my monday musings: Tbr pile–conquered!

Dealing with TBR piles are part of being a blogger. It’s an endless cycle because we can’t seem to resist shiny new books. It’s worse if you accept review books and go to book conferences *points at self*.

I’ve been dealing my own overwhelming TBR pile ever since my first BEA in 2011 and have never fully recovered.

Over the years I’ve hunkered down and tackled one group at a time. First up, in 2016, was my Kindle. I had hundreds of books on there and most were freebie/impulse buys that I totally forgot why I got them in the first place and never read. I sorted them into bookshelves by genre, deleted what no longer appealed to me and read, read, read. I’m now down to about 40 and usually read anything new right away. I’m comfortable with that.

Next up was where it got tricky and harder to control – review copies/Netgalley. For the past 2 years
I scaled WAY back on requests and hunkered down to read what I had accepted already.

I currently only have 1 book ready for feedback on Netgalley and zero review requests pending. I only accept 2-3 requests per month - and request no more than 2 at a time on Netgalley - and for the last few months I didn’t take any. So that’s totally under control.

That leaves my physical TBR pile which I have been working on since January of 2017. I started with 139 books and had hoped to get down to 50 but barely made a dent by January 2018. I had gotten down to 89 but, to be perfectly honest, that was more through purging than reading.


   
          January 2017 - 139 books                                        January 2018 - 89 books

Better, but still not where I wanted to be and still stressful because I’m such a mood reader and nothing from this pile was appealing to me. And HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??? Instead, I bought new books and watched this stack stay stagnant and even grow. 😭😭

I foolishly registered for ALA (The American Library Association conference) this year so I NEEEEEDED to get this pile down before I bring any new books in. I became laser focused and mostly read from this stack – with few exceptions – since January and I DID IT!!! I am down to 50 books!!!!!!



               April 2018 - 50 books!

I knew that reading for review can take some of the joy away but it’s amazing how having that pressure lifted has changed everything.

I feel so freeeeeee! I love reading again, I’m enjoying almost everything. I’m less critical because I’m reading for fun and not on a deadline. I can switch up genres, dnf at will, not read for a week.

Now, I may screw it all up again by going to ALA lol but I don’t think so. While I went absolutely crazy for books my first two cons – I’ve been very selective since then and go more to hang with friends than to grab all the books.  And the conference is in June so I still have a few months to get that pile down even more.

It probably would be closer to 30 if I didn’t keep getting unsolicited books from publishers. I’m not complaining though because they’ve been pretty awesome books.

I don’t think I’ll ever be down to 0 books – nor do I want to be – that would set off a different kind of panic lol but it’s nice to be free of the pressure of having so many books that were given to me for review (mostly at conferences) just sitting there for years. It felt wrong. And I’ve learned my lesson!

Now if I could just find a blogging groove again - that would be fantastic! I shouldn't be greedy though. Hahaha!

How is your TBR pile? (btw – I’m only discussing books I actually own or have for review – I’m not talking about a Goodreads wish list type of TBR) 

Do you ever think you’ll get it under control or how you keep it under control?

Or do you love and embrace your TBR pile?