I LOVED EMMA'S BALANCING THE BOOKS! Thank you for bringing it back

I LOVED balancing the books! So fun to see someone else carrying it forward. My physical TBR is somewhere around 30-40, which is unusually high for me. I have a goal to read around 25 of them this summer, which is going well, except I’m hauling books at the rate I’m reading so the actual amount of books on the TBR isn’t going down 😅

Love this challenge! I input read books from the library nowadays and I've saved so much money! It doesn't work for everyone but i love it

I also love having so many options. My problem is when I hit a months-years long slump and never read any of the books I bought when I was reading consistently. Then when I come out of it, I’m buying/borrowing newer books that caught my attention enough to break out of the slump. I will also never have a zero TBR. Once I read a book I determine if I will unhaul or shelve it. I have to absolutely LOVE it to shelve it. Anything less than “cannot live without”- I unhaul it immediately. So most of my books are unread! I loved the original series, i will be stopping in to check in on your balancing the books journey!

With cost of living increases I have seen my disposable income rapidly shrink so now before buying a book I ask myself why. If it is for a specific purpose or to continue a series I buy it. If not I ask myself if I honestly need to add another book to my almost 500 tbr. The answer is pretty much always no and this has taken a couple of years to get used to but it is working. Half my books are from my tbr this year and 90% of the other half are from the library or KU. It is very satisfying to have those numbers. Good luck with your challenge for the rest of the year xx

Good luck, Mads! I technically have a physical TBR of zero because I only own books I've already read! I really only enjoy owning my all-time favorite books. So the way I enjoy books is I love going to used bookstores and hunting down my faves! It's so fun and exciting to show up to a used bookstore and hunt for books and then find one that I need!

I have around 58 books on my TBR, and that feels a little unmanageable for me personally because i do tend to fall out of love with books the longer they sit on my shelf, so i would love to have a TBR of around 30 books. That would be optimal for me.

I have two TBRs. the first is the books that I own (about 400 books, i'd guess about half of that are unread) and my goodreads TBR which has been growing since 2014 (currently at 1800 listed books). I'm trying to get the goodreads one down to a more reasonable number so DNFs are rampent this year. Good luck with your challenge!

My tbr is mainly ebooks and audiobooks (I only count the ones I own, not any from the library etc), and the number is at 113 right now. I also like to keep it at around a 100 as it gives me a good selection! :D I have recently gotten access to a special digital library that has an amazing selection, so my tbr might actually drop drastically this year! I prefer to buy physical books Ive already read and loved, a trophy if you will 😂

I’m looking forward to this challenge . I have a tbr in the 100s. I’m trying not buy new releases as I don’t like hardbacks and I don’t get to them quickly enough 😂so trying to impatiently wait for the paperbacks💛

I have a tbr of 18 books and thats already kinda stressful to me😅 I basically do a soft version balancing books when I want to get the number down, namely for every two books I read I get to purchase one. Its been working really well for me and I find it relatively low effort

Good luck! If I'm really unlucky, my physical TBR is over 1000. But my Goodreads TBR is at 7900, which I'm never going to get that under 1000 just by reading.

My TBR is currently at 123 books, including ebooks and audiobooks. I‘m fine with that number as it has decreased by around 10 books compared to the beginning of the year. I love having a variety of books to choose from because I‘m also a mood reader. I always try to read more than I buy and since I‘m at uni that usually works out. I just don‘t have the budget for massive book hauls and that helps 😅😊 Good luck with your challenge!

I also read more library books when I am trying to buy less. I also have about 400ish books on the tbr rough estimate. I have read over half what i bought so far this year so that's a win and lots of library books 😢

My physical tbr was at 44, but i just came back from a girls london trip and i bought 15 books🫣 and with a bought book from yesterday i am now on 60books, which for my reading habits and pace is a lot… (my problem is that i mostly listen to audiobooks i dont own the books of so approximately 1/3 of my reading doesnt bring down my tbr.) but none the less, i want to at least read the 15 recently hauled books this year. And i probably wont buy any books until mid autumn because i really cant afford to😅😭

Excited to see how this challenge works out for you! My owned TBR (I count physical, ebooks, and audiobooks) is currently sitting at 383. I'm also in the process of trying to read my TBR down, and hopefully someday I'll get it under 100 😂

I think I had over 500 Kindle books and about 250-300 physical books when I counted at the start of the year. I'm doing one book per day, lots of audiobooks, in order to get my TBR down significantly. So far, so good!

