Comments on: The To-Be-Read (TBR) “Pile”

By: Greg Pincus

Greg Pincus — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:46:32 +0000

That’s impressive pile-age, I must say. Very neat, though. After I put up that post of piles, I got lots of emails and notes… and we basically all agreed we’ll just never get down to zero. And really, that’s okay. I think that’d defeat the fun!

Thanks for sharing your pics!

By: girldetective

girldetective — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:33:17 +0000

Nymeth, it’s it funny how we find ways around our rules, vows and bans, we keep acquiring books? I have cut down on book buying but never managed to stop, and had to make a library vow when I turned out to be reading more library books than shelf books. I made a foolish vow at one point to only buy a book if it was going to be the very next one I read. I failed that vow immediately.

By: Nymeth

Nymeth — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:28:53 +0000

Sigh. This is why I too need to stop acquiring books. I say “acquiring” because even though I’m on a buying ban, copious amounts of books keep coming in via Bookmooch….

By: girldetective

girldetective — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:51:45 +0000

Wow. Only 2-3 books. I moved from Philly to MN in 1998, which was about 1300 miles, and there are (wait for it while I go count…) and I count five books still on the TBR shelves. I’ve either read or weeded the others I brought with me, but I know I got rid of a lot before I moved.

I started keeping a spreadsheet with cds, dvds and books I’m interested in rather than jotting them down, but I’ve found it works best for music and movies, which I mostly get from the library. Books, which I want to browse for, I’d rather have a physical list of on hand. So I may be switching back to a little notebook, like the ones from Field Notes, for books.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:01:59 +0000

I only have 2-3 actual books hanging around in a TBR pile after moving 2,000 miles. What I do have is a 4 inch high pile of paper covered in TBR titles and authors and musical suggestions.

By: Steph

Steph — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:43:57 +0000

I liked GoodReads because a) you can add as many books as you like FOR FREE; and b) it is naturally divided into shelves - so whenever you add a book to your library, you put it on the “read”, “to be read”, or the “currently reading” shelf. Of course you can create whichever other shelves you like, but those are the 3 defaults.

I am also sufficiently nerdy that I like how you can update your reading progress, and there’s a little bar that fills up as you move through your book.

By: G. Grod

G. Grod — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:53:16 +0000

I’d like to point out that I have only one shelf, but those books are only about 1/3 of them. And the shelf does not include my ever expanding collection of editions of Hamlet. As for order, mine USED to be sorted in the order I intend to read them.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:39:13 +0000

Gretchen, I’m definitely a book weeder. We live close to several Half Price Books stores so it’s easy to sell what I don’t need. I worked there for a year and that was HORRIBLE for my book acquisitions. I swear I sold back about a third of what I bought from them. A lot of the books on the TBR shelves are classics–Dickens, and Faulkner. Others are ones I’m likely to like, such as Neal Stepehenson and David Foster Wallace, I just haven’t gotten to them. There’s no time expiration, as you can see, some have sat for over a decade, and been through I don’t know how many moves. And I’ve had some–like Mary Gaitskill’s Bad Behavior–that would have been good then but weren’t once I got to it. And others, like Infinite Jest, that I read and wish I’d read years ago. I think my criteria is, loosely, do I have an active interest in this for some reason, and could I pick it up after the next book if I chose? Once a book slips into “should” mode, or its sense of topicality or urgency is gone, then that’s it.

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:31:37 +0000

Ha. I’m halfway through Getting Things Done. It just seems like a lot of work. I’m on Good Reads, which I like. Don’t want to track my TBRs, though!

Maybe you should start a TBR challenge.

By: gretchen

gretchen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:03:44 +0000

At what point do you just say, “I haven’t read this, I’m running out of shelf space, goodbye, book!” I have a pile of TBRs that I’m increasingly unenthused about and am thinking of just getting rid of them, instead of letting them sit and gather dust.