I notice a common post among book bloggers, which is a monthly To-Be-Read (TBR) list of books they plan to read that month.  I’ve been wanting to start doing this myself, but I can’t for one simple reason – I can’t stick to a reading plan.

I’m sure other book bloggers have the same problem.  We don’t end up sticking to our list because we find out about new books and want to read those instead, or we just aren’t in the mood to read a certain book that we planned to read.  I know that last month I planned to read four specific books that I had just bought, but only ended up reading two of them.

This month I had planned to begin with continuing my reread of the Harry Potter books, but that already went out the door when I went shopping at Barnes & Noble with some of my birthday money.  Now I’m reading The Outsiders because a co-worker of mine loves it.  I know it’s only the beginning of the month still, but with the other books that I’ve bought/ordered with my birthday money, I don’t think I’ll be picking up any Harry Potter books anytime soon.  There’s so many other books to read!

There’s also the fact that I’d feel more pressured if I planned out my reading for the month.  While I do have certain books that I know I want to read at some point this year, I don’t make it something that I have to stick with.  It’s almost like when kids have to read certain books for school – it takes the fun out of it.  Even I didn’t like reading a book for an assignment in school (unless it was a really good book, then I would read ahead!).  Feeling pressured to read a book, whether from planning to read it or some other reason, makes the book less enjoyable.

I’d rather enjoy my reading time, thank you.

So there’s not too much else to say on this, other than you won’t be seeing a ‘Books to Read This Month’ post from me anytime soon.  I just like to choose a book I’m interested in at the time and read it.  Otherwise, I’ll lose interest and it will sit on my bookshelf for 3 years before I pick it up again.  I hate it when that happens, but it does (more than I’d like to admit).

How do you feel about making a monthly reading plan?