THE BOOK UNHAUL CHALLENGE

The Idaho Challenge: Unpacking My TBR and Getting Rid of Books That Didn't Make the Cut

I recently decided to take on the Idaho challenge, where I had to get rid of some books that I didn't know much about. This task was not only difficult but also cathartic as I got to say goodbye to some books that just didn't make it onto my shelves.

First up was Challenger Deep by Neil Shusterman. All I knew about this book was that I had seen a review somewhere and thought it sounded good, so I decided to keep it. However, since then, I haven't been able to bring myself to read it, and now it's just taking up shelf space in my home. It's the same story with Fennekin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta - I had seen this book online and thought it sounded interesting, but when the time came to actually pick it up, I found that it wasn't as appealing as I thought it would be.

The final challenge was a book that I didn't buy, but somehow ended up with me. This category is perhaps the most difficult for me, as I tend to trust reviews and recommendations from others without really considering whether or not they align with my own tastes. The Hundreth Queen by Emily R King is one such example - I had requested it initially, but after reading some reviews and hearing mixed opinions about the book, I decided that it wasn't something I was excited about. The same can be said for Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian, which I received as a gift in a subscription box. While I was initially intrigued by the premise of this fantasy novel, my interest waned over time, and I realized that it wouldn't be anything special.

Another book from the subscription box didn't quite make the cut - Contagion by Erin Bowman. The title itself doesn't really appeal to me, and without any enthusiasm for the subject matter, I decided to pass on keeping this book. In fact, all three of these books are now slated for removal from my TBR, a feat that I'm not sure I've ever accomplished before.

As I sort through my books and say goodbye to those that didn't make it onto my shelves, I have to admit that it's been quite cathartic. My channel has become increasingly focused on unhaul videos in recent months, which has made it difficult for me to keep track of the actual TBR that I have. At times, it feels overwhelming, and it's hard to get motivated to read because of the sheer number of books that I have to get through.

So, as part of my attempt to curate a more streamlined TBR, I'm trying to get rid of some books that just aren't going to wow me or hold my attention. It's scary to let go of books that I've grown attached to, but at the same time, it's liberating to acknowledge when something isn't working for me. By setting aside books like Challenger Deep and Fennekin of the Rock for a later video, I hope to create space in my life and on my shelves for more meaningful connections with the stories that do resonate with me.

In conclusion, completing the Idaho challenge has been an eye-opening experience for me. It's forced me to confront the reality of my own reading tastes and habits, and it's allowed me to acknowledge when something just isn't working. I'm excited to see what this newfound sense of clarity will bring to my reading life and to share that journey with all of you.

Additional information about the author or the books discussed can be found below:

For more information on Neil Shusterman's Challenger Deep, please visit his website at [website URL].

Melina Marchetta's Fennekin of the Rock is available for purchase on Amazon at [Amazon URL].

To learn more about Emily R King's Hundreth Queen and Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian, please visit their official websites or follow them on social media.

