The Challenges of Managing a TBR Pile: A Personal Story

I've been collecting books for years now, and I have to admit that my TBR pile has gotten out of control. It's not just a matter of having too many books; it's also about the emotional attachment I feel towards them. Whenever I look at my shelves, I'm overwhelmed by the number of unread books staring back at me. My living room is filled with bookshelves, and while it's nice to have all my favorite novels within arm's reach, it can be daunting to decide which one to read next.

To try to manage my TBR pile, I regularly clean out my shelves. I pull out the books that I know I'll never read and donate them or discard them. It's a painful process, but it helps me feel more organized and in control. However, this process also makes me realize how many unread books I have on my shelves. Sometimes, I find myself questioning whether I really want to keep all these books. Do they bring me joy? Will they ever be read again?

For now, I've decided to be realistic about the number of books I own. If I don't have space for a whole room dedicated to reading, then I'll just have to be more selective in my purchases. I try not to buy too many books that I know I won't finish or enjoy, and I make sure to rotate my shelves regularly to keep things fresh and interesting. It's not the most exciting way to approach reading, but it works for me.

One of the biggest challenges I face when it comes to managing my TBR pile is deciding what to read next. Do I pull books at random, or do I categorize them by genre or theme? Some people might find comfort in having a clear plan, while others prefer to see where their reading takes them. For me, it's a mix of both. I like to browse through my shelves and pick out a book that catches my eye, but I also enjoy setting aside books that I'm really excited about or have been waiting for.

I've tried various methods over the years, from pulling books with different colored tags (which I found to be quite effective at first, but eventually lost interest in) to setting deadlines for myself. For example, if I receive a book for review, I'll make sure to read it as soon as possible – usually before the release date. This helps me feel more connected to my books and makes me less likely to put them off for too long.

The sheer number of books on my TBR pile can be overwhelming at times. When I first started collecting books, I had around 50 titles that I wanted to read. That's a manageable number, but as the years went by, more and more books joined the list. Now, I'm not sure exactly how many there are – it might be in the hundreds – but the thought of tackling such a massive pile is daunting.

Some people seem to have an easier time managing their TBR piles than others. For example, some friends of mine claim that they only keep 10-20 books on their shelves at any given time, and they're perfectly happy with this number. I find it hard to relate to that kind of approach, though – for me, the thought of getting rid of even half of my collection feels like a loss.

In contrast, others seem to have developed elaborate systems for managing their TBR piles. One person mentioned using sticky notes and color-coding charts to organize their books by genre or author. Another friend showed off her elaborate bookshelf system, complete with little drawers and compartments for different types of books (hardcovers, paperbacks, etc.). These approaches seem to work beautifully for some people, but I'm not sure if they'd translate well to my own situation.

As I reflect on my TBR pile, I realize that it's more than just a collection of unread books. It's a reflection of my personal journey as a reader and a collector. Over the years, I've acquired books for various reasons – some were gifts from friends or family members, while others I bought on impulse or stumbled upon in used bookstores.

One thing is clear: there's no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to managing a TBR pile. While some people seem to effortlessly maintain a curated collection of unread books, others struggle with the sheer number of titles they've accumulated. As for me, I'll continue to experiment and find what works best for my own unique reading habits.

