My TBR list is out of control. There I said it. I admit to the problem. I’m a reader and I love books. My TBR will always be out of control. But I have to wonder if there is a way to manage it at all. Is there a way I won’t forget my old “must be read” books? Is there a way to not be distracted by all the new shiny available to me? The answer is…
Basically all of this pondering led me to one question, do a make a TBR list and stick to it or do I continue to fly by the seat of my pants?
The thing is I have done both and have been successful at both. When I was blogging with Michelle at Galleysmith I used to makes a list of 10 books and I would read those 10 books before making a new list. It worked for me then. I was just starting out in the book blogging world so I was only mildly overwhelmed with books. But then the list started to feel like a chore and I started to mood read.
Mood reading is a fabulous thing, but man does it get messy. I have found myself reading 3 books at a time because of mood reading and that can be a nightmare, especially when two of those books have a main character named Josh. It is fun though to just pick up a book when the mood strikes. I can find myself reading a book that came out 5 years ago, or one that will be out in 6 months. There is no order to mood reading and I kind of like that. But I also feel like books get neglected way easier because of this. It is so much easier to just say, “I’m not in the mood for it”.
And then there was the epic failure of the TBR jar. This was just not for me. It ended up with me still mood reading. I would pull a book and think, nah, I want to read something else, which totally defeated the point of the jar. But it did lead me to my next attempt at listing…
The category list was actually my most successful attempt at not reading by the seat of my pants. By selecting categories I would then be able to fill the categories with what ever book my mood was feeling, but a little more narrowed down. To be honest I’m not sure why I stopped doing this. It was kind of the best of both worlds. I actually wrote a post on it almost 3 years ago. It was a really fun way to move down my TBR but not be bogged down by rules. I may need to revisit this idea.
What is the point of this post? I have no idea. I keep questioning if there is a way to get a handle on my TBR but also who am I kidding. I’m a reader. I want to read books and sometimes I just want to read all the books!
Now I ask you, do you make a TBR list or do you mood read?
My TBR list is bananas. Once a week I grab random books from it to request from the library. At least then I’m held accountable because I *need* to return it to the library in a reasonable amount of time. The struggle is *real*.
I am a mood reader. I jump around in genres and sometimes, like now, am reading two or more books at the same time. I’ve decided I want to read all the books, know I never will be able to, but I just love books.
I loved your category TBR idea! It was almost like making a bingo card without the need for bingo š I used to do that for a few months as well. I think it works pretty nicely because it reminds you to read older books, even if it’s just one per month!