My friends chose my TBR for a month (August wrap-up)
- Em | The Last Great Read
- Sep 8, 2024
- 10 min read
I'm predictable when it comes to choosing my monthly tbr. It's always some sort of formula: graphic novel + fantasy book + contemporary standalone + old series I need to get through. And it serves me well, that's for sure, but a couple of months ago I found myself wanting to really shake things up a bit... and so I enlisted 5 of my close friends to help me pick my tbr for a month.
Each friend was randomly assigned a genre, and then I asked them a series of closed questions, each one narrowing down the selection of books on my shelf. I ended with 5 books, which I probably wouldn't have picked for myself, and it became my challange to read them all in August. I thought this was a brilliant idea - a way to challenge my hidden biases in choosing books whilst also maintaining a standard of books I would like because, well, I bought them all in the first place! In my mind, this would unlock new favourites and hidden gems; it was a recipe for success...
I was wrong.
Book number 1: Contemporary fiction/Literary fiction/Non-fiction
My first read of the month was chosen by a friend who we're going to call H. She was randomly assigned the quite varied genres of contemporary fiction, literary fiction and non-fiction, simply because I have fewer of each than the other genres we'll get to later. After a few rounds of questioning, H had asked me to read a fiction book that is not talked about much online, and something contemporary rather than historical. As a final question I asked her to pick between these emojis: 🍊🕊✊👁. She picked the dove, which meant I would be reading Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard.
My pre-August thoughts: "This is one I've had on my shelf for a long time - at least 7 years. And seeing as I'm always talking to H about how I really need to read my older books, I think she's happy that I'm actually doing that! Tbh, I don't know much about this book, other than it's about friendships and I think it's sad, but I'm looking forward to discovering more about the story. I'd say my opinion about it right now is pretty average, I don't really have any sort of expectations. But maybe it'll prove me wrong and be amazing!"
Predicted rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Actual rating: DNF'ed
Before you jump to conclusions, let me explain. As previously stated, I had little to no expectations for this book; if anything, I expected it to be juvenile and uninteresting, something picked out by my younger self which I would have now outgrown. But instead, Beautiful Broken Things really exceeded my expectations. The story was gripping and moving, the characters interesting, and the writing style was perfectly fine for Y/A. In just 3 days I managed to get to the 46% mark. So no, it wasn't the book that was the issue, rather the subject matter. If you're thinking of checking this book out, I urge you to look at the content warnings ahead of time (actually something we should be doing more frequently for all books) because a triggering topic was the reason I had to stop reading it. It was too much for me to handle at that moment in time, and I'm glad I put it to one side to prioritise my own mental wellbeing, rather than perservering for the sake of a challenge. And although I've marked this down as a DNF, I do plan on coming back to it when I'm in a better headspace. Because it really was good, and I'd love to finish it.
Book number 2: eBook
Not off to a great start, I decided to try my ebook for the month. This was the fifth book picked, and initially there wasn't supposed to be a fifth book - I only have so much time to read, after all! But as I was receiving my reads for the month I quickly realised that whilst I had given all my friends the option of book formats, no one chose for me to read an ebook. (I try to read at least one ebook each month, simply because I like to have one on the go to read on my lunch breaks and commutes to work.) So, I enlisted the help of my friend D to help me pick an extra book for the line-up. I gave her a choice of genres, a ‘current series’ or ‘something new’, and whether I should go for an author I'd already tried... all of which led to the pick of Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis - a Y/A thriller about a group of thieves who compete in a hunger-games-esque competition.
My pre-August thoughts: "This is a relatively recent purchase from one of Kindle's monthly 99p deals, but it's been on my tbr for a while now and is something I definitely think I'll enjoy. I love me a heist and a large cast of characters - so I'm hoping this book delivers on both!"
Predicted rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
Actual rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I. Loved. This. Book. The perfect mix of adventure, mystery and fun heists, it was an absolute delight to read. The pace was fast, and the vibrant cast of characters, plus the increasingly daring rounds of the competition made it a breeze. The characters and their motives felt so real, and our main girl Ros was part iconic, part vulnerable, making her a fantastic narrator to our story. Overall, it was just such a fun time and I was so annoyed when I realised I'd have to wait until November for the sequel - but best believe I'll be buying it on release day!
Book number 3: Fantasy
This was actually the first book selected for the challenge, picked by my friend A, who was randomly assigned the genre of fantasy (my favourite!) First I asked her to pick the book format, and she quite rightly chose a pretty special edition hardback - so it was going to be a Fairyloot one, that was for sure. Not knowing much about the Fairyloot books I own (since I didn't pick them), I struggled for a content-based question, but after a few minutes, A had picked a unique adventure in a (I think) European-based world. So for the final and most important part... I got her to pick the best sprayed edges, which is how we ended up with Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen!
My pre-August thoughts: "Honestly, I know nothing about this book. Waterstones' website describes it as "The first in a darkly enchanting fantasy duology about a morally grey witch, a cursed prince, and a prophecy that ignites their fate-twisted destinies." And although that blurb doesn't call to me, Chloe Gong (my fave) says it's "beautifully vicious" and in Chloe we trust. Nothing about this book grabs me, from the cover to the synopsis to the design of the special edition, and so it's probably one that would've stayed unread on my shelf for years - but this is why I love this challenge! The whole reason for doing it was to read books I wouldn't normally lean towards (even though I bought them all 🤭). Final thoughts: I'm going into it with zero expectations, but I like that. Hopefully it will surprise me."
