TBR Anxiety

Your To Be Read list can start as a cute little plan and turn into a full-time emotional situation. We’re talking TBRs from every angle: the short physical stack at home, the library haul that shows up all at once, the Kindle downloads you grabbed during Stuff Your Kindle Day, and the Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf that keeps climbing when BookTok won’t stop recommending bangers.

We get into the psychology of it too. Why do we “save” books we’re excited about like they’re scarce resources? Why does paying for an ebook feel worse when you don’t finish it, and why does Kindle Unlimited make it easier to experiment without guilt? We also confess to trophy book behavior: finishing a book on an ereader, then buying the physical copy because it’s pretty and deserves a spot on the shelf.

Then things get specific and a little chaotic in the best way. We compare genres, talk thrillers versus romance versus witchy reads, call out the hype books that have been sitting for a year, and even float a Danielle Steel experiment based on what’s filling every secondhand bookstore. And yes, we take a hard left into the strangest recommendation rabbit hole that somehow involves an ogre love story.

If your reading habits feel messy, you’re not alone. Subscribe, share this with a fellow mood reader, and leave a review telling us: what’s the oldest book still haunting your TBR?

Check out our Bookshop.com book store where you can get your own copy of the books we are covering!  https://bookshop.org/shop/wreckedbyfiction

Transcript

Welcome And Curly Hair Talk

Emma 0:01

Welcome to the Wrecked by Fiction podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Yes, it is. Did I read it on my lunch break? Yeah. I made I made notes because I didn't know there was gonna be a quiz.

Emma 0:13

Hey, everything's for a great while I was watching a movie with my six-year-old. Yeah. I didn't know I could be both right and so fucking wrong. Wrecked by fiction, where we read, cry, and question our emotional stability.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hi. Hi. Your hair is curly today.

Amanda 0:35

I know I went I went natural.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

It's never curly.

Amanda 0:38

No, because it takes five million steps to do it. So yeah. Yeah.

Emma 0:46

Yeah, my hair doesn't curl. Not like that.

Amanda 0:50

Mine didn't used I was a perm girl when I was a kid.

Emma 0:54

And then after pregnancy, it Yeah. I have heard that that happens to people. Also, when you age, a lot of people get curly hair. Your texture changes. Yeah.

Amanda 1:05

Whereas my hairdresser told me the other day, your color just you just printer runs out of ink. Because my red has stopped coming in as much, and my hair's gotten darker as I've gotten older.

Emma 1:17

My mom, every time I talk to her, she tells me that um every every year she has less and less eyebrows. Like they're there, they're just not they don't have any pigment anymore. Yeah. And I'm like, dye them. And she's like, I don't dye my the hair on my head. Why would I dye?

Amanda 1:38

But no, that's crazy. Printer just runs out of ink. That's how funny.

Emma 1:43

I like that.

Amanda 1:44

Me too.

What A TBR Really Means

Emma 1:46

Okay. Well, we're gonna talk uh TBRs. TBRs today. And you know, before I became um a Kindle user, I didn't know what a TBR was.

Amanda 2:06

Because you just didn't have books in the weight or that I mean that's not true.

Emma 2:12

Like, no, because I there were definitely books that I wanted to read, but I think that um because I was just reading physical like copies, I I was just reading what was available to me. So I didn't have a a stack of books, and even now, like my actual physical TBR isn't super long because I uh it's either library or um you know I I happened across a book that just looked too good at the bookstore or something. That makes sense, but my ebook TBR is quite lengthy, I would say, but definitely not as long as some people. Some people are like endless TBRs. Yeah.

Amanda 3:06

I yes mine feels endless because I am so slow at reading. Um and then the other issue that I have is that I took advantage of a bunch of the stuff your Kindle days, and so I have That'll do it. I have a massive quantity that's on my list that I'm like, I don't I don't know. The cover and the title just sounded good. So I downloaded it, but I don't know what it's about.

Emma 3:28

I when I first got my Kindle, I was like obsessed with that stuff your Kindle, like paying really close attention. I downloaded some of the weirdest stuff from those days that I have a few of them I just have never read because I'm like, why did I choose that? And I'm like, did I actually choose it, or was it just like, oh, it was in the list, so I just clicked it? Probably. That's I like didn't even look at like what it might have been about, and I'm like, hmm. Yeah. Um yeah, because my I used to have a shelf that was specifically physical TBR, and now um there's currently nothing on that shelf, it's empty. Um, because number one, my actual physical TBR has dwindled a lot, and I was never picking them up off of it. Right. So I was like, why have a shelf that's only that if I'm not going to read them? So I still own them. They're just not on that shelf. On that shelf anymore.

