Let’s Talk Bookish – Are big TBRS the Result of Abibliophobia?

Welcome to a new Friday here at Down The Rabbit Hole! On this week’s Let’s Talk Bookish, we once again are discussing a topic based on a community suggestion. If you’re unfamiliar with this segment, it’s actually hosted by Rukky and Dani on their respective blogs! I will link them below once again for those who are new:

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

Prompt for February 19:

Abibliophobia is the fear of running out of reading material, and TBRs are lists of books you plan to read.

Do you have abibliophobia? Do you add books to your TBR to keep it big, or is it a place where you keep books that seem interesting? Do you have multiple TBRs? If you don’t have a TBR, how do you find your next read?

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Honestly, this may be truly sacrilegious or blasphemous, but I don’t really have a TBR! I know, a blogger without an infinitely long TBR isn’t the norm. But I guess here’s my little secret: rather than abibliophobia, I think I rather fear a long list of TBR more! The completionist in me will immediately spring into action, trying to finish every single book on that list, to “accomplish” or “finish” it – totally defeating the purpose of having a list of books to enjoy reading just for the sake of it.

I suppose I am not too afraid of running out of reading material – is it even possible for me to finish reading all the books out there? Worst case scenario, I can always read books from a different language right? But I digress. I suppose on some level I am afraid of running out of material to read, but with how busy everyone’s lives are this day and age, I don’t think I genuinely have to worry about that.

I generally do keep a short TBR from time to time, if multiple friends happen to suggest books at the same time, or if different people want to do some buddy reads – then yes, I do sometimes have a TBR. Waiting to coordinate reading with different friends certainly places books on my backburner waiting to be read when called upon to. Other than this though, I also occasionally have a few books in mind here or there that I may want to pick up if I don’t find anything of greater interest in the meantime.

This makes me TBR serve either only of two purposes: a book that is awaiting a friend, or a shortlist of books I find interesting that I might pick up if something else doesn’t interest me more. Anyone else follow this kind of pattern? Let me know below if I’m not the only one!

I guess the last prompt is about how I find my next read. Honestly, my bookworm friends are a big source of new reading material for me. Each friend likes to read their own specific genre, so I get plenty of diverse suggestions from all of them! Once in-person browsing is allowed again, I also enjoy looking at books on shelves, seeing which ones appeal to me, judging books by their cover, as one does.

No abibliophobia here! Although sometimes I feel like I should work on having a legitimate TBR for the sake of organization. If I do make a good one, I will be sure to share it with all of you sometime!

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And that’s all for this Friday’s discussion from me! Do you all have long TBRs or do you keep a short one like me? Is it a result of abibliophobia? Once again, feel free to comment and discuss below, and make sure you follow the original creators on their own blogs!