Scribes & Archers

I’m not one to do a “digital detox” every new year, but I significantly pared down my inbox in January, which drew my attention to the nearly 2,500 books I had marked to-read on Goodreads, many of which reflected past interests and reading habits I’m unlikely to return to… and I suspect I’m not the only one with such overwhelming stacks of books looming from the to-read pile (whether that pile is visible or not).

Especially as we look toward summer reading, it seemed a fitting time to discuss how to declutter that TBR (To-Be-Read pile) and get back to reading what you’re interested in—with the ability to clearly see the next interesting book on the stack.

Start at the Bottom

Start your purge with the things you’re least likely to read. With my emails, this meant starting with the oldest emails and working my way up to present. With my TBR, this means starting with my “might want to read” list before tackling my “to-read” list.

Starting at the bottom makes it easier to get rid of things quickly because you’re not starting with all of the hard decisions of whether or not to keep the things you’ve recently added. You will get to those eventually, but by then the pile will be much smaller and you’ll have more breathing room when it comes time to make those more difficult judgments.

Remove Books Liberally

If there’s any significant doubt that you’ll really want to read something, either delete it or move it to a “look at later” sort of list. You can come back to these if you’re really bored, want something different, or have some time to kill on book-sorting, but delete as many books as “don’t spark joy.” (While I find that difficult with books I already own, I promise it’s much easier with books you’ve only thought about reading… and sometimes only thought about once.)

There’s also no harm in removing a book from the to-read list. Unless you’re getting rid of physical books, you can always add a book back onto the list later if it catches your eye again!

Focus on the Present

Just because you were interested in a book three years ago doesn’t mean you still have to be interested in it now. If your subjects of study have moved on or you no longer read a particular genre, category, or plot type, you can remove those books without shame. (Exceptions may be made for interests that you know are recurring—mythology is such a topic for me—or that you have a strong suspicion will return in the relatively near future.) I’ve scrapped a lot of romance-heavy YA, dystopia, and YA fantasy from my lists; it doesn’t appeal to me the same way now that it did when I was 14, and that’s probably a good thing, lol.

If It Helps, Sub-Categorize

If this idea overwhelms you, skip it. But if it helps you to be able to see sub-categories when you’re choosing what to read next, then it may be worth adding things to genre- or topic-specific Goodreads shelves, tagging books in LibraryThing, or otherwise marking what books are about (or what tropes they contain, etc. depending on what is helpful to you) while you’re already going through everything. With my email, I did my best to add labels to everything obvious as I went along so that I can easily archive things to specific folders; with the right tools, you can do a similar thing with your books.

While I find this most useful for categorizing books I already own (which I do in LibraryThing), I do have some specific shelves in Goodreads for particular genres.

Prioritize

With your list pared down, you can make a plan to 1) read the books on said list and 2) add new books with more specificity.

This doesn’t have to be rigid; you can choose a whole category or two to start with. Maybe you want to read about classic authors and you want to read books from authors you know, or maybe you want to read all of the books you currently have on loan or on your physical “current reads” shelf (this is me), or all the books you own but haven’t read (also me).

Maybe you know you don’t enjoy “strong female characters” or romance-heavy stories, so you just don’t add those unless a book really catches your eye.

This is not to say that you should be fearful about adding new books because “what if they’re the wrong books?” It’s good to read outside of your comfort zone every once in a while, and you can always do another deep clean later for the books you don’t end up reading after all.

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Hopefully this has been a help to those of you struggling, as I have, with keeping your TBRs managed in a way that serves you and your reading habits instead of adding clutter to the process. If you decide to pare down your TBR, let me know how it goes!

In the meantime, what are 3-5 books you’re most excited to read next? I’d love to hear about them!

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