Book Scarcity And Saving Favorites

Amanda 4:39

I get that. I had a physical spot that I kept the books that I wanted to read. And I think there was a part of me that thought, but if I read those and I run out, then I run out, and then I won't have any more. And so I wouldn't read them because I didn't want to run out. And so book scarcity. Yeah, you were but I've also found I kind of do a similar thing with food in the pantries.

Emma 5:08

So I'm not gonna eat that because what if I need to eat it?

Amanda 5:11

And then the grocery store stops selling it, and then I can't get more of it, and then yeah.

Emma 5:15

Yep. Right. Um, so you really are living that poor people mentality. Yep. Yeah, story of my life. It's really unfortunate. Yeah, well, because so when uh my oldest and I rearranged um the bookshelves in our living room, and I she was like, uh, how many of those have you read? And I was like, all of them. And she was like, there's no way. And so we went through, like, and I was like, Well, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I read all of those. This whole series is read, blah, blah, blah, blah. And but I realized that like on my shelves of like that are like display books, right? Maybe 10% of them are unread. Yeah. Um, also, I have books that I read the ebook version and then bought the physical copy as a trophy. Because it's pretty. And never opened. Like there are books, there are entire series on my shelf that have never been read by human hands. Never been opened and touched because I read them on my Kindle.

Amanda 6:27

I love you.

Emma 6:28

You know how much money that is for why? I got wrapped up. I got wrapped up.

Amanda 6:37

Yeah.

Emma 6:37

In yeah. Well, because the first books I ever read on my Kindle were these. Yeah. Were Haunting and Hunting Adeline. And honestly, I'll be so for real, that's why I bought a Kindle. Because I desperately wanted to read those books. But you didn't want to carry around the book. But I know I didn't live in a place where there was a bookstore and I wasn't going to order, and it was less expensive to pay for Kindle Unlimited. Right. Than to buy two books. Yeah. That makes sense. You know?

Why Kindle Unlimited Feels Safer

unknown 7:15

Yeah.

Emma 7:16

So yeah. I don't know. My physical TBR is short-ish. I mean, probably hold on, I'm looking. Probably around 20, I would say. There are in my home, there are probably about 20-ish books that I haven't. And that's including the four I just got from the library. Um that I haven't read. But there are books that have been bought for me that I haven't that are on that list that I don't know if I will read. Yeah.

Amanda 8:02

I get that. I think I maybe own maybe 15 books of hard copies. And out of those 15, I think I have five that I have not read. Most of mine are ebook or audiobook. But I used to own more, but downsized and narrowed

Danielle Steel And Secondhand Mysteries

Amanda 8:28

it down.

Emma 8:28

Yeah.

Amanda 8:30

There are a handful that I have in my storage unit that I desperately need to empty out. Um, that were my mom's that I will never get rid of. But those those are like Danielle Steele and Oh my god. Yeah.

Emma 8:46

The OG.

Amanda 8:47

Yep. My aunt has a ton, my aunt that just passed away has a ton of those. And I thought of you when I was in her house. Absolutely not.

Emma 8:54

I don't want any Daniel Steele.

Amanda 8:57

I was like, hmm, I wonder if there's anything other than that in here. Because almost all of them that I could see was Daniel Steel.

Emma 9:03

That's so funny. Every secondhand bookstore I've ever been to is full. Has a million Danielle Steele books. And I don't think I've ever read one. I have not. Maybe that's like an experiment. Maybe we do this summer, we do an experiment of like we pick one.

Amanda 9:22

Right. I'll just go grab one out of my aunt's house.

Emma 9:25

Yeah, just pick one because they can't be bad. There are hundreds of them. Right. And women have been reading them forever. Forever. So, like, also is Daniel Steele alive? Is she are books still coming out? I don't know. Considering there are so many of them, I yeah, I don't know. That might be a fun experiment just to see if it's worth it. Yeah.

Amanda 9:50

Maybe we're missing out on a whole.

