Last year I picked a color for each month and read books with that color spine from my shelves. It was a lot of fun and helped with not feeling overwhelmed with deciding what to read.

I’ve given up on ever getting my TBR to zero - there’s just too many great books! But I try to only buy 1 book for every 2 that I read, so that even when I go over it’s at least not getting bigger 😂

I find it useful to pick four or five books I want to read and pass on to a particular person. I pick a date to mail the book, and read it before that date. I make it a fun thing to look forward to by writing a note to the friend and getting the box ready to mail, so I just have to read the book and mail it.

what an awesome thorough list!

Another popular Booktuber video theme I like/find helpful for this is the 'try a chapter' tag, or variations on that. I'm very much a mood reader, and DO like having a large TBR so I have options, and have found some of the more ruthless methods dont work for me (in recent months I've read books I'd previously been toying with the idea of getting rid of bc I hadnt been in the mood for them then. They were perfect for what I was looking for now, though!). There's something about lessening the pressure, approaching your next book with more of a "let me start this and see if it's what I want now" vs "once i start this I will commit to it to the end, even if it's not what I'm looking for now, even if I have plenty of others waiting that might be better suited..". Then, if you know your usual needs and dealbreakers well, you can decide if a book you didnt love the start of is something you want to save for a different time or just get rid of. So I guess, basically, just combining DNF flexibility with your TBR. It makes going through them seem like less of a chore/task/obligation and really just embraces the lovely and plentiful possibilities a larger TBR provides.

@lanej.6458

3 жыл бұрын

I definitely implement that as well. My TBR is massive and being such a mood reader it’s hard to get rid of things unless I just absolutely know that a topic or synopsis or whatever is not at all interesting to me anymore.

@amy_harboredinpages8272

3 жыл бұрын

I've tried this a few times, and it just didn't work for me... I feel I need to finish what I start... It has lead to a few" hate reads"... and the ever present question as i gate read... "why can't i just DNF?!"

I am so happy to hear that you have been enjoying the bingo journey! I admire you so much and I absolutely love this channel and your own channel! It baffles me to know that you watch my videos!! I appreciate your support!! It means the world to me! Don’t mind me over here just fan girling a little bit lol!

@BookBreak

3 жыл бұрын

I love the bingo videos so much, you're awesome!

Also, I unhaul a book for each book I buy - either before I read it if I changed my mind, or after I am done and don't want to own it. I have a Little Free Library to stock. It's motivating to be a LFL Steward and ensure the books are there for others to enjoy.

Part of how I managed to get my tbr down was learning my reading habits and then admitting that I would never want to read certain books on my tbr. I do book stats, which helped me understand the approximate number of paper books I typically read in a year. I made myself a "DNF wizard" to help me decide if I should DNF a book. As a result of that and knowing what I don't like, I got better at DNFing. Then I did purges so I would unhaul books that felt more like I "should" read them than "want to" read (all to get that stress down). I also envisioned what I wanted my book buying/book life to be like with a small (1-2 book) tbr, and started implementing that - setting rules to stop buying many books at a time for example. I also decided that unread books in an electronic format would only get bought just as I was about to start reading them. That's basically my book buying philosophy now that I have reached that goal. Books get bought when I want to read them, as far as I can manage - it gets a bit difficult with physical books since I live far from a good bookshop. My goal for this year is to use the library more. And I can always buy physical books once I've already read a book from the library or electronically.

@BookBreak

2 жыл бұрын

Oooh tell me more about your DNF wizard!

@HomeWithMyBookshelf

2 жыл бұрын

@@BookBreak It's a Google sheets page where you answer questions about the book, and I have assigned the answers a value - positive for things indicating I DNF and negative for things counting against DNFing. The questions are things like "Do you like the writing?", "Are you frustrated?", and "Do you have the brain capacity for this book right now?". For audiobooks I have a question for whether I am enjoying the narration. At the bottom it gives you a number, and the higher the number, the more indication that you should DNF. Oh, I also have the percentage of the book you have read which gives a higher score if you are past the 15% mark (where I consider the "give it a chance" boundary to be). There is an optional question that just is "do you want to DNF", so this is mainly just a help to examine my own feelings about a book I am reading. Oh, and the questions have been tailored to me and what makes me feel not great about reading a book - like my dislike for creepy/scary stuff. Here's the link if you want to have a look/try it out: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11cbUBGRPV-8ktNR1jkcJXDdOp6-hjYGaQhJUd9wtZRY/edit?usp=drivesdk Please create a copy of it by choosing file>save copy before trying it out.

