Since my post last year about my frustration with my growing TBR pile (then at 208 books), I’ve learned to be at peace with the number of unread books in my house. As much as I’d like to have a more reasonable number of unread books (say, 100-ish), I’ve come to terms with the fact that my own stacks will probably continue to hover at around 200. (Right now, I have 196 unread books.)
Today, though, I want to talk about another TBR pile—the virtual pile, the running list of books that I read about online and elsewhere that sound interesting. Until recently, I’d been keeping track of those books on a spreadsheet, blithely adding any books that sounded at all interesting and then not thinking about them again. A few weeks ago, after something like the millionth invitation, I finally joined Goodreads and decided to use it to keep track of my virtual TBR. I like having an online home for this list, in case my computer ever dies, and as wonderful as LibraryThing is, I’ve found that it doesn’t work so well for the virtual TBR.
So I’ve spent some time in the last few weeks transferring the books on my spreadsheet into Goodreads, divided into library books and books not at the library. As I was adding books, I realized that I had absolutely no idea what some of them were about and why they were on the list. Sometimes I had links to blog posts and articles on my spreadsheet, but I’ve not been consistent about that, and since adding some of these books, I’ve learned more about different bloggers’ tastes and realized whose tastes match mine more precisely. I also discovered some books that I’ve since learned more about and feel sure I wouldn’t like. But I never took them off the list (because I forgot they were there).
I love having a TBR list. When I bother to look at it, a TBR list can remind me of low-profile books that haven’t gotten so much attention and that may not be prominently displayed in bookstores and libraries. However, it seems to me that if I want this list to have any meaning at all, it should only include books that I’m reasonably sure I’ll like. I don’t want to take the trouble of tracking down a book only to realize after a few pages that it’s not my thing at all.
Over the last few months, I’ve gotten a lot choosier about what goes on my TBR list. When I learn about a book that sounds interesting, I now try to find sample chapters online to see what the writing is like. I may also seek out more reviews, paying special attention to negative reviews to see whether its flaws are the kind that annoy me. But a lot of books on my TBR were added before I got choosy.
What to do? I’ve decided to work back through the list, doing more research on the books listed. Mostly I’ve been reading sample chapters online. I like to consider the first couple of chapters—or first 10 pages if the chapters are long—an audition; this is the time when the book convinces me (or not) that it’s the kind of book I’m looking for. If I don’t know anything about a book, those first pages give me some sort of idea what kind of book it is. So I’ve created a “to-audition” list on Goodreads. As I find time, I’ll be researching these books and deciding whether they shall stay on my list. I don’t have a particular goal in mind. I just want the list to be meaningful, to include books that I’m likely to enjoy or appreciate.
So how do you keep your TBR list under control? Do you even maintain a list? How do you decide what to add? Do you ever purge that list?
Notes from a Reading Life
Books Read
- Religious Literacy by Stephen Prothero (audio)
- I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume (Classics Circuit, review coming Nov. 1)
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (reread)
Currently Reading
- Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
- Paradise Lost by John Milton (church book club)
- Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagen (audio)
New Acquisitions
- I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
- After Claude by Iris Owens. A LibraryThing Early Review Book
On My Radar
- Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Impact on American Culture by Anita Clair Fellman. An exploration of the story behind the Little House books. Reviewed at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing.
- Victorian Feminists by Barbara Caine. A biographical look at four Victorian women who fought in different ways for gender equality. Reviewed at Things Mean a Lot.
Oh, my virtual TBR list is out of control — it’s more than 600 books on Goodreads! I keep adding to it while I read blogs, and what’s even worse, I volunteer at the public library twice a week, so I’m always scribbling titles on little scraps of paper, which I then add when I get home. In my defense, the list does include all my owned and unread books, which numbers about 150.
I think my New Year’s Resolution will be to read one book I actually own for every book I read from the library. I can only try.