Emma 9:51

Yeah, maybe there's hundreds of used Daniel Steele books that I've never picked up because it looks like it's giving Fabio front cover beach reads, you know? Like my mom read those when I was growing up, was those Fabio the Shirtless Men books. That's where it all started for you. Yeah, they're called bodice rippers. That's what those books are called. Did not know that.

Amanda 10:15

That's interesting.

Emma 10:17

Yeah, no, maybe that maybe that's something we do because they can't be bad. You know what I mean? Right. If everyone, every uh elder that we know has been reading them for decades.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah.

Emma 10:34

I guarantee exactly what you're saying where your aunt who just passed has shelves of them. That's why they're in those in the secondhand stores, because they just get donated when people pass.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Probably. That's crazy.

Endless Recs And Goodreads Numbers

Emma 10:49

Yeah. I don't know. My ebook TBR is uh like I will say that that to me feels more I don't want to say endless because like the things I've actually downloaded is not endless. Obviously, there's you know 20-ish books that I have downloaded that are either partially read or on the list to be read. But with the way the internet works, my potential T VR is endless. Yeah. Because every time I open reels or TikTok, there's another book recommendation. I'm like, that's good. And then my brain is like, you're reading four things right now. Don't download that book. And so I take a screenshot and then save it, and then sometimes I come back to it, sometimes I don't.

Amanda 11:48

I need you to just add them to your Goodreads TBR instead of taking screenshots so that we can see how many there are.

Emma 11:56

My Goodreads TBR. Hold on. My want to read on my personal Goodreads is 47 books.

Amanda 12:09

I love it. Um I'm pulling mine up. Mine.

Emma 12:14

Although I think there are things I think there are things that are on there twice. Because there's like I maybe I put it on there when I decided I wanted to read it, and then I tried to enter a giveaway and then it added the um, but yeah, no, wow, my red books list on Goodreads is a lot.

Amanda 12:40

Mine's 143. But I know that's not entirely accurate because I started my Goodreads last year and added some that I had read previously. Okay, I'm gonna say this. But not all of them that I read previously.

Emma 12:56

Because the red and then the year in books thing is different. So mine is from um oh god the technically 2024. The like like May of 2024 is when it actually should have started, but I didn't start using Goodreads until last year, like just like you. And so it says so since May of 2024, I have read 528 books. That's two years.

Amanda 13:35

Yeah, that's that's a lot of books. I don't know of many people that would have that many books that they've read in.

Emma 13:42

In two years?

Amanda 13:44

No.

Emma 13:45

That doesn't feel like that many. There's 365 days in a year, and there's 528 books on that.

Amanda 13:51

Most people take at least three days or more to read a book.

Emma 13:55

I also take about three days to read a book. Not well, that's not true.

Amanda 14:00

No, it's not. It is not. Yes, it is. I mean Maybe now that you have a job, a job, and that I work during the day.

Emma 14:11

Yeah. Cause yeah, well, no, you're right. I read the book I just finished, um, is book five in a series, and it's like a normal length, 346 pages, like a normal length novel. I read it in like five hours.

Amanda 14:32

Yeah, that would take me a week or more.

Emma 14:34

Yeah, I read it in five hours. I also read it at work because I had nothing going on. Um and then, yeah, pretty much the ones I have read recently have been about a day. About a day. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Fine.

Amanda 14:56

But I'm just gonna start calling you speed reader.

Emma 15:00

You wouldn't be the first one to say that. But I mean, like, so my ebook TBR is 369. 17. 17 books that are downloaded onto my Kindle. That doesn't feel like that many, but they also most of them have been on there like a long time, is the thing. Because I'll find something that I want to read more or like sparks right away. Right. Fits the mood you're in. Yeah. That's the problem with being a mood reader.

Mood Reading And Kindle Housekeeping

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yeah.

Emma 15:34

Why the hold on. There's actually books I have moved from my TBR to I have a in my Kindle I have a collection that's called Owned. Um, and there are some books in there that like I purchased or one of the stuff your Kindle days or something and couldn't get through, or like it had been sitting on my TBR so long that I felt like I had to move it. Otherwise, I was like gonna get pissed because I was staring at it every time I opened. Like, I don't want to see you anymore. Yeah, like there's one that's called Um, it's by a author named Becca, what does that say? Becca Fogg.

Amanda 16:29

Never heard of her.

Emma 16:30

And it's called Plots, Schemes, and Scandalous Means.

Amanda 16:36

It's cute.

