TBR Pile: Drastic Measures

Yesterday I went up to see my mom, which also inevitably meant a trip to the used bookstore up there.  I only came home with 4 new books, which is probably some kind of record, but as I went to put them on the shelf to get them out of the way, a really horrible thing happened.  I officially ran out of shelf space.  As I slid the last one into place, I gave up the last of my free shelf space.  And I’m talking several shelves filled double deep.  Um.  Yeah, I probably have a problem.  Hi, I’m Kait, and I’m a book addict.

I think I’m going to have to declare that I simply CANNOT buy more books until I plow through and get rid of some of this TBR pile.  Seriously.  It’s getting really bad.  I might have to be so drastic as to declare that I have to get rid of 2 or 3 from the TBR pile before I am allowed to have a single new one.  Because I already have a problem with there being books on almost every horizontal surface in my house.  Eeep!  Which doesn’t begin to help our clutter problem in this house.

Something must be done.

Part of the problem is that reading is very much a mood thing for me.  Not the desire TO read, but what I want to read.  So I have huge quantities of books in all sorts of genres just in case.  And scads of what I’ve bought don’t fit into the category of the very dark, edgy stuff I’ve been in the mood for the last few months.

On a totally unrelated and more positive note, I just finished hanging the updated cabinet doors in our bathroom.

Apparently I don’t have any before pictures, but they were just plain, flat, no detail and were all bunged up from where a prior occupant had put on handles instead of knobs and painted over them, poorly patched it, etc.  These aren’t amazing, but I’m pretty pleased with myself because I think it looks considerably better than they did before.

Also on the upside, I bought jeans 2 sizes smaller yesterday, which is big excitement for me.  Of course they fit about like the two sizes up jeans I have at home, which is just further proof that size means absolutely NOTHING these days.  Still, having single digit pants again is seriously motivating to the get fit and healthy program.

Must get back to the cleaning.  We’re hosting a party here this afternoon.

4 thoughts on “TBR Pile: Drastic Measures

  1. I’m so glad that someone else will cop to the mood method of reading choice! Literature student or not, sometimes I want genre! Sometimes I even want non-fiction that’s not related to writing or reading! It’s hard to explain to so many of my family who don’t understand the malaise of staring at a shelf FULL of books and not wanting to start on any of those. As to addiction, mine passed into pathology long, long ago.

    1. Mood seems perfectly obvious to me as relating to book choice. It’s the same psychology behind there being “nothing on TV” despite having a hundred channels.

      I’ve been on such a paranormal/urban fantasy kick for so long, and I’m really gearing up for a YA kick (naturally, I don’t have many of those and want to shop for more…) in preparation for what may be my next project. It’s a sickness. Really.

  2. “I simply CANNOT buy more books until I plow through and get rid of some of this TBR pile. Seriously. It’s getting really bad.”

    YOU AND ME BOTH! Except I say that “I shouldn’t,” but then I do. I’m hopeless.

  3. This comment is one of those time traveler ones. You know the back story so I’m skipping that part and will just say that life sucked for a long while. Then things changed recently and we got an apt. One of the things that mostly survived to move with us was the book collection. (I’d sold or given away 3/4 of them during the Dark Days) Somewhere in the time between Then and Now I’d been given a lap top on which I began loading ebooks since, you know, they don’t take up any space and I don’t have to lug them. Despite the fact that I dislike reading on the computer I love that these books take up no space in my reality.

    That said, as I was unpacking and lugging the surviving Dead Tree books, I discovered that I’d developed a compete distaste for most of the subjects covered. I ditched them a few at a time and wound up with a more reasonable pile of maybe 25 books. Now the ebook stack…the one that takes up no physical space so it doesn’t insult my spartan sensibilities?…is so frigging huge I have to keep them categorized in folders. And God forbid I get bored on Sunday when its free or 99 cents ebook day on Amazon because I am so there…piling on more to the list. Hi, I’m Wulfie and I’m addicted to books that take up no space in my place.

    When exactly I expect to read these books I have no idea since, you know, I’d rather be reading an entire blog about the craft and life and times of being a crazy…um, I mean writer. O.o And when am I going to write? Granted, I don’t have a job right now so I have the time but still…moving, unpacking, replacing lost furniture, getting a life going again in a new town……OY! Writers are crazy people, Kait.

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