I do not have a TBR (To Be Read list).  Of course I talk about it, because all bloggers do, but I don’t have a list. I walk around my bookcases, which are a bit like a TBR, and choose a book.  It’s what I call free reading. Yet the TBR fascinates me.  TBR was the first computer acronym I learned after LOL.  Just imagine it.  Years of LOLing, and then the TBR. It made me feel like a biblionaut: “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” A small step for woman, a giant step for womankind!

The other day two hosts at a vlog talked about the joy of TBRs.  Not only did they have TBRs, but they relished crossing books off.  They were very excited.

 I felt a bit envious.  I love writing in notebooks. But I know myself:  I would never stick to a “syllabus-cum-TBR.”  I might consider reading more Galsworthy, because I adore The Forsyte Saga and the other two Forsyte trilogies, but what should I read? An obscure early novel, or one of the plays?  We have a musty old Forsyte volume in the mudroom, but it’s grimy and unpleasant to handle. So maybe not.

So what then?   One of the NYRB classics that always prove to be excellent when one gets around to them?   Or perhaps nonfiction.  I’ve heard that Hardy’s Women is awfully good.  Presumably the library has it.

So the TBR is sort of in my head, sort of on my bookshelves, sort of on book review pages, sort of at blogs and vlogs… 

Do you keep a TBR, or is it more a mental concept?