Breaking Your TBR Rules Is Ok

Have you noticed that if you follow most bookish people - booktubers, book bloggers, booktokkers, podcasters, bookagrammers and others that I am not hip enough to understand or too old to understand the lingo (oh hell, am the below gif, aren't I?) - that they created their To Be Read list for the upcoming month and they stick to them? They stick to them, no matter what. yes, they quit some reads but, 9 times out of 10, they read their list and they don't break the list or impulsively read something else? 

I do this all the time, hence why I never make TBR lists. I never stick to them. Yes, I am a mood reader. 

And I break my rules with TBRs all the time. Hence why I never do them. I try and do themes. And yet, I break them too. I mean, I did it last month and no one really commented on it. And I'm 95% certain I will break my TBR plans this Spooky Month as well. 

Ok, let me explain. 

Last month, I was planning to read crime and thrillers. I had several thrillers I was desperate to read. One them being Lies Like Wildfires by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. Hell, this was the book that inspired the idea of doing a crime/thriller themed month! That's how excited I was to read, and how excited I still am to read this. And I started it... only to stop at page 16. I kid you not, 16 pages! My brain wasn't in the right space to read this. And so, I put it back on my TBR and, on a whim, read Drilled by KM Neuhold (final books in the Four Bear Construction series), hoping that this would be a platter cleanse, something I can read as a side project. Only for me to binge read this over the course of a weekend. 

So yeah... I broke my TBR rule for last month. And I felt no guilt WHATSOEVER in doing so. And I'm surprise no one talks about that - that, sometimes, breaking your TBR or not setting one is quite freeing. 

Now, saying that, I would like to stick to my Halloween reading this month (and hopefully read more than two books/audiobooks), but I know I am going to break it. I might have agreed to read two books for blog tours. One that I might have done (writing this post in late September) and another for the end of the month so... yeah... October might not be a spooky as I would like. 

Oh well, reading should be fun, after all. And sometimes, doing left field reading, away from you TBR for the next few reads is a good thing. Can't wait to freak you guys out over what I plan to read from now until my Christmas Blog Holiday...