TBR pile: noun. A “To-Be-Read Pile” is a stack of books of large proportions that have not yet been read by its owner.

The TBR pile: a stack known to all bookworms as the pile of dead trees & ink that never. stops. growing. It is a result of bibliophobia (the fear of running out of reading material) and the motto by which many bookworms live by: “If you have enough book space, I don’t want to speak to you.” – Terry Pratchett 

The writer of this blog, as a Professional Bookworm (who is determined to find out HOW to pursue this emotional roller coaster as a career someday) had never heard of a “TBR” pile until joining the book blogging biz.

As a young bookworm, she often had several books upon her shelf that disappointed her. Did she try to read them? Yes. Did she dislike them? Sometimes. Did she refuse to try something that wasn’t the last best book she had read? Definitely. (The book blogger also happened to be the Queen Of Re-Reading Books 12 Hundred Times.)

Then, when this dedicated bookworm began her blog in 2014, her small world was turned upside down. There were “upcoming releases!” And “Advanced Reader’s Copies!” And whole websites devoted simply to spread the word of awesome books. The Queen Of Re-Reading was now The Queen Of Wanting To Read New Books.

Now she “binge-holds.” This is what she calls it when she scrolls through her list on Goodreads of (as of NOW) 221 books she wishes to someday read. Then she searches them on her library website and clicks “place hold.” And “place hold.” And “place hold.” And place hold and place hold and place hold. 

She buys books. The For the Bookish blogger, when she is not buying used books, saves her money for books. (Like right now, she is saving every bit of her money for the 13,000,000,000 books that she wants to read that debut in 2016.) It is exhausting. There is a whole shelf in her room for the books she has yet to read.

Sometimes, the blogger feels overwhelmed. It’s mind-boggling, she thinks, when you really sit and dwell on the massive amounts of books there are still left to read. And sometimes, the blogger feels energized. Encouraged! Hopeful! Excited! THERE ARE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF BOOKS STILL LEFT TO BE READ, always.

She thinks: my next favorite book might be just around the corner.

She thinks: this one could change my world.

She thinks: why shouldn’t I always have books to read? Think of all the possibilities. 

what do you think of tbr piles?

Reading is FUUUUUN. I’ve never had a problem picking up a book and devouring page after page like a hungry word-eater. I’ve been a bookworm from the very beginning, folks. From The Boxcar Children (which I discovered in 2nd grade thanks to my teacher) to The Book Thief (also a teacher-recommended read) it’s been real.

But when a SCHOOL hands me a book and tells me to read it? It’s a completely different story. (Pun intended.)

Don’t get me wrong here. I am a firm believer that kids today, man, they need to read. In the age of technology, technology, technology, and video games and social media and so much more right at our fingertips, what would possess a kid to pick up a book anyway? Soooo lame. (Note the sarcasm.)

Take sixth grade for example. Yes, I was required to read books – nine books a quarter, which is nine books in nine weeks – books I got to choose. (I certainly wasn’t complaining.) But then – about halfway through the year, when I was relieved and felt sure I wouldn’t have to worry about school-required books – I was given this book. You might recognize the title? The Boy In The Striped Pajamas.

I had heard of it before, but I’m not sure when – if I hadn’t been required to read it in the sixth grade – I would have brought myself to pick it up. I had just gotten into book blogging and I wanted to read the latest YA debut. But then I begrudgingly began reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, and, my goodness. Boy am I glad I did! (Sort of. It was a terrible terrible book… but GOOD at the same time. Just read it and you’ll know what I mean!) 😉

I love that book, and I would have missed out on a lot if my teacher hadn’t made me read it. And then that gets me thinking about other kids – other kids who don’t even read on a regular basis like me. What if they’re handed a book for school and they don’t want to read it… but it opens them up to a world of books and turns them into a reader??

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” – J.K. Rowling

BUT THE THING IS… I still dislike the overall idea of school-required reading. In my home-school group this year and last, I have to read several books to write essays on. Examples: The Witch of Blackbird Pond; Carry On, Mr. Bowditch; The Phantom Tollbooth; The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe… some of them I enjoyed (The Witch of Blackbird Pond), and some of them I still didn’t. (Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.)

