Comments on: TSS: The History of my TBR Pile

By: Wisteria Leigh

Wisteria Leigh — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:44:20 +0000

I remember the days when my TBR pile was whatever I had taken out of the library that week. Now my bookcases are bulging with choices. I much prefer abundance to the short stack. I don’t know how many exist on my TBR shelves, but I’m so glad my library has grown.

By: Jodie

Jodie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:48:39 +0000

Very similar except we had book fairs that came to our school and my nan bought me books, lots of books. I really miss the days when I could read through my TBR, was just looking at my shelves the other day and I think I have books from over six year ago sitting unread.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:21:09 +0000

I loved going to my small town library, however at some point during my teenage years I’d pretty much read all of the books there, so began reading some of my parents books. My TBR pile then was never more than about 6. I can’t believe yours is over 400, wow! That’s a little overwhelming and exhilarating at the same time.

I use Visual Bookshelf in Facebook to manage my TBR (virtual) pile, and keep the real ones I have on my bookshelf. I don’t add any books to my TBR pile unless I’ve spent a minimum of 30 mins reading other reviews to make sure I really want to read it. I find this a really effective way to keep my TBR pile to a high quality standard and avoid getting stuck in a dud book. Whenever I finish a book I get so excited deciding which one to read next, I feel like a kid in a candy shop

By: Nymeth

Nymeth — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:17:17 +0000

Ah, I remember those days when I’ve get 3-4 new books, and then read them all before I got anything else… I very rarely kept anything unread for more than a month or two. That was pre-blogging, of course, and I don’t think there’s any possibility of turning back now

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:29:11 +0000

School book orders were always my favorite too! And I definitely was big on re reading as a kid. Not sure why that is, but I guess I wasn’t as attuned to what I liked, so if I found a book I loved, I was much more inclined to re read it as opposed to looking for more books that I enjoyed just as much.

By: Mystica

Mystica — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:14:43 +0000

My TBR pile is very little compared to most mainly due to the difficulty of getting books. I always have about 15 books pending and I think that is absolutely nothing compared to the rest!

By: Belle

Belle — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:57:01 +0000

When I was little, my dream was to have money to buy whatever books I wanted, when I wanted. Then I started working, and was able to indulge my dream – I think that’s the history of my TBR pile, in a nutshell.

The school book club flyers weren’t around when I was little, but my kids always had them, and I enjoyed going through them a lot, since I’ve never stopped liking to read children’s and YA books. My kids, neither of whom are really readers, were always the ones coming home with the biggest bag of books from Scholastic each month LOL

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:43:20 +0000

Before I joined Goodreads, I had a list of about 15-30 books in a notebook that I’d heard of and thought I wanted to read. Then I just had a mental note to constantly try new classics I found whenever I found them. When I joined Goodreads in Dec 2008, suddenly my TBR had the chance to grow, and grow it did, until it hit 400 in Dec 2009. Then I got very overwhelmed, which led to lots of purging, hence my abandoned books post today. How’s that for irony? The goal is to get the TBR back under 50, including the mental list of classics.

By: zibilee

zibilee — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:17:42 +0000

I never really had a TBR pile until a few years ago when my book buying and reading became an obsession for me. Before that time, I had at most 2 or 3 to choose from, but now, things have grown way beyond that point. I always had a wish list, but now, I have enough books to choose from that I could probably read solid for a few years and not come to the end of my piles. And you know what? As much as I get made fun of for being a book crazy person with books everywhere, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I am happy with my stacks and my choices. It’s like having my own library at my disposal!

By: heidenkind

heidenkind — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:46:31 +0000

I didn’t have a TBR pile growing up, either. My parents would buy my books, obviously, and I was only allowed one or two books a week. Mostly I read my mom’s books, especially in the summer when I wasn’t going to school. I don’t think I read as much a do now, though.

My TBR pile really started growing right after high school. I had my first job and spent at least $100/month on books. I also had this idea I was going to be writer and bought a lot of the books with the excuse that it was all “market research.”

Right now I have a lot of books in my TBR, but that’s mainly because I’ve been reading pretty slowly for the last few years. I have phases where I do that. I haven’t acquired bunches of books recently, though. At some point I’ll probably get into a major reading phase again and gobble them all up fairly quickly.