I Finally Reduced My TBR! But…

For a good portion of last year, I was working on reducing my physical TBR stack. It was a lot of work, but by the time December was half-way over, I had gotten it down from over a hundred books to a mere handful. I was so super proud of myself.

Then I discovered something.

I like having a TBR stack that's in danger of burying me alive. I like all those options. All those choices and hair-pulling frustration of 'what the hell do I read now'.

I can't explain it because I thought I'd be super happy that I no longer had a TBR that was either gathering dust or in danger of toppling on me at any moment - depending on how interested I was in the book in question.

But then, the more I read and the less I bought…I started feeling anxious.

What happens if I run out of books to read? (Now, I know that's a totally impossibility, because if all else fails, I could reread. But, trust me, seeing only four-six books on my desk that I hadn't read, I don't believe I was thinking rationally.)

Last year I dealt with enough of the 'this TBR is too huge' and 'I'm NEVER going to be able to read all these books' that I never thought I'd have this problem.

Needless to say, I promptly went and spent the better part of two weeks pay on books and currently, I feel much better. Now I'm back to the 'I've got too many choices and I don't know what I want to read' - where I've been since I started blogging!

And, oddly, I feel much happier. (I've also been buying my books a little more cautiously, so I don't have books that I buy, completely loose interest in and then that start gathering dust. I hope.)

I'd love to know if anything like this has ever happened to you. Have you ever gotten your TBR down only to discover you hate not having CHOICES? Or have you been unable to ever reduce your TBR? (And I bet me talking like this isn't encouraging you to try harder!)

Do you like having tons of choices when it comes to books? Or do you prefer to only buy a few and then promptly read them?