For updates on Erin Bowman's Contagion, be sure to check out her website at [website URL] or follow her on social media.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey brunettes daily and today I'm going to be doing the book on haul challenge so I did an unholy do last week actually and I just still feel really overwhelmed by the amount of books that I have that I haven't read yet and have been sitting on my TBR for a very very long time and I'm just not sure if I'm actually going to get to them so in the comments of that video which I will link down below if you wanted to watch it I'll kind of explain why I'm getting rid of books in that video I'm not gonna repeat that but a lot of you guys were commenting asking me to do this video so here I am doing it for you so this video was created by books and Lala my lovely fellow Canadian booktuber and I'm really excited to do it so let's just dive into it so the first challenge is actually one that I'm not going to do and that is a book that you rated low because I like to keep books even if I did rate them low every book that I've read I keep a lot of them are in bins because I don't have room for them all on my shelves which is partially Who I am doing this so that being said I'm gonna move on to the next challenge ah that hurt so next is a book that you changed your mind about and for this one I'm going with legacy of kings by Eleanor Bourbon there are quite a few books that I could do for this one but this is just the first one that came to mind the reason that I changed my mind about this one is because it's not actually what I expected it to be this was the booksplosion book of the month like a long time ago and I thought it sounded really interesting it seemed to be a historical fiction about I think it was King Alexander that I thought by it seems now like it's more of a historical fantasy which is fine I really enjoy historical fantasies but I think because it wasn't what I was expecting it just doesn't really appeal to me so this one unfortunately is going to have to go next is a book from a series you won't be completing and I'm really torn about this one because I generally don't purchase sequels where I don't think I'll continue the series so most of the sequels on my TBR are books that I do have interest in but if I had to pick one it would be the enchantress returns by Chris Colfer this is the second book in the land of story series and I really enjoyed land of stories but I don't know if I was intrigued enough or my interest was piqued enough for me to continue with it honestly I would listen to the audiobook like I did for the first one so I am kind of inclined to keep it but at the same time I don't know let me know what you think about this one next is a book that you dnf'd which is something that I don't do often but I do really want to start doing I think I'm going to give books like a hundred pages and then if I'm not interested in it then it is what it is the reason that I am not inclined to DNF books is because I measure how many books I read in like books read so then I feel like I wasted a hundred pages where I could have been reading another book and it doesn't really count toward anything I don't know if that makes sense that's like the booktuber struggle I feel like or really any book social media person you feel like you're obligated to read all these books and you feel like you should have like a big reading number so DN f'ing is hard because then the book doesn't really count toward anything but I always am a big advocate for DN f'ing I'm just really hypocritical about it but one book that I started and didn't end up finishing is glitter by April Linn pipe yeah I forgot her name for a second but I started listening to the audiobook for this one and I think I got probably three-quarters of the way through and I put it down that was like a month ago and I don't know why I didn't finish it but I just don't think I was intrigued enough with the story to go back and start all over again so this will go to a new home next there's another challenge that I'm skipping and that is a book that you have multiple copies of because I don't have any books on my TBR that I have multiple copies of all the ones that I have multiple copies of or ones that I want to have multiple copies of ie Alice in Wonderland we all know I have a lot and that collection will be coming soon I promise it is just very daunting because it's gonna be a mess to do it to clean up all that stuff oh look the visitor hello goodbye next is a book that I will never actually get to and I am going with the last magician by Lisa Maxwell this is a book that I've had for over a year now and I was really intrigued by the synopsis the first line is stopped the magician steal the book saved the future so that made me think that it was going to be a really cool read but then I started it and I just couldn't get into it and I do have the audiobook so that would be an option but I just don't think I had the interest there to bore myself with this I know that I've seen a few people who did enjoy this book but I don't think that's enough for me to want to keep in it and waste my time with it so I just want to mention really quickly I'm not saying anything bad about these books it's just my own personal interest I'm really trying to curate my TBR so it is only books that I'm very interested in I just don't have the time to be wasting on books that I'm only mildly interested in and I'm really trying to work on that for myself so then breeding doesn't become a chore because it can seem like that sometime but if you would like to any of these books I am very happy for you that is awesome they're just not for me next is a book that you bought because of the hype and I have two here so the first one is truth which by susan dennard i've had this book for so long I feel like I've had it like since it came out basically and this would actually fit for the