Don’t feel bad! Mine’s at 732, which also includes the 200-ish I physically own.
My reading list is a Google Docs spreadsheet (Numbers is just such an ugly app!) that’s reaching four hundred and making Google Docs whine when I load it.
A book goes on the list if it interests me; I consider bad books an educational experience and an opportunity for writing some fun reviews. However, I usually do poke around and see how it’s being talked about.
One of my rules is that I cannot purge a book from the list, once it’s on, except in two cases: gratuitous animal abuse and rampant homophobia. (Is queerphobia a word? It should be a word. I can deal with asexuality being ignored, but treated like a disease? No can do, mon ami.)
I like your audition list–sounds like a great idea!
I used to be much more reluctant to purge, but then I realized how little thought I was putting into adding books. If I were more careful about adding, maybe there would be no need to purge!
I know what you mean about learning from bad books (and the fun of writing negative reviews), but I’m getting more and more annoyed at myself when I spend time with a book I don’t like when there are so many better books out there.
I add a lot of books to my TBR list just because they sound interesting, too. If they’re available at the library, I don’t mind picking them up, reading twenty pages or so, and realizing they’re not for me. It’s only books that I would have to swap for or purchase to read that I’m more careful about, reading more reviews to be sure I’d really have an interest in reading it.
That 20 pages sounds a lot like my audition approach. Just enough to get a sense but not enough to feel like you’re reading it.
I am impressed that you keep track of how many books you have unread. I definitely have an unreasonable TBR pile too but I am too scared to keep track of actual numbers.
I just love making lists. That’s what it boils down to.
I like the to-audition list idea. My list has, is, out of control. I’ve actually stopped adding to it and have even taken a few books off. I go through it everyone once in a while and if I can’t remember why a book made it onto the list, it goes. I don’t feel guilty about it either. I figure if it was something I was meant to read, the book will find it’s way back on the list or into my hands at some point.
I almost stopped adding to mine, but still kept coming across reviews of books I know I’d love. So I decided that purging and more careful adding was the answer.
And you’re right—books can find their way back on if more information surfaces!
My physical TBR pile is not roughly around 300 books. My virtual TBR stays at a consistent 100 books or so. How do I choose which ones to actually acquire? It depends on how well the book resonates with me at the point of acquisition. Is it a novel that certain people are raving about? Chances are it will move to the top of the list. Is it part of a series of which I already have the first book or two? That will also move it to the top. The rest depends on my mood and on sales/availability. I do like your idea of reading a sample chapter or two.
I’ve started trying to only acquire books I can’t get from the library, although I’ve made exceptions for really good sales, beloved authors, and series books, as well as the occasional review copy. I even have notes on Goodreads about what’s at the library.
You are all so amazingly organized! I have no idea how many unread books there are in my house and my virtual tbr is a collection of post-it notes I leave scattered about my house, office and inside my purse. If I was more like Teresa and those commenting here today, I would be more successful in not missing out on those lesser known titles that sometimes slip away on a note that got stuck in my check book. But … I am who I am, and counting on the goodwill of others, am trusting they won’t kick me off Good Reads for organizational lameness. The upside to my lameness? I just discovered a little piece of paper torn from a magazine with a review of The Bolter. Forgot all about it but can now purchase in paperback rather than hardcover. Lucky, right? Like a lovely surprise out of nowhere.
All joking aside, hats off to all of you in better control of your reading lives! I am a bit envious.
Oh, I don’t know if it’s so much organization as it is anal retentiveness in my case. I also just love list-making and developing organizational systems. I think sometimes throwing caution to the winds and letting whim and whimsy guide would be much more fun and freeing.
But I do like my lists. I suppose I am who I am, too ;)
Wow, you’ve got an elaborate system going! I used to keep my TBR list in a notebook, but I didn’t like how un-edit-able it was in that form. A month or two ago I switched to using a Google Docs spreadsheet, which I like because (a) I can edit, reorganize and search it, and (b) I can just copy and paste in links of blogs where I found the recommendation. Unfortunately, the list is already pushing 100 titles…ack! I think I’m going to have to come up with a better system soon.
