Does anyone else ever do this, or am I just really weird? LOL I'm generally a big fan of just reading what I'm in the mood for, but sometimes I'll declare a month of this or that.

For example, I'm someone who almost never reads two books in a series in a row. One month a couple years ago, I made one month "Two in a row" month and had to read two series books one after another. (It went okay, surprisingly, but in most cases I was happy NOT to go for 3 in a row, even for the series I really liked.)

One time I had "historical fiction month" where everything I read had to be set before 1950. (That didn't go over so well--I tend to get bored with just one genre.)

This month I have had "Catch Up With Series" month (and I have done this before too, usually once a year) where I tried to finish off several dead series and catch up to the current release in others and don't allow myself to read any new-to-me authors or series. I made a list of series I already had on my TBR (and finished it!) and now for the past week or so, have been furthering the cause and reading other "middle of the series" books from my TBR to get further along. It's gone surprisingly well. My TBR has shrunk a bit, and I feel like I've accomplished something. I still have SO many series going, though, I'm going to remain diligent at trying to finish up/catch up with a bunch more before the end of the year.

Next month I'm doing "Support Your Local Library" month. There are a lot of series that I'm stuck in the middle of that I haven't been able to find the books here at PBS or end up on wish lists for months (years in some cases!) so I've decided just to order them from the library and get on with it. We have a great library system in Hennepin County and I don't utilize it enough--I do get all my audiobooks there, though--some downloadable, some on CD. Anyway, that's my plan for June.

So, back to my original question...does anyone else ever do 'theme' months like this, and if so, what themes have you done?

Cheryl

Sounds like fun!  But no, It's not really something that I do right now.   I have about 4-5 books a month that I "have" to read for group reads or for PBS games, so when I get the chance to choose what I want to read I like to just walk up to my enormous TBR and wait for a book to call to me.

No, I've not ever done anything like that.  I have so many books here that I'm never really at a loss as to what to read next so I just read a book, mark it down and grab another.  This sounds like a great "mini" challenge though!

On your mark!  Get set!  Only books with "yellow" in the title!  GO!!!!!!   

:)

I don't do it consciously, but I do seem to go in cycles where I read one sort of book.  I'll go through phases like reading historical mysteries, fluffy romances, cozies, etc.

LeeAnne, that's funny! One of my book groups had a mini challenge where you were only supposed to read books with a color of some sort in the title for a whole month. I didn't do it though. LOL

The reason I do this is mostly *because* I have so many books here--I'm trying to read things with a little more of a plan instead of willy nilly. I have some series books that I read the first couple of books, loved them, then never went back to it because other stuff called louder. By the time I finally decided to pick up the next one--sometimes a few years later--I'd about forgotten what the first couple were about.

I don't respond well to being told what I *have* to read, so I rarely participate in group reads, books I have to read for games or anything like that. But if I can give myself some parameters and a big choice of books to pick from within the theme I'm trying to do, then I'm okay. And the various challenges are okay, because I know I have a whole year to complete them.

Cheryl

Cheryl - this is so spooky. I just posted, at one of the Yahoo lists I'm on, that I'm going to "theme" June, July and August to mix up my reading AND get some of my own books read (been reading a lot from the library and neglecting my own TBR) with one goal being getting a number of books out of the house and keeping fingers crossed that there won't be too many books with "keeper" written on them.

June is going to be Category Caper month - all category (series) romances; and to keep on-topic here at the mystery forum, some of the books will definitely be Intimate Moments and Intrigues which have mystery type plots.

June will hopefully be "Christmas In July" - holiday theme, any genre.

August will hopefully be "Regency Romp" - I've been neglecting my Regency romances; unfortunately I've read all the C. S. Harris Regency mysteries so I can't work any of those into the theme.

How all this is going to play out is anyone's guess. Just one post on a forum about a really great book, or an awesome author someone has just discovered could send me on a detour!

Gail

I would love to do this as a monthly challenge--not to read one kind of book for a whole month but to read one or two of a specific kind of book each month.  The only time I read something specific is on July 15th, I start a Christmas themed book (and listen to some Christmas music) to celebrate the fact that the summer is half over and fall is on the way.  (Can you tell I hate hot weather??  LOL)  It somehow helps me endure the rest of the hot summer if I know I'm on the downside and there are fewer days til fall ahead of me than behind me!

Well, it is summer, so at least one month should be 'Beach Reads', even if you're sitting at home while reading them.

This month has been 'catch up with old friends' month with Jack Reacher and Marcus Didius Falco both with new stories for them.  I seem to have a lot of intrigue and thriller types sitting in my TBR pile. 

Yes, I do seem to have months that are 'werewolf' months and 'vampire' months, and lots of months with romantic suspense and 'hard boiled' months.  I do mix them up, but I tend to read in genre clumps.

Normally I don't because I find as soon as I set up a challenge of any kind then I immediately lose all interest in reading those books. 

But I have decided that from now on I need to start one book a week from my TBR that's a new to me author.  I have a tendency to get every book of a series before I start and then I end up not caring for the series. Well with 600 books in the TBR-I need to downsize.  So once a week I pick up a book from the TBR from an author I've never read before.  Then I can decide if I want to read more or post them all and remove any other from my RL and WL.  If I have other books from them already then I'm giving them 2 books to catch my interest.  If I just have the 1 then that's their only shot to hook me. 

Now that summer is here and I might be doing some traveling to visit family in 3 different states all in driving distance: I'm thinking about making it a Blazing summer.  I don't normally like series/category romances. But I like the Harlequin Blaze books and I have around 30 of them.  They are short fun reads and I think I'm going to bring only Blazes when I travel. 

OH sometimes I will have a Heavily Posted Books only phase.  I will post several heavily posted books to my shelf and then go on hold while I read them.  Then they are workign their way up FIFO and because I'm afraid to have one ordered before it's read-I stay on hold until they are.  I do this when I don't need any credits.  I just put any WL books I'm close to the top and anxious to get on autorequest.  Otherwise I tend to just read WL books and rack up credits and the heavily posted books just collect dust.  I'm doing this now. I posted about 20 heavily posted books to my shelf and I'm staying on hold until I read them.

I agree that this sounds like fun! I look at my mts TBR pile and can't decide what to read next. I have favorites that have been there forever and I keep getting distracted by new books I have never heard of. Someday I hope to get to read the first book I ever ordered from PBS - maybe in another year or two I can get to it.