hints and tips for attacking that darn TBR

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

I hope this topic has not been discussed already. If so please point me in the right direction. I would love to read it.

Do you have any tips to get our neverending TBRs under control? If so post them here.

As far as me, I knock a couple off the list only to have them replaced with more. One thing I have done is to unsubscribe from the freebie ebook sites. Most of those books I did get I don't even remember why they appealed to me. So obviously I never read them and don't really intend to. (I am a sucker for free)

The other thing that is helping my TBR is using challenges to knock some off. If I can use a book I already own, that is the smart thing to do.

What do you have for tips.

[sonya]

Bringing a book wherever you go. Read in a all your spare minutes

[Holly, That Geeky One]

I generally plan to read books that are on my TBR list. Then I allow myself time for books (or squirrels as we call them here) that I can use to read books that I find throughout the month.

Just allow yourself space to explore books you find, while also planning your reading! :D

[Cindy]

I did a good old fashion house cleaning on my TBR pile. If I wasn't going to read the book in the next 3-6 months I deleted it from Itunes and Amazon. Sometimes it comes down to discipline with me. I will not read a new book or look for one until I have read a TBR book. The new Haunted by challenge and the new one starting in January should really help.

[Tracey]

This year my goal was to read one book over 600 pages each month. That helped me tackle books on my TBR list that I was avoiding for shear length. Next year, my goal will be to read the oldest book on my TBR shelf each month.

[Kassandra]

I love your goal for next year Chase, that's a fantastic idea. I may have to try and adopt something similar for my own reading!

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

Cindy wrote: "I did a good old fashion house cleaning on my TBR pile. If I wasn't going to read the book in the next 3-6 months I deleted it from Itunes and Amazon. Sometimes it comes down to discipline with me...."

Some good ideas guys; thanks! Cindy I like your old fashioned house cleaning idea. If a person did that quarterly or even twice a year we would not be in this situation.

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

Another thing that I have started to do is to not start any series. They can lead to an even longer TBR should I like the first book.

Well ok that is a bit of a lie. In my mind I don't start new series. I just signed up for a 6 of Crows group read next week. Oooops. I call B.S. on myself. lol

[Roseanne]

For every book I read I probably add 5 more to my TBR. I am not really concerned about how long that list is. Eventually I will get to them all.

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

I'm not going to have any worthwhile advice here. I use my GR TBR list like a shopaholic. I just add everything that looks interesting. My "real" TBR is probably the books in my house or kindle. Since I love the classics, I've been getting to many of those via audiobooks from Librivox. They're free and I can maximize my commute time into reading time. It's helped a great deal.

[Marina]

For me, it's been of help joining TBR challenges. I challenge myself to read x books from my TBR pile and this is working, a bit. But I still keep buying books, even if not so many as earlier, perhaps. Just perhaps.

Also, I am forbidding myself to go to the library. It is a pity in some respects, but I want to read the books I own before going to the library again (OK, this is not very believable, but I'm trying, at least).

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

I still frequent the library. But I'm stricter about what I bring home. I'll pre-order books the books I want from the website. Otherwise, it would be all squirrels, all the time there for me.

[Roseanne]

I have tons of books at home and I still go to the library too. They should really get baskets so I can carry everything. So much of what I have added to my TBR here on GR is beccause I scroll on my newsfeed and see what others are reading. Shopaholic is definitley sums it up. I do listen to audiobooks on my commute to work if your looking for a way to squeeze one more book in that works well.

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

Renee brings up a good point - her "real" TBR. The real TBR can be a lot different than the "maybe some time" TBR. Hmmmmm. That is food for thought.

Roseanne I have a very short drive to work so audiobooks don't work for the commute. But if I travel alone they sure can make a trip short.

[Marina]

Basesloaded32 wrote: "Renee brings up a good point - her "real" TBR. The real TBR can be a lot different than the "maybe some time" TBR. Hmmmmm. That is food for thought."

Sure, I was talking about my "real" TBR, which is made of around 400 books (!!)
My "maybe some time" TBR (which I shelve as "wishlist" here on GR) encompasses almost 700 books of the most varied kinds and genres -- I guess I will not read all of them in a lifetime!