I used to have a notebook too. From the front, I kept track of what I was reading, and from the back I had my TBR list. But the lack of sorting was a problem.
I keep my virtual TBR list on Paperbackswap.com. When I read about a book I think I’d like to read, I add it to my wish list there and wait.
Typically about once or twice a month I get a book in the mail, whenever one of my TBR list/wish list becomes available.
One nice side effect of this is that by the time I get the book, I’ve forgotten why I wanted it. This means that I’ve only the cover to judge from so I can start reading it with little or no idea of what to expect. I like how this makes much more of the book a surprise that it would be otherwise.
I had to put my PBS list on hold to slow down the acquisitions, but I’ve had similar experiences with it.
That’s an interesting question, though, about how much we as readers like to know about a book before we start. I tend to want to know a lot–more than other readers, I think. But I don’t necessarily want to know about plot. It’s themes and style and mood, etc., that I want to know about. I think it helps me get my brain in a receptive place or something.
For many years, I’ve kept notebooks (arranged alphabetically, but author’s last name) of books I want to read. I also jot down a sentence of two about the book so that when I’m looking back (I must have about 10 notebooks by now, spanning decades) I’ll remember why I wanted to read the book. The first place I look for any book is my local library’s on-line catalog. If they have it, I’ll write the call numbers down next to the book’s title. Sometimes years go by before I find or check-out the book. When I’ve read the book, I put a checkmark next to it in the notebook. If I did not like the book or could not finish it, I’ll usually make a brief note about that too.
My actual TBR mountain is about 300 books in various piles against the wall in the den. My new year’s resolution this year was to not buy any more books (new or used) until I made a dent in the TBR. I still get library books, so the pile is being reduced very slowly–but I’ve saved quite a bit on book purchases.
Wow! That is an elaborate system! I never could get a pen and paper system to work–I always want to sort. (I do remember writing call numbers in my old TBR notebooks.)
Like you, I also used to keep my virtual TBR list on a spreadsheet on my computer, but I’ve since switched to Shelfari to manage that. I’m kind of embarrassed to say that there’s … um … around 1,500 books categorized as “Want to Read.” Now some of those overlap with actual books that I have here in my home library waiting to be read, but still … it is clearly ridiculous.
Books aren’t often purged from that list, but when they are, it’s usually if I’ve read a few other books by that author and I know that his/her style isn’t for me.
If I didn’t put some kind of brakes on my list, it could easily grow to 1500. (And at 700+, it doesn’t actually include all the books by authors whose complete works I want to read. I usually just add two or three that appeal most.)
I love your new method, and I just might have to borrow some of these ideas. My virtual TBR pile is completely disorganised – so much so that it has several incarnations. It exists as an Amazon wishlist, as a Bookmooch wishlist (though I’m pickier about what goes on that one), as a spreadsheet, and as a .txt file. Some of these have repeated titles, because I forget what I’ve taken note of where. And of course, I often completely forget what certain books are doing on the list at all.
I do maintain a wishlist at Bookmooch and Paperbackswap, and they aren’t exactly the same as these, mostly because I listed every Persephone book that I’m even vaguely interested in on both, and I haven’t included books I can get from the library. But I do like having a master list. Goodreads has been really nice for that because it’s so easy to switch additions to the one I actually read. (The difficulty with doing that is what kept me from maintaining a list on LibraryThing.)
I use goodreads for my virtual to-read list. It’s got over 1,000 books on it, but I’m more or less comfortable with its rampant nature. Like cbjames above, I like going in to a book without knowing a lot. If I forget why a book is on the list, it kind of intrigues me all the more.