Emma 16:37

Yeah, and you can assume that that's the reason that I it was a stuff your Kindle. Yeah. I was like, that sounds like something I'd read. I read maybe two chapters, then it was just like, I don't know what is happening. Um, and then Once Upon a Broken Heart um is a big it's uh like book talk. My teenager has read the series. Um I never, I couldn't get through it. I don't know if I just didn't like it, but I like actively purchased, I paid money for it and just couldn't and I hate that. I think that's the problem with like I can't get rid of Kindle Unlimited because I cannot be spending money on books that I won't read. Yeah.

Amanda 17:23

Where with Kindle Unlimited, you can switch it up.

Emma 17:25

I can yeah, I can send it back. That makes sense. So there is a series that I have that is on. I don't I had I have to buy them. They're not Kindle Unlimited, and I have wanted I bought the first one, um which again is not normal for me to spend money on books. Right. But it was so good, and it is like a sensational, like an internet sensation um series, and I want to read the rest of them so bad, but I just can't justify spending eight books on every time on an ebook every time I want to read.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Yeah.

Emma 18:09

Eight books. Did I say eight books? I

What’s Actually On The TBR

Emma 18:14

don't know.

Amanda 18:14

What's on your TBR right now? Um, all kinds of stuff, but most of it's from a stuff your Kindle Day. Also, I have an issue with my Kindle app. I have read books that still show up as unread, so you can't mark or you can't go off of it. But um most recently I've got some books that are from the Kindle Unlimited emails that you get each month. Um that I have not read yet. There's one called The Witch of Tin Mountain that I really want to read. Um, but I've been concentrating on what we've been trying to read for for here. Um witchy stuff, some romance stuff. Lots of really random.

Emma 19:07

Like really random? Yeah. What's the normal, like a normal genre? Like what do you like? Is it mostly witchy stuff? Is it mostly romance? Is it mostly something else?

Amanda 19:19

Uh I do like mysteries. Um I do a lot of like the true crime or detective style stuff. Um that there was that one series that I really liked that that author is dead to me, so I didn't finish it, but I'd like to read the rest of those. And then just like not necessarily accurate historical fiction, but kind of along those lines where it's kind of historical. There was one called The Bootlegger's Daughter that I read a while back that was a really cool kind of history book like that that I really liked. Um not typically romance type stuff.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

No.

Amanda 20:10

No. I mean I enjoy it, but it's not what I'm usually drawn to.

Emma 20:15

So yeah. I have a I do a lot of like thriller books too. Yeah. Um but I like to read those in physical copies. That's interesting. Um and I don't know if it's like the I'm I we talked about this, or I sent you a TikTok, I think, where I like I will skip paragraphs and then I have to go back and read. And so I'm less likely to do that in a physical book. That makes sense. Okay. Than in on my e-reader. Okay. And so I like to read thriller books or mystery books that way because because of that, then I I am less likely to skip over things. I also find myself skipping like the descriptive text when there's it's in between dialogue. Yes. Um and then I'll go back and read.

unknown 21:18

Yeah.

Emma 21:18

Yep. Yep. I'm like, I just want to know what we're talking about. Yeah. What's being said. Right. Just attention. I don't care that you're watching uh the what's going on behind the person or whatever it is. Um yeah. I don't know. There are some books that are on that have been on my TBR so long, like over a year, because I at the time of purchasing them or downloading them or whatever, it was like a again, like an internet sensation thing.

Hype Books That Won’t Budge

Emma 21:52

Or they had been recommended to me so many times that I was like, God, fine. Right. Fine. Fine. I'll go get it. Fine. Um, like Kristen Hanna. I have never read a Kristen Hanna book. However, I have been recommended over and over and over again the Nightingale. I bought it. It's over there on my shelf. Um I have not what looks like a bookmark. It's not a bookmark. It's a receipt. Oh, okay. It's the receipt. Um yeah, I have not. And then I read on my Kindle, I purchased um The Invisible Life of Addy LeBrux because a, well, I don't remember where the recommendation came from, but that was in 2024. That book was probably like top three of the best books I read that year. Yeah. Um, and that was a trophy book. So that actual book on my shelf has never been opened.

Amanda 22:59

Okay. That title sounds like something I would be down to read.

