The Terror of Knowing

Welcome folks to the twenty-eighth round of Down the TBR Hole! For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the previous posts via the tag or check out Lia at Lost in a Story who is the creator of this wonderful meme/project.

I’m trying to make this a regular feature of my blogging schedule because it’s good to regularly reevaluate if/why you want to read a book – that way you don’t come back to your TBR years later and have no clue why a title piqued your interest in the first place. I’ve also added a summary of results bit at the bottom of each round so I can track how many books I’ve kept and ditched from my TBR shelf in each round and overall.

Just a reminder of how this works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Outside of doing these posts semi-regularly I have also been culling my TBR list at random points when I’m bored – all of this is good in terms of getting my TBR to a reasonable amount of books but it also means that these posts are getting harder for me to do as I’m beginning to really agonise over whether to ditch or keep books on there. Not that any of this is a bad thing! Let’s get going on the 10 books under scrutiny today…

1. Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka

Why is it there? I tend to be really bad at reading (modern) classics in translation. Here’s the thing: I felt bad about this (and wanted to correct it) when I was at university, surrounded by people who talked about modern classics, something which I was (read: still am) horribly out of touch with. But I don’t really care to “correct that” anymore just for the sake of feeling more “well read”.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

2. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence by Judith Butler

Why is it there? So this is a bit of theory I added to my TBR when I was at university and this was referenced in some of my secondary reading. It sounded super interesting as it explores the idea of how mourning and violence operates in a post-9/11 America. Now I’m out of university I don’t have such ready access to this kind of secondary reading so it’s unlikely I’ll ever get to this, to be honest.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

3. The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Why is it there? I genuinely can’t remember how this got onto my TBR. It allegedly “recasts the classic story of Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway in a startling new light” which makes me even more suspicious of how this ended up on my TBR in the first place because I really haven’t got along with what I’ve read of Virginia Woolf so why on earth would I think this would interest me at all?
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Why is it there? This is a children’s classic which never ever crossed my radar. I’m not sure why it didn’t, but I guess other things were on there instead? It’s apparently the most translated book in the French language so it seems downright weird that I’ve never really came across it. But here’s the thing: do I actually care about reading children’s classics at this point? Honestly? Probably not. (Feel free to try to convince me otherwise!)
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

5. The Art of Thor: The Dark World by Marie Javins

Why is it there? Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for anything that’s ‘behind the scenes’, especially if it’s about the art and design that goes into films and television. The Thor films are my definitely-not-secret guilty pleasure so anything about how they made them when they’re SO PRETTY is a-ok with me.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Keep

6. The Sky Over the Louvre by Yslaire

Why is it there? Some time ago I used to watch (and love) Jasmine’s channel. She mainly reviewed classics and I loved her content (it’s no longer public/uploaded, such a shame!) but she really liked Les Misérables and resolving all love triangles with polyamory so I instantly trusted her opinion, including on this which she said was beautiful. The main/only problem with this book is that it’s practically impossible to get hold of so it makes the likelihood of acquiring it highly unlikely.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

7. In the Woods by Tana French

Why is it there? I don’t read a lot of mystery or crime novels at all, but I follow quite a few Booktubers and readers who do, so it’s not a surprise that this kind of book could end up on my TBR after I, say, watched a particularly enthusiastic review online. However, I need to just admit to myself (and to my TBR) that I don’t actually read crime for a reason, the reason being I don’t like it.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Why is it there? This is a Very Important book, I know, I know, it seems like it will be very raw and very hard-hitting and that’s fine, but I just have to talk myself into reading memoirs like that.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Keep

9. Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. by Jeremy Mercer

Why is it there? I’ve never been, but always wanted to go to, Shakespeare & Co in Paris. In fact, I’ve never visited Paris (I’ve travelled through it, but never stopped there I think), so this book is the ultimate book about a bookshop but I know reading it will make me yearn even more to go there. The question is, will I get around to reading this before or after I finally get around to going to Paris and visiting the shop itself?
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Keep

10. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

Why is it there? This book is basically on my TBR because I’ve never read Murakami and that seems to be some kind of sin if you’re a reader nowadays. I don’t know how I’ll feel about Murakami’s writing so I think that’s why I picked one of his short works to add to my TBR to try out sometime. But am I ever actually going to feel compelled to pick this up? Probably not, let’s be honest.
Do I own it? No
Verdict? Ditch

This round:
Kept – 3
Ditched – 7

Overall:
Kept – 142
Ditched – 138

That’s all folks for the twenty-eighth round of my Down the TBR Hole project. I’m struggling more and more nowadays to ditch books, as you can probably tell by this round, but my TBR currently stands at 688 books. That number seems to have crept up by about 50 books since I last did a Down the TBR Hole round so I don’t know what’s going on there but clearly I need to keep doing this project and being more harsh on myself and my TBR aspirations because it’s getting too large again!

But have I made a terrible mistake in ditching some of these titles? Or have I kept some that really aren’t worth my time? Let me know in the comments below!

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