Shake the Shelf Shame: Top Ten Tuesdays

Happy Tuesday, reader friends! I’m linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl again for Top Ten Tuesday & the topic this week is: “Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why.” I couldn’t come up with a single reason that I’m avoiding any particular book so let’s address a much bigger issue here… is there a way to shake the shelf shame? Maybe. I’m sharing my top ten balms to ease, soothe, and, dare I hope, cure shelf shame (plus ten books on my tbr I want to read in no particular order)…

shake the shelf shame: a tbr cure

first impressions

We can only read a book for the first time once! Is the anticipation intoxicating or is the fear of disappointment paralyzing? Who knows?! There’s nothing wrong with waiting for the right time to read a book for the first time. Everyone knows first impressions are important.

 

mood reading

There are some books which we know are going to make us laugh, or cry, or sleep with the lights on. There are also certain seasons of life in which we are ill-prepared to engage in said reading experiences. There is wisdom in mood reading, shake the shelf shame!

 

series binge

Binge reading is a bookish indulgence. Binge reading a series is an exquisite extravagance. Everyone should make a point to orchestrate personal paperback pampering on this scale. There is no shame in this level of reader planning, we should be proud of our foresight!

 

story security

Like a comforting blanket and a warm mug of sweetness, a well-stocked tbr grants us the assurance that we will never run out of good books to read. The security blanket effect is lost if we read all the books so stock and restock often! Shake the shelf shame with bookish insurance.

 

live to read another day

Life is full of distractions like working, eating, and sleeping. Survival is a real drag when it cuts into our reading time. Audiobooks can sometimes alleviate the burden these time-consuming tasks place on our storytime but take heart if you are forced to save a book for tomorrow.

 

hidden treasures

A large tbr can be intimidating and sometimes downright stressful. Some of us cope by hiding the mountain of books we’ve yet to read in an unused room or on screen 327 of our ereaders. Out of sight, out of mind… shake the shelf shame and embrace the occasional hunt for a good read in the tbr wilds!

 

chapter choosing

If a mood strikes us or we have time for a good binge or the stars align for a perfect reading day, there’s still the pressure of choosing which book to rescue from the tbr mountain. How do we select just one from the hundreds of desired stories awaiting our attention?!

 

obligatory reading

Need to read versus want to read is a constant battle for a reader/reviewer/influencer/book blogger. Whether we perceive pressure from publishers, publicity companies, authors, or perhaps loved ones who gift us a book, obligations further complicate the dilemma of reading books from our tbr.

 

bookish endeavors

Perhaps our love of reading spurred us into reviewing, blogging, and/or social media (an uphill battle if ever there was one)… now we are too busy swoofing and doing the bookish things to devote an appropriate amount of time to our tbr!

 

guilt block

This is what happens when we are avoiding doing the things that are keeping us from reading (like the previous two examples or any form of adulting). The knowledge that we should be completing those important tasks drastically reduces the joy we would experience playing hooky with a book.

 

Share some of your reasons why you aren’t reading the books on your tbr!
Can you relate to any of my bookish logic? Does this help you shake the shelf shame from your tbr?