TOP 12 “MUST READS” BY GENRE

Hola amigos! 

Last week I shared my method #1 to set up my 2021 TBR: “BOOKISH WHEEL OF THE YEAR” and today I wanted to share my method #2, or what I call the “I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet” method, which encompasses two tragically comical facts of many bookworms’ lives:

(1) We don’t read the books we already own and (2) we don’t read the books we SWEAR we are going to read, like those super popular “MUST READ”s that everyone seems to have read..: BUT us. And this happened because of those tempting, sexy, devils called “New Releases”.

So, this year I SOLEMNLY swear I will ONLY read books I already have (same as the other 2,624 years of all my previous bookworm lives, but 2,625th time’s the charm).

Because of the pandemic, and because I was determined to be a prolific bookstagrammer offspringing many book pictures, last year I used all my “personal” budget to buy books. And I bought many, many, MANY books. Think a full year of not buying coffee, donuts, ice cream, movie tickets, etc., etc. invested in cheap secondhand books… yes, THAT MANY BOOKS. 🙂

I DID THE MATH. I will need over a decade to read them all.

THAT’S A CALAMITY.

Because… how is a poor bookworm supposed to set up a TBR with SO MANY choices?

Especially, considering the fact we all know I will most likely acquire more books. Because we bookworms are known for our lack of restrain when it comes to book acquisition.

But, we bookworms are also known for our capacity to overcome adversity, or in this case, calamities.

So, I logged in my Goodreads account, painfully ignored all the posts about new releases, and clicked on my “own” Goodreads bookshelf and spend about 12,908.08 hours building my 2021 TBR. In summary, if it was a popular book, (>500K reviews) with an average rating over 4.0, and a classic or screen adaptation, then it went on the TBR.

During this self-imposed “ordeal” I remembered I’d seen many other bookworms saying the same: “I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet”

So, I decided to spend a few hundreds hours more and curate a list of the most popular and highly rated books in several genres to share with you all.

Here it is! Just click on the image to download it. I hope you find it helpful!

Next I’ll hare my TBR method #3, a “Bookish Calendar of Observances”.

Let me know in the comments what are your top “I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet” books you MUST read this year. I can never have enough recommendations :).

Thank you for visiting!