If you're struggling with your own TBR pile, don't worry – you're not alone. In fact, having so many options can be both a blessing and a curse. But by sharing our experiences and struggles, we can create a supportive community that helps us navigate the challenges of managing our unread books.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone today I'll review a discussion video which I don't do too often but I kind of want to implement more in this job because I have a lot to discuss so why not to fill a position every now and then today's discussion is going to be the epic topic of your TBR pile I'm sure I'm not alone as in when I look at my shelves and I look at my books that have to read I have no clue 100 to read next and that's a huge dilemma I think for any reader you look on your shelf so you're just like what I read thanks what am I feeling what should I read next what an interview a lot of that is when you talk about TBR how you dissect yours how I just like mine look let's just talk all about TBR because team heroes are such a fascinating topic I think like I love hearing how everyone I love not hearing out different people work their TV right kind of stuff so I actually want to talk about so let's begin so Jaime as you can see are on my TBR book there's about I want to say maybe about 15 to 20 maybe maybe at 25 okay maybe max 30 I'd say there's a couple more on my shelf like sequels I just don't pull it out 30 books on my shelf that I haven't read yet I think that's a pretty decent number now when I look at my shelves I'd like to see 80% of it books that I've already read that's just because I don't know if it makes me feel better about myself if I'm honest like if I look at my shelf there's a overwhelming amount of books that I had already I just feel so drunk down I feel like I just will never finish it so I try to keep a reasonable good amount of GPR books like reasonable like I'd say like a bloom just go crap out of what I've got it so um 30 books does seem like a lot it still is seems kind of a lot to me but no topic is I don't have that like as I said I don't have too many books it's not the amount of TBR that really overwhelms me it's what I should read next I have that dilemma constantly like when I look at my severe I'm like oh I don't know what I'm feeling and I'll pick a book on certain I'm like no I'm not feeling that and it'll be days where I just pick a different book not feeling it pick another different book I think everyone has that problem and I just really would love to have like a set thing with how I tackle it now I have trying TBR jar there was a very popular I was thinking about doing it again I'm like that really to work from the last time I pulled it out I read maybe after the five times I did it I may be red blood up to five times so that doesn't only work out for me I was like well usually I go by moods like if I'm feeling a temporary which I'm always going to type very honestly I can read contemporary day of my life and I'm like no I always pull contemporaries and I'll just be sci-fi and fantasy stuff left and that's just I love to read those it's just I don't know I always reach for the contemporary first so I'm like should i dissect them into categories like genres I mean like should I be like when I pull from my TBR one time gonna be satisfied the next time it'll be at a price the next time only fantasy like what should I do how do you dissect your teeth your pilot's you put it all together what I usually do is I preserve one shelf but I put all of my books I need to read on that show but I'm thinking should I put it in categories like contemporary so I find then I'll reach her here's what I'm thinking oh I'm thinking about it I think I might use that one shelf like say it's fully Vishal I'll put my contemporaries here and I'll abstract them in order of much highest I want to read to lowest so and then maybe I'll say you know this week I'll go for contemporary so the first book really much reading temporary I will grab and then the next week I'll go first Wi-Fi and the first one I read or sci-fi I will grab that and then so on and so forth so when I have let's say five drawers oh my TBR shelf I'd get to contemporary again and I'll pull from the next pile my second one of us would I read does that solve multiple does that sound stupid I'm just not sure like I don't know if TBR pile just met which we're supposed to be just to pull a book at random and go with it but that's what I've been doing for years now and I feel like it just doesn't work or feel my TBR pile is still the same I clean out my shelves quite regularly there's a lot of books on there still that I know I'll never read that they're just sitting on there and I for some reason get here at all but I've tried I try to be realistic when it comes to myself because they're in my living room you know I find a hole if I'm honest if I had a whole room that was dead to my office / Schultz I probably keep all my books because I have all the space but my shelves are in my living room so I don't want to look too hoarder like step yes so I try to keep them regularly cleaned alight pull them out pull the books that I don't that I know I won't read out and I just try to make it pretty and stuff like that but fine a whole room probably my next house like Hey look I'm just gonna hoard it up and they're probably but for now I just want to be realistic so my question this whole video it's obviously me babbling about crap but it's also about how do you organize your TBR pile to use it for you do pull books at random do you set like categories like I think I'm gonna implement and you know pick the one you want to read