Feeling Overwhelmed

I didn’t have any answers for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, so obviously I chose to not post one. Typically when I don’t have answers, I just don’t have a post for that Tuesday. However, I was thinking a lot last night, and I actually came up with a topic for my very first discussion post. I’m hoping you find this interesting and have some input.

At this time last year, I was just starting to become active on Twitter and Goodreads. I was tweeting thoughts/feelings/reactions to what I was reading, and I was starting to write very short thoughts on Goodreads, hoping to eventually evolve them into reviews. See, I was thinking about starting a blog, but at the time, I hadn’t even written a single review yet, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to manage it. I thought that Twitter and Goodreads would be a good way to ease into it and get some practice. I was also basically reading whatever I wanted to. This wasn’t always easy, since I didn’t always have a great method for finding books to read. Usually, I’d either read something recommended to me, books I’d seen others reading, or sometimes, whatever happened to catch my fancy as I was walking around the library.

However, after a few months, I started following more book bloggers on Twitter and checking out their posts. I became active in a group on Goodreads, and after starting my blog, I started watching Epic Reads’ Tea Time. This led to me hearing about lots more books, both older and upcoming, and seeing a lot of them on sale (especially around Christmas time, but even up to today). I love reading on my kindle, and usually I’ll buy a book just as I’m planning to read it, but with lots of books on my TBR list going on sale for $0.99-$4.99, I was scooping them up, knowing that they wouldn’t stay that price for long. I’ve also been lucky enough to win some books and to go to a couple of signings, which led to me buying the books involved. And all of this is amazing. I will never have a shortage of books to read! However, it’s also led to the subject of this post. (Long-winded intro, huh? Sorry about that.)

You see, as more books that I’ve put on hold from the library come in, e-ARCs that I’ve been approved for on Netgalley and Edelweiss come closer to publication, and I walk in my bedroom and see my pile of unread books, I’m starting to get overwhelmed. Not necessarily by blogging, though that adds to it, but just by the sheer amount of books I need to read. I look at my pile of books in my room, the pile of library books in my living room, and I think about the 70+ paid-for books on my kindle (Let’s not even discuss my previous kindle freebie addiction.), and I just get this lump in my throat. I have so many books that I want to read, and let’s face it: When you don’t have a lot of money and you’re paying for books, you kind of feel obligated to read them. And then I start to think about how many of the books are parts of series, and my head literally spins! Oh yeah, and there are new books that I want to read coming out all the time! Let’s face it, I don’t have to read anything, but there are so many that I want to read that it amounts to the same thing in my mind. Sometimes it overwhelms me to the point that I can’t make myself pick up any book for a couple days. This is where my blog adds to my stress. I’m still a fairly small blog, even after 8 months of blogging, so I’d like to stay active and interesting, so I’ve set a goal of 3 reviews per week for my blog. However, that’s not exactly doable if I’m not actually reading books! And then I force myself to read, and sometimes I end up not enjoying the book I’m reading just because I’m forcing myself to read it (if that makes any sense).

Sometimes I feel like I need someone to take all my responsibilities away for a month (or two) so that I can just catch up on everything I want to read. Oh yeah, and can the whole publishing industry go on a hiatus at the same time so I don’t miss any new releases?! lol

What about you? If you’re a blogger, or even if you’re not, do you ever get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of books that you want to read? If so, how do you deal with it? Any advice for this newbie? Should I forget about what everyone else is reading and just read what I want? (which I kind of do anyway, though I try to read more new releases now) Should I just go by my Goodreads TBR list from #1-#1000? (My list isn’t quite that long, but it feels like it sometimes)? Should I just read all the books I currently have and put myself on a book buying ban until I do that, even if it means I’ll start and not continue dozens of series? Any advice or even letting me know you feel the same way would be appreciated!

Tagged: discussion