The to-read list is like a large pantry I can rummage around in when I need my next meal. I find it more manageable to consider this large-but-limited list than the prospect of every-book-out-there. And yet it’s also a pleasant reminder of the abundance of possibly interesting books out there.
I also use the goodreads list to track where the recommendation came from (which blogger, etc.)
I like your idea of auditioning though, so good luck with that project. It sounds like fun!
I like that idea of a to-read list as a pantry for rummaging. Perhaps my culling project is a bit like looking for stuff that has gone stale?
What a great idea, ‘auditioning’ the books on your wish list or virtual tbr. I just keep adding to my wish list on BookMooch, and then get notified if the book becomes available. I occasionally go through and buy books off of it, but more often it is just a black hole, unfortunately.
My Bookmooch list is a bit of a black hole too. I do make a point of tidying it up sometimes, just to make sure I don’t get offered a book I’ve gotten elsewhere. It also only includes books I can’t get from the library as well as a few I want as keepers.
I came to read through the comments and see how other people organize. I don’t, really; I’ve talked about this before. When a book has seized my attention enough, I write the title on a post-it note or scrap of paper that I take to the library, and if I can’t find it there, then I search farther afield. If I come across a title on a scrap that I don’t recognize, I figure I’ve lost interest. If I were any more organized, I’m afraid I’d be terribly frustrated by how slowly I read, which isn’t slowly at all!
The presence of a long list can be frustrating for that exact reason! Every now and then, I consider getting rid of my list because I hate how slowly I progress through it, but I do like having it for ideas.
I gave up on keeping my tbr under control. :( It’s not my fault – there are just too many books I want to read, and not enough time! I am trying to get the number of unread books I have lying around at home to be under ten by the end of the year, but I’m having a really bad reading year, so, there goes that plan! :(
Too many books, and not enough time. I hear you on that!
I think a to-audition list is a great idea (by the way, I’ve just added you as friends on GR). I don’t have a virtual TBR list (yet), but usually what I do is to, once or twice a year, go through all the books and honestly consider if I ever will read them.
The one who I put aside are usually books I’ve bought years ago, and meanwhile my tastes have changed. When I’m not sure I go to the book’s page on GR and if the average is low I take them out. Then on my b-day party I usually pile the books I no longer want and put up a sign saying “Need new home”, or I trade them on BookMooch.
I agree with you that the TBR should only have books you eventually want to read . Only then will you take real pleasure in going trough them :) Right now my TBR is (according to GR) 162. Once upon a time that disturbed me, but now I’ve learned to appreciate looking at them.
I’ve learned to appreciate my TBR bookcase. And I am trying to read the books I’ve had the longest, provided that I’m still interested. If not, I pass them along to another home.
Like you, I have 2 TBR lists: Owned and Not Owned.
My Not Owned TBR (i.e. the virtual TBR) is in many different parts, in spreadsheets, Word documents, Access databases and several notebooks. I don’t dare consolidate it for fear of despairing at the number, but it’s really just an “I would like to read this” and not a genuine “Must Read” TBR. I decided long ago that no book is a Must Read unless it is likely to actually save my life.
The Owned list has precedence over the other, as it is made up of books I want to read so I can either put them on my keeper shelves (about 1 out of every 10) or cull them to make room for more books. Every now and then I go over these books and cull the ones I have lost interest in since buying them.
I think I need to get over seeing my virtual list as a “must read” list and see it more as a reminder list.
I own very few books so I use GR as my entire bookshelf. It is my one stop shopping so to speak. Every book that I come across that I want to read gets added to my shelves by genre, To Read. I always put a note in there with a link to the blogger that introduced it to me or however I came to hear about it so that I can go back and let them know what I thought when I actually read it.
I also have a few friends on GR and like to see what they are reading – I can compare books to them and see how much we tend to have in common. And that gives me a better idea as to whether I’d truly be interested or not.
