10 Tips for Setting Up a Yearly TBR Pile

Given yesterday's post, I thought it would be a good idea to give you all some tips and suggestions for setting up your own TBR piles. I decided that it would be easiest if I split the different kinds of TBRs up into 3 sections - yearly, monthly, and weekly. Most of these tips will be roughly the same, just different contexts depending on what kind of TBR you're setting up.

Today, I'll be focusing on setting up a yearly TBR pile, tomorrow (Sept. 28) will be on setting up a monthly TBR pile, and Wednesday (Sept. 29) will be on setting up a weekly TBR pile.

Just a couple of notes before we get into today's post:

1. It is okay to feel stressed about your TBR pile. Sometimes, you just need to fully trash it and go with your gut/mood if you're feeling stressed about it.
2. Your TBR does not need to be finished by the end of the week, month, or even year. If you don't get to a couple of books, that is fine. You're not doing anything wrong as a reader.

Here are 10 tips for setting up a yearly TBR pile.

Tip 1: Have a Goodreads account.

Goodreads can help you keep track of all the books you want to read in the TBR shelf. However, you can also create a separate shelf for your TBR list for a particular year - i.e. 2021 TBR, or 2022 TBR.

Tip 2: Create a TBR jar.

I'll go into a bit more detail about what a TBR jar is and how to set one up in my post for October 2nd. Not only does using a TBR jar help you be a bit more random with your TBR pile at any given time, but it can also help you make quick decisions as to your next read. And how you set your TBR jar up is 100% up to you.

Tip 3: Be open to TBR changes.

Maybe it's December, and you wanted to read a certain book coming out in June the next year. However, once it's released, you find out that there's some controversy swirling around the author, the book, or both, which makes you not want to read it. This example is a bit extreme, but things happen, so it's good to be open to TBR changes.

Tip 4: Do not plan for every book you're going to read during the year.

This is sort of related to Tip 3. You don't want to plan for every single book you'll read in a single year. That is, of course, unless you plan to read only one book per month and read 12 books in one year. If you want to hit a bigger book goal (i.e. 25+ books read in one year), don't plan for every book.

Tip 5: Your yearly TBR can consist of only your anticipated reads for that year.

Again, this is related to Tips 3-4. The simplest, and easiest, way to go about your yearly TBR is to set up an anticipated reads TBR for that year. You can do this on Goodreads by setting up a shelf for it, such as 2021 Anticipated Reads, or 2022 Anticipated Reads.

Tip 6: If you want to add more to your anticipated reads list for that year, you can do that.

Sometimes, you don't know about a book until closer to its release date. If it becomes an anticipated read for you, then it is perfectly fine for you to add it to a particular year. But try to keep lists like this to a smaller number.

Tip 7: If you don't get to all of the books you wanted to in a particular year, that's okay.

I feel like a lot of readers think that if they don't hit their yearly reading goal, then they're "doing something wrong" when it comes to reading. If you don't get to all of the books you wanted to read in a particular year, that is okay.

Tip 8: Accept that you're not going to read every book there is under the sun in one year.

You may be thinking, "But, HBR, this is a bit obvious. Of course I can't read every book in one year." However, this is one of those tips that's obvious once it's brought up. Readers, myself included, tend to forget this on occasion. It's okay to not hit your yearly goal/TBR, and it's okay not to read 100+ books a year.

Tip 9: If you borrow from your local library, school library, or the Libby app, you'll have access to books you don't usually have access to.

This tip really relates to Tips 3-4. Sometimes, your library or the Libby app has access to a book before you're able to buy it. This is a great perk because you don't have to spend money on a book you may end up disliking to some degree. 

Tip 10: It's okay to wait for the hype around a book to die down before you actually pick it up.

I don't know about you all, but I'm one of those people who gets turned off a bit when a book gets even a little hype. If I'm seeing it in multiple places, I'm less likely to pick it up at that moment. But if there isn't a lot of hype, or the hype has died down, then I pick it up. And if you do this too, that's okay.