[sun surfer]

How do you define your tbr (to be read)? Do you count only the books you own that still need to be read, or do you count books you have on a list that you want to read whether owned or not?

For the poll I only have two choices, because if it's a mixture of both, then it's books listed. It's books owned if you only count the books you already have as your tbr and anything else as more of a 'wishlist' or 'maybe' (or don't even have any other list).

I was wondering this seeing someone post about their tbr pile of bought ebooks and thought how different that is from my tbr definition. Before ebooks I did buy books before reading and had a physical tbr pile (that, even though it wasn't that large, took me forever and a few challenge goals here to finally finish off) but since ebooks I just don't bother to buy ahead of time. That could change but I'm happy this way. I think the difference for me was that then, I was in a bookstore and might forget the book or at least it would be less convenient to have to go back to the bookstore again to buy it just before I start reading. With ebooks that was no longer the case and so I have my list to remember by and I simply buy each ebook in a second just before I start. I do understand the desire to buy ebooks ahead of time though; it's even easier to just tap on another book that you already have on your device than going to the trouble of buying it just before starting, and of course deals(!) and such.

Really, my tbr travails are more from having such easy access to almost everything; my interests are broad enough and there's just so many books I want to read that are at the touch of my finger and really it's almost overwhelming when you think about it (like that other thread telling you how many more books you'll read in your life, and compare that to your tbr, and all those other books waiting patiently to be added to your tbr!). I may not own the books physically yet but the feeling of 'needing' to read them all eventually is still there. I've been trying to switch my thinking to more of, 'well, if I don't read these books on my list, so what?', but I bet I'm not the only one with that yearning to get to those unread books of interest!