UPDATE: TBR CLEANUP

INTRODUCTION
This one will be a very special sort of update post because it is a bit of a different reading schedule.
Since setting up a Goodreads profile I have slowly been growing a collection of books I have read and reviewed and chipped away at my 2015 reading goal one book at a time. What I have also done is accumulated a somewhat unnerving list of books that are on my To Read shelf. This isn't necessarily a problem in itself, but if there is one trend I've noticed among other users its that a lot of people have excessively long To Read lists. I'm talking in the hundreds and even thousands. While this is totally their right to do, I feel like there's also no way that they have any intention of reading that many books in any reasonable amount of time. Mine has grown to 28 books that includes classics, indie published books, and popular releases. 27 isn't so bad, but it's also just frankly a few more than I intend to read in any reasonable amount of time so I think it could be cut down to size a bit.

There are several different reasons why they got onto my To Read list in the first place so I will be breaking it down by that criteria and thinning out from there.

BOOKS I ADDED BECAUSE OF GIVEAWAYS
There were a number of books I put on my To Read shelf that I really didn't know much about. I figured that if I won them, then I would read them for sure and if not, then I still wanted to check them out. These are as follows:
  1. Ultraexenopia by M.A. Phipps
  2. Echo 8 by Sharon Lynn  Fishe
  3. Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage


BOOKS IN SERIES I HAVE ALREADY STARTED
These are all books that belong to series I have already begun. Because they are series I will like, I will most definitely be reading all of these:
  1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
  2. Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff
  3. Endsigner by Jay Kristoff
  4. Injustice Year Two Volume 1 by Tom Taylor
  5. Injustice Year Two Volume 2 by Tom Taylor
  6. Artificial Evolution by Joseph R. Lallo


BOOKS FROM THE BOOKTUBE AWARDS READALONGS
There are six books scheduled to be read each month from August through October until these BookTubers do their awards special. I haven't read a single one and want to catch up, but can probably only do one or two of them a month. There are four from August I have my eyes on and really need to decide quickly which I should pick.
  1. The Martian by Andy Weir
    • This is one I have heard a TON about and will definitely be doing a read-along for since I just picked up a paperback copy for myself!
  2. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
    • I don't normally go for YA novels, but will give this one a look
  3. Rat Queens by 
    • A graphic work that collects a bunch of issues from a comic. It looks a little strange, but worth a look especially since I can probably get through it pretty easy and want to try getting a graphic volume in print.
  4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
    • This one really doesn't sound like a SciFi or Fantasy novel, but I feel like I should check it out all the same.


BOOKS RECOMMENDED TO ME
I have had several books recommended to me by Philip Dodd who wrote Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle (we're friends on Goodreads). I've read one book on his recommendation and enjoyed it so I feel like I should check these out as well.
  1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
    • Think I will probably be keeping this one on the list since I haven't really read any Gaiman
  2. The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington 
  3. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro


RANDOMLY ADDED
There are a whole bunch of titles I added for various reasons, but don't know much about many of them so I will have to figure out which of these I'm actually serious about reading.
  1. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
    • A bunch of my friends love these stories and I feel like I should read at least a few of them.
  2. Watchmen by Alan Moore
    • Never watched the movie adaptation, but really do want to give this story a look first in the original graphic novel and then maybe the movie.
  3. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
    • Loved the movie for this, but am unsure if I'd like the book mostly because the female character was extremely weak despite her important role in the plot. This brings up some doubts about the author's writing that get added to my general tendency to steer clear of YA novels. I suppose it will all just come down to whether I can get into the author's style.
  4. The Written by Ben Galley
    • A super cool and very successful indie author. I watched a really great interview with him and am curious about his writing. Plus I love the cover since it heavily reminds me of the standalone Prince of Persia game that Ubisoft released. 
  5. Angel War by Philip Dodd
    • Loved this guy's other book and though this one looks a little more serious, I think I might like it.
  6. White Wind Rising by Dan Davis
    • Randomly found this guy on Goodreads and liked the book cover and description. Will probably try to sample the book and see if I am still intrigued. 
  7. Heather by A.J. Sendall
    • This author is in the Indie Book Booster Club and I was interested in the premise of the book. It's a long one though, so I want to make sure I can immerse myself in the writing before diving in.
  8. Barking Madness by Ryan Hill
    • Tentatively arranged to do a book swap with this author. I've kind of moved away from the formal swapping and we never really followed up on the arrangement so I will give it a look and if the writing doesn't grab me, I will just let it quietly drop.
  9. Infernal by T. Joseph Bowder
    • This is written by someone who actively supports his fellow indies and I think I might like to try out one of his books. They seem to be a little darker than I think I am normally into, but I might like it still. 
  10. Sung in Blood by Glen Coo
    • A short novel I picked up at a bookstore that seemed like I might like. I'll definitely read this eventually, I'm just not sure when.
  11. Ogden by Cory Abernathy
    • Cory wrote a review for Digitarum and I discovered that he was not only another indie author, but also a fellow Indie Book Booster Club member so I think I might give his book a look. 
This doesn't even count the books that I got for free on Kindle that I intend to possibly read, but I think this is a large enough list for now. Ideally, I'd like to cut this down to around fifteen books since I really only have a few more books to finish for my 2015 reading challenge goal and like I said, I really don't think I'll enjoy reading all of these so it would be nice to clean this list up.


Many of these are books I will probably want to sample either by using the Look Inside feature on Amazon or by downloading a Kindle sample. The covers and descriptions definitely piqued my interest, but ultimately what is going to determine whether I make a purchase is if the writing is something I like.

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