Just 6 weeks to the end of the year, and I’ve been crunching numbers. At the end of October, despite my best efforts, the TBR stood 3 books taller than it did at the beginning of the year. Put like that, it sounds like the TBR is under control …. From a different angle, however, that equates to 85 2019 acquisitions and review copies still to read. 😳 Common sense would tell me to forego book shopping in London later this month, but a trip to London without a visit to the Marylebone Daunts is simply not a viable proposition!
Unfortunately it is once more time to cull.
Using Karen’s strategies, surely I will be more successful than Eugen Roth’s hapless reader. You may remember I discovered his poem about a failed book cull a couple of years ago, but couldn’t find an English translation. Well, that problem is now resolved.
You can find this poem in Roth’s collection Merely Human (translated by Christoph Ottinger) which is ideal for dipping in and out of when a little comic respite is needed. (And it has been, as my reading for German Literature Month feels very serious this year.) I also like the bilingual layout of the book. A poetry collection feels incomplete if the original German is missing.
I’ve been crunching the numbers as well and I’m in a similar position to you. My TBR tack is EXACTLY the same as it was at the end of the year in 2018, despite the fact that I’ve read 91 books this year! :-O
I’m so pleased to get this recommendation, Lizzy- only yesterday I was sitting with my German reading group having discussed Drachenwand by Arno Geiger and desperate for a bit of levity in our next read. We’ve decided to bring a poem to our next meeting and it sounds like this collection could be just the thing. Thanks!
I don’t want to talk about my TBR. Good luck….. ;D
Thanks for the mention Lizzy. You nudged me to have a look at my own stats – I’m 5 books higher than the number I had at the end of 2019 so with a little luck I should end the year just under the 2018 figure. Doing the clear out regularly has certainly helped ….I think I need to be even more decisive though with some of the older books….
Next year I need to seriously attack the TBR and do some culling. I wish our local bookshop, which by the way turns 100 next year and has all kinds of events planned, would handcuff my hands behind my back when I enter🤠🐧
I dread to think what would happen with a bookshop just down the road. I’m 26 miles from my nearest and still this is the state of my affairs!
This made me laugh. At least we are not alone.
I just need to look at my shelf and I can see the horror. Plus what’s on the Kindle. Argh!!! But there’s worse habits to have, right?
As for the kindle – whereabouts currently unknown. If I don’t find it, that’ll be 120+ culled in one fell swoop! 😁
As for habits, I’ve had a lot worse in my time! 😂😂😂
I lost control of my TBR years ago and decided not to worry about it. I did, however, have a very large clearout some years ago as I was finding that I was buying books that I already owned and didn’t know it. So, I bought an app and scanned them all in there. Now I know. I’ve read more this year than ever before (50 when I finish the current read) so I’m at peace with myself, my reading and my TBR. I’m determined not to have to cull any for a very long time.