if you even talk about the first one it spoils some stuff for the first series. So I’m not
going to tell you anything about it. But I started this one and then I had to stop because I had job
interviews so I couldn't read all night and then I had to work in school so I couldn't read that all
night. And then I was just like, all this adult stuff kept stopping me from blitzing through
this book in one day. And I am going to blitz through this book in one day. So I put it on pause
but now because I’m reading The Raven King. Like, I can't read these two at the same time. They just
cannot exist in my headspace at the same time. So that's the dilemma we're facing here with Mister
Impossible. But it's still in my currently reading pile because it's going to be raced through fairly
quickly. And then for Do-the-thing-athon that was hosted by Ashleigh from A Frolic Through Fiction,
I started to read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. But I started to read it in Dutch. One of my
goals for 2021 was to read more books in Dutch and we are coming up to halfway through the year. And
I’ve read no books in Dutch. And I’ve decided that for my Dutch what I want to do is read some of my
favourite English books but read them in Dutch just because I’m so familiar with the story
that it's so much easier for me to understand what's happening. And I don't need to focus on the
plot too much. But the funny thing is whenever I come across a word that I don't know in a sentence
I literally know Twilight off my heart because I read it every year, that I know exactly what
that word is supposed to mean just because I know the original text so very well. So I think it's
actually been a very smart move to read Twilight in Dutch. And a lot of people who are bilingual
or multilingual have mentioned how Twilight was the first book they read in their second, third
or whatever language to help them learn. So again, I’m just taking their advice and doing exactly the
same thing. It's not a new idea. Don't credit me for that. Also reading Cannibal by Safiya
Sinclair. And this one is a poetry collection it's by Jamaican poet. And it's about family, identity,
displacement all of those things. And I am a quarter of the way through and I’m loving this
poetry collection so much. Easily can tell you it's going to be a five stars whenever I finish
it. It's just taking me a jolly long time because I’m analysing and annotating every single poem as
I’m reading it. And that takes me a while. Like, I sit there for a good hour with a poem because
I read it all the way through straight once, then I read it through again while annotating
and then I kind of read it through one last time. So I read the poem like, every poem three times.
Plus take the time to annotate. That's why it's taking me forever. I read about a poem every two
to three days and I just I really like it. This right here is The Host by Stephenie Meyer. And
I’ve probably read about 100 pages of this. This is my I can't think but I want to read book.
So if it's very very late at night and I want to read a couple of pages or like, just a little
bit before bed but I’m so tired that I need something where I don't need to think too much,
I read The Host. And this is a reread for me so of course it doesn't take that much brain power.
I have read it before. But it's very entertaining. I like The Host. I didn't realise we spend so
much time setting up the world before you get to the romantic story. So that is surprising to me
but I am having a good time with it. And then last but not least we have the book that has
been on my currently reading since January. And that is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I would say
that Abi -- I’m reading this with Abi from Abi of Pellinor -- and I are both about two-thirds
of the way through War and Peace. And I just… I really am enjoying this book. I think it does a
great job with all of the peace chapters in particular. But what I really like about it
is that over the course of time in this book the characters change so much. We start with
them as children and now they're like, adults. And there's characters I like and then I don't like.
And the drama is always intense. Everybody's caught up in the drama and you can see how
previous relationships or previous feelings have contributed to the drama being what it is now.
Oh, it's just so good. And in the beginning I wasn't a big fan of the war chapters for different
reasons. A lot has to do with structure and the way Tolstoy chose to write them rather than the
content of the chapter itself. But in this second half I do think the war chapters have improved
somewhat. They're still not my favourite thing. But I do think they have gotten better so this
is a big positive for me. And there you have it! Those are all the books that I’m currently reading
and also my declaration of no more TBRs unless there's a readathon. Please let me know in the
comment section down below: are you a TBR person or a mood reader? And if you are a TBR person
are you good at sticking to your TBR? Please give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it,
hit the subscribe button if you want to see more and don't forget to hit that notification bell to
be updated every time I have a new video. You know what they say: onwards and upwards. Excelsior!