My Desastrous TBR- Fiction

To watch the corresponding videos on YouTube, please click on the links below:

Part 1: Fiction: https://youtu.be/5FES66bhrNU

In this blog post, I examine one of the most dangerous places in any reader’s life: the TBR shelf (also known as the TBR pile). Like many book lovers, I keep acquiring wonderful books faster than I can read them. Over time, this has created what I can only describe as a disastrous TBR — a growing collection of books patiently waiting on my shelves to share their knowledge. One of my odd habits is that I don’t like to have unread books on my shelves. It does not bother me when it comes to other people’s libraries, but it bogues me here in my house.

Why do I have a TBR in the first place? Why not buy as I finish them? Do you experience the same thing? I used to not be like that. 5 years ago, my TBR counted 17 books. Today, as I wrap up the count, I have 86 novels and works of fiction so far. So, I hope writing this blog and filming the corresponding video will cause a wake-up call in me as to not purchase books anymore but read from my shelves.

Why don’t I read them? How did I get to such a big TBR pile? I see many reasons: 

1. I keep buying books-my fault
2. People keep offering me books- partly my fault, especially if they were on my Christmas list.
3. I don’t have as much time to read.
4. I have a bad perception of time
5. I am older and read more slowly
6. I want to take note, and it slows my reading.
7. I spend my evenings watching videos on YouTube of people talking about books, and it makes me want to buy their recommendations (i.e. Brandon Sanderson)
8. I have too mony projects going on at the same time and I get overwhelmed.

I am currently reading 10 books: 2 for work, 2 as research basis for the next book I plan to write this year (the outline is done, yay!), one is a devotional about classical music, one is on World War II history, and 1 by Esope, 1 audiobook. Plus, The New Testament in Its World and Unlocking the Bible (however, I do not read these books cover to cover, I read the chapters related to what I am currently reading/studying in the Bible. I keep a photocopy of the table of Contents and highlight things as I go)

As I went through the fiction books from my TBR, it includes: 

Classics:

• War and Peace, vol 1 and 2
• Jane Eyre
• The Empress of Ireland
• Crime and Punishment
• Le chercheur d’or
• The Scarlet letter
• A tale of two cities
• Arabella 
• Middlemarch
• Great expectations
• A little princess
• Robin Hood
• The wind in the willows
• The Wizard of Oz
• Le morte d’Arthur
• The odyssey
• Anderson’s fairy tales
• Grimm’s fairy tales
• Just so stories
• Greek myths
• Beowulf
• La planète des singes
• The pilgrim’s progress

Literary fiction: 

• Du sang au paradis
• Les 5 royaumes
• Mythology
• The little pilgrim’s progress
• Shakespeare and Marlowe
• Warriors 1
• North or be eaten
• Adventures in the wild
• The poisoned king
• Wings of fire vol 1
• The adventures of Sophie Mouse
• 12 books of How to train your dragon
• Just find me
• L’année des hyènes
• Before we say goodbye
• Before we forget kindness
• Chloe’s trip to the future
• The science of Discworld
• Nestor Burma: 11 novels in one book…
• Diary of a provincial lady
• The return of the shadow
• The treson of Isengard
• The war of the ring
• Sauron defeated

Authors whose works I return to year after year:

Guillaume Musso:

• Angélique
• Un appartement à Paris
• L’inconnue de la Seine
• La jeune fille et la nuit
• La vie est un roman

Marc Levy:

• The bookstore of the forbidden books
• Noa
• Le crépuscule des fauves
• It happened one night
• La symphonie des monstres

Christian Jacq:

• Sinouhé l’Egyptien

Patrick Modiano:

• None right now

Ernest Hemingway:

• For whom the bell tolls

Amélie Nothomb: 

• None right now

Paulo Coelho

• None right now

Some of these books have been sitting on my shelves for a long time, while others are more recent additions. 

In a nutshell, that’s too much. I should not have more than 2 books on my coffee table at once (not including the audiobook and the 2 I have only partially read), especially if I want to take notes and write an entry in my reading journal.

Do you have a TBR pile that keeps growing? Why could be the causes of this growing TBR pile? Or maybe you are a collector. What fiction book has been sitting on your shelf the longest?