Hi, my name is Isabelle, and I hoard books. Kindle freebies, discounted titles, ARCs, gifts — they all pile up alarmingly quickly. My priority owned TBR shelf currently stands at 191 titles. That’s almost as many books as I read in a year, so clearly something needs to be done before I drowned in unread owned books. 

But never fear, #StartOnYourShelfathon is here!

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#StartOnYourShelfathon is a 2020 star-themed readathon hosted and run by CW from The Quiet Pond. The aim of #StartOnYourShelfathon is to read as many unread books on your bookshelf as you can between December 13th 2019 and December 31st 2020.

The mascot of #StartOnYourShelfathon is Castor the Star Collector, a sloth friend of The Quiet Pond who has lost all the stars he has collected over the years. And he needs your help to find them again!

For every book that you read as part of #StartOnYourShelfathon, you collect a star that you can add to your ‘star map’. Read books, collect stars, give yourself an amateur star-collector name, and create constellations! You can read Castor’s story and find information about and resources for the readathon here.

[The post banner, star map template, and stars were created by CW!]

My #StartOnYourShelfathon Goals

• Track applicable reads from Dec 18, 2019 to Dec 31, 2020. [The readathon officially started Dec 13, but I decided to wait until my finals were over.]
• “Applicable reads” means only the books already on my priority owned TBR [later moved to a #SOYS TBR shelf to avoid confusion].
  • Newly acquired books should be read by the end of two months but don’t count towards the readathon. (Exception: ARCs with far-off pub dates.)
  • Rereads don’t count toward totals; however, I’m challenging myself to finish series so I may revisit earlier books to refresh my memory.
• Set a tentative initial TBR at the start of each month.
  • Titles marked with * were not on this initial TBR.
  • (I gave this a try, but I’ve found that I prefer to pick out books based on readathons, book club themes, and my mood. Too much going on to keep track of a monthly TBR for this readathon.)
• Make a star map for each month.
  • Navy stars indicate a DNF’d #SOYS read.
  • Yellow stars indicate a finished #SOYS read.
  • Blue stars indicate a finished #SOYS read that earned a 4.5 or 5 star rating; these will be bolded in the lists below.
  • Red stars indicate that I reached my goal that month.
  • Each book can earn a single colored star. Red stars will represent milestones rather than the books that got me there.

Monthly goal:

10 books or half the total read that month — whichever is greater. 

Overall goal:

Read at least 100 books already on my priority owned TBR, and have no more than 10 books remaining on the shelf. (If necessary, unhaul books to achieve the second part.)

Initial [priority owned] TBR count: 191
Final #SOYS TBR count: 9

Last updated December 31, 2020

December 2019

Read

1. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
2. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
3. The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews
4. *Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten – DNF
5. Bellamy and the Brute by Alicia Michaels
6. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
7. *Countdown by Mira Grant
8. Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch – DNF
9. The Well at the World’s End by William Morris – DNF
10. *The Bad Seed by Jory John
11. Undertones by L.S. Popovich [ARC]
12. It’s Not You, It’s Me by Camilla Sacre Dallerup [ARC] – DNF
13. Warriors, Witches, Women by Kate Hodges [ARC]

.

Stats

total books read this month: 36 // goal = 10 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 9 Read + 4 DNF 

total #SOYS reads so far: 9 Read + 4 DNF

priority owned TBR count: 176

January

1. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
2. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
3. *A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews
4. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
5. The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco
6. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
7. Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin [ARC]
8. *Macbeth by Shakespeare
9. Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao
10. Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
11. These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling
12. *The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
13. *Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
14. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages by Trenton Lee Stewart
15. The Sky Is Mine by Amy Beashel [ARC]
16. *The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane
17. *They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera [audiobook]
18. *Go Suck a Lemon by Michael Cornwall – DNF
19. *My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
20. *A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver
21. *Dog Songs by Mary Oliver

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Stats

total books read this month: 31 → goal = 16 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 20 read + 1 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 29 Read + 5 DNF

priority owned TBR count: 159

[Jan star map is in progress and will be posted soon!]

February

1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath [audiobook]
2. Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George
3. Watership Down by Richard Adams [audiobook] – DNF
4. There There by Tommy Orange
5. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
6. History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera [audiobook] – DNF
7. Crier’s War by Nina Varela 
8. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore [audiobook]
9. Pride by Ibi Zoboi
10. The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee
11. The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon [audiobook]
12. Dear Martin by Nic Stone – DNF
13. We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
14. The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
15. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren [audiobook]
16. A Bond Undone by Jin Yong [ARC]
17. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
18. The Spectrum Girl’s Survival Guide by Siena Castellon [ARC]

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Stats

total books read this month: 33 → goal = 17 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 15 Read + 3 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 44 Read + 8 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 147

[Feb star map is in progress and will be posted soon!]

March

1. How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid [audiobook]
3. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard [audiobook]
4. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi [audiobook] – DNF
6. Deadline by Mira Grant
7. Blackout by Mira Grant
8. Feedback by Mira Grant
9. Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
10. Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
11. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
12. Dear Girls by Ali Wong
13. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
14. And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer
15. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
16. Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman
17. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
18. Keeper of the Hourglass by G.L. Garrett – DNF
19. Notes from a Public Typewriter ed. by Michael Gustafson & Oliver Uberti
20. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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Stats

total books read this month: 34 → goal = 17 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 18 Read + 2 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 62 Read + 10 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 129

[Mar star map is in progress and will be posted soon!]

