I know it’s hyperbolic, but it does feel that way to me when it comes to the books I have yet to start or finish reading. Yes, my to-be-read pile is indeed five years (or more) deep and a mile (or more) high.
For example, once upon a time I bought Book 1 by an author friend, with a great intention of reading the book. However, time flew by, and she has since completed the entire series before I barely started reading Book 1. The good news is that now I can binge-read her entire series. The bad news is that my TBR pile is stacked ever higher to the point that I’m going to need a whole year’s worth of vacation so that I can read all these books I wanted to read.
Speaking of unfinished things, life is like that sometimes. I can look back across my life and see a lot of “un” things, such as unfinished business. For example, for the last two decades, I’ve been meaning to clear out the basement of our house. We had old boxes in there filled with things we didn’t remember we had, college textbooks from the last century (literally), and things we could have thrown out or given away many years ago.
However, years rolled by, and two decades later, we still didn’t get around to it.
Well, we had a chance in the last two months to do our Vicennial Spring Cleaning. And clean we did. We emptied out the entire house into roughly three PODS and a UHAUL. The rest of it, we let them go. The saddest thing I had to do was to give away our practice piano on which my son has played for fourteen years through many piano competitions, but my hubby promised to get me another piano when we get to our next house.
So, yes, things left alone over here could end up growing five years deep and a mile high. Now, back to finding time to read those amazing books I can’t wait to read…
What about you? Do you have unfinished books you wanted to finish reading but haven’t? When do you think you’ll get to them? Or have you decided not to finish reading them, after all?
What books are you planning to read this summer? How about a free Christian beach romance ebook novel? If you haven’t read my Ask You Later (A Savannah Sweethearts Prequel), here’s your chance to download it for free via BookFunnel. Happy reading!
USA Today bestselling novelist Jan Thompson writes clean and wholesome multiethnic contemporary Christian romance with elements of women’s fiction, Christian romantic suspense with an air of mystery, and inspirational international thrillers with threads of sweet Christian romance. Join Jan's mailing list for her latest book news: JanThompson.com/newsletter
I have a huge personal library. When we were first married, my wife and I started creating a catalog of sorts for my book collection. We gave up after about 600 books (real, live paper books). I’m guessing that was somewhere between 50 and 75 percent of the whole. That was 30 years ago. I have continued to grow my collection since. Six or seven years ago, we started a Kindle library. That’s up over 1600 books now (and still growing). I’m pretty sure that we will both die before we could ever get through them all. Me and books is kind of like Imelda Marcos and shoes. Reading them is very nice but looking at the grand collection is a pleasure of its own. Is it too much to handle and store in our little town house? Absolutely. Do I want to clean house? Maybe, but not quite yet. I’m busy reading. :-)
I have a huge TBR on my kindle and on my shelf. I love books and I just keep collecting with no end in sight. I don’t start a book and not finish it though, unless it is on purpose. Very rarely does that happen though. If it does, it is because I couldn’t get into the book or I was trying a different type of book and it really wasn’t my thing (shifters is one I have not been able to get into and really enjoy). I love to read though. I definitely will not get through all the books I have, but it doesn’t stop me from getting more.
I have unfinished books waiting for me to get back into them when the time is right. I have a very few that I know I just won’t finish, (and yes, I should delete them.) And I have an awful lot that are just waiting to be read!! Blame Kindle!! It’s oh so easy to stockpile books on my device!! Lol. At least I know I’m not alone in this!! I am trying to be more selective in my buying now, so if I have doubts about whether I’ll like the book I’ll probably not get it. However I will automatically buy all my favourite authors’ stories. Their work is tried and true.
I have a treasure chest of books that is officially at capacity. I took my cedar chest that held blankets, found space in a closet for the blankets, and emptied out the chest for the purpose of using it for my TBR. One more book and the lid won’t close properly. I could use a year of reading to catch up as well. And even though I shouldn’t, I keep adding books to the TBR.
I have a bookcase and 2 baskets of TBR books.
I think I’ve been reading almost every day of my life since I learned to read at age 5 or 6. Now that I’m a writer, my time is limited, although I still read a few pages every night before bed.
Years ago, I had a part-time job at the library. My favorite task was to check in books, because we were allowed to check out (for ourselves) any book that caught our fancy. Well, plenty of books caught my fancy! I usually took at least a couple home with me after every shift and added them to my TBR pile on the floor next to my bed. When it reached 27 (!), I decided to return most of them and check them out again when I had the time to read them.
I’m a huge supporter of libraries. I hardly ever buy a book, but if I do, or if one is given to me as a gift, I donate it to my library when I’m done reading it. I don’t want them to gather dust on my shelf if they can be out there giving joy to other readers.
I have about 60ish actual paperbacks to read, and over 3K on my Kindle. I read over 200 books last year, and am already on my 109th this year. Most of the books I read now are ARC’s, and of course the ones I read as proofreader. I’ll eventually get to all of the books! As my older sister said one time, she and I aren’t happy if we don’t have books waiting for us to read!
My TBR pile is virtual so it’s easier to deal with.
I usually finish reading what I start, but I do have plenty of books that I have to start reading. Have a Great weekend and stay safe.
My TBR pile is hopeless, and I keep adding to it! I’ll never finish all the books I have both physical & on my Kindle. :-) But that’s okay because I know I’ll never run out of reading material. I just hope that heaven has a library….LOL!
Great title! I actually managed to pare down my physical book TBR to about a
year’s worth! But my Kindle? That’s a whole nother story!!!
Congrats on the move! How exciting. Are you going far?
Wow. You have more books than we have. In fact, since we’re downsizing our empty nest, hubby and I had to make the tough decision to take boxes and boxes of novels to the thrift shop because it would cost too much to rent another POD. Plus, we’re reducing our stuff by 50%. Thank God for ebooks! However, I did keep some classics AND my BIBLES!
LOL re: Imelda. She did have lots and lots of shoes, according to the news of yesteryears!
Yes, clean house vs read books. Hmm… Tough call! You know, audiobooks are not the same as paper books!
Thank you for your comment! Have a wonderful weekend in the Lord!
Back when I had more time to visit the local public library, I would literally read the first paragraph standing there by the shelves before I check out the book. We get to check out 70+ books at a time, but I could only carry so much in my tote bag. :-) So if the first paragraph didn’t grab me, I didn’t check out the book.
I’ve tried reading other genres I don’t usually read, and I hate to say that most of the time, I couldn’t get through the books. Sometimes, I do discover new genres I can read. So it does happen.
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IKR! I used to read a whole lot of Christian historical romance, and yes, I’d borrow every single book my favorite authors wrote. Sometimes I didn’t look past the cover. As soon as I saw their names, I put the books on hold, and the library notified me when the books were available for me to check out. Because I read so much, I had to get the books from the library, or else my piggy bank would break LOL. Those were the days before Kindle and ebooks.
These days, when there’s a sale, I would buy a bunch of books on my Kindle app too. Unfortunately, it could be over a year or more before I got to the books — if I still remember having bought them. The good news about Amazon is that it tells me if I have already bought the book and WHEN. Sometimes I am surprised — when the books are on sale again and Amazon tells me I bought the ebook in 2015. LOL!
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Wow! That’s nice to have a cedar chest of books because the cedar would protect those books. I bet the books are in pristine condition.
IKR re: TBR. Sigh. Last week I bought more ebooks BUT I really need to read those I already bought. Sometimes authors say that readers read faster than they could write. Well, in my case, I read slower than authors could churn out book after book after book!
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Amazing! Do you do some sort of spring cleaning every now and then? I have a box of TBR that I didn’t get around to. Sometimes I would look through the box and decide what I really want to read, what I might want to read, and what I no longer have any interest in reading. The third pile, I send to the thrift shop to bless another reader. Most of the time I paid full price for those books.