DNF challenge as well because I started this I want to say like three times and I just never got into the story but I wanted to keep it because I had heard such amazing things about it but I just am like maybe it's not for me and maybe I just don't understand the hype obviously if I've tried three times and I'm not connecting with the story I've tried physically reading it I've tried audio book it's just time to give up on it and give it a new home next doesn't really want it because of the hype but I picked up the Prince of Shadows by Rachel Kang in it because it was recommended to me by a friend but we kind of have book tastes that differ sometimes so I don't really think that this is going to be something that I will enjoy the appealing part of it for me is that it's Romeo and Juliet retelling but that's all I really know about it and I don't think that it's enough to hook me into the story and want to read it I am kind of inclined to read it because I want to do a recommended reads for retellings but that is a stupid reason to keep this book so it's gonna go next is a book that I bought because of the cover and that would have to be library of faith by Aditya Khurana I don't know anything about what this book is about I just know that it has a beautiful cover and I had seen it a lot on books - gram I am like the worst for that I'll see a book somewhere and I'll be like ooh pretty cover or I'll hear one thing that sounds interesting and then I'll immediately have to have it but I really should do more research into it to make sure that it is something that actually interests me so that's something I'm going to try and do going forward but for now I still have this one and it's gonna go next is a book that you didn't know anything about and I have to here once again so first is challenger deep by Neil Schusterman all I knew about this book was that I seen some review or something somewhere where someone said it was really good and then all of a sudden I had to have it but since then I haven't wanted to breathe it at all and I still don't know what it's about so it's just taking up shelf space similar story with fennekin of the rock by Melina Marchetta I had seen this book I think on Reagan's channel and that was like way back in the day and for some reason I was just like yeah cool fantasy I'm all about that but in all honesty there's so many other fantasies that I want to read fantasy takes me a really long time to read as it is so this will be going away I feel like I said that for so many of the books I'm sorry and the final challenge is a book that you didn't buy and I actually have three for this one so first is the hundreth Queen by Emily R King I believe I have the sequel somewhere too so those will be going as well but I just haven't heard very many good things about this book and I did request it initially but I don't think that I'm ever going to get to it next is ash princess by Laura Sebastian this is a book that when I first heard about it I was very intrigued but now that intrigue has kind of been lost and I just don't think that this is going to be anything that is going to wow me and really blow my mind it might which is where I'm hesitant to get rid of any books because there have been so many books where I was unsure going into it I didn't think I would really like it but then I end up loving it so that's why it's really hard for me to get rid of these books but ultimately this just seems like kind of an average fantasy for me and I just don't really have time for average I'm sorry this came in a subscription box and that's kind of the problem with subscription boxes I feel like the best way to do it is to buy it like month to month whatever one interests you know because you never know if it's gonna be a book that you're actually interested in but if you like a vast array of genres and you like to kind of be chancy with that then definitely try it but I don't know I would just try and like figure out what the book is and see if it's something that you are very intrigued by the next one is another one from a subscription box and you may not have even seen the video where i unboxed it yet which i feel so bad about but it is contagion by Erin Bowman the title doesn't intrigued me I don't like things about like disease I don't know anything about this book but I'm assuming that's what it's about based on that title and I just hadn't heard of this book so I don't want it crowding out my TBR if I didn't even have the in trust in it initially so that's all for the Idaho challenge I think I'm going to get rid of some more books but I'm going to kind of set them aside and do a video for them later because I feel like all my channel has been recently is unhaul videos I literally go from doing none to doing two in a row or basically in a row but I just I can't explain how overwhelming my TBR has felt recently and it's really difficult when you are overwhelmed by the books that you have to read because it's hard to get motivated to read because of that so I'm really trying to like I said finally curate my TBR so then I really only have books that I am super super super interested in so I guess we'll see how this goes but hopefully it will go well but thank you guys so much for watching today's video don't forget to subscribe and click that little bell icon so you'll be notified whenever I post I put up new videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday I didn't put up a video this past Monday and Wednesday because I wasn't feeling very well so I'm very sorry about that but I have like never missed a video so I appreciate you guys understanding that sometimes I need a break too but you can also follow me on all my social media that is where I will keep you guys up to date with if videos aren't going to be going up as previously scheduled it's also just fun over there so you can go and check out all of that stuff there will be the links down below for you