How Many Unread Books Should You Own?

This is the time of year when a lot of people are pledging to "read my own damn books" next year. But what is the ideal ratio of owned read to unread books?

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[imperatrice]

I'm definitely part of the people that feel stressed by having a large TBR, not because I lose interest over time but because I want to be reading all of them right now and I can't + to me, the point of a book is to get read, not for it to sit on my shelves for ages, waiting for me to pick it up so hopefully I can get my TBR down next year and just be able to read everything I want when I want :)

[lisalindsay]

I think you're overthinking this. There is no one right number of unread books, or ratio of unread to read books. I have a virtual TBR list around 3500, and several hundred unread physical books in my home. I'm working through them as fast as I reasonably can. If this is a problem, it's a really good one to have.

[bheartsbooks]

This is the weirdest topic for me on booktube. I have watched so many videos where the biggest stress in their whole lives is having too many books! I just can’t imagine it. Having too many books be your number 1 stress. It’s literally self inflicted lol.
I don’t think anyone can answer this question for anyone else. It’s a very personal thing, because everyone has their own reasons for owning books. I own books that I’ll never read. I own 81 copies of Alice in Wonderland. I own books that make me happy both unread and read. If the book no longer makes me happy, I get rid of it. It’s simple for me. I own over 5, 000 books and have never in my life felt any book guilt about it.

[RichardDominguezTheMagicIsReal]

Good morning Danika, I never gave it much thought, but i love your philosophy of not being surrounded by books (read or not) that have no meaning to me ... Shortly after the movie I went out and bought "The Kite Runner" and it sits at the top of my bookshelf with only 2 other books "The Man of La Mancha" and "Leaves of Grass" (and has been reread more than any other book in my collection) ... I don't think I have 100 books on my TBR, but my fear (at the age of 60) is that I won't get to the ones i really want to read and I have to balance that to never running out of books I really want to read ... "Conundrum" LOL, it is a good life :) ... P.S. knowing what books are coming out and what books are hitting the library and which Spanish author has a new release are all great, but I honestly keep looking for your very interesting and engaging content, thanks for sharing and keep it coming ... May you all at BookRiot and all your loved ones have a blessed Christmas/Holiday season and may the new year bring you all love, wonder and longer TBR list ...

[laurenroller]

I like to not have more than 3 physical books in my home waiting to be read, ideally just one or two. More stresses me out. For a general TBR list in my head, though, I'm happy to have hundreds.

[lizziefayelovesbooks]

Definitely going to be a different number for everyone. I agree with you on having more unread books than read. I love being surrounded by books and the read books that I keep are ones that I have enjoyed and think I might read again. I shop mostly from library sales and used book stores and then can easily pass books on to other people and Little Free Libraries. I have probably about 2000 books in my collection and I've never stopped to count which ones are read and which ones are unread. I like to keep series and authors together on the shelves and I don't keep unread books separate. I may take me years to get around to a book, and I'm like you, I don't lose my excitement to read them. But having a 10 book TBR would not work for me. Haha! Unless you are just talking about the books that I'm going to read in the next two weeks or so. I don't like the thought of running out of stuff to read either. As a result I usually carry more than one book to work or on outings because what if I finish one! It is a struggle to find a balance between library books and owned books, but I'm getting better at it. Fun video!

[LiteraryStoner]

I have way more unread than read and I don't care because I see it as a ton of options. I mean I realize I probably won't read all the books I have but I can try and I buy books hoping to get to them. I should probably slow down on the buying and hopefully I will but i'll never aim for a particular ratio. I like having options.

[jackiesliterarycorner]

I buy and borrow more than get through the books on my shelf. I live at home with my parents and my mom has a way of feeling guilty if I don't read all the books that I already own. She has told me in the past she's not getting me another shelf so I try to donate books, but it gets to point to where cannot decide what to get rid. I also don't like feeling pressure to read something. It is one of my goal to read more than I buy and borrow.

[gilliancooke]

It's such a personal thing isn't it? At the start of 2016 I had over 100 unread books on my shelves, including some that I'd been putting off for years. That felt like too many so I spent that year reading through them all and enjoyed discovering several hidden gems. We also had a massive clear out and roughly halved the number of read books on the shelves to about 600 (there are three people in my household).


The past few years I've been sitting around 15-25 unread books at any one time but I do tend to do the majority of my reading from the library so can still seem like too many. I've made it a goal for 2020 to get my physical TBR down to around 5 books and see how I like that, if it feels restrictive I'll just bring it back up again. I do have a virtual TBR list of around 350 books on Goodreads so no shortage of books I know I want to read!

[frugal]

Ok first .... I love your glasses 👓... second ... I have only two shelves for books so once full ... no more until I read what’s on the shelves 🤓

[rose_and_thorns]

I don't really think about the read vs unread ratio - obviously the former is always going to be way higher than the latter, unless I happen to win the lottery one day and mosey into B&N yelling "I'LL TAKE 'EM ALL" (Okay, not ALL of them, but you know what I mean.) I like to keep my TBR shelves to around 50 because it gives me plenty of variety to choose from, since I am mostly a mood reader, but it's not so many that I feel like I need to push myself to read faster or something. However, I've certainly let it get over that number plenty of times - it's not a hard and fast rule or anything.

[heathersumner]

How popular does your channel need to get before you starting receiving ARCs?