[Cindy]

Sometimes I feel like I am in a big department store and everyone wants me to try their samples. I get Ibooks, Amazon and Goodreads recommendations. My Goodreads TBR list was well over 50. I like short lists so I did some major cleaning. My Ibooks is still out of control. All kinds of samples and books I just can't delete.

[Camille]

Chase wrote: "This year my goal was to read one book over 600 pages each month. That helped me tackle books on my TBR list that I was avoiding for shear length. Next year, my goal will be to read the oldest book..."

I really like the idea of reading the oldest book in my TBR. I'm stealing your idea, it's great :-)

[Holly, That Geeky One]

Wonderful idea Chase. Maybe a mini-challenge is in order for this?

[[deleted user]]

Marina- That is a great idea to keep your tbr and "wishlist" bookshelves separate. I don't know that I have the time or energy to go back and reorganize my Goodreads shelves now though! :)

This year, I bought far fewer kindle books and stopped subscribing to most of the daily deal updates, which has helped keep my real tbr from becoming insurmountable. I also put a lot more thought into my book purchasing now and usually only buy books on sale that have been on my "wishlist" for a while and/or have really long library wait periods.

Next year I am hoping a few TBR challenges will motivate me to read more books I already own, as I did not do well with that during 2015 (other than classics).

[Bella]

Cindy wrote: "Sometimes I feel like I am in a big department store and everyone wants me to try their samples. I get Ibooks, Amazon and Goodreads recommendations. My Goodreads TBR list was well over 50. I like s..."

My Goodread's TBR is almost 1200- and that doesn't include all of the books I own (real and ebook). And my TBR on Goodreads is close to my "real" TBR- I only put books on there that I either own, can get from the library easily, or am willing to buy. (I price books before I add them and if I'm not willing to pay that amount, I add them to the bookseller's wishlist. I check on the various wishlists every week or so for sales.) I don't think I could ever get my TBR down to 50; I like to have at least a year's worth of books that I haven't read yet.

[Camille]

What is the bookseller wishlist?

[Bella]

Most, maybe even all, of the online bookstores have a button or link you can click to add a book to your account's wishlist. I use it so that my TBR doesn't get clogged up- I have to buy something before I say I want to read it. (I read a lot of non-fiction and those books seem to go OOP- out of print- faster and more often than fiction books. Even ones that have won a major prize like the Pulitzer.)

[Camille]

Oh, right! I thought it was a feature on Goodreads I wasn't aware of. Thanks for explaining :-)

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

Cindy wrote: "I did a good old fashion house cleaning on my TBR pile. If I wasn't going to read the book in the next 3-6 months I deleted it from Itunes and Amazon. Sometimes it comes down to discipline with me...."

I gave my TBR a good house cleaning last night. That was a great suggestions. There were ones on there that I did not even know what they were. So I got rid of them. The list is still big but at least the books on there are ones I do hope/intend to read and know exactly what they are.

[Cindy]

I hope it was a fun process, house cleaning your TBR. It is amazing how many samples and books I collect in a short time. I had to do some house cleaning on samples. Hope you found a book treasure. That really makes the house cleaning fun.

[Beth]

I'm going to concentrate more on the ones i've owned longer too, but this is not as easily done, I may go by publication date instead(apart from with classics because then all I would read is them)

But I am setting myself some goals for next year that I hope to maintain but we shall see...

[[deleted user]]

Great idea for tbr housecleaning and I have done the same myself for ebooks. It really is easy to collect ebooks because they don't take up physical space on our real bookshelves.

[sonya]

I hope to read more from my own shelves in 2016

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

I think that's my goal for 2016 as well, Sonya. I'll still do audiobooks on the road, but focus on things I already own for eyeball reading. I'd love to feel is taken a chunk out of my stacks/shelves/boxes of things unread by the end of the year.

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

Someone told me to write (or type) all the books on your TBR down on small pieces of paper and stick them in a jar. When it is time to read a new book, pull one out and read that.