And the thing is, we need school-required reading. I’m all for it. But ARE YOU GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT? In my sixth grade Language Arts class, I remember we read several Greek myths among other folktale type stories and we answered a 10-question page about the story… and moved on. We never discussed the morals of the story, the lessons we could learn from it… and that really bummed me out. THAT is the most important aspect of a book – the part where it leaves you THINKING – and the public school system I experienced missed out on that.

Later in 7th grade, I read The Giver and my friend read it with my previous school, and loved it… but from what she told me, the class really didn’t question it. What can this tell us about our world today? What would you do in Jonas’ position? A book like that… not even being questioned or discussed? It made me sad.

So there’s my love-hate relationship with reading. On the one hand, YEAH YEAH YEAH we need school-required reading… a) to introduce kids to books they wouldn’t otherwise read (myself included!) and b) to have discussion. But… sometimes I STILL don’t enjoy the books or get much from them (as much as I hate myself for it)… and what’s the point if kids don’t even think about WHY the school wanted them to read the book in the first place! (But hey I’m a home-schooler, my teacher makes SURE I discuss the books…) 😉 Food for thought.

until next time! what are YOUR thoughts on school-required books?

How do you choose what to read next?

Seriously. Please tell me, because I have struggled with this since the day I was born and I flipped through my book basket asking today’s most excruciating question: Brown-Bear, Brown-Bear or If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? 

Today the question is the same in various different ways. Red Queen or Going Rogue? Rose Under Fire or Divergent? Through the Looking Glass or Romeo Blue? (These are just a few of the books on my TBR that is fixing to topple right over onto my head, thank you very much. HELP ME!)

But the strange thing is, I don’t really want your help. If I asked you to tell me what to read next and you said “Rose Under Fire is a good one dear Emily,” then I would pick Red Queen. If you told me to read Divergent next (which I’m sure most of you will because yes I am a bit behind on that one) I would read Through the Looking Glass.

Nope I’m not. SORRY NOT SORRY!

I just want your CONDOLENCES, okay?! I need you to pat me on the back and give me some chocolate while I spend the ten minutes in between books scouring my bookshelf and going crazy mad. (It’s awful in that short period of time not knowing what you’re reading – not having a beautiful little friend on your nightstand waiting for you, you know?)

Which brings me to the next question: how long in between books?! Do you finish one book, close it up, declare it a 5-star read and pick up the next one almost immediately? Or do you read a book and make up your mind that there is absolutely NO book in the entire universe that can be as good as this one. So you can’t possibly choose what to read next and instead wallow in self-pity about how you have nothing to read. (Been there, done that, trust me.)

For me, it depends on my mood. Sometimes I get into a massive reading kick and have to have a book in my hands – it doesn’t matter what book, I just need to be reading SOMETHING. (Like back in the blissful summer of freedom when I read 13 or 14 books in a month. THOSE WERE THE DAYS…) but sometimes I just cannot bring myself to pick a book! Either they all look too boring to me (imagine that, IMAGINE THAT. I know, I know, and I’m sorry I feel this way sometimes, truly I am, but… but I DO!) or they… just… don’t… speak to me.

Doesn’t make sense does it. I can’t explain it either so just nod your head and pretend like you understand me.

So the point of this post is… well. This is odd, because it really HAS no point. I’m just here, somewhere in the world, on my couch droning on and on about my issues with books. And this is one of them where I just have NO ANSWER.

which is why i need your help! how do you choose what to read next? or is your predicament no better than mine? (in that case, let us mourn the time that could be spent reading while we are looking for that one special book.) to the comments we go! see you there!

I am a fast reader.

I am a fast typer. I am a fast writer. I am a fast chore-doer. I am a fast student in school. I am a fast runner. I tend to rush through a lot of things. Mostly so I can get back to reading. Because most of all, I am a fast reader.

Except that the truth is, I don’t read every single book I pick up in a day, like some people. (Looking at you Cait.) Sometimes it takes me WEEKS to finish a book. (And I curl up in a little ball and hide under my bed with chocolate and Goodreads and Netflix and ignore the baby on my nightstand that I feel sososo guilty about.)

