Dear fellow readers,

The weak human than I am succumbed to the yearly book trend, hyped challenge and very satisfying list that is "insert number" books to read in "insert year" — I actually have no idea how this challenge is called so feel free to enlighten me if you do. I wasn't planning on partaking in this reading challenge since, as I discussed in my previous post, I want to focus on taking it slow and mood reading but then bookstagram happened aaaand here we are.

The next step was to select 26 titles and how's one to choose ? Do you choose books that are already on your tbr ? Do you include upcoming releases you're excited for ? What are the rules ? Are there even rules ?
I decided to play it safe, and most importantly, reasonably by only looking into my physical tbr shelf because that mountain of a pile needs to go down and fast (those 300 books are not going read themselves). I managed to come up with the right amount of books that I'm going to divide by genres.

Modern Classic -

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Non Fiction -

1. An Odyssey by Daniel Mendelsohn

Historical Fiction -

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

2. Sparrow by James Hynes

3. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

5. Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

6. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Contemporary -

1. Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

2. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

3. My Friends by Fredrik Backman

4. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

5. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

6. These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

Magical Realism -

1. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

2. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carloz Ruiz Zafón

4. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Fantasy & Sci-Fi -

1. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

2. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

3. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

5. The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune

6. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

7. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

I can hear you from across the screen "omg Celine, what an eclectic and interesting selection you have there", to which I'll respond "thank you, thank you" with a little shoulder shrug.

But all jokes asides, my choices were driven by two motives. Number one, what was I supposed to have buddy read and failed at doing so. Number two, what has been on my tbr every single year and still has not been read. All of a sudden the list is a little bit less glamorous, isn't it. I guess it's more of a oopsie tbr in an attempt to catch up on the past years — which, don't get me wrong, is a good and much needed thing at this point and I'm still very excited to pick up those books.

These are far from being the only books that I want to read this year but choices needed to be made and titles needed to be selected. So with that being said, I'm really curious to know if you yourself take part in this challenge and if so, which books you've selected for it. Let me know everything !

With love, Celine.