✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
TBR Roulette
Prompts: What makes you keep a book on your TBR? Find a random number generator and put in the number of books on your TBR. Roll 5 times and note down the book each number corresponds to on your list and tell us: what made you add the book to your shelf—was it a cover add? Does it have your favourite tropes? How long has it been on your TBR? If it has been on your TBR for a long time, do you still want to read it or have you lost interest?
What makes you keep a book on your TBR? + The Five Books
Now that I sit and think about it, I’m not quite sure I have an elaborate answer to this question! I guess the most obvious reason to keep a book on my TBR is that when I hear the title or maybe even re-read the synopsis, it still sparks a genuine interest and ignites a curiosity in me to see how the story will play out.
I should note that my Goodreads TBR is completely different to my owned TBR. I admit that most of the time, I play it fast and loose when it comes to adding books to my Goodreads—if it has a pretty cover and I’ve seem it mentioned everywhere? On it goes! Do I even know what it’s about most of the time? I probably know the tropes, but that’s maybe about it? I don’t end up buying all the books I have on that list, but it is a good way to keep books on my radar!
So for this week’s topic, I had fun trying a few random number generators to pick out five off my massive owned TBR. The list I chose from isn’t complete, as I last updated my owned TBR at the start of the year and haven’t been keeping good track since (and of course, I’v been buying books)… But I still had a whopping 469 books to choose from (we see and we don’t judge in this house, okay? I’m as much a ‘book collector’ as I am a reader—what can I say?)!
These are the five I wound up with:
What made you add the book to your shelf—was it a cover add? Does it have your favourite tropes? How long has it been on your TBR? If it has been on your TBR for a long time, do you still want to read it or have you lost interest?
The Luminaries by Susan Dennard
I don’t think this was even on my TBR until it showed up as one of the 2022 Illumicrate monthly books! I don’t know if I’ve even looked it up because I can’t tell you what it’s about. I suppose that makes this a “cover keep” because it piques my interest every time I see it! 🤭 I might be tempted to give this a try this spooky season since I’m doing all sorts of stepping out of my comfort zone, but let’s see…
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
It’s been ages since I’ve read a CLo book, but when their books started getting massively mainstream popular (2023ish), this was one of them! I loved the sound of it—opposites attract, workplace romance, a bet? Game on! I might’ve also ran for the Illumicrate Afterlight SEs of this set of romances and… I have no regrets! 🤭 Maybe 2025 is the year it gets read?
The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
I added this to my TBR in 2018 and it might’ve been around the time I was reading more books set around the Syrian war. I think this received a lot of praise and I saw several friends rate it highly. I think I’ve been saving this for when I’m more emotionally prepared (and for when I’m looking for a book that will make me ugly cry). Who knows when that’ll be though so I might just have to do myself a solid and pick it up sooner rather than later! ✨
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
I have no idea how this made it to my TBR. It might’ve been back when I was more active on bookstagram (2017/18?) because I followed a lot more people that read world literature. I’m not big on story compilations but I do remember seeing this at a book sale here and immediately scooping it up because it’s such a rare find! I don’t know if I’m still interested in this though… So maybe, it might get booted off the list…
I added this to my TBR after finishing Iles’ Natchez Burning trilogy (2018ish) and becoming absolutely obsessed with his brand of mystery/thriller/suspense! I needed more of Penn Cage, the MC of that series, and when I saw that this is where his story began, I knew I had to give it a try! It’s been… years and I still haven’t read it, but I still really want to! I feel like I need to get back into these genres that I used to love so much. 😍
Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽
Emma @ Pages of Emma
Leyre @ Read You Leyre
Rachael @ The Green Tea Librarian
Lin @ Lin’s Perspective
Yolanda @ Past Midnight
Julie @ Bookflowerpath
Raji @ Worlds Unlike Our Own
Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly
Abyssal Librarian
Laurie @ Laurie is Reading
Leslie @ Books Are the New Black
Mayu @ Bookshelf Life
Tiffany @ Romantasy Life
Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly
If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!
What makes you add a book to your TBR and what makes you want to keep it on your TBR? Do you find that you’re still interested in books that you added 5+ years ago or have you mostly outgrown your interest in them?
dinipandareads 
The Map of Salt and Stars is really good, but heart wrenching!
My LTB: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/10/10/lets-talk-bookish-tbr-roulette/
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I’ve heard that about the book! That’s why it seems like a good book to keep on hand for when I want a good emotional read, lol.
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The Map of Salt and Stars is on my TBR too!
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I hope we both enjoy it whenever we get around to reading it 🙂
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[…] Read Dini’s post for this week here. […]
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The Luminaries and The Map of Salt and Star are also on my TBR. I am so interested to read them, but they just keep getting buried by all the new books I keep adding to my TBR 🤣🤣🤣
Here is my Let’s Talk Bookish post: https://bookshelflifenow.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/lets-talk-bookish-tbr-roulette/
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It’s so hard to control the TBR! 🫣 I do hope you enjoy them whenever you get around to reading them though! Thanks for joining LTB This week 🙂
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My TBR is something I’ve been working on… I’ve been attempting to unhaul a book every time I bring in a new one to kinda make sure I’m not keeping books I know I will not get to… I have not been successful in the endeavor.
My post for the week: https://www.romantasylife.com/2025/10/tbr-roulette.html
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I think that’s a great way of controlling your TBR. I don’t imagine that if I tried I’d be very successful at it either though 🤭 But you try, and that’s better than not, right? Haha Thanks for joining LTB this week!
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I never sat and thought about why I keep a book on my TBR, and as someone who often culls those Amazon wishlists, Goodreads list, and library wishlists, I obviously have reasons. I agree a lot with what you wrote, about it still sparking interest because I have removed many and even wondered why I added some.
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I’m sure that if I were more diligent with going through my TBR (at least my Goodreads TBR), I’d probably find myself questioning quite often why I added a certain book to my list and when that even happened 🤭
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[…] Let’s Talk Bookish: TBR Roulette […]
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What an interesting idea. I might have to try that the next time I’m stuck. Thanks.
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I used to play it fast and loose too with my goodreads TBR, but the number stressed me out 😅 Nowadays, my bookmarks is where the chaos at. I couldn’t see the number, so it’s mostly out of sight, out of mind situation and it’s always a pleasant surprise when I ended up reading a book hidden in the bookmark list 😉
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The Luminaries has such a nice cover, I can certainly see why you kept it and I have a few Susan Dennard books on my tbr too!
The Map of Salt and Stars looks beautiful but also devastating.
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I’ve only read The Luminaries and I really liked that trilogy.
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I didn’t do the TBR roulette, but I know there are a lot of books on there that I saw on other blogs and thought they sounded really good. When I first joined Goodreads, I added all the books to my TBR shelf for authors that I liked, but hadn’t read their books. I have been gradually deleting ones that I probably won’t ever read now. Great topic, Dini.
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