I need that dinosaur blouse

I have a huge TBR, I wrapped some older books but for the most part I’m a moody reader, read what I want at that moment.

Ooooo I will definitely try the tip with the random colours, such a cool idea!! Thanks Emma!!

I love balancing the books the most because it's so much less restrictive, as you can always pick not to buy books! I do a Bookcase of shame where i wrote down all the 300+ books i haven't read yet, and then color the titles as i read them. I don't buy books unless I've read at least a multiple of five. So for every five books, i can buy a new secondhand book. But I've been doing well so I've not been buying. I'm trying to "use what I have" as i can be a bit of a collector.

Awww, thanks guys! 🥺💖

Great video! And I love your top/dress in this 😍 my favourite tbr game is Caz from Cats and Camera’s Scrabble TBR, it’s so fun!

@amy_harboredinpages8272

3 жыл бұрын

I may have to check that one out!📚🤔

These are some great tips! It's always interesting seeing the tbr games, makes reading a lot more fun for booktubers (or at least it seems so!) I also wanna say that blouse is absolutely wicked and cool!

Oh wow I just saw this video and was shook to see myself hahaha! Turning your TBR into a game is definitely a fun way to pick what books you want to read. Sometimes I look at my shelves so uninspired but getting someone else in on your reading, even if they don't read themselves, is a good motivator. Great video!

That shirt 👌🏻

I just have such a massive backlog of books that I wanted to read that it makes wanting to read any new releases seem ridiculous so I want my TBR to go down so that I can focus on newer books 😂

@lanej.6458

3 жыл бұрын

Me too!!! I have hundreds on my TBR and I almost feel guilty reading new releases when I have books that came out in 2009 on my shelves. 🙄 We will get there!!

I would be scared to watch back through my old hauls haha I do need to start balancing my books though!

I’ve been feeling bad about my backlog of books from Book of the Month Club so I am using the upcoming Taylor Swift readathon and trying to match each prompt to one of those books.

@BookBreak

3 жыл бұрын

Great idea!

So helpful 🥰

Love to see Leynes mentioned - my favourite booktuber!

A very impressive list of creator's TBR games geared to bring those ever piling stacks of unreads into control! I'm considering one of them... but not the bingo as Kaylani does it because my hear rate rises as her stack grows... yet I can't stop watching. Maybe a jar of little tabs will work for me... hmm📚📚📚📚🤔

I'm "lucky" because I can't buy any books in my mother tongue (Hungarian) because I live in Austria and the borders are quite closed and I can't travel home so I have to read the books I have with me. It goes quite good and hopefully it will help when I have to move in a couple of months.

Lockdown has been helpful for me cause I buy so many of my books secondhand irl in charity shops hahaha

Don't play the wrapping game, this is so wasteful! I know asigning the numbers and do the random number generator isn't as much fun, but you cut make them into stacks and turn the spine towards wall, or yuse any other fun way, without wasting tonnes of wrapping paper (which is, in most cases, non-recyclable)!

@Nyledam89

3 жыл бұрын

You can always wrap with old newspapers to make it more environmentally friendly because I was thinking the same thing as you!

@IFeelTheDark

2 жыл бұрын

You could just reuse the paper on a book you unwrap to wrap the next book. It would just need to go onto a book of similar size. I agree though that just throwing away the paper and using a new 'square' for the next would be unnecessarily wasteful.

Great info😃

I love this video, and I also love your top. Please tell me where it's from.

@BookBreak

3 жыл бұрын

It's from Joanie!

@UsagiKuroChan

3 жыл бұрын

Queen 😁 asking the question i had

Just read one book at a time, with intense focus.