TBR Stress and How to Relieve It

For anyone who doesn’t know TBR is a bookish term, an abbreviation for To Be Read and TBR stress is a very real thing. As someone who doesn’t have a lot of self control, I usually have a decent sized stack of books that I need to read. Ranging from about 50 books (being the lowest amount of unread books I’ve had since being able to choose what I spend my money on) and 200 which is roughly the highest amount I’ve had in total in the past and while it’s true, you can never have too many books, sometimes having a larger amount can be quite stressful.

When I was on the higher scale of unread books I used to have a lot of reading slumps where I wouldn’t read anything at all and that certainly doesn’t help make the TBR pile go down. So my goal is to eventually keep my unread pile at a max of 50 (I can’t imagine not having a decent pile, so as much as I would love the freedom of not having one and being able to go buy a book and read it straight away, it would probably cause me more stress) so I don’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of books I haven’t read yet. When I have been feeling overwhelmed it’s led me to cause some very hasty and occassionally regretul decisions by unhauling a bunch of books so I feel better and it has helped sometimes but most of the time I’ll end up getting rid of a book that I actually really want to read and I have to buy it again anyway.

So my advice for if you are feeling the weight of TBR stress is:

1) Do not make hasty decisions even for the temporary peace it brings. Take a minute and really think about it if you do want to get rid of a book.

2) Ask a friend to help you unhaul, I often get my best friend to assist in an unhaul as we have the same tastes in books and she will usually be able to tell me if I should keep a book or not.

3) See what other people’s TBR’s are like. If you think you have a large TBR then there is usually going to be someone with an even larger one. A few years ago one of my friends had a TBR of 400. FOUR HUNDRED! That’s a bit crazy even by my standards. (Also your list of books you haven’t bought yet will more often than not always be longer than the books you have bought, that little bit of information always makes me feel better).

4) Take your mind off books for a while. If you have another hobby you enjoy, spend some time doing that or you could rewatch a favourite movie or tv show which is what I tend to do and usually does the trick.

5) Remind yourself of all the adventures you have awaiting you, there’s nothing better than knowing you always have a new adventure to go on when you’re done with the last one.

6) Pick a shelf and put 10 books that you want to read the most out of your TBR on there. That is now your TBR shelf, the rest that you own are still there but try to let them fade into the background.

7) Think of your TBR shelves as a wine cellar, you’re collecting them to have in the right time, in the right place and to fit the right mood.