Even before discovering Book Twitter and the world of Book Blogging, I would usually set myself a TBR and stick to it, working my way through a list of books more or less in the order I’d written them down, sometimes months before. I’ve had yearly TBRs before that I have hardly deviated from.
But now, the way I read is changing. Now, more and more, I find that setting myself a list of books to read makes me chafe against the restriction, artificial and self-created as it is. Part of it is petty rebellion, wanting to be a bit ‘naughty’ and not follow the rules (sadly this is about as rebellious as I get these days!) but there is also something else going on.
I am becoming, slowly but surely, much more of a mood reader. Having studied literature at university, I got used to having set book lists and plodding my way through them methodically, and I guess I got stuck in that habit for a long time. I used to finish every book I started, dutifully, even if I wasn’t enjoying it. These days, I am much more likely to put a book down and pick up something else if it isn’t doing it for me. Sometimes it’s just a case of the wrong time, and I can come back to it later and enjoy it more. Sometimes the book just isn’t for me – and I’m learning to be okay with that.
There is, of course, the issue of books that NEED reading by a certain time – blog tour books, ARCs kindly provided by lovely publishers and publicists, author requests that make me feel very guilty if I leave them for months (it does happen, and I do apologise – I WILL get to them!). I have had to cut down on blog tours in order to accommodate my changing reading habits – I will always try and meet my commitments, I just need fewer of them at the moment.
What it boils down to is that I don’t want to feel obligated to read a book – I want to really, really fancy reading it. I think I’m having a sort of reaction against being so prescriptive with my reading for so long, and I reckon it will balance out again soon, so I will keep my hand in with the tours and so on, but for now, I am also going to let myself enjoy this new, freer way of reading.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this – do you set yourself a monthly TBR? Or are you a mood reader? If you take part in tours and read advanced copies, how do you stop it from feeling prescriptive and keep the sense of the fun of reading alive?
Elspells 
I think it’s a lovely thing. The fact that you can say that you don’t feel pressured anymore to finish books.
I, myself, was never good at sticking to tbrs. I wish I would have. I was terrible at reading books we had to read for school, mostly I didn’t like them and sometimes I just couldn’t be bothered. I don’t think I ever really finished an appointed book in my school time (besides Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Dahl and Lord of the Flies by Golding) but I got really good at faking it. Nowadays I know that was probably not ideal.
I recently started making Possibility Piles though. A set of books I put together at the beginning of the month, without the pressure of really HAVING to read them. It’s more a opportunity for me to look through my tbr and be reminded what treasures are waiting on there. Sometimes i even read a few of them. 🙂
Anyway, great post and happy reading!
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I do possibility piles too! I call them Tentative TBRs – no pressure to read them, but a good chance to dig out forgotten unread books! 😊
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I am the opposite to you in this actually! I was always, always a mood reader before starting my blog. I would pick things up as they jumped out at me and that was that. I read a lot of books I really hated too. After I started my blog I spent more time organising my reading, choose books I was fairly sure I would enjoy and writing down TBR’s that I have mostly stuck to. I still allow myself the odd “naughty” book that isn’t on the list or last minute blog tour that looks really good but that I didn’t really have time for but in general having a strict TBR has made me feel more able to tackle the mountain of books I need to get through lol!
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I am very much a mood reader. I tried at the beginning when I just entered the blogging community to do TBR post for the month/season, but I can’t stick to it. I just feel like it adds additional responsibility to follow up on my reads – it’s okay when it comes to ARC or blog tours, I just can’t when it’s for book I want to read. What I read is also very dependent of where I am mentally – like am I mentally stable enough to read this horror/drama? Are there any trigger warnings I need to be aware of? xD also, sometimes I just need a pick me-up read 🙂
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