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

[Meduse]

I’m always curious when I read of people’s large piles of TBR books.I love reading and going to bookshops to buy the next few.For those of you with large piles of unread books,don’t you feel an increasing amount of stress seeing books you can’t get to read and why buy a book that just sits on a shelf?

My tbr pile is about 8 books. More than usual because of receiving books for Xmas. But I will get through them unless I really hate the 1st few pages and can't get going on it.
The longest I've owned a book with reading it is about 10 years, The Constant Gardener. But once I clicked with le Carre's writing style I got into it.

Absolutely enormous. Several stacks. I’ve always had a small TBR pile, and always buy books weekly, but it got out of hand when I fell ill.

I carried on buying physical books out of habit when my back got bad and it took me a while to realise that kindle/audible suit me better when I’m in pain and shifting around a lot.

So I’ve bought a small separate bookcase for the backlog and hope to get to them after more physio.

My mum always passes books onto me, and likes buying me a few from my TBR list for birthdays and Christmases.. I think I have about 20 to be read in physical form, and then a list of about 30 more.

It does stress me out, but I also like owning books. I've also said owning books and reading books are different hobbies!

I'm purposefully trying to make time this year to get through the books I've collected, and I've read 7 so far this year (which were all of the ones I got for Christmas) so I'm doing okay! Just need to stop myself from buying them now!

It doesn't help that my local charity shop does 6 for £1, and there's an absolute ton of them!

There's a free bookshop in my local town, I go in there whenever I'm nearby, even though I have myriad unread books. The books make me do it, with their alluring covers and their promise of narrative escape.
I could stop any time I like don't make me stop

My pile is over 100. It's mostly children's fiction (I'm a primary school teacher). Too many books and too little time!

Hundreds. I don’t feel stressed at all. It is a bad ha it buying more thought I think I see something I want to read and buy it so I don’t forget about it but I could as easily do this with a wish list.

Only four books ATM. I read Song of Achillles recently and enjoyed it, so I'm now reading A Thousand Ships (both are to do with Troy). I also have Ariadne which again is Grreek myth based and then a non fiction about Lemons that I just can't get into, but I want to read, so it's there...giving me the side eye from it's shelf

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.

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.

[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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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....

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 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.

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...

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.

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

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 😳

3 stacks each about 18 inches high.

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 😣

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.

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.