I Don’t Want a Physical TBR Anymore! (Why I got rid of most of my unread books!)

Hey everyone! I’m back with a new post! I wanted to post about something I’ve been going through lately in my reading life. If you’ve been following my previous posts, you’ll know that I’ve been dealing with reading slumps/reading problems for a while. I recently came to the conclusion as to why all of this has been happening. I think it’s because of stress. Why am I stressed exactly? I’ll tell you why! It’s because my physical TBR was so big! Here’s how my big physical TBR has affected me lately:

1. I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed by all of my unread books. I’m a much slower reader now, than I was years ago. Because of that, getting through my physical TBR has been taking forever, so I’ve been feeling stressed out, and have been feeling like I’m not making any progress.
2. It makes it harder for me to choose what book to read. I think this is also what’s been causing my reading slumps. Since I had over 100 unread books, I couldn’t decide what book to read, because there’s too many choices. I feel like it can be a good thing, but for me, it’s very stressful. I would get so frustrated because I couldn’t pick out a book, and then I would end up not reading at all. So, it literally made me not motivated to read. As a mood reader, that makes it even more frustrating. Especially because, I don’t know what I’m in the mood to read most of the time.
3. I hate having so many unread books, because it makes me feel so behind. I’m not that person who reads new releases all the time. But sometimes I get Fomo seeing everyone in the book community reading new releases. I would love to be able to read new books, but having so many unread books, didn’t allow me to. Right now, instead of reading new books, I’ve been trying to read my old books that came out 3-5 years ago. I felt guilty, because those books have been sitting unread on my shelves for years. So, that’s why I felt so behind on books. I want to be able to read new books as well!
4. Also, as I’ve been reading the older books, I realized that my reading taste has changed. I just did try a chapter with so many of my older books, and ended up DNFing most of them. I should’ve read them years ago, when I first bought them. Not now, when my reading taste has changed, and I’m not excited to read them anymore. Because of that, it’s been so easy to get rid of most of my unread books. I told myself if I’m not going to read them soon, or if I’m not excited to read them, they have to go! I was very brutal, lol!
5. I can’t reread my favorite books/series. I never allowed myself to reread books, because my physical TBR is so big! Once my TBR goes down, I will allow myself to reread books again! I really miss it.

I just went through my shelves a few days ago. I went from having 144 unread books, to 79 unread books! As you can see from the picture above, that is currently my physical TBR now! I got rid of so many books, and it feels so good!! I already feel like a weight has been lifted off of me! My goal is to get it down to 50 books! I’m honestly proud of myself! I’ve been doing good with my book-buying ban, and that’s made this so much easier, because I’m not bringing in any physical books. I would love to be able to go to a bookstore, buy a book, and then read it right away, instead of letting it sit on my shelf for a long time! I want to go back to how it was when I was younger. Back when I didn’t have a physical TBR. I want to mostly use the library, or read books on my kindle! I want to borrow books first, or read a book on kindle first, before buying a physical copy. I truly feel that bringing my physical TBR down, will help me read more books again. I won’t have the stress of a big physical TBR anymore. It will bring back my love for reading even more!

I do have a big kindle TBR. It doesn’t bother me though, because I can’t physically see it! My next project though is to go through my kindle books, and get rid of anything I don’t want to read anymore. It’s currently at 447! Now that my physical TBR is smaller, I’m going to use my kindle more now. For some reason, I’ve been feeling guilty reading kindle books, because of my physical TBR. Now, I don’t have that guilt anymore.

Do you have a big physical TBR? Does it stress you out? How many unread books do you have? I would love to know! Thank you so much for reading! I have some more book discussion posts coming soon!!

Have a great day, and happy reading!!