In Which I Clean Up My TBR Shelf on Goodreads

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on December 17, 2014 | 23 Comments


So, Monday I got a wild hair and went on a mass deleting spree. I had a lot of random, weird books on my TBR list and it was driving me crazy! I went from 1400 something books down to 720. Crazy, right? (I’m kicking myself now for not screenshot-ing!) There were SO many books were I was just like, “WTF is that? Was I drunk when I added this?”

I think many of them were books I added when I first made a Goodreads account, and back then I was waaay less picky. So I just added books that sounded remotely interesting. But now, being the picky ass I am, I know I would never touch those. So I let them go. And it feels AMAZING!

Want to organize your own shelves? I recommend making a “maybe-read” shelf.

This is what I did. It’s an exclusive shelf, so the books that I might want to read, but am only semi interested in, don’t clutter my TBR list. I have a little over 200 books on that one. That’s 200 books that aren’t clogging up my list of books I genuinely want to read!

Now, if I want to read something totally random, I don’t have to go through tons and tons of books to find something I feel like reading. It’s a pretty awesome feeling :)

Jessi (Geo)

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23 responses to “In Which I Clean Up My TBR Shelf on Goodreads

  1. bahahha! I ‘ve looked at my TBR shelf and I cringe a lot because I’m like, ‘why the heck did I add this?’ I really need to clean out mine! Go you for actually doing it!

  2. Some time earlier this year, I just deleted most of the books on my Goodreads TBR shelf because I got to tired of looking at all the hundred of books I didn’t even remember adding. It was such a relief. The idea with a ‘maybe-read’ shelf is such a good idea, that I might need to make use of myself! :)

  3. Once in a while I’ll open a page of my TBR, and just delete everything that doesn’t look appealing any more. For years I managed to stay under 1000 TBR books, but I kinda splurged recently. A maybe shelf sounds like a great idea!

  4. I had a huge clean-up last year, where I went from 6000something to 2567 I have at the moment. It’s still a lot, I know, but easier to manage. I just like way too many things, haha. I’ve also made a ‘maybe’ list and it’s nice to have those books somewhere, without interfering with the books I’m interested in.

  5. LMAO Jesse!!! I just cleaned out my TBR a few days ago!!! And I thought the same freakin’ thing — WTH was I thinking?? I know they didn’t used to have those exclusive shelves, so I just added everything to my TBR and added to a top tier TBR shelf if I really wanted to read it.
    So I made a few exclusive shelves and deleted about 500 books and now I’m good for awhile, LOL
    That is until I go to clean it out next year only to erase another 500.

  6. I went on a major cleaning spree with GR earlier this year, then I cleaned out my ‘wishlist’ shelf even more last week. Feels so good. And like you, some books I thought ‘WHY is this here?!!’ I’ve gotten pickier as well.

    And I agree about having a ‘maybe-read’ shelf.

  7. I did this a while back too, and it felt AWESOME! I, too, had so many books on my TBR that I really had no interest in reading anymore. I also made two other exclusive shelves called “series to finish” and “series to try” which is helping me to prioritize and organize my series reading too! I like your maybe shelf idea though … it’s a good place to shelve books that I might consider one day, but not 100% sure that I want to read just yet.

  8. I just did the same thing, and it really is so relieving to see all the books shrink away! I made a “think about it” exclusive shelf, and that makes it a lot easier to keep away all the ones I either haven’t really looked at yet, or I’m waiting to see what the general consensus is.

  9. Cee

    I really need to do an overhaul of my Goodreads shelves. I need more categories to keep it more organized. There are books that I no longer care to read, so I should either remove it or make a “maybe-read” category like you recommended. If only I had the time. It’s just so tedious. Lol.

  10. Feels great huh? I did something similar this summer – I have several exclusive shelves now: “owned-but-not-read” (that one is scary), “need-to-read-for-review”, “dying-to-read”, “hope-to-read”, “maybe-read”

    I probably wont ever get to the books on hope ot maybe, but I hung on to them, just in case I’m in a mood and nothing is satisfying me on the other shelves :)

  11. I applaud you!

    I think I’m too lazy to sort through my TBR shelf. I think the problem I have is that I never ever even LOOK at that shelf. So for me there’s not much point in cleaning it out since I don’t really use it anyway. But I do know it’s probably loaded with books I’m no longer interested in reading.

  12. That’s a good idea. I actually have a “to read soon” shelf, and everything else that isn’t important just goes on “want to read” and it doesn’t mean very much heh.

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