guys so thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in my next video byehey brunettes daily and today I'm going to be doing the book on haul challenge so I did an unholy do last week actually and I just still feel really overwhelmed by the amount of books that I have that I haven't read yet and have been sitting on my TBR for a very very long time and I'm just not sure if I'm actually going to get to them so in the comments of that video which I will link down below if you wanted to watch it I'll kind of explain why I'm getting rid of books in that video I'm not gonna repeat that but a lot of you guys were commenting asking me to do this video so here I am doing it for you so this video was created by books and Lala my lovely fellow Canadian booktuber and I'm really excited to do it so let's just dive into it so the first challenge is actually one that I'm not going to do and that is a book that you rated low because I like to keep books even if I did rate them low every book that I've read I keep a lot of them are in bins because I don't have room for them all on my shelves which is partially Who I am doing this so that being said I'm gonna move on to the next challenge ah that hurt so next is a book that you changed your mind about and for this one I'm going with legacy of kings by Eleanor Bourbon there are quite a few books that I could do for this one but this is just the first one that came to mind the reason that I changed my mind about this one is because it's not actually what I expected it to be this was the booksplosion book of the month like a long time ago and I thought it sounded really interesting it seemed to be a historical fiction about I think it was King Alexander that I thought by it seems now like it's more of a historical fantasy which is fine I really enjoy historical fantasies but I think because it wasn't what I was expecting it just doesn't really appeal to me so this one unfortunately is going to have to go next is a book from a series you won't be completing and I'm really torn about this one because I generally don't purchase sequels where I don't think I'll continue the series so most of the sequels on my TBR are books that I do have interest in but if I had to pick one it would be the enchantress returns by Chris Colfer this is the second book in the land of story series and I really enjoyed land of stories but I don't know if I was intrigued enough or my interest was piqued enough for me to continue with it honestly I would listen to the audiobook like I did for the first one so I am kind of inclined to keep it but at the same time I don't know let me know what you think about this one next is a book that you dnf'd which is something that I don't do often but I do really want to start doing I think I'm going to give books like a hundred pages and then if I'm not interested in it then it is what it is the reason that I am not inclined to DNF books is because I measure how many books I read in like books read so then I feel like I wasted a hundred pages where I could have been reading another book and it doesn't really count toward anything I don't know if that makes sense that's like the booktuber struggle I feel like or really any book social media person you feel like you're obligated to read all these books and you feel like you should have like a big reading number so DN f'ing is hard because then the book doesn't really count toward anything but I always am a big advocate for DN f'ing I'm just really hypocritical about it but one book that I started and didn't end up finishing is glitter by April Linn pipe yeah I forgot her name for a second but I started listening to the audiobook for this one and I think I got probably three-quarters of the way through and I put it down that was like a month ago and I don't know why I didn't finish it but I just don't think I was intrigued enough with the story to go back and start all over again so this will go to a new home next there's another challenge that I'm skipping and that is a book that you have multiple copies of because I don't have any books on my TBR that I have multiple copies of all the ones that I have multiple copies of or ones that I want to have multiple copies of ie Alice in Wonderland we all know I have a lot and that collection will be coming soon I promise it is just very daunting because it's gonna be a mess to do it to clean up all that stuff oh look the visitor hello goodbye next is a book that I will never actually get to and I am going with the last magician by Lisa Maxwell this is a book that I've had for over a year now and I was really intrigued by the synopsis the first line is stopped the magician steal the book saved the future so that made me think that it was going to be a really cool read but then I started it and I just couldn't get into it and I do have the audiobook so that would be an option but I just don't think I had the interest there to bore myself with this I know that I've seen a few people who did enjoy this book but I don't think that's enough for me to want to keep in it and waste my time with it so I just want to mention really quickly I'm not saying anything bad about these books it's just my own personal interest I'm really trying to curate my TBR so it is only books that I'm very interested in I just don't have the time to be wasting on books that I'm only mildly interested in and I'm really trying to work on that for myself so then breeding doesn't become a chore because it can seem like that sometime but if you would like to any of these books I am very happy for you that is awesome they're just not for me next is a book that you bought because of the hype and I have two here so the first one is truth which by susan dennard i've had this book for so long I feel like I've had it like since it came out basically and this would actually fit for the DNF challenge as well because I started this I want to say like three times and I just