Like many folks I have had an ongoing battle with the overwhelming size of my To Be Read pile. I’ve tried various ways to resolve this from book bans to reading challenges to quotas for already owned books to be read each month but for a long time it just kept growing.

In 2021 I started a new tracking system (based on something I saw on Instagram - I think from laurasloaninglibaray), and I having been tweaking it since then.

Methodology

For my purposes To Be Read/TBR means books I own but haven’t read, rather than just any book I want to read.

I got the inital total number of TBR books by added all of my books into StoryGraph and filtering the To Read list by books I own. I count every book towards the TBR total until it is finished, so I will add any books from the TBR I am currently reading to the total each month. If I buy a new book I give myself until the end of the month to read it. If I don't it gets added to the TBR total.

In 2021 I started with 259 books in my TBR, and now I am starting 2025 with 254. So progress?

How it's gone so far

In 2021 my main TBR goal was not to increase my TBR total. I failed by 7 books, despite reading 27 TBR books.

In 2022 I managed to decreased the total by one, and only read 19 TBR books.

Despite 2023 being feeling quite successful I still increased the total number of books in my TBR. I read 48 books from my TBR but added 65 new books (technically a big part of this was due to a box of books I hadn’t accounted for, discovered after a move).

For 2024 I started tracking the breakdown of my reads by TBR project, bought books, gifts (including freebies and netgalley) and borrowed books (mostly library). The results are in the graph below.

While I would have preferred by TBR percentage to be higher, I'm really pleased that I've been a lot better at borrowing books from the library instead of buying them and leaving them on the TBR pile for years to come.

This also has the added benefit of a list for easy reference of what I read from my TBR during the year.

My goal in 2024 was to reduce the number of boxes in my wardrobe from 7 to 6, and I did manage to transfer the books remaining in box seven into a smaller box, which is not full. I consider this to be mostly a success.

2025 Plans

For the coming year I plan to track where my reads are coming from again so I can compare graphs. I'd like my TBR percentage to increase. I am also aiming to finish at least all the books in my TBR cart over 2025 (photo below). I would also really like to get through one more box from the wardrobe, even if its just to transfer it to the cart for 2026.

Some thoughts on book buying

One of the main things that has impacted my ability to actually meet my TBR goals has been how I think about buying books. For a long time I didn't really count books in my efforts to decrease consumption or to live more sustainably as they are something I really value owning and also feel strongly about paying for them (those whose labor creates them need to be fairly compensated). It's not so much that I no longer believe this, or that I don't still buy books, but I think in the last few years I've shifted a bit from feeling personally responsibly for propping up the book industry. I also have been trying to invest more in excellent picture books which is better for my TBR and my kid, but not bookshelf space. I am trying to be more thoughtful about whether I actually need to buy a book immediately, focusing on books I know I will really value over just things that sound interesting. This is hard because of how publishing works, but I'm been combatting this feeling of maybe it won't get reprinted by requesting books at the library. And if you don't manage to read your library hold, it will be there later! I am also trying to be okay with the fact I might love a book I borrow and then not be able to find it to buy.

Summary of 2025 goals:

• Increase the percentage of TBR reads
• Read all the books on my cart
• Empty one box in the wardrobe
• Try to request books from the library more than buying them