Last May I wrote a post on my book problem. I gathered all of the books I’d collected over the years and had not gotten around to reading and took this photo
So, I thought it was time to assess the progress I’ve made in a year. I recreated the photo exactly (excluding Max who decided not to cooperate), leaving out the books I’ve read and came up with this
Okay, you may not be able to tell because of the angle, but the piles were smaller! 49 books smaller to be exact (I read 43, donated 6 I will never read) So, I took the smaller pile on the left and distributed it on the other piles and added the books I’ve acquired and not read this year and came up with this
And guess what? I only added 43 books this year! So this is my TBR pile, 380 books in all. I am trying to work my way through and I just need to concentrate on not adding more than I’ve read from my TBR pile. I am participating in the RYOB Challenge and have 20 more to reach my goal, so that will help 🙂
What about you? I know some of you have posted about this and if you want to leave a link I’ll add it here.
Other TBR piles
Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea
Stacy's Books 
I laughed when I seen your “before and after pics” and then the bottom one looks just like the top one! lol.. I am having this same problem! I have decided today that I am going to go threw my books. So maybe I will do this too!! If I do I will post a link back here for you to go see. 🙂
Yes (sigh) they all look the same. I swear I’m making progress, but then I get more books!
I think I have the same problem you do, only worse.
I’m sure yours is worse – I see the books you get every week!
I laughed too – not to be mean but because we all share the same addiction and the same problem. I actually think your stack looks great. I’d love to come and browse through it. I’d try not to knock the stacks over.
Sure, laugh it up 🙂 I thought that by taking the picture last year it would help and it did, but only marginally!
I have a TBR bookcase (http://tinyurl.com/okhcsr), but unfortunately, I keep adding to it. I don’t think I’ll ever catch up! I need to start weeding out the things I’ll never read.
Thanks for sharing 🙂 We’ll be in NYC in June. Hope to see you.
OMG!!!! i realyl really hope I dont get tot hat point ever. because I doubt I will ever finish reading any TBR much less a pile that huge!
my fmaily’s already yelling at me…cant make it worse
I admit that a lot of these books were acquired during my 5 years at Barnes & Noble.
I thought your current picture looked bigger than the original! Glad to hear that is not the case. I don’t buy books for this very reason. The ones I get as gifts I go through every year or so and donate them to the library usually. And the ones that I borrow go back to the original owner (although usually they refuse to take them back). I only keep the ones I like to re-read or that have some silly sentimental value. I keep my To Read list online at Goodreads so I never forget what I wanted to read but don’t need to buy them all in order to remember them. Having said all that, I just went to a library sale and now have about 20 books sprawled on the dining room table that won’t fit into my one bookcase!
🙂 Yes, you must look very closely to see that although I still have the piles they are all 2-4 books shorter. What a mess! There’s a big book sale I’m going to at the end of May and I’ll have to take this photo with me to control myself!
As far as I can tell, since last year you’ve read Max. Kudos!
Hey! He’s a tougher read than you know 😉 Jason saw my photos when he came home and thought they all look the same. It is only my trained eyes that can see the difference (it’s called denial). I’m thinking about coming to DC as soon as we get back from NYC in June. Call you.
Woah!!! As in WOAH!
And I thought I had big problems with unread books! I should post a pic of my mini-library, err, my shelves on my blog too.
ROFL you crack me up. I feel better about my tbr pile of around 40 books.
Now my maths is far from brilliant (surprise I was an english girl LOL) but if you read 43 and bought 43 doesn’t that make you even?
I personally love the stack its kind of like a living artwork moving and changing. I will have to do a creative photo shoot of my tbr pile. Wonder if one of my cats will participate…hmm probably not.
Ah, yes. I read 43, bought 43, but GAVE AWAY 6 😉 I’d love to see what fun things you could do with your TBRs.
Glad I’m not alone!!
Oh my goodness, you should start a library, my books are in similar numbers, but I DARE not count them!
I did not count them last year, but I couldn’t stop myself this year. I wanted to see if I’d made ANY progress!
Wow — these pictures are incredible! I have never seen such a huge TBR pile. Just incredible… good luck and happy reading!
Yes, now I’m trying to move all the books back where they should be 🙂
LOL I don’t feel bad anymore. My personal book stash doesn’t even come close. You crack me up girl! God bless you. You can definitely get through those.
Well, I might get through them someday. If I don’t buy any more. Or read anything else.
Wow! I need to do that. LOL!!! At least you can’t mumble that you have nothing good to read. Thanks for sharing!
I loved looking at your book stacks. You made me feel bad though, I have 570 unread books 😦
wow – that puts my TBR pile to shame! Can I be you when I grow up? 🙂
Stacy,
2 students and myself looked at your photos very carefully and we all agree that it looks like it’s grown!!!! But we’ll accept that you only added 43 to it this year!!! LOL!! 🙂
Okay, you are making me laugh! EVERYONE thinks it has grown. I did only add 43 and got rid of 49, so my only explanation is that the 43 are bigger than the 49 I read or gave away. So, I can accept the fact the piles look bigger 😉 But you have to compare the first and last photos. The middle one is smaller for sure.