The other day, one of my bestest friends in the entire
universe Rachel posted this amazing post on book
shame and why it shouldn’t exist. I wanted to talk about another type of
book shame, in particular, TBR shame. I’ve wanted to write a post about this for ages but I could
never quite find the right words for it until now.
I don’t think TBR shame/guilt should exist.
It’s actually funny that I’m writing this now because up
until about two months ago, I was one of those people who suffered from serious
TBR guilt. I had 500 unread books on my shelves at the start of this year. I
know what you’re thinking—that’s a ridiculous amount of books, you’ll never
read all of those, you should never buy another book, whatever!
The thing is, I don’t fell guilty about owning that many
unread books anymore. Yes, I still want to get through the books I own and I’ve
been cutting back on my buying habits but I don’t worry anymore. I used to
actually feel disappointed with myself for owning that many unread books, but something
clicked one day.
I like having unread books on my shelf. The thought of
having zero TBR books is actually terrifying to me. I can’t live book to book.
I need to read two or three books at the same time, and have something waiting
for me that I’m excited to read. I like being able to pick whatever book off my
shelf because that’s what I wanted to read right then rather than just the only
thing I had on my shelf.
I understand that some people might like living book to
book. They might like going out and purchasing a new every time they finish
one, but that just isn’t for me.
I think the idea that you have to be guilty or feel ashamed
that you have unread books on your shelf is ridiculous. If you want to have
twenty or two hundred unread books on your shelf, I think it’s up to you.
You’re the one who decides which books you are going to read and when you are
going to read them. I don’t think you should ever be ashamed of that.
Anyway, that’s just my two cents, let me know what you think
and remember to check out Rachel’s blog, it’s honestly one of my favourites.
Logging you in...
rlampi 26p · 513 weeks ago
rockafellaskank 64p · 513 weeks ago
A few times over the past year I've gotten myself quite stressed about unwritten reviews etc but I have to step back and remind myself I started doing this because I LOVE books and that's all that's important at the end of the day. (Of course if it was a paying job it'd probably be a bit different!).
vlangloisx3 116p · 513 weeks ago
Just kidding. I also can't imagine having a TBR of 0 anymore. That would be horrible. LIKE WHAT HAPPENS if THERE IS AN APOCALYPSE AND NO ONE PUBLISHES THINGS ANYMORE AND WE ARE LIMITED IN BOOKS.
Though to be honest even then we will still have books on the TBR, just not recently published ones.
Where the heck am I going with the post? WHATEVER. YOU SHOULD DO WHATEVER YOU WANT ELY. I actually am pretty picky about my TBR. I think I have around 200? I also don't add books to my Goodreads one though, I just keep a mental list of the ones in my head hehe.
Tessa @ Crazy for YA · 512 weeks ago
I realize that I will probably never finish all of the books I want to read. I am completely fine with that. To me, a TBR is a list of books that I am interested in reading, not a list of books I have to read or else the world will stop turning. I think that a lot of people are just taking their TBR lists too seriously.
Like you, I love having a huge TBR list. It gives me options for whatever reading mood I am in, and I will never walk into a library or a bookstore without knowing at least one book that I want. In my opinion, it is better to have too many ideas than not enough.
Shaming people for stuff like this is completely ridiculous. I mean, it is like complaining that someone's bucket list is too long. Are you just going to tell someone that it is stupid to have goals?
Great discussion!