TBR CHALLENGE || NO-BUY, FOCUSING ON MY PHYSICAL BOOKS

   I think most readers agree that buying books and reading books are two separate hobbies. 

 

I am one of those people that enjoys both. Reading is my hobby and it's what I spend most of my time doing. Whether it's books or even fanfiction, I'm always reading something. During the course of the pandemic, I'd gotten into ebooks and audiobooks and they've definitely helped me read more. However, my first love will always be physical books and I'll always prefer owning the books I read.

Physical books can be expensive, which is why I never buy my books full price. I love browsing secondhand bookstores and the book section of thrift stores to see what I can find and I love the look of having a lot of books. If I had the space, I would get more shelve so I can keep all the books I buy and read, even if I end not really liking them. 

The reading part of this hobby is fine. I stay at home and read my little books and imagine my little worlds and on average, I can read at least 8 books. Most of the time, I read more than that. You would think with the amount I read each month, my TBR pile isn't out of control but that's not the case. In comes the 'buying books as a hobby'. It's not that bad this year (I mean, we're only in the first five months lol) but during the height of the pandemic, all I did was buy books from Book Outlet. 2020 was definitely when I bought the most books and while I read more in 2021, the book buying didn't stop. I started the year with 109 (!!!) unread books and as of right now, I have 78 unread books. I took off a lot from my TBR in May and I realized that it's possible for me to get my TBR to zero by the end of the year.

If I read at least 11 books every month, not buy any books and not get books from the library, I can get my TBR to zero. 

Don't get me wrong, I love that I have access to a library but it definitely gets in the way of me getting through my books. Sometimes I look at my monthly wrap-ups, see how much I read and I'm like why has my TBR pile not gotten smaller?? and then I realize I didn't read anything from my TBR and only read books from the library. So I've cancelled my library holds so I don't get ~distracted~ and only focus on my physical books.

The picture is the current state of my shelves. The bottom two are my unread books; top shelf is YA/MG and bottom is adult. I have a few other unread books in other places but this is most of them. Kind of feeling like I'm in a reading slump so let's see how different these shelves will look at the end of month.

Anyway, all this to say that I'm going on a no-buy and I'm being serious lol.

iscelle robee