the most and then go down from there do you just do by review status I try I do that as well you know I get books quite regularly for review I tried to read them if I'm excited about them if I'm excited about the real book I just got that I'll probably read it as soon as possible is because I want to keep it well until this release date if not it's kind of push back them a pile and I feel horrible about it and I could read it like a year after it's been released and I feel horrible because I would pop career so it's just it's a constant never-ending question of how you deal with your TBR like how do you deal with it do you have any of you have in years like I feel like 30 is a lot for me but I didn't put that hundreds like how do you guys get through that if you have hundreds of books how do you tackle what to read next do you feel overwhelmed at all are you like satisfied with hundred books I think if I had the room I'd be like it's not that big of a deal but I don't have that kind of room but how do you tackle it even if you have ten books or two yards some people may feel overall with that with the ten books I'm gonna organize insanely David person so 30 books scares the crap out of me but then I'm okay with that somewhat it's just weird so yeah please let's talk about this TPR palette how do you tackle it how do you decipher what you read next how many of you have in your TBR pile how do you go about organizing your TBR pile what do you do you put it in set in a particular place do you have the scattered all around your shelves I like having them set in one place so I know exactly actually know exactly where to go but yeah I feel like I've talked for about this but it's just a really good topic I think to talk about TBR house now everyone differs my main reason for businesses I just want to talk to you guys about how you deal with your to your house and how videos mind and just let's get some ideas flowing maybe y'all can get online singular type of idea you know if you guys want to talk about on Twitter I could be using the hashtag TBR problems let's do that TV our problems and we'll talk about all that there if you do that that'd be great it's act actually this is what I would love to do take a picture of your TBR pile and put on Instagram Twitter and put hashtag TBR problems or hash tag getting through your TBR whatever you want to do let's get through this I know there's lots of thoughts like the TBR takedown I did that lap this year and that was great I got rid of like five books on my TBR pile they've been on there for a while so I love that but over on the year you know let's get to this team you are to go let's knock it down let's not go but let's talk about let's talk about it tell me how you with yours how many lanza all I said yeah let's talk about the team here Arpaio because I would just I would love to know how you deal with it because that would be just amazing so much for watching be sure to give this video a thumbs up Edmunds its front and I would buyhello everyone today I'll review a discussion video which I don't do too often but I kind of want to implement more in this job because I have a lot to discuss so why not to fill a position every now and then today's discussion is going to be the epic topic of your TBR pile I'm sure I'm not alone as in when I look at my shelves and I look at my books that have to read I have no clue 100 to read next and that's a huge dilemma I think for any reader you look on your shelf so you're just like what I read thanks what am I feeling what should I read next what an interview a lot of that is when you talk about TBR how you dissect yours how I just like mine look let's just talk all about TBR because team heroes are such a fascinating topic I think like I love hearing how everyone I love not hearing out different people work their TV right kind of stuff so I actually want to talk about so let's begin so Jaime as you can see are on my TBR book there's about I want to say maybe about 15 to 20 maybe maybe at 25 okay maybe max 30 I'd say there's a couple more on my shelf like sequels I just don't pull it out 30 books on my shelf that I haven't read yet I think that's a pretty decent number now when I look at my shelves I'd like to see 80% of it books that I've already read that's just because I don't know if it makes me feel better about myself if I'm honest like if I look at my shelf there's a overwhelming amount of books that I had already I just feel so drunk down I feel like I just will never finish it so I try to keep a reasonable good amount of GPR books like reasonable like I'd say like a bloom just go crap out of what I've got it so um 30 books does seem like a lot it still is seems kind of a lot to me but no topic is I don't have that like as I said I don't have too many books it's not the amount of TBR that really overwhelms me it's what I should read next I have that dilemma constantly like when I look at my severe I'm like oh I don't know what I'm feeling and I'll pick a book on certain I'm like no I'm not feeling that and it'll be days where I just pick a different book not feeling it pick another different book I think everyone has that problem and I just really would love to have like a set thing with how I tackle it now I have trying TBR jar there was a very popular I was thinking about doing it again I'm like that really to work from the last time I pulled it out I read maybe after the five times I did it I may be red blood up to five times so that doesn't only work out for me I was like well usually I go by moods like if I'm feeling a temporary which I'm always going to type very honestly I can read contemporary day of my life and I'm like