Hey Guys!
Today’s topic is inspired by an old October 2019 Let’s Talk Bookish prompt hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion! Since I was not a blogger around this time so I decided that I would take a stab at it today!
Hope you enjoy this discussion!

Let me start by saying that you do not need a TBR to be a reader. Whether you use one or not is up to you! No one else can tell you whether or not to use one! I use TBRs, and I enjoy using them a lot!
What are TBRs?
TBRs stand for To be Read. TBRs are a list of books that you want to read in the future.
You can have TBRs that stick to a time limit. For example, I do monthly TBRs, but sometimes I do get off schedule just a bit.
You can also have one big TBR list that contains all the books you want to read without a time limit.
Pros:
- Help you keep track of books that you are interested in
- Gives you a variety of books to choose from
- Helps you to pick out books for tags or TBR posts or books for challenges you are participating in
- Helps you plan out what books you want to get done when
It’s like a book checklist where you check off books when you finish them and plan dates when you want certain books read by.
Cons:
- Can add too many books to the TBR and end up not getting to most of them
- Can be discouraging and stop reaching readers to hitting their goals
- Can easily get off your schedule and get behind
- The books can easily rack up and if you have a book tours or arcs that have to be read by a certain date, you may end up never getting to them

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To answer the question in the title, I think you don’t need to have tbrs to be considered a reader. Haha I always considered myself a bookworm but I only learnt what tbrs meant after I started blogging lol
Great post!!!
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Thank you!! And yes same!!
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Ooh great discussion! Definitely TBRs are handy and trendy as well but they do come with those disadvantages you listed! And ah I agree with Jan up there!
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Thank you!!
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you raised some really good points that I agree with! I like to use tbrs to track of books I’m planning to read in the future, but like you said it can really add up (I have books on my want-to-read list on goodreads that I added 5 years ago and still haven’t read!!). I think a lot of people like myself are mood readers who don’t stick to tbrs and that’s totally fine!
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Yes totally agree! I use TBRs but sometimes I don’t strictly stay on track with them!
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I think having a tbr is good because I want to read so many books, it good to have a record but I also have to admit that long tbrs gives me something called ‘never-ending tbr’ anxiety!!
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Same haha
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I only learned about tbrs when I started blogging, so I don’t think you need them to be a reader. I used to just take things one library visit at a time. Now I have a looong tbr on goodreads, but it’s more of a hopeful list than something that’s set in stone. I agree with your point that tbrs are good for giving you variety and picking out books for tags and challenges. Great discussion!
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Thank you!! And yes I’m the same haha
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lovely post!
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Thank you!!
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My TBR is certainly the big enough to be discouraging kind! I know it’s impossible for me to ever complete the whole TBR. I’ll die with books still to read.
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Same honestly! That’s why a lot of the times I take books off over time that I no longer want to read to make it more manageable
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