I Will Never Read All the Books
So as most of you know I went to BEA. I got a lot of books there. Not TOO many, but a lot still. And now I'm going through the process of cataloging when the release dates are so I know when to read them. And then I started looking at all the other books that I've bought/received in the past few months. And then I started thinking about my TBR list on Goodreads (which is mostly full of books I do not own). And THEN I started thinking about the books I have in my spare room which I bought ages ago, but haven't gotten to yet. AND THEN I started thinking about all the books that are coming out... series books that I want to continue on with, authors I love that are putting out books in the near future, and HELLO Courtney Summers is putting out a new book in the next year!
So all of that got me thinking about how I don't read fast enough. I mean sometimes if I'm like obsessed with a book I can read it in one night (Fangirl, Torn Apart, Forgive Me Leonard Peacock), but mostly it takes me at least 3-4 days to finish a book. And well, that's just unacceptable!! BECAUSE that means I'll NEVER read all the books!! No matter how fast I read, I will never get to read all the books that I want to read. EVER!! Even when I'm like 90 years old and have zero eyesight, I still will be sitting under a massive TBR that I really want to get to. And that makes me sad!!! It's the hard truth, but I don't want it to be. I don't want to be in this place where I know I will probably never read that book my blogger friends are raving about. I want to live in my old oblivious world where I thought it was possible to read EVERYTHING.
That may sound naive, but I seriously thought I would get to a point someday where I would run out of books. And on that day I could just go to the library and browse the shelves and pick out something I'd never heard of before and just leisurely read it.
THAT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!
First of all, am I really going to go to a library and find books I haven't heard of??? Please. I am obsessed with finding out what books are coming out. Second, knowing about all the books that are coming out, how did I ever think there would come a time where there was NOTHING I was looking forward to?
So today I'm feeling book anxiety. Because I want to read all the books. I want to read what you guys recommend. I want to make time for finishing series that I've started. I want to make time for everything. And today is the day where my little book-heart broke... because there will always be books I want to read that I will NEVER get to read :(
I know the feeling. I also have a lot of books I might never read. It's such a pity, as I always feel like I'm missing something. But it's just not possible. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI completely understand this! I've made a list of all the books I want to read, in the order in which they're released and/or due, but sometimes when it comes "time" to read that book, I don't feel like reading that book at that particular time. And I hate that!
ReplyDeleteWow you are so organized. I am a total mess when it comes to book planning!!
DeleteThis is a sad post!! You broke my heart :( I KNOW you're right, but I don't want you to be. Can't we just live in denial forever?
ReplyDeleteYES!! I want to go back into denial world!!
DeleteI get this all the time! It's really so so sad that we'll never get to read ALL the books. There's a a pretty big chance that I'm going to miss out on tons of books that I would have absolutely LOVED! I hope at some stage I cut back on trolling the internet for books, at least doing it a little less than now, and cut back on the amount of books I want to buy. It's going to be hard enough getting rid of the pile of books in my room and the dozens of books on my kindle without adding more to it!
ReplyDeleteUghh sometimes when I finish a book that I didn't like, I think about how I could have used that time reading something that's out there that I would have loved!! Wasted opportunities!!!
DeleteOh man I'm the same way. Especially when i get more books in a week than I actually read I'm always like BUT I WANT TO READ ALL OF THEM and just know it won't be possible. I also am not one who can finish a book in 3 hours - I really envy those who can and read 100 books in the time I read 30 lol. THEY can read all of the books! We're just quietly puffing along >.< *tries not to look at BEA haul* Glad to have seen you there btw! :)
ReplyDeleteIt was very cool to see you at BEA!! You were one of the first blogs I ever found, so it was really neat to actually see you in person!! I really wish I was one of those people who read 200 books a year. I super envy them!! And you're right THEY will probably get to read ALL THE BOOKS *tear*
DeleteThis is so totally true and what a good name for it. My goal this year has been to lower my Goodreads TBR and it has went way up. I went from having 200 something books to a little over 300 books. What can you do? I know there are tons of amazing books out there for me to read sure my tbr list will never be zero, but do I want it to be zero. Before Goodreads and Blogging I was running out of books to read. I had no idea what I would read next and even didn't read sometimes because I didn't have a book to read. Goodreads and blogging has opened endless doors for me to find my next great read. Random Reads this year has been helping me to tackle some books that I otherwise wouldn't have read for a while. I actually look forward each month to picking my random read. I have been loving fairy tales this year especially. I'm out of my reading slump and reading like crazy again thankfully.
ReplyDeleteYes you are right, it is a good and a bad thing! I kind of miss the days when I went to the library and didn't know ANY of the books on the shelves and just found something randomly. Now it's like I know what every book is about and I've read a lot of them. It's not as fun... but it is kind of cool at the same time.
DeleteI'm SO glad I'm not the only person who suffers this anxiety!!!!
ReplyDeleteR x
Michelle, I totally hear ya. This year at BEA I only got about 10 books because I wanted to get ones I really really wanted to read or really wanted to push and knew I wanted manageable list. Also I'm so sad we didn't connect at BEA! :'( I also go through my Goodreads TBR every few months to make sure I REALLY want to read everything on the list as opposed to hmmm let me add everything that looks interesting. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes I really need to go through my Goodreads TBR. There are definitely ones on there that I've lost interest in. Very sad I didn't see you at BEA!! Maybe next year??
DeletePreach! Now that I've catalogued post BEA I realize I'm going to have to make some reading choices. If only I could get over the guilt of passing on a book (a potentially good one at that)!
ReplyDelete- meghann
Ughh I make it so hard on myself to choose my next book because of the book guilt. I always think I'm going to pick the wrong book and miss out on something amazing!
DeleteI never REALLY thought of the fact that it's probably impossible to read all the books I want to. I think it helps though that a lot of the time, our tastes change so books just naturally fall off our TBR list. But hey, YAY for going to BEA, you'll get to them as you get to them :)
ReplyDeleteI agree... there are a lot of books that I wanted to read that I just don't anymore. And sometimes when too much time has past, the relevance of the book goes for me. I am going to try SUPER hard to get to all of my BEA books!
DeleteThis makes me so sad too! My TBR list is ever growing. I recently had to get rid of 70 books I own because I hadn't read them and realised I never would. That still leaves me with over 130 books I physically own that I haven't read yet. Then there's the books on my Kindle, the eARCs that I have received and everything else. I still feel like I will get to them all one day, but I know that I won't. It makes me sad. I hope I don't die young or anything otherwise I will miss out on a ton of amazing books! Maybe, one day, they will invent a pill that means we no longer require sleep and then we could spend that time just reading.
ReplyDeleteTHIS MAKES ME SO UPSET. I seriously think about this problem at least once a week and I almost start to hyperventilate. I hate that I'll never be able to read all the books that I want to read. I probably won't ever even be able to read all the books that I OWN. This is horrifying. Something must be done!
ReplyDeleteSame here you never have enough time to read and do all the things that need doing.
ReplyDelete