TBR- Books owned v. Books listed

[Katsunami]

I did care about not playing all the games I've bought at GOG.com, and I actually went so far as to have them remove everything from my library that I knew I'd never play. (Yes, delete it, even though the games could be hidden.) I only left y favorites in there, and the RPG's I intend to play someday. I don't mind losing the money; it would be a few tens of euro's, as I buy/bought most games when they're on huge sales, and I love GOG.com's service enough to 'donate' it to them.

The strange thing is: I don't really care about not reading all I've bought. Also, I don't really mind that I won't be listening to every CD I ever b ought (even though I heard each one at least once). Same for the movies I had.

Maybe it's because I'm used to see libraries of books, CD's, and DVD/Blu-Ray's around here, but not games, apart from a few console games here or there through the years.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by issybird

The crucial element for me was internalizing, at long last, the reality that I'll never read all the books I'd like to read.

So, that said, my TBR is only books I own, but it's not all the unread books I own, hence it's a somewhat nebulous figure. I'm not going to force myself to read something just because I bought it. At the same time, all those always-to-be-unread books do serve as an object lesson about buying ahead.

When I think about it, my ebook buying wasn't a carryover from the pbook days, when it was necessary to have books on hand. Instead, it was a glutton's response to perceived bargains. (Kobo, I'm looking at you. And to a lesser extent, Amazon's daily deals.) Which of course have turned into not at all a bargain, at least for the never-will-read. At long last, I'm finally over it.

I do maintain a short wishlist which I cull frequently and limit strictly. And here, the object lesson for once was not my own behavior, but that of some of my Goodreads friends, some of whose wishlists are in the several thousands. Really, what's the point? Lists that long are entirely unrealistic and utterly useless. If I don't get around to reading/buying a book on my wishlist in a reasonable amount of time, I take it as a sign I'll never be in the mood for it and strike it. There are a few exceptions for pricey books waiting on a price drop, but even then, eventually many of them stale.

These days, I mostly shop in my own library or the actual virtual library. I try to restrict myself only to purchases that are exploding bargains and that I'll read in the near-term. I'm being pretty successful, knock wood.

Generally, the only time I go into buying frenzies for ebooks is when a series or author that I like releases a bunch of new books, or at least when I notice that this has happened. I just notices that Allen Dean Foster released the Pip and Flinx series in ebook and bought the first 5.

[DrNefario]

I'm perfectly happy with the idea that I won't read a large portion of my "TBR". Probably around half of it is free junk from my bad early days on here, when I'd download almost anything. The important thing for me is knowing that I already own a book so I don't go and buy it again.

[ekbell]

My 'TBR' list is the subset of books I have purchased with the intent of reading them myself. Its main purpose is to encourage me to think twice before spending money.

(As the maintainer of the family elibrary I've obtained books for others in the family as well as bundled books which someone might want to read but weren't the reason I bought the bundle)

I actually read whatever I'm currently feeling like reading with my 'TBR' list as first resort when uncertain.

I do have a rather large selection of freebies/PD books which may or may not ever be read. While I won't go to the trouble of downloading books I can't imagine anyone in the house reading, I also don't go to the trouble of keeping track of them after they are properly catalogued.

[Dusky Rose]

Originally Posted by ekbell

I do have a rather large selection of freebies/PD books which may or may not ever be read. While I won't go to the trouble of downloading books I can't imagine anyone in the house reading, I also don't go to the trouble of keeping track of them after they are properly catalogued.

One of the good things about getting the freebies, is that you don't have to get to them right away. Other than a tiny bit of time to cataloge and space to sit, they don't cost you anything.

While letting them age, they can rack up reviews. Before I hit a freebie, I'll go back and check them, to see if they're worth the trouble or not. There's been a few that I by the time I got to them, they weren't free anymore, and had good reviews, and I actually really enjoyed them.

And if it clearly sucks, then I can just delete the ePub file and leave the title tagged so I don't download it as a freebie again.

Sometimes, the freebies start to look a lot better with some age on them.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I'm perfectly happy with the idea that I won't read a large portion of my "TBR". Probably around half of it is free junk from my bad early days on here, when I'd download almost anything. The important thing for me is knowing that I already own a book so I don't go and buy it again.

That's what's nice about Amazon, they tell me that I already bought that book when I pull it up. I have more than a few books and DVD's where I have multiple copies because I forgot that I already bought it.

[drjd]

My TBR is the list of books I personally own. This consists of ebooks purchased, freebies collected and printed books I have bought but did not read so far. For the books I plan to buy I keep a seperate Wish List, which I periodically check for any offers or discounts offered. I also review and discard some books from my TBR from time to time, which I do not wish to read anymore.

[pdurrant]

My TBR is almost all the books I've bought but not read, along with any freebies that I have explicitly downloaded and added to my TBR.

There are some books that I've bought that I'm never going to read - these are explicitly excluded from my TBR.

Some books currently on my TBR might get discarded unread. And some I might find that I have read before 2010 (when I started actually recording which books I've read).

But however I look at it, my TBR is too big!

[Meka1069]

I exclusively read eBooks (specifically kindle) so all my books are in collections. One of my collections is titled "Samples", any book that I am interested in reading I just download a sample and add it to that collection, which I consider to be my want to read list. Books that I have purchased but have not yet read go into a collection titled "Unread". I guess for purposes of this thread I consider my "Unread" collection my TBR.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I hoard. I have no wishlists, I have to buy the instant I feel the wish to read something. That has not changed from the time I read paper books. So I have literally several thousand bought (well, some of them were free) books on my TBR pile. No wishlist, I just cannot wait. Guess I'm immature or something.

You should visit the Ebook Addict Thread. We have a 527 steps program. It's there...somewhere...

[gmw]

I suspect TBR means different things to different people. I think of TBR as things I definitely intend to read, and this only ever consists of recent purchases, so the list is generally quite short - often dropping to zero while I go through a re-reading phase (which seems to be happening a lot lately).

My reading is mood driven ... I rather like DiapDealer's description: I'm a free-range reader.

I do have a "Want list", but this is entirely tentative. It's mostly a list of things I've seen recommended that sounded interesting. The actual decision to buy and read will be made the next time I'm hunting around for something new - if I remember to look at the list, and if something on that list matches my mood.

[ucfgrad93]

I count it as books I want to read regardless if I own them.

[GA Russell]

owned only