Tips and Tricks for A Zero TBR
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มิ.ย. 2016
- I hope you guys enjoy this video and can take something on from it!
Tips below:
Tip 1: 50 Page Rule
Tip 2: Re-purchase test
Tip 3: Hauling your own books
Tip 4: Seeking positive influencers
Tip 5: Dynamic TBR shelves and my 1 month cut off.
You can also find me on social media if that is your thing:
Goodreads: / portal-in-the-pages
Instagram: portalinthepages
Twitter: @Portal_Pages
Thanks my TBR is now down to 534 books!!
I love having a small TBR. A couple of weeks ago the family of my boyfriend came over and his Grandma asked me, when I was planning to read all those books on my shelves, and I prowdly responded, that I have in fact read almost all of them. But I have a long virtual TBR-list. So when I see interesting books, I usually don't buy them, but I put them on a wishlist. That really helps. On that list there are more than 100 books that I could as well have bought. But honestly, with them on that list, you feel when you lose interest in certain books, and you can just throw them off the list and it's no big deal. If you have them on your shelf you have already invested in them and you might be forcing yourself to enjoy them.
Also what really helps me with being excited about the books that I own - I only keep the good ones, or at least I try. Whenever a book was a bit meh, I sell it or donate it. That way all the books in my shelf really make me happy and I get more excited to read the books that are on my shelf instead of just buying new ones all the time. :)
I have a very similar thing with mine, my friend will pick something up and ask if I've read it and I'll tell them if it's on a shelf then yes, I've read it. I think I do a similar thing with my goodreads and am less likely to buy a book based o a single good recommendation than I used to be.
I'm not a big re-reader, but I am a little bit of a book collector. If I really disliked a book I'll try and find someone I think might enjoy it but I tend to keep most of what I have read.
I just want to let you know that even though this video is over 6 years old I continue to come back to it for inspiration on my ongoing read my TBR small TBR challenge. Thankyou for this.
I feel like this video is going to save me. I don't think a zero TBR would be for me, but I do want to cut down on my unread books anyway. I really, really like the idea of swapping books around, hiding them and that sort of thing. I find that when I rearrange my shelves every few months that I suddenly want to read different books!
Haha! This made me smile. That is true, I think even if you don't want to have none it can be good to try to reduce every now and again.
That is exactly why I began to experiment with moving and hiding books. Seeing them in a new physical location always changed my approach to those books.
That's really incredible that you got through all your books. I have hundreds of books I haven't read, so your tips are very appreciated. I think giving each book 50 pages is especially helpful for me.
+All the Shelves thank you! It did take almost all year mind.
Best of luck with reducing that pile and I really needed that rule personally!
I envy your lack of a TBR! I've found the greatest way not to let books pile up and get the most out of your new acquisitions is to read them right away, while you still have an interest in them. I have books from 2+ years ago that I was excited about when I purchased them, but back then I felt guilty for reading new books rather than the ones already in my TBR pile. Now that I'm reading new books as they come in I find I'm enjoying my reading life a lot more! Now I just need to read all the old stuff in between, haha.
That is pretty much what I ended up figuring out too. I don't have a completely 0 TBR all the time, but always 15 or less at any one time. (That is about the maximum I can read in a given month.) :)
I needed this video. Great stuff. I need to put my purchasing on hold and use your 50-page rule. Also, I feel short story collections don't have to be read 100% to count as off the TBR list. I read at least 3 stories at a time.
The 50 page rule can be a lifesaver! I agree, there are some non-fiction books that I count also even if they aren't 100% read.
Great tips, Sophie. I've stopped buying books and trying to get my TBR down from 80 to 30 before I purchase any more books
I started reading properly around Feb last year. By end of last year, I looked at my TBR and realised 27 of them were bought in the first half of the year. The TBR at that point was a little over 40, so most of them were from 6-10 months earlier. Around December, I brought in a rule to rotate my reading, meaning I was reading a book from the first half of the year every second book, and one from the second half of the year every second book. Now that the middle of this year is near, it's a three-way rotation. So atm, I am reading one I got 2nd half of last year. The next read will be a book I got this year, and the read after that will be one I got first half of last year. By using this rotation, I have lowered the 27 from first half of last year down to 14 so far.