I could see this kind of working. But if your reaction is not good when you pull a certain book, you obviously did not want to read it too badly. Then take it off the list and pull a new new.

I also decided that I should tell myself "no group or buddy reads unless the book is already on my TBR."

[Cindy]

Basesloaded32 wrote: "Someone told me to write (or type) all the books on your TBR down on small pieces of paper and stick them in a jar. When it is time to read a new book, pull one out and read that.

I could see this..."

I really like this idea. I get into this frame of my mind, sometimes I have no clue what I want to read. I think that would be a great help. There is also a random list organizer on the internet.

[Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie)]

Oh geez, likely lots of apps for the phone too!

[Jenny, Certified Bookworm]

Random.number generator would work too, each book is given a number on the shelves here on goodreads. Use the RNG and read whatever book corasponds with the number it came up with.
I have 470+ books I own but have not read, and 230+ to read from the library, or to eventualy buy deoending... Eeep!

[Veronique]

Some good ideas!

The mini challenges on GR have helped me dig a little in my TBR list. Even though I read a lot, I've still got loads to go through. Ok, I've got nearly 1000 books to read, and these are 'paper' ones (don't ask me about ebooks and audiobooks!).

This year I also started my own "monthly challenge". Might seem weird but sometimes with so much choice I get bogged down and lost, so I set up the following 10 "genres", and so far it has helped me:
- YA novel / children's book
- Science fiction / fantasy novel
- Comics / BD
- Penguin Little Black / Mini Modern
- Persephone book
- French / Portuguese
- Classics (19th/20th)
- Short story
- Old TBR
- British Library Crime Classics / crime book

As for keeping tab of my collection, I've been using a brilliant software, Bookpedia, for over 15 years, which is still my main one. In conjunction, I use GR for listing what I've read and the books I've bought in the last few years. Amazon wishlists are for all the books that I'd like to buy, and Evernote app for all my lists, challenges and what not (bit of a organisation geek).

[Jenny, Certified Bookworm]

Vero, I wish I could organize like you!

[sonya]

I've added four books to my tbr

The girl on the train. Paula Hawkins
V is for vengeance. Sue grafton
Vanishing acts. Jodi picoult. Loved my sisters keeper!
Can't wait to get to heaven. Fannie Flagg

[Jackie]

I am trying to go through my books at home (most of which have not been added to my tbr). I am getting really close to donating my mass market paperbacks to the library, as the small print is getting harder to read. I will probably check to see if the books are available for checkout, just in case they put them directly in the monthly Friends of the Library sale. That way I know I can still read them for free if I choose to do so.

[Katherine]

Usually at the beginning of the new year, I make a shelf on my goodreads that place books on it that I want to get around to that year and then for that year I read the shortest books on that list and the books I'm excited to read soon first. Oh and if I'm finding it difficult to read I'll read/listen to stand-a-lone books.

[[deleted user]]

I decided since my speech about "I am not going to buy any new books until I read my must-read book pile- failed the next moment as I am shopping in Barnes and Noble" I have decided every other one has to come from my shelve of must-reads. The February challenge using the colors of the Olympic rings is going to make a dent because I only had to buy one book for this challenge and used four others from my pile. Good luck --

[Chloé]

Not_Your_Typical_Lannister (Leslie) wrote: "I hope this topic has not been discussed already. If so please point me in the right direction. I would love to read it.

Do you have any tips to get our neverending TBRs under control? If so post ..."

I just got into "bullet journaling," and that has helped me manage my reading lists. There are some great pins on pinterest for journal spreads for reading lists, and I drew a page with books on shelves and the titles of books I want to tackle this year. As I finish one, I color in the spine of it on the shelf, so when I'm done with that TBR list I'll have a cool looking colorful page. I also keep a reading log where I write the date I started and finished a book, its page numbers, title, and author. If the "finished" date is blank, I try not to move on until I wrap that one up.

That might be more artsy than you were looking for, but I've found that it's been really fun and relaxing, and it has definitely helped me be a better reader this year and remember what I've read!