no I always pull contemporaries and I'll just be sci-fi and fantasy stuff left and that's just I love to read those it's just I don't know I always reach for the contemporary first so I'm like should i dissect them into categories like genres I mean like should I be like when I pull from my TBR one time gonna be satisfied the next time it'll be at a price the next time only fantasy like what should I do how do you dissect your teeth your pilot's you put it all together what I usually do is I preserve one shelf but I put all of my books I need to read on that show but I'm thinking should I put it in categories like contemporary so I find then I'll reach her here's what I'm thinking oh I'm thinking about it I think I might use that one shelf like say it's fully Vishal I'll put my contemporaries here and I'll abstract them in order of much highest I want to read to lowest so and then maybe I'll say you know this week I'll go for contemporary so the first book really much reading temporary I will grab and then the next week I'll go first Wi-Fi and the first one I read or sci-fi I will grab that and then so on and so forth so when I have let's say five drawers oh my TBR shelf I'd get to contemporary again and I'll pull from the next pile my second one of us would I read does that solve multiple does that sound stupid I'm just not sure like I don't know if TBR pile just met which we're supposed to be just to pull a book at random and go with it but that's what I've been doing for years now and I feel like it just doesn't work or feel my TBR pile is still the same I clean out my shelves quite regularly there's a lot of books on there still that I know I'll never read that they're just sitting on there and I for some reason get here at all but I've tried I try to be realistic when it comes to myself because they're in my living room you know I find a hole if I'm honest if I had a whole room that was dead to my office / Schultz I probably keep all my books because I have all the space but my shelves are in my living room so I don't want to look too hoarder like step yes so I try to keep them regularly cleaned alight pull them out pull the books that I don't that I know I won't read out and I just try to make it pretty and stuff like that but fine a whole room probably my next house like Hey look I'm just gonna hoard it up and they're probably but for now I just want to be realistic so my question this whole video it's obviously me babbling about crap but it's also about how do you organize your TBR pile to use it for you do pull books at random do you set like categories like I think I'm gonna implement and you know pick the one you want to read the most and then go down from there do you just do by review status I try I do that as well you know I get books quite regularly for review I tried to read them if I'm excited about them if I'm excited about the real book I just got that I'll probably read it as soon as possible is because I want to keep it well until this release date if not it's kind of push back them a pile and I feel horrible about it and I could read it like a year after it's been released and I feel horrible because I would pop career so it's just it's a constant never-ending question of how you deal with your TBR like how do you deal with it do you have any of you have in years like I feel like 30 is a lot for me but I didn't put that hundreds like how do you guys get through that if you have hundreds of books how do you tackle what to read next do you feel overwhelmed at all are you like satisfied with hundred books I think if I had the room I'd be like it's not that big of a deal but I don't have that kind of room but how do you tackle it even if you have ten books or two yards some people may feel overall with that with the ten books I'm gonna organize insanely David person so 30 books scares the crap out of me but then I'm okay with that somewhat it's just weird so yeah please let's talk about this TPR palette how do you tackle it how do you decipher what you read next how many of you have in your TBR pile how do you go about organizing your TBR pile what do you do you put it in set in a particular place do you have the scattered all around your shelves I like having them set in one place so I know exactly actually know exactly where to go but yeah I feel like I've talked for about this but it's just a really good topic I think to talk about TBR house now everyone differs my main reason for businesses I just want to talk to you guys about how you deal with your to your house and how videos mind and just let's get some ideas flowing maybe y'all can get online singular type of idea you know if you guys want to talk about on Twitter I could be using the hashtag TBR problems let's do that TV our problems and we'll talk about all that there if you do that that'd be great it's act actually this is what I would love to do take a picture of your TBR pile and put on Instagram Twitter and put hashtag TBR problems or hash tag getting through your TBR whatever you want to do let's get through this I know there's lots of thoughts like the TBR takedown I did that lap this year and that was great I got rid of like five books on my TBR pile they've been on there for a while so I love that but over on the year you know let's get to this team you are to go let's knock it down let's not go but let's talk about let's talk about it tell me how you with yours how many lanza all I said yeah let's talk about the team here Arpaio because I would just I would love to know how you deal with it because that would be just amazing so much for watching be sure to give this video a thumbs up Edmunds its front and I would buy\n"