It completely depends. Sometimes I’m such a hurried pineapple that I read a book in a sitting because I CAN’T EAT-SLEEP-SHOWER-BREATHE UNTIL I FINISH THIS DANG BOOK.

And sometimes it takes weeks because the sad truth is, some books are

B   O   R   I   N   G.

Sometimes – sometimes! – I am an imperfect human being (I KNOW. I KNOW. This cannot be! Not practically-perfect-in-every-way-Emily!) but it’s true! I am imperfect and lazy and I just. don’t. read.

For absolutely no reason at all, because what reason does one have to NOT READ?!

It’s a tragedy, bookworms! When I sit and endure the description of the positively dullness of some peoples’ lives – that would be the sad peoples who do not read – it makes me want to cry. Take my cousin Sydney, for instance. (*waves from cyberspace* HEY SYD!) Last week she was telling some friends of ours how much I read (and it made me extremely happy because yes I take the fact that I am never without a book as a high compliment) and she goes “I don’t like reading like Emily does.” In fact, this is not the first occurance of Dear Sydney’s oddness. She has declared before her dislike for reading. And she doesn’t even KNOW how sad and distressed and WORRIED for her it makes me!

SO. That is to say, I can’t imagine NOT reading books 23/7. (Minus the one hour for usual human habits. Eating, sleeping, doing school – because apparently I can’t drop out and spend my life as a hermit on the internet surrounded by my babies.) It makes me cranky to go too long without reading.

Though it does happen. I’m not sure why. I suppose I just get distracted by the atrocities humans have created that distract me from doing anything but reading. You know, family stuff (blech.) Vacations (better.) School (nononononononoNOOO). Netflix (okay I digress Netflix is a-maaaaaaazzziiing and yes I do love it second to reading.) And I do get LAZY. Occasionally I just haven’t found the one gem of a book that pulls me out of my book slump.

I’ve been in quite a stint for the past few weeks until I finally picked up The Lunar Chronicles (which I demand you get RIGHT THIS INSTANT) and that makes me very very happy. And hopefully after this, I shall be right back into the groove of Typical Emily Reading Behavior and read… something. Red Queen? Divergent? Rose Under Fire? Going Rogue? Through The Looking Glass? HELP MEEEEE.

tell me, dear reader, how often do you read? what sadness takes your mind off of reading? and what’s on your tbr list? and what is the last AMAZING 5-bazillion-star-book you read? (mine is the lunar chronicles!) can’t wait to talk to you, as usual.

Goooood evening, fellow bookworms. (Or morning. Or afternoon. Whatever floats your boat. Or whatever time zone your boat’s in. That’d be cool if you’re really IN a boat. Are you?? Let me know!) Well, that was an odd way to start a post, but here goes nothing.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A BOOKWORM? I’m dying to know. It’s different for everybody, and I’d love to know the story. After all, I do love stories.

I’ve heard a few of them – some bloggers (hi, Izel!) have only become a bookworm in the past few years (which I think is amazing because newbie bookworms are WELCOME. I hope to someday convert someone and bring them to the bright side. Mwahahahaha.) and others have been bookworms their whole lives. I fall in the latter category.

I’ve been reading for…. forever.

Wait, scratch that. I’ve been fond of stories for forever. Before I could “read,” I’d look in my picture books and make up stories to go along with them. And I always loved an audience. By the time I was three or four, I had some of my favorites memorized. (If You Give a Pig a Pancake and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? were the very start.)

I think most of the credit belongs to my parents. They’re both readers and great writers (in fact, when my dad was twelve or thirteen, he began a story about an orphaned boy in the 1920s, which he still has!), so they instilled a love of writing in me from a very young age. The rest of my family caught on quickly. I have loads of pictures from baby albums of birthday presents – clothes, toys, and – guess! – BOOKS! I still have many of the picture books I was given.

In kindergarten, it was Junie B. Jones. In 1st grade, I loved Cam Jansen. In 2nd, the Boxcar Children was all the rage – and any American Girl book I could get my hands on. (My mom started me out on Kit Kittredge, and so began my love for historical fiction.) By 3rd grade, I loved any Middle Grade book I was given. I remember getting The Main Street series by Ann M. Martin at the time, and that was when I discovered one of my favorite authors! Eventually I met the lovely Nancy Drew, the baby sitters club, all of Wendy’s Mass’ books… I was hooked on books.

