The TBR List

The biggest complaint I have about being a reader is that there are too many books in the world. Even if I did nothing but read, all day every day, I still wouldn’t manage to read all the books I want to in my lifetime.

It is a sad state of affairs.

It’s actually one of the only good things about coming across an author who has already died: at least then there’s a chance to catch up with all of their output, even if you then want more.

A few years back I worked for a company which supplied libraries. Mostly academic libraries, but there was still ample opportunity for me to make a rather long list of books which sounded interesting, should I ever find the time and money to collect all of them. Most of the titles I wrote down remain just on that list, which is now scattered somewhere amongst all my other bits of paper. I also have titles written in notebooks, amongst my random words and reminders for the shopping list.

And this is the other problem, I find, of listing books for future reading. Having made a note, I still don’t go out of my way to find a copy. It just sits on the list, waiting. Waiting for me to do something about it. And I don’t, because of all the other books I have on my shelves, or which I find in the library, or the local charity shops (my current home-town is sadly lacking in, for example, a Waterstones. The best we have is a small WHSmiths, which only seems to have the bestseller list).

Anyway, being currently furloughed means I have ample time to begin working my way through the thirty-odd titles which I have collected over the years but have not yet read. I’d say that’s one a day, but I expect more than one will need several sittings. And there will be days when I don’t read, for various reasons.

My actual TBR pile.

And then I can start again, once this is all over. Because then I will be able to justify the new collection as necessary.

How do you keep track of your TBR list?