I browsed through my Goodreads TBR list a couple of months ago to see what I wanted to buy with my Barnes & Noble birthday coupon. I ended up deleting several books from my list.
I’m not the same person I was when I added them to my TBR years ago. It doesn’t mean they’d necessarily be bad books. But my tastes have changed since then. My values have evolved. I’ve become more educated and therefore more discerning about the authors and books I pick.
A few years ago, parting with books from my TBR list would have induced major anxiety. Even with something so trivial as a digital list no one but me sees, I would have felt some sort of guilt. But what if that was an amazing book? What if I passed on my next new obsession? Does this make me a quitter to get rid of books to read?
It’s fine. Going back and looking at the books I once added that had piqued my curiosity showed me how much I’ve changed over the years. And being able to part ways with that virtual list also showed me how much I’ve grown. It sounds silly, but anxiety has a way of making mountains out of molehills.
There are so many stories to read out there, it would be impossible anyway to ever get through my TBR within my lifetime. So realistically, would I have ever gotten around to all those books I removed? Maybe I would have eventually picked a few of them up. But by now, if I were to read them, I would have done so already.
Going through those descriptions and realizing they no longer sparked an interest, I knew it was time to let them go. It’s best to make room for books and stories that speak to who I am now.
How do you curate your TBR list?
I have certainly evolved in the way I determine what books to read. In days of yore, I’d only read books that were at least 4 stars on Goodreads, and within my genre. But now, I give it a fair shot (say 10%) before determining if it’s for me. Sure, the blurb still needs to catch my attention in the first place, but I’m no longer bound by external reviews or my own biases. Sometimes I get pleasantly surprised, like the book Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow.