How big is your TBR pile and why is it there?

My tbr pile is not too bad atm because I gave up mn and Twitter for Lent and got back into reading.

My dd(18) has bought a lot of interesting books recently so I feel there’s a tbr pile waiting for me in her room as well!

Does anyone else feel the need to have easy reading in stock in case they're poorly?

Always. As a child I'd reread The Magic Faraway Tree, now it's Jeeves and Wooster although I have a soft spot for Mma Ramotswe as well.

Mine is quite modest. I've finished my Christmas present books so all I have are a couple of charity shop non fiction books, because I feel I ought to read more non fiction. Then there are four hardback classic novels that I will read when I've got time, Christmas probably, and some detective novels in case I get ill and can't concentrate!
Does anyone else feel the need to have easy reading in stock in case they're poorly?

A good couple of hundred probably. And I have a pile that large as I have absolutely no self control in bookshops. My friends know well that they need to hustle me passed the shop.
Sadly a fair few of my friends are equally as bed so they actively encourage me to go in.

I went on a day out to a town with 3 second hand bookshops last year, with two other friends..I think between us we got at least 40....

I'm having a drought at the minute. So the pile grows. I'd got it right down. Some of them are books I've been given or books I've started and not finished. They'll be next to go to the charity shop.

I have 26 books in the pile. At least 10 of those will go, unread.

That's true, Janina! I could probably weather a year without acquiring further books.

If book prices increase along with everything else then those of us with large TBR piles will be sorted.

My 'to read' pile consists of four shelves of books and I have another 50 or so on my Kindle. I begin each year with the intention to make serious headway through them and I do read a selection each year, but the unread pile never seems to get any smaller.

Most of my books are the equivalent of a TBR piles, which means hundreds, if not thousands.

I wouldn't use the word "stress," as you did, but it does trigger unhappiness - espeically when, instead of reading them, I get something from the library instead.

Yes @Meduse it frustrates me a lot. The problem is I spend so much time ‘reading’ online (i.e. on Mumsnet) that I just don’t get around to reading them. It’s sad as I buy them feeling so excited about reading them and then my phone gets in the way 😣

3 stacks each about 18 inches high.

I have Book Acquisition Syndrome. I’ve tried to slow it down but it’s out of hand, I have way more than I can read atm. Maybe 100 or so in the TBR piles 😳

don’t you feel an increasing amount of stress

Yes, I look at my pile of 15 books and feel stressed all the time. I'm tempted to throw them all away and start again. I buy them because in the bookshop I think I'm a serious and sophisticated reader but then I get them home and they're all a bit too complicated or serious for my brain to deal with right now. So they sit there making me feel bad.

But now I realise my pile is tiny, virtually non-existent, compared to some of you, so hardly worth worrying about at all

50 - and it's because I love buying them... I also have several that are loaned from family and really belong in other parts of the house.

Literally hundreds! I review books so I've always got loads to get through, plus my own purchases on top. I read three or four books a week (more if they're shorter) but the pile never seems to decrease. Probably because I keep buying books...

I buy my books at my local annual library sale (featuring thousands of books donated by the community and also library discards) and at thrift shops. The library sale sells books for $1-2 and they go for $2.99 each at the thrift. I buy books that strike my fancy when I see them, at prices like that. I have hundreds to get through. I love them like old friends.

The TBR piles (yes, plural, shoot me) tend to multiply, because I buy a lot of books at rock bottom prices, and then a lot of the time life gets in the way of settling down to read. I have every confidence that I'll get around to them though. Famous last words...

I made inroads during the lockdown because the library sale was postponed and the thrift was closed for the duration. However I have high hopes that I'll be dropping another $50 to benefit the library again this summer and I've already spent about $20 on books at the thrift this year.

I love having a big to read pile. I like having lots of choice. I’ve got about 130 unread books on my kindle. I haven’t counted my physical ones (they’re all dotted around the house) but it’s at least a hundred.

The Japanese have a word for me - tsundoku

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku

I have probably 100 unread books; I really struggle with my concentration and I find myself flitting between books (I must have at least 20 part-read books ☹️)
Perhaps I just need to focus harder....

To be flippant, my many tbr books are here because it takes so much less time to buy a book than to read one. I agree with the pp that buying books and reading them are different hobbies. I find that my bought books are often bumped by library books that have to be read and returned, but also have more library books out at any time than I’ll ever get to. I just love spending time in bookshops and libraries and most perilous for the tbr pile are charity shops where you don’t know if you’ll ever have chance to buy a particular book again or not at that price at least. There’s something about seeing a book that’s on your radar in a charity shop and it feels almost rude not to buy it! Though I wish the ones near me did 6 for £1, going rate here is usually £2.50 for 1!

My TBR pile vanished due to 3 lockdowns but is gradually creeping up to about 12 due to charity shops being open. If I don't get into them I will return them.

40 + books , plus kindle ones.
It gives me security surrounded by books ,all the anticipation knowing i can always find something i will love .
I read every single day without fail , my happy place.

I have 300+ physical books waiting to be read. I love browsing second hand book shops and charity shops and always come away with bags full. Most years I go to Barter Books in Alwick at least twice are rarely come home with less than 30 books.

I love browsing my book shelves when it’s time to choose my next read, it’s like being in a mini bookshop or library. I have a hardback of Cloud Atlas in my tbr pile and apparently that came out in 2004 so 18 years may well be my longest owned but not read book! I’ll get round to it eventually.

[quote exexpat]I have hundreds of unread books in my house, out of thousands in total, though plenty of them are non-fiction/reference books that are not intended to be read cover-to-cover.

I confess this is partly due to being a bookshop addict, but also because I like being able to browse my own shelves for the next book I feel like reading, rather than having to go and buy something.

I buy books on topics that I find interesting or that I would like to learn more about, even if I don't have time to read them right now; my shelves are full of novels I think I will enjoy reading at some point, if not immediately, and I have often found myself picking up a book I bought a decade or two ago and finding it perfect for whatever is going on in my life right now.

This essay on Umberto Eco's approach to book collecting kind of explains my feelings: nesslabs.com/antilibrary[/quote]
I am exactly the same! I have many read books (that I probably won't read again, unless presents I pass on to my sister) and just as many unread.
For Christmas I received ten new hardbacks, I have read one so far. As you say, the feeling of going to my own bookcases (ten of them!) is second to none.
Through my working life I have worked in libraries of some sort, however I don't care for library books myself or second hand ones. Though I do have some childhood books that are super to look at!

Enjoyed reading the replies. Many mirror my own feelings.
I'm in the throws of taking my books out of storage post renovation and doing a 'sort out' of books I definitely will get round to reading........ during my life..... and those I'm unlikely to ----any fiction over 600 pages
Current tbr is around 80 me thinks.

I have an unknown number of physical books waiting to be read (possibly 30, could be a few more than that) and loads of kindle books. I never feel stressed by it. I used to get stressed at the thought of not having a book to read, and it makes me happy that won't happen anymore.