What to do when your TBR pile is bigger than your TBR appetite?
I have a teeny problem. My teeny problem is growing into a huge problem and I need some advice peeps!
As you all know I went to BEA and brought home some books, then the lovely folks at Candlewick, HarperTeen, Razorbill, Scholastic, and Little Brown sent me some lovely books that I did want ever so much.
I also have some books I bought, I am really into Hist Fic (which I don’t review a lot) and those awesome Bind-ups that Simon and Schuster are putting out. I have them all, I buy them whenever I see them.
Now my problem is, when can I get to them? These lovely books I bought. As my blog has grown so has my review pile and oh I am so not ungrateful at all. I just want some advice on how to balance it all. October is going to be a really rough month and that is if I get through August and September.
The problem with me is I am a mood reader. I have been physically restraining myself from books like Clockwork Angel and Beautiful Darkness to keep up with my schedule. I have books I bought like the Fallen bind up from S&S that I feel I am never going to get to.
What do you do to balance pleasure and review? Tell me I am drowning here.
By: Vasilly
What about if you read a TBR book then a review book and go back and forth that way? I’m a moody reader too so sometimes I end up reading a book way before a review is due for it. I know that if I wait until later, I probably won’t be in the mood to read the book and resent having to read it.
Is there any way you can change some of your review dates to a later time?
By: Shanyn
I set a number of review books I want to read in a week. And I base it on how busy I am that week – for instance, this week my goal was 3 review books. If I finish those 3, then I read a pleasure book!
When I’m not in the mood to set goals, or have no idea what sort of goal to set, I have shelf with my review books – on the end of that shelf I have a few pleasure books that I’m really looking forward to reading. When I need to choose my next book to read, I look at that shelf – sometimes a pleasure book wins, sometimes a review book does. Can depend on if I’m having a good or bad day, what I just read, what publishers I have talked to recently.
Key is to never force myself to read a book I really don’t want to – more often than not I take my resentment out on the book, which is not fair!
By: April (Books&Wine)
This is the story of my life. If you count BEA as review books, I have over 100 review books. Then we include books that come in the mail. OH, and my owned TBR which is over 800 books. So holy jeepers I can relate. I deal with it probably in an immature way. If I have requested a book for review, then obviously I am dying to read that book, so I read that one regardless of release day. If the release date is much later, then I will schedule the review to go up later. Often, my reading outpaces my reviewing, so if I can get a few reviews pre-scheduled, then I will take the time that those reviews are up to read for pleasure. The books I pleasure read are books my blog readers would be interested in, I think. If they fall outside my normal reviewing genre, I’ll still post a review, since I read for me, not the people who read a blog. I won’t let someone cow me into not posting a review of a book because it’s not in my ‘niche’.
You could even say to yourself for every 5 review books you read and review, you are allowed a guilt-free pleasure book. I know if you read a book that you immensely enjoy that might not be a shiny new book and review it, we’ll still be interested in reading the review. Really, it can be hard to balance, but I think it best to give yourself permission to read whatever your inclination takes you.
By: Gwen
I am in the same boat right now with 20 books to read by August 21st and that doesn’t even count the the ones that I need to read for later dates or they haven’t made it to my doorstep yet.. I have instituted a buying and borrowing ban for the next month or so to try and help.
By: S.F. Robertson
I know your pain. This fall is insane! I say littles like attempting to eat healthy. You can’t go entirely without treats. (If you can then you must not be human.)
You can do your best to eat salad and grilled chicken and yogurt, but sometimes you NEED chocolate or cheesecake or whatever your vice is. The same is true with reading.
Find the power to plow through your TBR with some pretense of order, but occasionally take a detour into your super-secret stash of books you’re really itching to get to.
Sate the craving and slay the beast…
By: Erica
I have a pattern where I read 2 review books then a book I want. I have so many books I want to read that aren’t just review books, so I figure that’s a good balance.
