#0by16

As I said in my last post, there's this new 2015 challenge going around the BookTube community to reduce your personal TBR to 0 by 2016. I'm not going to try to reduce my TBR to 0, but I would like to make a big dent in it. For my purposes, I'm defining my TBR as my owned, unread physical books. This is solely to stop having full shelves (in addition to 1 entire bookshelf) devoted to TBR books. E-books, library books, borrowed books, all of the books I have marked as 'to-read' on GoodReads but do not actually own, do not count against me.

Beginning of 2015: According to my GoodReads account, the number of unread books I own physical copies of is 106 books*. That's more than twice as many books as I read last year, and I'm sure I'll be adding more books as the year goes on. Which is why I've come up with an awesome idea for how decrease my TBR and increase the books I'll read this year (that doesn't involve reading 100+ books in a year).

I'm inventing Reading Lightning Rounds!

Usually, a lightning round is a round in a game where everyone tries to get as many points in a short period of time. This may sound like a read-a-thon, but it's not. In this lightning round, you are the judge, and your books are the contestants that have to battle for a place on your shelf. Any losers must leave immediately. That's right, you have to get rid of them.

Sound crazy? Perhaps. This is not for the weak of heart. This is intended for those people with a shelf full of new releases from the last five years, the people that look over their bookshelves and see a lot more 'meh' than excitement. In particular, this is for people like me that want to at least start the books I've bought over the years before parting with them.

The rules of my Reading Lightning Round are as follows (if anyone else wants to participate, feel free to adjust as needed)

1. Every month, I will designate one weekend to complete a Reading Lightning Round.
2. I will pick 3 books beforehand. No switching books during the round. If I'm not feeling the book, even if I'm just not in the mood for it, it's out.
3. I will read the first chapter of each book. 
4. If I manage to reach the halfway point of the book (and still want to read more) before the end of the weekend, the book gets to stay. 
5. If I do not manage to reach the halfway point of the book, it must go.
6. There is no quota for winners or losers. All three books can win (though unlikely I'll be able to read that much in a weekend), and all three books can lose.

*Edit: My Goodreads account wasn't updated. I only have 79 unread books on my shelves. Still a lot, but quite a bit less than I thought. And a Reading Lightning Round should take care 36 books this year, which is almost half of the TBR.