April

1. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson – DNF
2. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
4. The Cold Is in Her Bones by Peternelle van Arsdale – DNF
5. Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
6. Scumble by Ingrid Law
7. Switch by Ingrid Law
8. Marley & Me by John Grogan
9. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
10. Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore – DNF
11. They Could Have Named Her Anything by Stephanie Jimenez – DNF
12. Rumor Has It by R.H. Tucker – DNF
13. Fantasy of Frost by Kelly St. Clare – DNF
14. The Key by Jennifer Anne Davis – DNF
15. The Kingmaker by Gemma Perfect – DNF

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Stats

total books read this month: 37 → goal = 18 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 7 Read + 8 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 69 Read + 18 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 119

[Apr star map is in progress and will be posted soon!]

May

1. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
2. Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
3. Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
4. Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater
5. You by Caroline Kepnes
6. Once We Were by Kat Zhang
7. Echoes of Us by Kat Zhang
8. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – DNF
9. Want by Cindy Pon
10. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
11. Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo
12. Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
13. Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi
14. The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
15. The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin – DNF
16. King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
17. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
18. Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

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Stats

total books read this month: 38 → goal = 19 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 16 Read + 2 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 85 Read + 20 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 104

June

1. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
2. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
3. The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
4. Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
5. Running with Lions by Julian Winters
6. A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
7. The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang
8. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
9. Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
10. This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
11. The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
12. All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages ed. by Saundra Mitchell
13. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
14. Last of Her Name by Jessica Khoury – DNF
15. Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells
16. The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
17. King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard

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Stats

total books read this month: 29 → goal = 15 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 16 Read + 1 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 101 Read + 21 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 92

July

1. The Shadow Glass by Rin Chupeco
2. The Likeness by Tana French
3. Faithful Place by Tana French
4. The Fever King by Victoria Lee
5. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
6. Broken Harbor by Tana French
7. Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson & Ellen Hagan
8. Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh
9. The Trespasser by Tana French
10. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
11. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward [audiobook]
12. The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
13. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky
14. The Cerulean by Amy Ewing – DNF
15. Camp Half-Blood Confidential by Rick Riordan

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Stats

total books read this month: 33 → goal = 16 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 14 Read + 1 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 115 Read + 22 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 78

August

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. If You’re Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser [audiobook]
3. This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
5. Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton
6. We Regret to Inform You by A.E. Kaplan
7. Seven Tears at High Tide by C.B. Lee
8. Seafire by Natalie C. Parker [audiobook]
9. The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
10. War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
11. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman [original DNF → reread]
12. How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport
13. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

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Stats

total books read this month: 31 → goal = 15 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 13 Read + 0 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 128 Read + 22 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 70

September

1. Ulysses by James Joyce – DNF
2. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo
3. Charlie Bone and the Beast by Jenny Nimmo
4. Charlie Bone and the Shadow by Jenny Nimmo
5. Charlie Bone and the Red Knight by Jenny Nimmo
6. A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford – DNF
7. Pantomime by Laura Lam
8. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
9. A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi – DNF
10. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
11. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

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Stats

total books read this month: 36 → goal = 18 #SOYS reads

total #SOYS reads this month: 9 Read + 2 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 137 Read + 24 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 64

October

1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
2. The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer
3. Sherwood by Meagan Spooner
4. The 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman & D. Ross Campbell
5. The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
6. Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
7. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez – DNF
8. A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
9. Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria
10. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw – DNF
11. The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll, ed. by Martin Gardner
12. Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan
13. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
14. I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo
15. The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey – DNF
16. Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard – DNF
17. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
18. Naturally Tan by Tan France – DNF
19. Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman – DNF

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Stats

total books read this month: 53 | goal = 10 #SOYS reads 

total #SOYS reads this month: 13 Read + 6 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 150 Read + 30 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 41

November

1. Parasite by Mira Grant
2. The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin
3. Sweet Temptation by Wendy Higgins
4. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman – DNF
5. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
6. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer
7. Among Others by Jo Walton
8. Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture by Taylor Clark
9. Geekerella by Ashley Poston – DNF
10. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

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Stats

total books read this month: 27 | goal = 10 #SOYS reads 

total #SOYS reads this month: 9 Read + 2 DNF

total #SOYS reads so far: 159 Read + 32 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 17

December

1. Villette by Charlotte Brontë – DNF
2. The Disasters by M.K. England – DNF
3. In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente – DNF
4. The Curiosities by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton & Brenna Yovanoff
5. Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan
6. The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees
7. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
8. Since You Asked… by Maurene Goo
9. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
10. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
11. The Prestige by Christopher Priest – DNF
12. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Stats

total books read this month: 21 | goal = 10 #SOYS reads 

total #SOYS reads this month: 8 Read + 4 DNF

total #SOYS reads: 167 Read + 36 DNF

#SOYS TBR count: 9

• Are you participating in #StartOnYourShelfathon?
• Do you also have a mountain of owned-TBR books?
• Have you started making reading plans/goals for 2020?