I don’t like reading any of the book in advance – I hate spoilers. I just like to read the overall reviews and ratings on GR as well as book blogs and then it gets added. And before each trip to the library, I peruse my GR shelves and decide what I want to read next!
Glad you found a place to consolidate your list and make it work well for you. GR is a reader’s dream come true!
I am really liking GoodReads. I had tried it years ago and found the interface to be clunky, but it seems to have improved. I still like LibraryThing a lot as well, but I use it just for keeping up with books I own and books I’ve read.
reading through your post made me realize that, as i just started using my BF’s old computer that is better than mine, my unownded TBR list is stuck on the old computer! hmm. My to-read books that i own, according to librarything, is now 145 books long. That does disappoint me as almost every one was bought with the intention of reading it next! We have an amazing, huge used bookstore here in Nashville and they usually add 2-3 more to my stack everytime i go. I really should stop ordering books from the library too!
I’m considering next year only buying a book if I intend to read it right away, but I’m not sure I could hold myself to that. It’s the places that offer bargains that do me in. I end up getting multiple books, and they can’t all be next!
I love Goodreads but only use it for books I’ve read. I have a few different virtual TBR lists – for a while I was keeping one in a private wiki, organized into 3 sub-lists – fiction, nonfiction, and kids’ books/YA, and I still refer back to that sometimes.
More recently, I have been using private bookmarks in Delicious. I use the BookBurro Firefox extension, which picks up ISBNs on pages like Amazon and hovers a little pop-up which then lets me click through to see the title on Worldcat – you can also highlight + right click an ISBN on any page to have the option of pulling up the BookBurro pop-up. So I look on Worldcat, see if the book is either in the Brooklyn Public Library or the NYPL, and tag it accordingly as books@brooklyn or whatever. If it’s not in either, I’ll just tag it as “books.” I also try to save a note about how I heard about the book. My collection of Delicious books-I’m-interested-in bookmarks is big (um, currently 1126 titles – though some may be duplicates, which I only sometimes spot!) and I only clean them out sporadically – and I don’t even necessarily use them to guide my reading. Sometimes I do – especially with the library books, sometimes I’ll just browse my bookmarks and place a hold on whatever looks good – but sometimes it’s more like, “oh, I’ll pick that up if I see it at the library, and if I look back here I’ll remember why I wanted to pick it up to begin with.”
So yes: I have a system but it’s a sprawling messy system, which I guess suits me fine – I’m should note I’m also the sort of person who alphabetizes the spice drawer but leaves a trail of clothes/papers/loose change around the apartment.
That BookBurro extension sounds really cool.
And LOL on the sprawling messiness. I tend to be an alphabetizer (although my apartment is a bit of a mess), so it’s no surprise that I like a clear, organized system.
I used to keep track of bloggers recommendations in my early days of blogging. Last October I got very overwhelmed with blogging and by February I had stopped. I kept every book title that sounded interesting in a word file, wiht a link the bloggers page that made me add it to the list. But I couldn’t keep it in order, and in retrospect, it was like you said: many were probably not a good match for me personally. I mostly am going by the virtual TBR called “classics” right now. There are plenty. But every couple months I make a list of a few books I’d really like to read in the next few months. It’s working.
But I should do something with all the books I OWN that I haven’t read. Some day…
I was doing the same with my Excel spreadsheet, and it just got overwhelming. That’s why I’m culling now.
I like the idea of a “next few months” list. I sort of do that by pulling out books I want to read soon and leaving them on a particular shelf in my living room.
I’ve definitely gotten choosier about what I put on my TBR list, but I still put a lot of books on there that I may never get to, for whatever reason. I like the list a lot better now that I’ve organized it into categories – one day when I’m feeling productive I’m going to go back through and separate the fiction into separate categories too, and then I’ll be all set. :p
I doubt I’ll ever get to all the books on my list either, but I like to live in hope.
I guess, though, it’s a good thing to know that there will always be more books I’ll want to read.