Finishing your TBR books

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I stand no realistic chance of being able to read even a significant fraction of the eBooks I've bought within my lifetime. I too am continuing to buy more books than I read, despite having a list of unread books that numbers in the thousands.

This for me too. Just the free books I've been picking up each month from the Deals section here lately puts me even deeper in the "never ever able to read it all" category.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

My "Unread" library in Calibre currently has 1318 books in it. A few hundred of those were potentially-interesting freebies, which I don't feel any particular compulsion to finish (although I'm not discounting them as I may well read some of them), the rest are bought-and-paid-for books that I really should read at some point.

Then there are a few hundred (exact count unknown) paper books still lying around unread...

I'm under no illusion that I'll manage to read everything - even if I didn't buy new books to read, which is a pretty impossible thing to do as people for some reason keep releasing new books I want to read.

I do, however, want to get to a point where I read more than buy, so that the TBR list will start decreasing this year (by however much, even if it's just by ten books overall!) instead of increasing further. And I'll do my absolute best to stay away from new "this looks like something I might maybe be interested in some day" purchases/downloads and only acquire new books I have every intention to read.

I got over freebies (a waste of effort and a nuisance for the unreadable) a long time ago; otherwise, this is me, too. So far this year, I'm down one book net on my TBR, but I plan to pick up the pace. I hope by keeping a record of what I buy, I can restrain myself better. This has been a learning month. Ideally, I'd like to have a consistent TBR of about a hundred books, which would give me plenty of choice but would still seem readable in the reasonably near future.

I'm not losing any sleep over it, though. The expense has been trivial in the grand scheme and storage issues are non-existent. I compare that to my perfume collection, for example, where I also own far more than I can consume in my lifetime, purchased at quite some expense, difficult to store, and prone to deterioration (also a consideration with ebooks, if you don't stay on top of things).

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I stand no realistic chance of being able to read even a significant fraction of the eBooks I've bought within my lifetime. I too am continuing to buy more books than I read, despite having a list of unread books that numbers in the thousands.

I do everything this way: the same, the same, the same, something different. (don't know what that is called) I do this with food, TV, hobbies, and esp books. I will read romance, romance, romance, biography, biography, biography, etc. Except it isn't just 3. I have been eating the same thing for dinner for close to 5 years (Lean Cuisine Pizza). Pretty soon, I won't be able to look at another one, and will go to something else. I guess I don't do very well with a lot of options. That is why I hope putting just 80 books on my kindle will help. There is a wide variety on there (political, nonfiction, romance, mysteries, thrillers), but it is better than looking at Calibre, which although I have virtual libraries, is just overwhelming at times. I had no problem going through 2000 books yesterday, but if I were looking for ONE book, I would be lost.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I stand no realistic chance of being able to read even a significant fraction of the eBooks I've bought within my lifetime. I too am continuing to buy more books than I read, despite having a list of unread books that numbers in the thousands.

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

This

Originally Posted by ST-One

Thank god, I'm not alone.

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

This for me too. Just the free books I've been picking up each month from the Deals section here lately puts me even deeper in the "never ever able to read it all" category.

^ These, a million times over.

I believe that the most depressing thought I could ever have, is thinking that there is a possibility of completing my TBR list in my lifetime.

[Mivo]

I treat ebooks like I do groceries: I buy them for a period of time in advance in order to "save money" or follow a carefully laid out plan, then I end up ordering pizza from the delivery service.

[alanHd]

I stopped Visiting The "Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? " thread because every time I did I would add more books to my ever increasing TBR list.

I am trying to get through the books I already have but there is no end in sight.

[Synamon]

My public library and Project Gutenberg have thousands and thousands of books I'll never get to, I'm not any more bothered that I probably won't finish all the ebooks I've collected.

[crossi]

Originally Posted by Synamon

My public library and Project Gutenberg have thousands and thousands of books I'll never get to, I'm not any more bothered that I probably won't finish all the ebooks I've collected.

Libraries are different. I feel guilty buying more books when I have a large bunch I've already paid $3 to $8 dollars for. I've some free classics I'll probably never get around to but since I didn't pay for them it doesn't bother me that I'll probably never read them.

I've been putting a lot of books on my wishlist instead of buying them. I'm only buying the ones I'm planning on reading right away or that are too good a bargain to miss. A lot of the ones on my wishlist drop in price and those emails from ereaderiq are slowing my progress on getting through my TBR list. What hurts is when an author drops the price on a whole bunch of their books all at the same time. To buy or not to buy? If I like an author I really do like to have all of their books.

[eschwartz]

Um, didn't this thread used to be called Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread?

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Um, didn't this thread used to be called Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread?

I'm not sure, I don't need any support

[jbcohen]

Have a list of approximatly 200 books Iwant to read but don't own a copy of any of them. 50/50 chance that I will actually buy a copy of them, but only a twenty percent chance of that. I am attempting to hold down my purchases of books.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I'm not sure, I don't need any support

Yes, I see :

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Hello, I'm Terisa and I'm an ebook addict too (yes, free books don't count). I have over 2200 ebooks without reading (around 400 paid ebooks). But I keep on buying them (last time on Thursday) and I have a loooong buying list.

I'm an addict and I don't want a cure

[afv011]

I personally don't worry about my TBR list. I have a bunch of books in Calibre, and once I finish one I pick another one. I don't know how many books there are in there to be read, neither do I care - every now and then I add some, so the list doesn't run down too low, that's as far as I go.

[faithbw]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I stand no realistic chance of being able to read even a significant fraction of the eBooks I've bought within my lifetime. I too am continuing to buy more books than I read, despite having a list of unread books that numbers in the thousands.

This is me. I use to get anxious about all the paper and e-books I have that I haven't started. Between books bought online, books bought used and books borrowed from the library, I realized that there is just no way I'm going to read every book in my TBR list. Now, I just buy books without worrying about when or if I'll read them. Getting them on sale or used helps because then I don't feel like I've spent a ton of money on books that I might not read.

[faithbw]

Originally Posted by Mivo

I treat ebooks like I do groceries: I buy them for a period of time in advance in order to "save money" or follow a carefully laid out plan, then I end up ordering pizza from the delivery service.