I started the year off with 78 unread books which for me personally was a lot and stressing me out a bit. So I went on a soft book buying ban and focused on reading what I already owned. And it’s somewhat working. I’m down to 45 unread books as of now. While my number of books read is 42. So I’ve obviously been buying some. But I have read most of them right away! So it’s a work in progress 😅

Ugh my TBR is so big 🥲 I love the idea of balancing my books but it feels almost impossible 😩

such a great idea, cannot wait to continue the journey with you! may need to implement something similar myself as it's out of control ugh as i think my tbr is 800-ish??

Oh, I love this challenge!! My total of unread books is around 8-900, which is FAR too many! I'm looking forward to seeing the updates to this challenge, and I'm thinking of doing something similar myself!

I have 116 books on my tbr at the moment. I started the year with 151 and have set myself the goal this year of getting down to 100 books through either reading or unhauling them and at the end of the year I have to get rid of any books I have above that number. My motivation was partially because I love a challenge, but also I have books that have been there for 5+ years that I'm not that excited about any more so I needed the motivation to either try them or get rid of them to make room for books I am excited by. I also read about 20-30 books a year these days so under a 100 books seemed a sensible tbr

I'm one of those crazy folks that "has a library" for a TBR....over 1000 books. Not mad but I would like it under 1k seeing as I live in a 1 bedroom apartment lol. I didn't know for the longest time but last year I FINALLY conceded and let one of my friends alphabetize my books and add them all to Goodreads. It's a number I'm not sure I wanted to acknowledge. Also no I didn't just sit here while they did it, it was a team effort and yes, I fed them and provided a comfy place to sleep. I have been tracking since but need to implement SOMETHING to start decreasing the numbers. Running out of room over here.

I love challenges like this, will be curious to see how it goes! I dont really think of having a TBR because I borrow from the library a lot, but i recently had to rethink randomly buying kindle books just because they are 99p because otherwise I'd end up with more than can be read during a human lifespan 😂

On my TBR are 61 books. 29 are physical books and 31 e-books. 31 of these books are novels and 29 are non fiction. I am trying to bring my TBR to zero but I try to take the pressure out of bringing to zero by reading books in between I already read.

I’m at 108, on my physical TBR (120 if I include books that are sequels to books I haven’t read yet). It’s gone down slightly since the start of the year I was at 114 (124 total) but I’m not great at getting it down .

Love this idea x

I think I’ve got about 400 unread books in my house but some of them are like six books series so I think I might start counting them as one because I can’t read book 5 in the series before at the first four. But I also need to look at possibly doing something similar again with mine because it’s getting a bit out of hand

I like the idea of this...for other people! I'm way too scared to do it for myself hahahaha!

I currently have 79 books on my tbr, and I’m trying to get that down to 50 by the end of the year! My problem is that I am running out of space in my tiny flat… perhaps I need to ship some of the read ones back to my family home 🤔

I have 150 books on my physical tbr, not including some Kindle books I haven’t added to the list. Some of them are my husband’s books that I want to read, so it’s not all my fault (I did buy them for him, so I guess it kinda is). I don’t buy a lot of books, but I usually read from the library, so my books at home aren’t getting read often..

I don't have a set number, but I probably have a couple dozen unread books on my shelves, mostly gifts or things I bought to support an indie shop I visited on trips. In general, I find that I don't like having unread books on my shelves or buying books I haven't read. It's more stressful than anything because what if I buy a book and hate it and then I wasted the money?? And I like having my shelves be a shrine to the books I've read and loved.

I'm trying to use my library more but if it's something both me and my mother would read then I will buy it.

My physical TBR is currently 129. I’d like it to be under 100 but like you, won’t do a buying ban so we move 🤷🏻‍♀️

My TBR is currently 52 books and I do try to read down my TBR. Last year I dropped it by 11ish books (mostly by unhauls) and was at 39 books...but I just did my birthday book shop and it's back up there! However I have some time off soon and I expect to read many things.

My tbr (physical and e books) is 167

my tbr is currently at 124 books. i'd ideally like it to be below 100 because it can be a bit overwhelming having so many unread books. i'm not too bothered by it though because i've borrowed quite a few books from friends recently which obviously hasn't helped reduce my physical tbr, but i'm not going to stop doing that because i love reading the books by friends love

My physical tbr is 38 books but my ebooks and audiobooks is over 600

I'm trying to get my TBR down so that it fits in my book crates and the shelves under my computer printer and have no books on my desk.

I‘m at 48 and I was so glad to see the 50+ number gone

I am somewhere north of a hundred... 110 maybe?

Hold up! We’re supposed to actually be reading our TBR? Is this new?😂