I Should Read That

Have I been complaining about the size of my TBR (to be read) for years?

Yes.

Have I done much about reducing the number of books I have on my TBR?

No.

2025 is bringing some changes to the I Should Read That household, including (hopefully) a house move! As any reader knows, moving books is tough. The boxes are so heavy and there are so many of them! With that in mind, one of my main goals for 2025 is to actually, really, definitely reduce the number of physical books I own (for real this time, you guys).

I have a quite intense spreadsheet that lists every book I own, and one of the first things I did this year was make note of the number of books on my physical TBR. That number? 998 books. 998 books on the shelves in our flat! With this in mind, I’ll be focusing on bringing that number down in 2025.

Alongside, you know, actually reading my physical books, I’ve also been focusing on other ways of getting my TBR down. 2024 saw me using my local library much more often, which apparently saved me just over £500 last year (I have a spreadsheet for this too, naturally). I was the long time Queen of the Book Haul (if you followed me on YouTube you certainly know this), but I’ve been buying significantly less over the past few years. I happen to live in Oxfordshire, which unsurprisingly has a fantastic library system and you can often find me at my local branch, perusing the shelves.

I’m also relying pretty heavily on my much beloved Kindle. I am guilty of owning the same book in multiple formats (thank you NetGalley and BookBub), so some of my physical TBR wins are going to come from reading ebooks. Scottish Husband kindly got me a Kindle stand and clicky page turner for my birthday last year and it’s honestly been game changing. As an physically cold person, being able to read without having my hands outside of the duvet has been amazing. I read 34 books on my Kindle in the second half of the 2024, as opposed to 10 in the first half. Not too shabby!

Anyway, on to the state of the TBR. As of the end of January, I’ve managed to get my physical TBR down from 998 to 985 – hooray! I kickstarted the year by reading nine books in January and some books were carted off to the charity shop. I’m extremely pleased with my progress so far – we’ll see what February holds!