That's a very good system. Toward the beginning of my 0by16 I did something similar, I allowed myself one 'this month or the month before' purchase and one '12 months or older' book in tandem. That helped my motivation a great deal as I saw my shiny newest books as a little bit of a reward.
Brilliant advice. Thank you. Xxx
I hope they work for you if that's one of your aims!
This video is gold, so many good ideas! I know for a fact strict book buying-bans don't work for me, similar to other things in my life complete forbiddance makes me want to break the rules so I am definitely with you on that one. I especially like your tip on moving your books around - I've never thought about this but it makes total sense to me, and I will definitely be doing this (as well as the other things) going forward. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I am exactly the same. I spend the entire time pining in this state of semi-purgatory which is entirely unhelpful. Best of luck with reducing your TBR. :)
Great tips! I'm working on trying to shrink my TBR to 10 or less... some of these tips will really help!
Thank you! I hope that they work for you and best of luck in that aim. I'm sure that you can do it.
Hey Sophie - I just wanted to say that you're my favorite booktuber, and that I absolutely love your content (I actually linked to one of your reviews in my own first video :) ). The advice in this video is SO necessary for me - I have constant TBR guilt in the back of my brain.
Thank you! That is so sweet of you. I've really glad that you enjoy the channel and hopefully you get the chance to implement some of these tips! I know that TBR guilt so well.
This is great! I got down to a zero TBR last year and I've maintained it. I have unread ebooks but no unread physical books. These are great tips and some I've used with great success.
Thank you. I'm glad to see that you have used some independently and found them of use. Bodes well for the working for more that just me. Congratulations on the 0 TBR too. It's a real accomplishment.
Sometimes I think you can reach the 100 page mark and be really immersed
Such great tips! My TBR is about fifty books strong at this point - definitely going to try your advice!
Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed them and I hope that they help you out. :)
Thank you for this video, I'm going to try to do some of the things you mentioned
My pleasure. Let me know if they do work out for you?
I love this idea!!! I have so many TBR books, mostly because I was given a lot of books in the past years, but not necessarily books that I chose. I'm definitely going to try this out ^^
Good luck! I imagine it's even more difficult to parse books you will like from those you haven't chosen!
That is the big problem... I think I'm going to organize my shelfs like a bookstore, and just browse about. Hopfelly that will work out...
That sounds like great fun.
Initial thought - why would I want a zero TBR?! I think I'd panic, haha
I'm failing hard right now. I have a 24 book TBR right next to me. Oh well.
This is such a great video! I recently realized how many unread books are on my shelves when I did the book buying tag and decided I'd like to get my tbr down to 20 books, though I think your video has inspired me to try and get to zero! I'll definitely have to use some of these tips as I whittle down my tbr :-)
That's awesome! All the best with getting your TBR down to a manageable state. :)
I love your tip about giving in to the new book excitement and reading the books you just hauled first! It's very true that excitement is really important in reading and that it wanes over time. WHEN - let's be optimistic - I get to a 0 physical TBR, I'm most excited to be able to buy 5 books on topic X because I'm really interested in that topic at the moment and to be able to read all 5 right then, rather than read one and have the others become less interesting over time :)
Believe me that is the best thing about a 0 TBR. Hands down. I love it and I think it's really helped me to gain a more in-depth picture of the topic I'm drawn to. It also leads to more tangential reading. So for me The Man Who Closed The Asylums went to Better went to The Emperor of All Maladies. And I enjoyed all three. Best of luck and keep on going lovely!
This is such a good and helpful video! I don't really have, what is considered, a big TBR shelf. I now have 25-30 books on there. But for me, that does feel like a lot, and I want to have it down to 10-15. So what I did to start getting there, was set mysef the challenge to read 10 books on my TBR before buying any new ones. I've now almost completed that challenge and it feels really good! I did fail a bit though, because after 8 books, I did cave in and bought a book haha. But now I just make myself finish those last two before reading the new ones.
What I'm going to try to do in the future is get my TBR under 20 and read more books than I buy each month, so my TBR can only go down in numbers instead of up.
