At the time of writing this post, I have just under 60 TBR books on my bookshelves. I will say that this is not my entire unread TBR as in December my family and I moved into a new house. We've been slowly moving in and sorting things out, but our process has been halted due to lockdown. I am very fortunate to have this many unread books on my bookshelves.
As a reader, it is my goal to be always tackling my TBR, but since lockdown started, I have been making more of a dedicated effort to read my growing pile of unread books. In this post I thought I would share some of my thoughts on this process as a way to inspire other readers to tackle our TBR piles.
How I'm Doing It
A big question, is how am I tackling my TBR pile? I used to be someone who would make TBR lists and stick to them religiously. However, I found that didn't work for me and I haven't done it for many years. In the recent months, particularly since lockdown started, I have started to make mini TBR lists.
I started this process by handwriting a list of all my unread books in my creative journal and grouping them together by genre. It made it easy if I was looking for something in particular to read. It also meant once I had read a book, I could have the satisfaction of ticking off the book from that list. I also have a digital copy on my Goodreads account, partly for ease of moving them between my TBR list to my "read" list. It is a daunting process to handwrite out all the unread books you own, but I would strongly recommend it. It helps you visualise which books you haven't read and which genres you have most unread books in.
As I mentioned, I've started to make these mini TBR lists. I have monthly divider pages, in which I plan my goals for that month. At the top of this page, I have started to pick five books from a wide range of genres that I have to read that month. I chose five as that's typically how many books I read a month. Five books is an achievable amount in my life and it meant that if I completed it, I could read other books as well. I tried to pick books from a wide range of genres to expand my reading and tackle more areas of my TBR. I've always found that by reading one particular genre, I get tired of that genre and want to read something else. This means that I am always excited for my next read.
Since doing this, I have noticed that I am reading more books. I haven't had the best reading year for me due to various reasons, but I've always found that during the summer months, when I have a bit more time on my hands, I read books quicker. So far in May, I have completed almost seven books, which is really good for me.
What Have I Learnt From Doing This?
The ravenclaw in me cannot escape the need to learn, and so, I thought I'd share with you what I've learnt from doing this. I've learnt that there are genres that I naturally gravitate towards (fantasy and contemporary) and ones I tend to avoid (dystopian, sci-fi, classics etc). I am very much a creature of habit and I don't really like to leave that comfort zone.
I have a lot of unread books from when I first joined the book community in 2016 and felt that I had to catch up on all the hyped up books. Some of them I have enjoyed, others not so much. I feel guilty for not having read them, especially after hearing about them for years.
As a reader, my bookshelves should "define me". You should be able to see what sort of books I love to read. However, I don't feel that they reflect me and my interests that well. Tackling my TBR will make it easier for me to have a more treasured book collection.
One thing I have learnt, but was unsurprised to see is that I am terrible at finishing series. I have a lot of first books in a series but have never gotten around to reading the rest. I also have a few where I have one or two books unread in that series, but it's been years since I picked up the rest of the books and have forgotten. I'm not the biggest fan of rereading books, something I used to do a lot when I was a young reader. I want to get better at finishing series.
So those were some of my thoughts on my TBR and how I've been tackling it. What are your thoughts on your own TBR piles?
Carenza :) x
