Opinion: Why you shouldn't finish reading your TBR list

Let me take you back in time for a moment. It’s the year 2000, a cold wet afternoon, your plucky narrator is a 14-year-old walking home from school. On his Walkman a cd is playing, the debut album of a little-known band called Coldplay. He is wet, tired and all he wants to do is get home, not so that he can play snake on his Nokia or Sims on his big brothers PlayStation 2, but so he can read in the warmth and quiet of his room. But, oh dear reader, there is a problem. He has finished his books. To the library he must go, where he will spend almost an hour in cold wet clothes walking up and down the aisles pulling out books at random and judging them by their covers and the blurbs on the back. Then with three or four books in his bag he will set off home into the wet again.

Luckily in the last two decades we have come along way in how we find books we want to read. Book blogs, chat rooms, social media have all made it easier to recommend the books we love and find new books to love. With so many outlets to discuss the stories we love is it any wonder TBR lists have grown so big we need to invent apps to manage them?

So, after that little walk down memory lane, should we really be trying to “complete” our TBR list? I suppose it depends on what your TBR list means to you. Is it a challenge, something for you to focus on and get through, or is it just an ongoing list of books you really want to read?

For me, my TBR is just a way for me to remember the books that have been recommended to me, books that have caught my eye and books that seem like a great read. I have no dreams about “completing” it, it’s not a challenge, it’s a tool for me to find my next great read.

Once I have finished reading a book and looking to start my next read, I can open up my TBR list, scroll through the books I have on there, look at a few reviews read plot summaries and choose my next read. Yes, this means that there are books on there that have been their years, and I am sure that there are books on their that I will never read but I don’t see this as an issue. Surely too many great books I want to read is better than too few?

I also find it nice that my TBR list isn’t a challenger. In life, even in the online book world, there is a lot of competition and stress, I have read this many books this year, or here is a list of books you MUST read before you die, that to just have a list of great books I can choose from whenever I want with no expectations is a nice thing which we could all do with every now and then.

So no, I don’t think you should ever “finish” your TBR list if you do that means you are not adding to it and potentially missing out on some great books. So, keep adding those recommendations, enjoy the books on there at your own pace and realise that a huge TBR list is good, it just means there are loads of great books out there and there is nothing wrong with that.