Semi-Serious Post on Taming Our TBR

As soon as you start reading, your passion comes with a bless and a curse: the tbr.

At first it seems like something innocent, even useful. It’s really great, actually! This, and other funny lies, burden us with hundreads, if we’re lucky, of books. Mine has reach 1k+ plus. And counting.

So what’s a tbr, and how to manage it?

Addressing the Issue

A tbr, or “to be read”, is a list of all the books you’re foolishly hoping to read in your lifetime.

It can be a physical list, or it can be a digital one. It can be embellished, or it can be scribbled on the back of a check. It doesn’t really matter, it will always end up to be out of control.

I’m part of those people that love lists. The topic doesn’t really matter – as long as I can make bulletpoints and checkmarks out of it, it needs to be turned into a list! So I’m lucky not just to have a tbr, but lists about it. Multiple lists. On GoodReads, on ToDoist, everywhere I can think of.
It’s beautifully fucked up.

When our tbr hits the four digits, what can we do?

Facing the Dragon

We’re probably not starting to have this issue now, we simply don’t know how to go about it. I’m one of you.

Over the years I’ve seen different ways to deal with I-don’t-even-know-what’s-on-it-anymore tbr. Here are few of them.

Delete everything

Does it sound scary? It’s because it is! It goes against all our natural insticts and the very purpose of this list. It’s very drastic, let’s be honest.

What if we forget to read that book… you know what I mean… the one we added in 2003… well, never mind! We wrote it down, we’ll get to it at some point.

Chances are… we’ll never do. If we still have titles from 10 years ago, just waiting to be read, they’ll probably stay that way. So no matter how scary it sounds, deleting our whole tbr can even be refreshing. No need to worry about that book you put on the list, for some reasons back then, and feel compelled to read now.
…or is it just me?

Delete based on date

Like we said, maybe you have books that you can date as back as 10 years ago. Delete what you have left behind, there is a reason if you did. More often than not, it’s a lack of true interest.

Stilll scary, but a less drastic option than a clean slate.

Quit being stubborn

I’m outing myself here – how many times you had to finish a book, for the mere reason you started it? Welcome to the OCD club.

I’ll tell you a secret that we all know deep down – you don’t have to. Really. Nobody is going to check on you. I tried, and I survived to tell the tale. Just take the book to your library, goodwill, or gift it to someone whom you think can truly enjoy it. Let their tbr pile grow. Pass the curse.

Categorize

Sometimes we have specific moods – and they can be pretty specific. If you’re waiting to find the perfect alien historical romance in your thousands when you need it, guess again.

But! If you use platforms like GoodReads, and who doesn’t? Then you can create shelves. This gives you a double tool – you can find books easier when the craving hits, and you can go through your books and decide you found something better fitting to read when they do, deleating the rest. Boom.

Choose your next readings in advance

Sometimes choosing which books you want to read next can be an efficient way of not getting side-tracked by new sparkly books, and just reduce your list.

Read more

Uh… duh? I’m not even diving in this one, I would like to know who came up with this and branded as “solution”.

We can think of how to make time in a world that’s increasily frenetic, but that’s a different topic.

Do as I say, not as I do

All these suggestions are great, but what can we do in practice?

Well… errr… I’ll let you know. I mean, I took some suggestions and I put into practice with a “me” twist, but my tbr is still pretty wild.

3 listed things that didn’t work

• deleting old books: new books get added faster than I can delete them
• scheduling readings : too moody for this kind committment
• deleting the whole tbr: no thanks, I’m not THAT brave

3 listed things that did work

• categorizing books: it helped me get rid of junk I didn’t know I had
• reading: uh… well… duh? Cut time from other activities and get cozy!
• developing a dnf pile: unless you truly think you’re reading that specific book at the wrong time, (or you have a thing for writing snarky reviews!), quit feeling bad for it

3 unlisted things that did work

• shuffling tbr lists on GoodReads: surprisingly, I don’t mind picking up 10 random books as suggestion of the month; sometimes we don’t know that we were in the mood for a book until we see it; it’s also useful to find junk that flew under our radars
• reading challenges: that’s a fun excuse for reducing your tbr!
• alternate readings: for each old book I read, I allow myself to read a more recent book

What’s next?

Now that we saw some tips to manage our never-ending tbr, it’s time to see what works best for us.

I’d like to close this post with a more serious note – tbr can be tricky, but if at any point you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or even discouraged because of the amount of books in them… throw them all away. That’s when you know that reading has become a chore and not a pleasure.

Your tbr should be a beautiful journey, not a destination. If done right, tbr lists and piles are both thrilling and comforting – we don’t know what unhearted gems lie ahead, and we can be sure we’ll never run out of goodies.