I agree with what you say; it doesn't work to make yourself read only from your tbr, because reading still has to be fun and you have to give yourself the freedom to pick what you want to read next!
I'm going to try your 50 page rule with a few books that have been on my shelves for too long! It might make me really excited to read them!
I'm glad that you enjoyed it! I completely understand that feeling, I have 13 on mine at the moment and it feels like so many.
I tried that challenge in the past but I'm too weak-willed I'm afraid. Always caved and bought a load in one go.
That is a good plan. I am at the stage where I buy only what I should be able to read in one month (though I think I'll run over this month because I'm a bad human.)
I hope the 50 page rule works for you, it was a lifesaver for me.
I own about 80 books that I haven't read, but I don't read more than 30 per year 😬
This year I've made a pile of the 20 books I'm most excited for on my night stand. So hopefully I'll stay excited and also don't forget that they exists. Unfortunately I'm absolutely a mood reader and I'm way too often in the mood for a re-read, which surprisingly doesn't shrink my tbr 🤦♀️😂
Thanks for doing this video Sophie! This has been really helpful :)
I find it incredibly difficult to DNF books, because I like to be able to say that I've 'read' a book, if that makes sense? But maybe I should start employing the 50 page rule... it might make my life a lot easier!
I'm glad that you enjoyed it. :) I am the same. I feel a stupid sense of loyalty towards a book I once thought was worth buying. I knew I'd never let myself DNF books without some sort of marker. 50 pages worked for me.
Great video! I love mixing my books up on the shelf to get me excited to pick up the older titles :)
Thank you! It works so well doesn't it?
Yes it does! I'm constantly moving things around and surprising myself with books I forgot I had :) well done for getting your TBR so low, I think mine is around 120 books!
Wow! 120 is rather a lot but how exciting to have so many things to dive into right at your house. :)
Not as many as some people though so I don't feel too bad about it :)
+shoutame Never feel bad about it. Books are only a good thing.
I saw book about H. H. Holmes on the shelf, yaayyy!!!
You've got to love true crime. :)
So nice and mindful of you, giving the book away in lieu of hocking it at sone used book store. Slaìnte.
really interesting tips, thanks for sharing ;)
+juozas kasiulis My pleasure. I'm glad you enjoyed them. 😊
More than 60% of my books are on my TBR, but I never felt pressured, I just feel like there are too little time.... And over-buying is definitely a problem for me too😂😂. Good tips
Wow, that is an impressive TBR. I'm jealous that it doesn't pressure you in any way as it would be lovely to be able to have so many books to dive into!
I don't want to get down to zero books, but I do want to reduce my tbr, which currently consists of round about 40 books. I think 6 - 10 books would be the optimal amount of unread books on my shelf. I like to have a few books from different genres to choose from whenever I feel like it. :)
The 50 page rule and being allowed to read new books from time to time really helps me alot! Plus a list of my TBR hanging on my pinboard, on which I get to cross off the books I managed to read. It feels so great to cross off one book at a time! :D
Best of luck in reducing your TBR, you've not got too many to go to make your goal. I agree, I need a few to chose from at any one time and I like knowing that I get a little bit of a choice each time I pick a book up.
I'm glad that those tips help you too and I used to keep a TBR jar. Seeing that go down was really useful to me.
I will mostly use that first tip!! Thank you so so so much for this video! I'm desperate to reduce the numbers of books I have on my shelves to be read and only own the ones I loved to read! :)
I'm glad that you enjoyed it! And the first tip really helped me with a lot of my older books and my 'whim' books. (That I bought just because and didn't really have any prior knowledge of.) That's a great goal too, a truly well loved library.
I've got tons of those since I'm really into classics and I don't like to know much abour my books a priori! I end up buying every classic I find... When I manage to achieve that goal, I'll be able to travel with my books from house to house and share them properly, without getting lost in the way of so many... That'd be a dream for me! More than having thousands of books! :)
I am a bit of a mood buyer. I'll see it and like one element and then goddam it I have bought the thing.
That would be lovely. My dream is towering piles of thousands that I have read but I do see the appeal of a more minimalist goal.