Predicted rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Actual rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
I must admit, this book was almost exactly what I thought it would be, and yet at the same time was somehow underwhelming. I didn't dislike it, by any means, but it also didn't stand out to me. The characters were likeable enough, but I didn't connect to any of them. The writing style was fine, but didn't wow me. And except for at the end, the plot was just ok. I got bored a few times and had to push myself to continue - although the ending was particularly good, and the best part of the book for sure. However the end is left open, as the book was originally intended to be the first part of a duology that the author has now stated she will never complete due to personal health reasons. It's a completely fair reason and I'm not mad about it, especially since the ending is more "still some loose ends" than "total cliffhanger". Plus, as you can probably tell by now, I didn't care enough about it to be upset that it won't continue. But it's for all these reasons put together that I wouldn't recommend this book. Good enough, but not worth your time.
Book number 4: Romance
Unlike most of the other books on this list, this one was decided in person with my friend S, over a dinner of mocktails and chicken tenders (pure girls night energy). She was assigned romance (of which I have a lot), and opted for a book I've had for a while that was Y/A, queer and had an element of fantasy or sci-fi, namely: "futuristic stuff". And that book was They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera - a contemporary teen romance that I've probably had on my shelf for around 6 years and still haven't gotten to.
My pre-August thoughts: "Unlike Violet Made of Thorns, I do actually have a good idea of what this one is about, and I've heard pretty good things too so I'm looking forward to it. If you want a synopsis: two strangers find out they have one more day to live, so they decide to have one final adventure (and might fall in love). Overall I wouldn't say I have extremely high hopes, but I think I'll probably enjoy it. But only time will tell..."
Predicted rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Actual rating: didn't start
After what happened with Beautiful Broken Things, I was careful to check trigger warnings on all the other books before starting them. And unfortunately, They Both Die at the End included a triggering topic for me, so I decided not to read it this month. I'm sure I'll read it one day when I feel like I can tackle that, but that time isn't right now, and so this book sadly remains unread.
Book number 5: Sci-Fi/Dystopian/Dark Academia/Thriller
The final book for the month, my friend C helped me choose this one from the amalgamation of genres you see above. She went for Dark Academia first, which then led to a really quick decision, since I only have two! She picked the newer book in my mini collection, which is the very famous Babel by R.F. Kuang!!
My pre-August thoughts: "This, quite obviously, is the book I have the highest hopes for this month. Extremely popular and slated as brilliant, genius, and a modern classic, I can't help but have some expectations. And I think that's one of the reasons why I haven't read it yet. Firstly, it's pretty long and also I get the vibe that it's gonna be wordy and therefore difficult to read, but also I think it's going to be brilliant, and sometimes I like to spread out books like that for when I really need them. I've read Yellowface by the same author and I adored it (although it's a very different type of book). It's safe to say this is my most highly anticipated book of August's tbr!"
Predicted rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Actual rating: currently reading
You can already tell by now that this month didn't go exactly as I planned, but I am very much enjoying Babel. It's just an incredibly long and wordy book, and not one I always have the time to pick up. I'm currently about halfway through and thanks to a substack post I read recently, am appreciating the beauty of enjoying a long book slowly. So far, I think the writing is fantastic and I love the inclusion of footnotes - you can tell a lot of work went into this book. I love the characters of Robin, Ramy, Victoire and Letty, although I am equal parts intrigued and apprehensive to see how they doom themselves. I love the setting and the plot so far, which has a slow pace but is engaging all the same. I don't yet know if it will be a 5-star-read for me, but only time will tell and I am certainly enjoying it. Hopefully I'll finish it in September, and so I can share all my thoughts with you then!
In conclusion
I will say that this month was an interesting experiment. It pushed me to read books I probably wouldn't have gotten to for a while, and there were certainly some successes. For example, if I hadn't read Thieves' Gambit now, I wouldn't get to look forward to the release of the sequel. Plus, Beautiful Broken Things really exceeded my expectations, and I look forward to continuing it at a better time. It's been nice to read slowly for a month, not caring too much about my reading challenge and simply trying to enjoy the books in front of me.
However despite those things, I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed doing this. As a mood reader, I'll get the random urge to read books throughout a month and I enjoy that freedom of being able to pick whatever I feel like. But with this challenge I didn't get to do that. I might have learned that some books exceed expectations, but more than anything I learnt that this is not my preferred method of choosing what I read. It was fun to begin with but once I hit a slow book that I wasn't in the mood for, the hype died and I found myself wishing I could pick something else from my shelf (which of course, I could, but I'm not a rulebreaker). Couple that with the trigger issues and overall, I don't think this kind of rigid tbr is for me. It was a fun experiment, that's for sure (and made for an interesting blog post), but I don't think I'd be in a rush to replicate it anytime soon.
And did I really enjoy this month's books more than an average month? I don't think so. My average rating for August was 4.13⭐️. To compare that to the rest of this year, July's average was 4.5⭐️, June's was 4.88⭐️, May's was 4.11⭐️, April: 4.67⭐️, March: 3.56⭐️, February: 4.45⭐️, and January: 3.25⭐️. So if we look at those statistics, August wasn't actually that great, and certainly not that different to any other month. Which means, as I originally wondered, there isn't some crazy hidden bias I have that inherantly makes my unbiased friends pick better books than me. If anything, I know myself and my tastes, and I am actually more likely to pick books I enjoy than my friends are.
What I'm hearing is that I'm good at choosing books! In all seriousness, this month didn't go the way I wanted or expected, but maybe that's the fun of it. I may not have actually enjoyed my month of reading that much, but I did enjoy coming up with this concept, quizzing my friends, creating graphics for Instagram and writing this blog post. Thank you to H, D, A, S and C - you know who you are - I couldn't have done it without you (literally).
But now, I'm looking forward to actually picking my reads again. Hopefully I have a better September! See you in the next one. <3
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