The Terror of Knowing

Today I bring you a tag! Originally created by JessicaMarie493 I believe (Who created this, was it you? Let me know!), I spotted this tag over at Thrice Read and thought I’d give it a go myself. I have a shameful amount of books on my TBR considering that I don’t read nearly enough in a week/month/year to keep up with it. To say that it’s ‘optimistic’ is a diplomatic way of putting it – ‘unrealistic’ would be a better word. So, hey, why not do a tag that makes me come to terms with this ridiculousness and do something about it. Enough with the reasoning, let’s get onto the TBR Tag!

1. How do you keep track of your TBR pile?

Short answer: I don’t.
Long answer: My Goodreads TBR shelf is getting faintly ridiculous because I use it to track any fleeting interest I might have in a book that I see on blogs or BookTube. So the word ‘track’ is probably quite generous.

2. Is your TBR mostly print or e-book?

Mostly print, in fact I tend to forget that my e-book collection exists until I remember to charge my Kindle or have a look at the app on my phone. I really need to work on getting my physical TBR read before I can even think about my e-books.

3. How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?

Mood, mostly, or I’ll be on a roll with a series or with a particular genre. Right now, that’s fantasy. I’ve also recently created a TBR Jar which should help me with forcing me persuading me to pick up some books on my TBR that I might not have got to otherwise. Although my TBR jar just made me me start reading Smoke by Dan Vyleta which was not the point because I definitely don’t need help in picking up fantasy novels to read.

4. Book that has been on your TBR the longest?

According to Goodreads, it’s The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien. I probably went through a phase of adding all my books to Goodreads and my Tolkien cubby hole was the first I added probably. No, I still haven’t even made an attempt to read it.

6. A book you recently added to your TBR?

In terms of my Goodreads to-read shelf I recently added Jen Campbell’s upcoming release The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night, a story collection which promises a modern take on fairytales featuring magic and mermaids and spirits and I mean why wouldn’t you want to read that?

7. A book on your TBR strictly because of its beautiful cover?

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill seems like a pretty apt one that I also recently added to my TBR. It has been longlisted for the Baileys Prize though so I suppose it’s not a solely shallow reasoning but, I mean, I know very little about the premise of this novel and yet it’s still on my TBR. Mentions were made of The Night Circus, the twenties, circus acts, and a hotel and I went ‘yeah, that’ll do’.

8. A book on your TBR that you never plan on reading?

If I never planned on reading it, it probably wouldn’t be on my TBR – no, that’s a lie, I’d like to think it’s not still on my TBR but the truth of the matter is that it’s been a long while since I actually did a cull of my Goodreads to-read shelf. (Actually doing this tag has made me think I should probably do that cull, so thanks for that, tag!) In terms of a physical TBR, I’m pretty sure I’ll never actually get around to Villette by Charlotte Bronte. My friend and housemate Liz tried to read it a few months ago and said it was slow going. After reading Jane Eyre, I don’t really rate Charlotte Bronte enough as an author (controversial opinion??) to struggle through reading her novel for the sake of reading all her books so I’ll probably never pick it up. C’est la vie.

9. An unpublished book on your TBR that you’re excited for?

Can I say the next book in The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon even though I don’t know when it’s going to be released? I just finished the third book, The Song Rising, yesterday and oh my god I need the next books, stat!

10. A book on your TBR that everyone recommends to you?

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte is definitely a book I’ve been recommended multiple times, directly and indirectly. I’m sure one of these days I’ll get around to it, especially since I now own a lovely Penguin English Library edition, but today is sadly not quite that day.

11. A book on your TBR that everyone has read but you?

Hmm maybe George Orwell’s 1984? I’m pretty sure I got quite a way through this book and enjoyed it but I don’t think I properly finished it and I marked it as ‘did not finish’ on Goodreads – the fact there’s some sliver of doubt there makes me think I probably skim read the end because I needed to know what happened but didn’t actually read it all due to time constraints or some other equally pathetic excuse.

12. A book on your TBR that you’re dying to read?

All of them? No, as far as physical books go I am still dying to read Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven King, the fourth and final book in The Raven Boys series. However, I am forever conflicted – I want to read this book so badly and I also never want to read it because the reading of it would mean that I run out of Raven Boys books to read anew. It’s a tricky dilemma that I’m sure many a bookworm will empathise with.

13. How many books are in your Goodreads TBR shelf?

Ouch. Right, let me preface this by again mentioning that I really need to do a long overdue cull of my shelves on there… 1022 books. I know, I know, it’s terrible and unrealistic, shhh, don’t look at me!

Well there we have it folks that was the TBR Tag, what fun! For once I will officially tag a few people because I need to get better at doing that:

Stephanie from Adventures of a Bibliophile
Michelle from Book Adventures
Sarah from Reviews and Readathons
Kelly from Kelly’s Rambles
Laura from Reading Sanctuary
Cátia from The Girl Who Read Too Much

If any of the above ladies would like to complete the tag, please do! And if you’re also reading this and you want to do the tag but I didn’t tag you, psh, consider yourself tagged! Basically all of you should do this quick little tag so maybe I won’t feel quite as ashamed about how many books are on my TBR… 

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