I'm that kind of buyer as well!! :P Usually it's the author that makes me buy the books!
I can also understand your perspective because I used to have the same one for years!
I don't think a zero TBR is a challenge I want to do, but I still enjoyed your tips. I definitively overbuy books, and I don't really mind that I do, but I have so many great books waiting on my shelves that I really should make more of an effort to get to them.
I'm glad you liked it even if a zero TBR isn't your goal. And yes! Get to those wonderful, neglected books. :)
I would be sad without my TBR pile. I love having a huge TBR that I can peruse & choose whatever strikes my fancy.
Of course a minimalist TBR really isn't for everyone! I didn't like having less than 5 personally but more than 20 really stresses me out. Each to their own. :)
I'd like to make my tbr a little smaller, right now it is at thirty, and this wouldnt be something i mind except i really love to reread books and right now i feel pressure to read new ones instead of rereading some that i love. I'd like to lower the number by maybe 10-15, so that i feel comfortable alternating between new reads and rereads again.
I understand that. I find it much much harder to 'justify' rereads to myself if I have a large tbr. Good luck!
On this month i hittes more than 100 books on my tbr - i have no more space to store them and quite frankly i want to get to them - even to those who are sitting on my shelf for almost 10 years - my son's age - and be donne with them, reading or getting ridd of them. I will try to put some of them in to action. Thank you very much.
That is a fair amount, I hope you have a great time reading them all. It's my absolute pleasure.
That's funny what you said about re-igniting your interest in a book you've had for a while. I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago about my favorite movie (Contact) and how I've had the book for a while but had not finished it. Telling her the differences between the two made want to dig the book out and finish it. After I tackle the Game of Thrones books which she convince to read.
It is interesting isn't it? Whenever someone asks me about House of Leaves I have an almost overwhelming desire to go out and pick it up. I'm not there with Game of Thrones either I'm afraid. Four down.
I would of thought those books would have be no problem to you.
Made it through a few and enjoyed them but haven't been motivated enough to go out and buy the others.There is just so much hype and spoilers around the series for me now it's lost any appeal.
Do you not feel guilty ditching a book at 50 pages? I just feel like I might miss out on something and tell myself that it's just a slow burner. Sometimes this is the case and it leads to me loving a book after the 50 page mark, though granted other times I've got annoyed with the fact that I continued.
Loving the rest of the tips though, such a great video full of amazing advice :)
I don't want a zero TBR, but I definitely do need to sort it out a bit because I've got so many books on my TBR right now, it's just ridiculous.
Everyone is different but for me 50 pages is enough to know if I am interested or if the book is being a bit of a drag. If I was curious or hopeful, I kept going, otherwise it went! It's not for everyone but it really helped me. Best of luck with reducing your TBR and I'm glad you enjoyed the other tips. :)
This happened to me with Beartown. It's a long book and I wasn't totally invested in it because I found it really slow. However, it was my book clubs pick for that month so I had to keep going. After about halfway, which was definitely more than 50 pages, I ended up loving and devouring the book! I think I ended up giving it 4 stars. If I had stopped at 50 pages, I would never have known how great that book was! If the book is 400+ pages I feel like 50 is way too few to give a book a fair shot. 100 is more reasonable
Kirsty's Reviews I always read the first 100 pages.
It's really inspiring to know that someone has actually managed to tackle with all of the books in their TBR. To me you sound like a magical being to being able to do that, hah. Also it makes me think that I really want to try it too instead just hauling.
+Petra U. It's not magic I promise! It's just sticking at it as a goal over time I think. :)
You shoukd give it a shot! See what you think of the exercise at least.
My current strategies are: Being honest about books I lost interest in and can "unhaul" and tackling my tbr in small chuncks, while hiding the rest and being able to buy new books or downnloading free ebook classics that need to be read immediately. As long as I only have a few unread books on hand that I am excited about I can piece by piece shrink the overall pile. :)
My goal would be at about 0-5 unread books. Not sure how many I have at the moment. Probably about 40? Need to count when I am at my parents house over christmas.
I like these plans and I think your happy medium is pretty much where mine would sit too. :)