The never-ending TBR pile

How is your TBR pile looking this January? I always find my towering pile of unread books anxiety inducing. I can’t help but feel doomed because I will never get through all of them before I die. It also doesn’t help that I’m unable to stop buying books. The last time I was brave enough to count, I had 46 unread book and in 2022 I read just over 40 books! Clearly I will never have a manageable TBR pile – and that doesn’t sit well with me.

I was watching Chandler Ainsley’s booktube about how she managed to read almost all of her 197 unread physical books on her bookshelf in 2022. I mean?! Btw, she read almost 300 books in total last year. It makes me wonder how does one manage to read so much, so quickly? This is a person who has a full time job and a booktube side hustle.

 The overwhelming feeling I got from watching that video was jealousy. Girl made a massive dent in her TBR pile while I’m unable to whittle mine down which is measly in comparison.

In the book world many participate in a book buying ban, usually in January to curb the Christmas holiday excesses and after I bought five physical books in December I decided to hold off from buying anything else until I’ve made my way through all of them. I find it hardest to resist that “buy with one tap” icon on Amazon kindle. It winks at me, nudges me, and before I know it, my finger is tapping.

The funny thing is, sometimes I long for the days when I was younger and I didn’t have disposable income and I had no TBR pile. Instead, I spent a lot of time re-reading books that we owned at home. I’ve probably re-read Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy at least five times each. Also, the library we went to had the smallest collection of YA literature and I found myself re-reading so many of those books. I actually enjoy the comfort of a reread, especially Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes. It’s like chatting to your oldest friend – reassuring and guaranteed to make you feel good.

Now, I simply don’t have the luxury of a reread, not with all the unread books glaring down at me and the dreaded feeling that I’ll simply never have enough time to read all the books I want to get through. There are just too many good books out there. In some ways social media is to blame. I follow so many booktubers and watch a lot of booktok and these expose me to so many enticing books. The way they talk about books makes you feel that you need to buy it RIGHT NOW.

I know I will never be able to read 197 books in a year. Or even reduce my pile of unread books significantly before purchasing new ones. What did comfort me was this Guardian article which suggests that we slow down when it comes to reading. Is it really that important to read as many books as you possibly can in a year instead of savouring a manageable selection of good books? I know I won’t ease up on the book buying, so I should rather put less pressure on myself to make a dent in my TBR. And do myself a favour by rereading a few beloved books.