Tuesday, July 7, 2009

To Be Read (TBR) Pile Confessions


Most authors read voraciously and their bedside tables/bookcases/desks or basically every nook and cranny groans with the weight of books that they want and need to read. Here's the first TBR Pile Confession from Little Black Dress author Janet Gover.



There's always a lot of contemporary romance - which is what I write. Fellow RNA members and fellow LBD authors always appear - but they vanish again quickly as they are often the first books I reach for when I'm looking for a new read. I've also been dipping into historicals lately, just for a change, and loving it.

I have always read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. Lately I've been adding young adult fantasy to my reading. Just because I'm not a kid anymore, I can still enjoy visiting their worlds.

The TBR shelf often includes books I've read before and liked so much that I want to go back for another look. And there are always a few authors who are so good that I read them again and again - hoping to learn from them; hoping some of their brilliance might rub off.


Janet's current Book - A FARMER NEEDS A WIFE


Helen Woodley, editor of Australia's top magazine, had no idea how successful her new column would be. Who knew that if the country's lovelorn farmers were profiled each week, readers would queue up to date them?

9 comments:

Lorix said...

Glad I'm not the only one with loads of TBR's. Unfortunately I'm not good at putting off reading them when I actually have them....but then who needs to do housework & there's always pot noodles for the kids....
(Just jesting I do actually feed my children properly, it may be burnt but it is proper food!) By the way Janet your book is very ner to the top of my TBR pile. I love LBD books.

Janet Gover said...

Lori - I feed my other half and the cat, but the housework definately takes second place to a good book. It's nice to think of my Farmers on your TBR shelf. If I'm totally honest - my TBR is a shelf, a table and a pile on the couch in my office. So many books - so little time :)

Unknown said...

I'm truly sneeky as I have tbr piles in two countries - I hope DH doesn't notice as I spread the books about both houses for the one beside the bed usually only has three or four books!

Caroline said...

I had to take emergency action a couple of months ago when the pile hit 97 titles! The problem is that because I live in a remote area, I'm served by a mobile library service. I can have up to 30 books for up to 9 weeks at a time, I can reserve anything in the entire Highland Library catalogue free of charge and they turn up at the top of my driveway in a big yellow converted bus every three weeks - it's like a free version of Amazon! But it's absolutely deadly for getting the pile of bought books down, because library books always get bumped to the top so I read them before the return date.

Sheila Norton said...

And does everyone else have books that stay at the bottom of the TBR pile for ever, because others that just HAVE to be read first keep landing on top?!? What are we going to do about those poor things sitting on the bottom? It's not that I don't want to read them - I do! - so I'm not taking them away from the pile! I just need to stop putting others on top of them. (Help!)

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Like Olivia I also have books that seem to stay at the bottom, but I'm sure I will read them at some point, so couldn't possible get rid of them.

I daren't count my tbr pile, which is literally a three deep pile up the wall in a corner of the house, and various bookcases in different rooms, oh and a shelf in the shed too.

mulberry said...

Hey, anyone with Janet's book on their TBR, pull it out and put it on the very top!
I gobbled it up in two sittings last week- loved it!

I tend to go long spells without reading much (usually when I'm trying to write first draft because unfortunately I'm just a sponge for other people's ideas if I'm not careful) then read a book a day in between. Then if the stack is getting too big (when it's taken over half the bedroom and I have to step between piles of books to get to the bed my husband usually says something!) I get fed up and give half of them away unread. Of course the givewaways alway include the exact book I most want when I start to read again.

Jan Sprenger said...

Like Liz F, I have two TBR piles. Within those, there are often a couple of Part Reads (PR), often a biog/factual book and a novel. Occasionally, there may be one or two which I'm Unlikely To Finish (UTF) which I just can't get on with but am reluctant to abandon.
They sit on my shelf, arms folded, challenging me to have another go.

Phillipa said...

Janet - whew, what a relief! My bookshelf looks like this (only messier!) You sure know you've got an addiction when the shelves are obscured by even more books.