Why my TBR is chill

I see a lot of book blogs and YouTube videos about TBR (To Be Read) lists. And, whilst I enjoy reading and watching them, I don’t tend to make TBRs myself.

I’m someone who puts a lot of pressure on myself and can fall into the trap of measuring my value by my productivity. And this mentality has crept into my reading occasionally, particularly when I used to review books on YouTube (and my old blog RIP) and make reading lists and goals for myself. The pressure I inflicted on myself was partly why I took such a long hiatus from book blogging.

Nowadays, I’m loving reading and feel almost completely free from reading pressure. This is partly because I’ve grown as a person but it’s also because I don’t give my TBR much thought. Don’t get me wrong, I often have a vague sense of what I want to read next. I have many books on my shelves I haven’t read yet and I’m forever browsing bookshops, book blogs and BookTube, finding exciting books I will someday read.

But when I’m looking for a new book to pick up, I prefer to decide on the spot, depending on my mood. For example, I fully intend to finish the entire Game of Thrones series at some point in my life. But I feel no sense of urgency to do so and don’t want to make myself read them until I’m in the mood to get immersed in a long high fantasy series. (This is probably unwise as the TV series means Game of Thrones spoilers are everywhere.)

Likely, as I get into the swing of updating my book blog again, I may well change my mind and write a TBR or two. I’ve been playing around with the idea of writing a list of books I want to re-read. As this list will include some of my favourite books on it, it will make for a fun blog post.

Let me know your thoughts on TBRs! Do you like them? Do you make them? And do you feel any pressure/expectation to read certain genres/authors or to set specific reading goals?