In sixth grade, I began my blog. From there I started reading books I’d never have picked up otherwise. (The Selection, Stargirl, The Ascendance Trilogy… and many others!) Right now, I’m fixing to read a book about a futuristic world where a cyborg falls in love with a prince – a year ago, I’d have taken one fleeting glance at that book and walked away. Buuuut Brooke, Izel, and Madi are practically virtually on top of me to read it, so read it I MUST!

So that’s the small story of my bookworm life. Along with reading, I naturally took a liking to writing, and I’ve never really found anything else I loved as much. Sure; I have other hobbies. (Well… not many… piano, sewing, and flipping out over various TV characters is basically it) but I know my passion and I see my future clearly. Whatever I do, I always want to be surrounded my books.

how did YOU become a bookworm?! really! i need to know! did a friend get you into books? did your family? by yourself? a particular author or book? tell me below.

I own a lot of books.

After typing that sentence, I thought it would be interesting to count how many books I do, in fact, own.

259.

I own 259 books.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at my bookshelf.

I’ve spent fourteen years building this collection, and let me tell you, those are my babies; my prized possession! If you asked me what I’d grab if my house was burning down in a fire? (Rest assured my family and pets are safe, of course)…

I’d look like that. ^ While hatching some scheme to save all two hundred and fifty-nine of my best friends.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a firm believer in taking full advantage of the library. My librarians and I are on a first-name basis and they tease me about the exuberant amount of books I am constantly borrowing. “Heading to the library to pick up a *few* books” is not a phrase I use often in my house.

However…  I believe there is value in owning books.

“When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” – Jane Austen

Support authors. I dipped into this in my recent post, Supporting Authors, but it’s something I’m always talking about. Support the authors who put out books you like! If you’re looking for a clean romance YA book and find one (please tell me if ya do ’cause THEY’RE SO HARD TO UNCOVER!) buy it! If you want more fantasy and action, send the authors a note and let ’em know! If you like the sci-fi or fairy tales, go out and buy the books, because that’s your quiet way of saying, “Hey, I like this, and I want more of it!”

Build your own library. Re-reading books is important to me – and so is lending them to my friends! Although I don’t have a ton of friends offline who like reading as much as I do – grrrr – I love the feeling of letting my friends borrow books. (EVEN THOUGH I’m paranoid about never getting them back…) I also love going back to a favorite book any time I want. I especially love owning the first copy of a favorite book I read. (Though if I am unsure of a book, I borrow it from the library instead of buying it first off.) Besides, showing off my growing collection is fun! I can’t imagine what it will look like in fourteen more years.

That said… I’m fourteen. I have small amounts of money. (Especially now, as my sister and I are working off our debt to my mom… because… we broke her computer…) I have a $7 a week allowance (which is enough to buy an MG paperback, so I DO get by!) 😉 Plus limited baby sitting money. I have to limit myself with books! Which is extremely extremely HARD. YOU KNOW THAT, PEOPLES. It’s why I’m always on the internet, because you bookworms get me. At times, I feel like people online I’ve never personally met before are ten times easier to talk to – especially because you’re like ME and you get it! Resisting the urge to buy books is SOOOOO HAAARD.

Which is why used bookstores are my fave. Thriftbooks is my fave (an online used bookstore with $1 shipping!!) I use the library, but I am an official book hoarder, and I like to own them!

On the other hand – if I’m looking to support an author, I strongly recommend buying brand-new. Depends on the situation.

do you like owning books? what does your collection of books look like?

Recently one of my good friends from my homeschool group (one of the few I know offline who know about my blog… I get shy talking about it!) was talking to me and said, “I don’t know how you keep up with your blog. You post so consistently!” So I thought, “Why not write a post on that?” (And there’s a small tidbit from a post: “How do you come up with content for your blog?”) I betcha she didn’t know she inspired a post! So hi, Katie! *waves*

I used to be pretty bad about blogging. If you scroll back to a year, year and a half ago, I posted all of one or two times a month. It wasn’t until January of this year that I sat down and set a schedule for myself. I had been reading posts – “How to get more followers on your blog,” “How to grow your comments,” etc., etc. and all of them said the same thing. “POST CONSISTENTLY!”