never got into the story but I wanted to keep it because I had heard such amazing things about it but I just am like maybe it's not for me and maybe I just don't understand the hype obviously if I've tried three times and I'm not connecting with the story I've tried physically reading it I've tried audio book it's just time to give up on it and give it a new home next doesn't really want it because of the hype but I picked up the Prince of Shadows by Rachel Kang in it because it was recommended to me by a friend but we kind of have book tastes that differ sometimes so I don't really think that this is going to be something that I will enjoy the appealing part of it for me is that it's Romeo and Juliet retelling but that's all I really know about it and I don't think that it's enough to hook me into the story and want to read it I am kind of inclined to read it because I want to do a recommended reads for retellings but that is a stupid reason to keep this book so it's gonna go next is a book that I bought because of the cover and that would have to be library of faith by Aditya Khurana I don't know anything about what this book is about I just know that it has a beautiful cover and I had seen it a lot on books - gram I am like the worst for that I'll see a book somewhere and I'll be like ooh pretty cover or I'll hear one thing that sounds interesting and then I'll immediately have to have it but I really should do more research into it to make sure that it is something that actually interests me so that's something I'm going to try and do going forward but for now I still have this one and it's gonna go next is a book that you didn't know anything about and I have to here once again so first is challenger deep by Neil Schusterman all I knew about this book was that I seen some review or something somewhere where someone said it was really good and then all of a sudden I had to have it but since then I haven't wanted to breathe it at all and I still don't know what it's about so it's just taking up shelf space similar story with fennekin of the rock by Melina Marchetta I had seen this book I think on Reagan's channel and that was like way back in the day and for some reason I was just like yeah cool fantasy I'm all about that but in all honesty there's so many other fantasies that I want to read fantasy takes me a really long time to read as it is so this will be going away I feel like I said that for so many of the books I'm sorry and the final challenge is a book that you didn't buy and I actually have three for this one so first is the hundreth Queen by Emily R King I believe I have the sequel somewhere too so those will be going as well but I just haven't heard very many good things about this book and I did request it initially but I don't think that I'm ever going to get to it next is ash princess by Laura Sebastian this is a book that when I first heard about it I was very intrigued but now that intrigue has kind of been lost and I just don't think that this is going to be anything that is going to wow me and really blow my mind it might which is where I'm hesitant to get rid of any books because there have been so many books where I was unsure going into it I didn't think I would really like it but then I end up loving it so that's why it's really hard for me to get rid of these books but ultimately this just seems like kind of an average fantasy for me and I just don't really have time for average I'm sorry this came in a subscription box and that's kind of the problem with subscription boxes I feel like the best way to do it is to buy it like month to month whatever one interests you know because you never know if it's gonna be a book that you're actually interested in but if you like a vast array of genres and you like to kind of be chancy with that then definitely try it but I don't know I would just try and like figure out what the book is and see if it's something that you are very intrigued by the next one is another one from a subscription box and you may not have even seen the video where i unboxed it yet which i feel so bad about but it is contagion by Erin Bowman the title doesn't intrigued me I don't like things about like disease I don't know anything about this book but I'm assuming that's what it's about based on that title and I just hadn't heard of this book so I don't want it crowding out my TBR if I didn't even have the in trust in it initially so that's all for the Idaho challenge I think I'm going to get rid of some more books but I'm going to kind of set them aside and do a video for them later because I feel like all my channel has been recently is unhaul videos I literally go from doing none to doing two in a row or basically in a row but I just I can't explain how overwhelming my TBR has felt recently and it's really difficult when you are overwhelmed by the books that you have to read because it's hard to get motivated to read because of that so I'm really trying to like I said finally curate my TBR so then I really only have books that I am super super super interested in so I guess we'll see how this goes but hopefully it will go well but thank you guys so much for watching today's video don't forget to subscribe and click that little bell icon so you'll be notified whenever I post I put up new videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday I didn't put up a video this past Monday and Wednesday because I wasn't feeling very well so I'm very sorry about that but I have like never missed a video so I appreciate you guys understanding that sometimes I need a break too but you can also follow me on all my social media that is where I will keep you guys up to date with if videos aren't going to be going up as previously scheduled it's also just fun over there so you can go and check out all of that stuff there will be the links down below for you guys so thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in my next video bye\n"