It was maybe a bit ambitious to believe I could maintain my monthly TBR and add an additional book a week from my physical TBR. I forgot to take into account that I’m in a monthly horror book club, participating in the following reading challenges: Diverse Baseline Reading Challenge, Trans Reading Challenge 2026, and dipping my toes into the Anti Brain Rot Challenge.

I only managed to finish reading one book from my physical TBR that was chosen by a random number generator. While it was fun to have the choice of my next read taken out of my hands, it did not feel like a fair amount of time to say that I really assessed how that reading challenge worked for me. Also, is it a safe space to admit that I managed to lose that punch card I made?

On the bright side, that means it’s a great time to re-evaluate the experiment! Given that I haven’t been reading as quickly as I have been in previous years, partly due to making more social commitments and partly due to intentionally reading slower to engage with the work more, I have realized it’s not best for me to time slot each reading challenge. Rather than trying force the original plan of trying a different challenge each month, I’ll instead try a new one after every 4 books.

I debated on how many books felt right, but I realized 4 ends up lining up with the original thought that I could read a book a week. Does this mean I’ll have some left over challenges I won’t visit this year? Probably! But that just means that if I enjoy this experiment then I’ll have ideas to carry over for 2027 (again, likely ambitious of me).

Since this post is a more reflective one regarding the experiments, I plan on giving a dedicated post to the first book I read to kick this all off! The random number generator chose for me “The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong and I feel that book deserves more than just a quick mention in between my personal musings.

For accountability’s sake, I did find myself with quite a few book purchases throughout the month.

I visited Wooden Shoe Books in Philadelphia and there was no way I was not going to walk out with some books from an all volunteer, collectively-run, anarchist book store. I picked up “Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis” by Kelly Hayes and “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin.

In that same Philadelphia trip, I picked up “The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All: Vol 1” by Sumiko Arai from Atomic City Comics. I love their wide selection that covers everything from current running issues, graphic novels, and manga. The only thing that kept me from buying more there was a friend telling me she had issues of other series that I could borrow!

I also stopped by House Finch in Collingswood because I keep debating on getting my first ever bird feeder for my home. Along with suburban birding supplies, they carry a wide selection of books and gifts. I walked out of there with “Where Rabbits Gathered” by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.

And my usual local book store, Inkwood Books in Haddonfield, had a winter sale so I picked up “Pedro the Vast” by Simón Lopez Trujillo and “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. Well and I also picked up a lot of socks from the brand Gumball Poodle. I’ll let you have fun guessing which caught my eye the most.

Usually reflecting on what I buy, I get a bit of buyer’s remorse and think to myself “Now why didn’t we just borrow this from the library?”. Looking back at what I bought, I don’t feel that and maybe that’s a positive side of this experiment. By not shaming myself for failing some kind of book buying ban, I’m instead focusing on making it exciting to read what I own. It also feels important to be soft on myself when it feels like the system is trying to drag me down.

I hope the book you pick up next is exactly what you need, and if it’s not that we learn how to put down what doesn’t energize us. (Looking at myself, who is pretty bad at DNFing a book!).

As for me, the Random Number Generator has chosen “Vampires in the Lemon Grove: And Other Stories” by Karen Russell!