Now, I’m still not a perfect blogger and I certainly don’t have a large following (I just hit fifty on Bloglovin’ – THANKS, EVERYONE!) 🙂 … but I do try to post consistently, and because of that, even if I don’t have many followers, I do have pretty loyal ones. I get lots of sweet comments and emails, and they make my day! I’d rather have a small following of loyal bookworms who care enough to write back, than a large following of people who I never hear a peep out of. Where’s the fun in that?!

So, in January, I decided that I loved blogging, and I wanted to do more of it! Beforehand, I’d write up a post in ten minutes and hit publish when I felt like it. That just didn’t work for me. (It might work for you, though, so go for it!) I needed to find a good schedule for my blog that fit well with my own schedule. At the time I didn’t know about a handy-dandy tool on WordPress that allowed me to schedule my posts so they automatically publish at a certain time, so I wrote drafts and hit publish in the mornings. I followed a blog that published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I thought it was a reasonable amount.

So I went for it! Thanks to the automatic-publishing tool, I don’t have to worry about getting online (because if I did I’d always forget, especially on Fridays – I have a bible study group and piano lessons!) and if I’m on vacation, I don’t even have to touch the computer. I write all my posts for the week on Sunday. If I’m being an over-achiever that day, I’ll write more. One day I had a lot of time on my hands and wrote posts for the entire month! (Back in the leisurely days of the summer, of course!) Sometimes the posts run out and it can pile up on me (as has happened last week and I told you I’d be on a hiatus. Obviously, that didn’t work out because I love blogging too much, and my system works well for me, so I’m writing this on Friday when I’m not busy!)

If I really don’t feel like blogging, or know I’ll be out of town a week or so in advance, I just send one of my kind blogger friends an email and ask them if they’d like to do a guest post for my blog! Guest posts are amazing. They attract attention to both blogs, and I don’t have to write the post. 🙂 If I’m on a blogging kick (like right now; I’m clearly getting a little rambly in this post), I write up a few, and I’ve got the week done!

And you know what? It doesn’t matter if I did everything that fit my schedule or followed a dozen blogs telling me how to write more posts. It all boils down to the fact that I LOVE blogging. I mean, I told you all I’d be away for a little while… and look how long that lasted! I just can’t stay away. 🙂 You make time for what you really want to do, right?

what’s your blogging schedule like?

Talk to you in the comments!

I always feel like a loyal, accomplished little bookworm when I buy a book the day it comes out.

Here I am, reporting from somewhere in South Carolina, on my way to buy Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass, which is officially available today – October 13! (EEEP!)

True, I really really REALLY want to read the book… but at this point I’d buy anything Kiera Cass writes just because SHE wrote it. The same goes for Ann M. Martin and Rachel Coker. I love all three ladies’ books and they’ve never failed me once. I trust them. I’ll read anything they write because I love them just about as much as I do their books.

Back in April, I talked about authors appreciating readers. I love it when authors talk about and talk to their readers. I’m a faithful bookworm and I like recognition! But the same definitely goes the other way around, too.

Writers are SUPER HEROES! It’s not easy writing 50k+ words that make sense and sometimes have the power to make you cry, or laugh, or scream. In my eyes, there’s no job that deserves more recognition! Except maybe if you’re in the military. Or the president of the United States. Or, okay, a mom or dad. Because like Kiera Cass says, the day her book came out, she was cleaning up baby Cass’ vomit.

My point is, it’s a tough job and I’m positive authors love attention, and support. If I love a book, I want it on the #1 New York Times bestseller’s list! And one day, if I ever have a published book, I want readers to buy my books! I mean, come on, if you make an A+ on an essay you worked hard on, don’t you want it on the fridge? 😉

I think it’s important to support authors if you love them. Particularly for myself, because I’m always on the lookout for great, clean books – it’s my small part in showing the media (whether it’s for music, movies, or books) that” Hey, this is what I like and I want more of this.” I’m not going to support 50 Shades or Twilight, or music that I don’t appreciate. Supporting authors – as well as musicians, actors, etc. – is my silent voice in promoting clean material. 

so what about you? how do you feel about supporting authors?