Do you get stressed by the amount of TBR books you have?

[Anonymous]

I have about 150 books on my Libby wishlist, about 100 on an amazon wish list (books not available in libby or that I'd like to own), 36 unread books on my kindle, and about 200 books on my physical shelves that I haven't read yet. Of course there are also lots of books that I want to read that aren't in any of these categories, books not yet published that I'll want to read, and books I'd like to reread.

I do read a lot (80-100 books a year), but even at that pace, I'll never get to all the books I want to read! Does this ever stress you out? How do you handle it? I very much slowed the pace I'm acquiring books over the last few years, but that does nothing about the libby and amazon lists.

I know it's a good problem, but still . . .

[Anonymous]

No, I never stress about it. My TBR is much longer than yours and I am a much slower reader. Sometimes I marvel that there are so many good books that I will never be able to read it all in my lifetime, and each year brings us more.

Basically I see this as a treasure chest and not a school assignment.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes.
When I was working and raising a family, I didn't have much time to read. Once I became an empty nester I started acquiring more books than I had time to read but I thought that someday I would retire and finally have time to read all these books. Now I have been retired about five years and am only reading about 10 books on paper each year.
My husband joked recently that if I haven't read all my books before die, he will put them in my coffin with me so I can take them to the afterlife with me where surely then, I will have time to read them all.

I just have to acknowledge that there are only so many hours in a day available for leisure activities. There is always gong to be stuff on my "to do" list.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I rarely keep a list of books I want to read or buy more than 2-3 books at a time. Even when I start a list of TBR, I will end up throwing it out because it stresses me out. Ridiculous but true.

[Anonymous]

I have 85 on my goodreads TBR and about a dozen that I have to read and review on NetGalley. Most of the books on my goodreads are first in series, so there could be 3-10 books after them to read if I like them.

I'm not stressed, but I do cut back on the goodreads list now and then.

[Anonymous]

This weekend, I'm going through the physical pile to see how many are available on Libby, and I'm getting rid of those (donating to the library sale).

For the others, I am letting myself put books into the DNF category much sooner than I used to, and I'm certainly not making myself finish anything I'm not enjoying.

[Anonymous]

Stressed isn't exactly the right word, but yes, I wish I had more time to read all the books I want to read. I am making it a goal to read more of the physical books I have on my shelves.

[Anonymous]

I mean no not really. I don’t work through them methodically anyway. I’m in the mood for certain books at certain times, and I keep a list to remind myself.

[Anonymous]

You can't read them all. It's like streaming TV.

Learn to love the ones you do read!

[Anonymous]

Yes, sometimes I get anxious about it especially when all my Libby holds seem to come available at the same time!

[Anonymous]

Yes. I'm in a slight slump. I have a few unfinished, boring books that, if I could wrap them up, would allow me to move on. But I'm not moving on, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Not exactly, but like the poster above, all the books I put on my Libby holds list are suddenly becoming available and it’s hard to prioritize which ones to take out first and which to push back several weeks.

I need to get off DCUM and start reading them!

[Anonymous]

I have the opposite problem… I get stressed out when I finish everything an author has written and have to find someone new. At the moment I’m only reading series though, so the field is more limited. I’m reading in spare moments around taking care of kids, and it’s hard to get to know new characters all the time.

[Anonymous]

It's made me much more willing to abandon books I'm not enjoying, so there's that.

And I'm especially eager to donate both read and rejected books. I keep trying to shrink the TBR piles. Not sure if it counts to just move books to a TBR shelf

[Anonymous]

I'm ignoring the ebook list, and starting on the physical books then donating them.