Some day, I will clear a book case and order all my own books in paperbacks and put them on the shelves. :-)
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It is wonderful that you donate to the library. I love our libraries here. The county runs a bunch of libraries and they are all interconnected. Books on hold can come from any of the branches, so they reach patrons more quickly because of the many copies in circulation. I can also return books to any of the branches even if I did not check out from that branch.
One of the things I am now asking my readers to do is to ask their libraries to shelve my paperbacks. I hope that will give more readers the opportunities to read my books.
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Wow. 3K is more than my ebook TBR. I lost track after maybe 500 books LOL.
That I wonderful that you read so many books last year. When when I wasn’t writing as much as I do now, I don’t think I read over 150 books. Or maybe I did, I can’t remember since it’s been a while ago. Nowadays It’s hard for me to count bc ebooks are not so “stackable” visually.
Yes, I agree with your sister! More books, please!
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I have thousands of books on my kindle. I don’t think I’ll ever get to read them all.
Yes, virtually easier sort and search through also!
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Quote of the day!
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LOL! Yes to never running out of books to read. Also when you go on vacation, you can take the whole library with you!
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Thank you! Wow, how did you reduced your paper TBR one year? I tried and it was so hard that I ended up not doing anything about it for 20 years LOL and then I had to really do surgery on the piles of books!
Not too far — maybe 8-10 hours of driving away. Hubby will drive the UHAUL and haul our little car, and I will drive the SUV with the cat. I do worry about traveling with the cat. But I will consider it to be novel research LOL!
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Haha! I hear you! I don’t think I will get to them either. I think there is a limit on how many books we can store on our Kindle app, but I must not have reached it yet LOL.
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I am with you with a lot of books to read, but have not done so yet. I hope to be able to read them at sometime. Hopefully in the future. God bless you.
I’m reading a book right now but have a lot of things to do so I read it when I have time. I will read it within the month for sure. I always finish what I’m reading.
I have a saga of clean fantasy youth books to read in the closet, I am going to project gutemberg to read Grace Livingston Hill that I discovered recently because of my age and I need to finish reading some Jane Austen books (I have not found Mansfield Park in Spanish in the bookstores its edition is more scarce than others of its books), I also have like 1000 downloaded books to read (I usually hunt legal pages in Spanish from where to get free books they are an excellent place to find some very old that I no longer know print) I am testing ancient Christian romance authors (like Lori Wick) and secular writers like Anya Seton, Victoria Holt or Barbara Cartland who wrote without sex scenes, I am equally curious about the romantic gothic genre of the 60s and the romance books of the 50 and of course! Many authors of historical and fantasy Christian romance to read, juvenile and contemporary. Hahaha I will never end if we add my love to Japanese manga and comics or webtoons (there are some nice and clean) because I will never finish hahaha.
Yep, I’m in the same boat….so many great stories!
And I will clean those boxes in the office … ONE DAY ;)
Hi Jan,
Yes, I have so many books on my TBR Planet! I have a couple of ones I’ve started but haven’t finished. I have a couple I only listen to while I’m walking. It really is crazy. But now that I’m retired I’ll have more time to read! YAY!
God bless you too!
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I have also tried to finish what I enjoy reading, and if the novel is really good, I might save the book and read it again later.
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Wow! I hear you about the many books we can find to read. Mansfield Park is a bit rare, I think. I hope you can find the Spanish edition. I have read most of Jane Austen’s books except maybe Lady Susan. I have also watched some of the movie and TV adaptations.
So many books to read, so little time, yes? I hope you and I can get to all the mountains of books we want to read!
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Some day! Same :-)
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Hooray for more time to read! Congratulations on your retirement and new adventures to come!
When my son went off to college, I was like, woweee now I can do all the things I didn’t have time for. Alas, it turned out that being an empty nester is busier for me than when we had a full nest. So I am adjusting and working on my schedule so that I can get to all the things I need to do plus exercise and stay healthy so that I can continue to read and write for years to come, Lord willing.
Thank you for your comment!