When I see a book that looks interesting, I add it to my TBR list on goodreads. Then, I never think about it again!! Sometimes, I will see a book on sale at Amazon and snag it. Then, it sits on my kindle and never gets read. Am I the only one that does this?
So, I decided to start looking through my goodreads account. My inital goal was to create a shelf of TBR books that I also happened to own. I quickly realized that this would be a herculean task and decided to first pare down my TBR. Seriously people, it was ridiculous. Here is what I did:
- I went to my Want to Read shelf and started with the oldest ones. These date back to 2014 (meaning, I added them to my list in 2014).
- I started by just deleting the books that I knew I wouldn’t be interested in any more.
- Then, I had to look deeper at some of the books to figure out why I put it on my TBR to begin with. If it didn’t sounds super interesting, I deleted it.
You have to be savage when doing this. Seriously, there were many times I thought “Oh this one sounds cute” and I would move to keep it, but really, would I prioritize it over the books I had already? If the answer was no, it got deleted. Be savage!
Ok, now comes the more difficult part. I own so many kindle books. I thought there would be overlap on my TBR with my kindle list. WRONG!
My first thought was “Why did I buy this?!?” and then I realized they were free books I just grabbed because it sounded kinda interesting and it was free. I regret this now. Goodness how I regret this.
I started by searching my kindle for books that made it through the goodreads purge. Time consuming doesn’t begin to describe it. But, I had come this far.
I stopped after this. It had taken me several hours to get this far. Now, I have a goodreads TBR that has books I currently would still like to read, and cross referenced with books I own on kindle.
PS: You can friend me on Goodreads!
What’s next? My next task will be to tackle all those books on my kindle that aren’t on my TBR. I have to decide if I really want to read them and want to add them to my goodreads TBR. But that is a task for another (multiple) day!
How out of control is your TBR? Have you ever attempted something like this?
Haha, this is exactly why I avoid Kindle freebies. I know I’d download all of them and get overwhelmed. A few times a year, I go through my TBR spreadsheet and delete anything that no longer interests me. My spreadsheet gets out of control occasionally, but I think it’s okay right now. Currently, I have 494 books on my must-read-someday list. I own around 50 unread books.
I do quarterly shelf culling on GR. I also review my Amazon wishlists to make sure I still am interested in the book. It has helped me keep the shelves under control. Making weekly TBRs has helped me incorporate shelf books too, which I would otherwise forget about. I always include one throwback book, and that forces me to go through those older books.
Well I am OCD so when I buy a Kindle freebie I added it to Goodreads shelf 9-kfree, along with genre and other info to find it when I am ready to read it. I also have a 1TT shelf for ones that I plan to read for Thrifty Thursday, but they are also on 9-kfree since that is how I got them. Anyway, I am saying I have lots of books, thousands but my Goodreads has them all organized since 2012 when I got my first Kindle.
I can’t remember the last time that I bought a Kindle Freebie. I did a purge of my TBR Pile on Goodreads and on my Kindle a while ago and I think it healed something in me because I’ve never gotten out of control again with requesting ARC’s, with adding books that I know I’ll never read to my shelves on Goodreads or bought another Kindle Freebie that I knew I was never going to read. Life is great now! Haha, I’m glad to see that you’re doing the same thing. I promise you’ll feel so much better once it’s all done.
I’m hoping that looking at the books I own and want to read will help me actually read them instead of requesting new books!
Nice work, my Goodreads TBR is bit of a dumping ground I admit but I don’t have the energy to tame it.
Yeah, I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into!!
I admire your dedication to this task because we all know this the struggles. It’s so easy to just add something to the list which sounds vaguely interesting. I am also so guilty of getting freebie Kindle reads cos they sound vaguely interesting… and then never getting to read them. I am normally way better at keeping my Goodreads TBR under control than I am at actually clearing off my Kindle. I do like that now I can delete books permanently directly on my Kindle instead of having to go manage my content and devices but it’s still time-consuming, especially when you’re having to go back and forth between Goodreads and your kindle to figure out what’s what. I hope you manage to get it all organised like you want because it will be so satisfying when you do. You definitely have to be brutal though.
Years ago when I got my first Kindle I went crazy with all the freebies. As I’m sure most of us did. And they mostly still sit there unread. Now it’s pretty rare than I download a freebie. It has to be an author that I already enjoy or having been wanting to try.