By: Shesten (I Heart Monster)
I tend to read what I’m in the mood for, that way, I’m not hating on a book I have been sent to review because I wasn’t in the mood for it. I’d rather give a fair review a few days later than anticipated than an unfair one on the schedule.
By: Elisabeth ~ Babbette
I so feel your pain. My TBR pile has grown exponentially faster than my pace of reading. I’ve had to force myself to not look for or accept review copies for just a while until I can get things back to a reasonable number.
BTW, I love your rotating blog roll! Is that a widget specific to Word Press?
By: Pam
Elisabeth, My husband created that. It is a complex code and requires FireFox plug ins to get the images that long. I can tell you more if you are interested.
By: katiebabs
Welcome to my world! And yet I want more.
How about you read by genre? Read 3 books in one genre and then move on? I tend to do that when my TBR pile wants to eat me.
By: Jennifer
I have absolutely no idea, but it sounds as though we have fallen down the same rabbit hole. If you find an answer I would like to know. It is supposed to be a family weekend, my head is killing me and I have 3 books to read. I am ever so grateful for the books, I want to read the books, yet family comes first, but I gave my word. See? Right now I wold like to go lie down in a dark, cool room and pray the pain goes away and that is not going to happen either. We shall not even go into the shelves of my own books I have not been near. Please drop me a note if you find an answer.
By: Amy
If you saw my June wrap-up post, and if you see July’s tomorrow, you will see what I’ve done to keep up now that I have review books. I’ve been a reading fiend and have dropped a lot of things to get extra reading in! Unfortunately though most of my reading these days is review books which makes it hard to get to the tbr books that I buy for myself. I can’t seem to figure out how to juggle them. I read review books whenever I can and then fit in my own tbr as my mood reads when I need them.
By: Melissa (Betty and Boo Chronicles)
This may or may not be helpful, especially from someone who doesn’t get offered many review books anyway, but I’m on kind of a self-imposed review books hiatus. Just a little break while I try and catch up on library books (which have become my downfall recently).
But I agree with the others who suggested to read what you are in the mood for, and to perhaps see if you can review some of your books later.
Good luck!
By: Donna S
I am a moody reader too. While I just got my first book for review, what I have done in the past with books I buy, won or borrowed was alternate. It worked great.
By: Trisha (@Trish422)
I’m in the same boat, so I can’t really offer any advice. Right now I have so many books to review that I can’t even make a decision on what to read. It’s like an overwhelming barrier for some odd reason.
By: Catherine (@CatherineHaines)
What I normally do is once I’ve read a certain number of “to review” books, I go over to “pleasure” reads while I catch up, so the books are fresher in my mind when I do write them (rather than having, like, seven books read and waiting).
By: Gwen (@chewdigestbooks)
testing
By: heidenkind (@heidenkind)
I’m not sure I can help you with that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I can’t–I have the same problem. But since I’m a Bad Blogger, I just read whatever I want when I want to. If I get to it, I get to it; if I don’t, I don’t. Then I do a book purge every few months and call it good.
You should read Clockwork Angel and Dangerous Creatures right now. Seriously, Pam, life is to short to read books on a schedule.
By: Jenn's Bookshelves
I think we’re all in the same boat! What I do is for every two review books I read, I read a book from my TBR pile. Now, in some cases that might also be a review book and other times it’s not. The bottom line is, you shouldn’t give up books you want to read in favor of review books. Make time to fit in those books you want to read, even if that means postponing the reading of a review book. It’s worth it!
By: Serena (@SavvyVerseWit)
I’m a mood reader in summer. What I’ve found is that its easiest to commit to very few tours in the summer and to read books I want to read at that moment. So far it has worked well for me. I’ve been reading TBR books, library books, older review copies, and newer tour books. It’s been a good variety and for the most part the books have coincided with my mood.
Lately, I’ve tried to tell authors and publishers that I’ll review the book around the release date, which can either be a in the month of, prior, or after publication…giving myself literally a three-month window. I was getting too stressed when I was committing to specific dates and then the mood hit that I didn’t want to read the book.