Once upon a time, I actually enjoyed having lots of books in my library. In fact, once upon a time I had about 600 books or more in my library, which was a room of its own in my apartment. 

Every book represented an opportunity to learn a new skill or to explore a fascinating world. I loved the idea of having a ready repository of so much knowledge. Heck, I loved showing off my library to visitors because my library was a reflection of my taste and knowledge. I wanted to show the world what a learned and cultured person I was.

But over time, this changed.

Now, I don’t enjoy having lots of books sitting on my shelves unread (or read, for that matter). I find a large book collection stressful. Here’s why:  

• I realise that I will never be able to read them all. Let’s face it, if one book takes me at least two days to read (and that’s a very optimistic), it will at least take me a year or more to read my TBR.  
• I’m reading books out of obligation. A lot of books in my TBR pile can be filed under the “meh” category. They sparked some curiosity in me, but not enough to make me want to read them immediately. Yet, I couldn’t put them in the donate pile because, sunk cost fallacy.
• Reading books that I do not enjoy is robbing me of time. That one hour spent on that meh romance novel could’ve been spent on building my author business.
• I’m reading too fast – I no longer savour my books because all I want to do is whittle down my TBR as fast as I can. Reading has become unenjoyable.  

Here’s my ideal reading scenario. I will only have 10 books in my TBR – maximum. I will borrow most of my books. Once I finish a book, I will either sell it or donate it. I have a few select books on my shelves that I treasure it was where I will refer to again and again.

Mind you, I’m not one of those minimalists who only want to own 33 pieces of clothing in my wardrobe or whatever.

What I want is a manageable TBR pile. I no longer want to feel pressured to rush through my books or to feel, each time I open my bookshelves, feeling abysmally guilty and thinking of each book as a wasted opportunity.

The best time to read a book is when you buy them, not years down the road when your reading taste has changed or when newer books beg for your attention.

That’s why I believe having a TBR more than 10 is a bit of a bad idea.

I want to be able to enjoy my reading again. I want to take my time with a book, spend weeks instead of mere days on them. A massive TBR is standing in the way of that.

How I’m reducing my TBR in 2020

The most sensible thing is to donate the lot. But I just couldn’t join the Marie Kondo club and give away unread books that no longer “sparks joy”.   

So here’s my strategy: I will give myself 50 pages before I decide to DNF (did not finish) it or continue.

I tried it before, and it worked wonderfully. One time, I actually went through 10 books in an hour with this method.) However, I realized that I actually need to schedule these read-throughs.

So my aim this year is to spend an hour each week to go through my TBR and take out the meh books from the pile and donate or sell them.

How about you? How many books do you have in in TBR? Do you feel stressed out by it? Do you have a strategy to whittle it down? Discuss below!