Why I Don’t Monthly TBR

At the end of every month, as most bookish people online do, i write my monthly wrap-up of what i’ve read and also collect together my book haul for that month. However most people write their TBR at the beginning of the month. It’s usually about four or five books that they plan to read during that particular four weeks. However, you might notice that i do not write monthly TBR’s. Here’s why i don’t.

The plain and simple reason as to why i don’t create monthly ‘to be read’ lists is that i find it incredibly difficult to then stick to that list. If i’m three books in to my set list, i might not want to move on to the four and fifth, and then that just leaves me feeling guilty that i’ve not achieved my goal.

I have so much respect for those readers who set their tasks and then stick to those reading lists. I don’t have the capability to do that. I often get bored with reading a certain genre, or even know what the next book i want to read is, and then when it comes round to it, i find i’m not interested anymore. I can imagine this happens to a lot of other people too.

So if you find yourself at a bit of a loss with TBR piles, don’t put that pressure on yourself and try and make yourself read certain amounts of books within a certain amount of time. Yes, that kind of organisation makes you read more sometimes, and events like read-a-thons force people to read incredible amounts. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t know what book you want to read next. Or you don’t stick to your lists.

I don’t think i’ll ever be a person who writes out monthly TBR piles. I struggle to stick to yearly goals if i’m honest. There is no point making yourself feel bad for just not reading that one book you had in mind four weeks ago.