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My TBR stack just keeps getting bigger...

...and bigger, and bigger. I think I will have to go on a stricter book diet, because this one isn't working. Cancelling the library card has made me read more of my own books, but I am accumulating them faster than I can read them.

Tuesday I went to the charity shop and bought 9 books. Today, Friday, I went back there and was about to leave with one book, when they told me they were giving away books for the day. Back in I went and left with 19 books. That's more than I read last month.

This, of course means that there will be dozens, if not hundreds of new books there on Monday. Bbbbwwwwaaaaaahhhhhaaaaa!

Comments

Maxine Clarke said…
I'm just the same, it is quite depressing really. I have cured myself of my book club addiction (I was in about 3 simultaneously on and off for 10 years, juggling them so as to take advantage of introductory offers) for about 6 months now. But the pile still grows, for the reason you say and more. (Since I started blogging that has definitely not helped).
It is getting very depressing when I realise that I literally will not live long enough to read all the books I have.
June 17, 2006 9:18 pm
Bibliophile said…
I'm beginning to think I should use my clothes-shopping rule for books: One in, one out. Either that, or buy a new bookcase. Both my TBR cases are full and overflowing.
June 18, 2006 9:09 am
Becky Holmes said…
I can't believe you cancelled your library card. Having a library card helps me avoid buying books, because every time I pick up a book at a bookstore, a stern little voice goes off in my head saying "just get it from the LIBRARY!"

I like your blog. Can I link to it on mine? www.abookaweek.blogspot.com
June 20, 2006 7:26 pm
Bibliophile said…
Becky, I cancelled the library card to try to force myself to read some of the 200+ unread books I own. I have realised I will also have to stop buying more books because my reading rate has dropped to below my book-buying rate.

Go ahead and link, I'll do the same with your blog.
June 21, 2006 7:59 am
Jenny Davidson said…
Actually, one of the things I like about book-blogging is that it means I've got a complete record of all of my light reading, which makes me feel free (I always did, but now it's even easier) to give away almost everything I've read and liked. Young-adult fantasy to my sister-in-law, demented noir to my brother, crime fiction to a colleague who collects and reads it avidly, 'women's' fiction (for lack of a better term) to my mother, experimental fiction to an avant-garde friend, etc. etc. Then I take the rest, books not good enough to recommend, and give them to the guy who sells used paperbacks on the street nearby, and he lets me pick some good stuff from his current stock in exchange. I find myself (in other words) not so much with the problem of mounting TBR (there are always a number of books I buy and don't read, but it's manageable) but with the need to clear my one-bedroom apartment of the hundreds of novels I make my way through every year....
June 23, 2006 7:33 pm
Bibliophile said…
My problem is that my mother just wants to read them and then give them back (no room to store new books in her house), and my brother has a very narrow interest in reading which doesn't overlap with mine much. I do occasionally take books to a friend who is always happy to receive new reading material. One second-hand bookstore does exchanges (2 or 3 for 1), which helps a bit, but he only takes books published this century. I usually end up trading them on TitleTrader or giving them back to the charity shop.

Right now, I very proud of myself: I haven't been to the charity shop all week. I plan to try to stay away until the end of the month. If that works, I will try to go there only once a week and only buy 2 books at the most each time until I have the TBR stack under control. It has filled every shelf in my office and is beginning to creep into the living-room.
June 25, 2006 9:11 am
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