Emma 23:02

It's so good. Yeah. Um, it did take a long time. Like that book took me weeks to read um because of the amount of like description and the way that the plot kind of travels through. Right. I love that book. It will be eventually. I would really like to read it again, especially the physical copy. Um, there's just that you get a different experience in my in my head. You get a different experience reading a physical book than you do on an e-reader, you know? I get that. So, but on my TBR on my for my e-reads, is like there's one that took, it's called Dagger

TikTok Picks And Spooky Reads

Emma 23:44

Mouth.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

Okay.

Emma 23:45

Have you seen? She kind of took um TikTok book community over a couple weeks ago. I missed it. And everyone was talking about it. Um, it's this, it's another anatomical heart. It's right here in the middle. Okay. Um, and it says, he is her ruin, she is his rebellion.

Amanda 24:07

Interesting.

Emma 24:08

And it's a um the description that I have gotten the most is one of those like um generational feminine rage that's tied, that description is tied to this book.

Amanda 24:25

Okay.

Emma 24:25

That's pr all I know. I know nothing else about it.

Amanda 24:28

Yeah.

Emma 24:28

Um, but I was like, that sounds like something I would really enjoy reading. So I downloaded it. Um, and then the other one, which is technically a YA book that has been sitting on my TBR in both Goodreads, and I actually downloaded it, is um Don't Let The Forest In, which is a like young adult thriller um like jumps, like horror book almost. Uh-huh. Um, and I have seen it so many times, and the cover is just so beautiful that I was like, I want to read it. I really I like mystery horror books. I like the books that make you like sweaty a little bit because you don't know. Um uh I have a friend who she exclusively reads thriller mystery books.

The Ogre Romance Detour

Emma 25:27

Yeah. Um loves uh Freedom McFadden and you know The Housemaid and all of those things. She loves those books. Um she reads books that are so like scary, she can't read in the dark. She read she turns all the lights on in her house because they freak her out so bad. But yet she keeps going back for more she needs to be studied. She's obsessed. Obsessed. And she's constantly like, she will come to like a group chat. She's like, oh my god, God, I just finished this book. And she's like explaining it to me. She's also on the flip side, she just read um a uh I don't know how to explain this, uh, without feeling a little embarrassed uh for this person that I know. Um Lover. Uh she just read a a Shrek um it's a rope. It's a book, an actual, she, a physical paperback book that someone gifted her. I'm pretty sure it's it's literally called Get Out of My Swamp. Actually, I'm gonna double check that. But it is it is Shrek, not joking.

Amanda 26:43

Shrek in his green form?

Emma 26:46

Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But sexy.

Amanda 26:49

Okay. Hold on. I mean, I've always thought he was kind of cute in a mmm, like teddy bear kind of way.

Emma 26:59

Hold on. I don't know if that's gonna be right. Nope, it's not get out of my swamp. Uh swamp Shrek book. Nope. Hold on. I'll find it. Your turn. Talk while I look.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

Oh my gosh.

Amanda 27:20

Um, yeah. No, I let's see. What do I have on here? I really do think that you need you need to get the Kindle Unlimited email switched to come to you so that you can take advantage of the free books. Um, because I think there's some on there that you'd probably enjoy. For sure. Yeah. There's a lot of these that are either the Amazon first reads or stuff your Kindle uh trippin' for number sixty-eight. Get in my swamp.

Emma 27:56

An ogre love story. It says, hold on. Oh no, and then it has book two. It's called Stay in My Swamp. But what happened to Fiona?

SPEAKER_00 28:08

I couldn't tell.

Emma 28:08

I have questions. I need to know. So it's it's not his name, he isn't Shrek. Oh, okay. It's just an ogre. However, the names are eerily similar. I'm gonna read the description on the back of the book. Okay. When Leona stumbles upon Beck, the ogre's trap, and becomes his prisoner, she's determined to get away, but it doesn't take long for things to start heating up between the two. Beck is trying to protect her, and Leona can't help her body's reaction to the buff green monster. The lines between captive and captor become blurry, and the passion becomes a raging fire neither of them can put out. Donkey. And then number two is Stay in My Swamp, and it says it says, An ogre happily ever after. Life in the swamp can't get any better for Leona and Beck. That's until Beck pops a big question that forces Leona to face some unfinished business. She heads back to LA, but Beck isn't too far behind, this time looking less like an ogre, thanks to some help from Winston the Wizard. Will magic be enough for Beck to get Leona to stay in his swamp forever? I'm uh I'm dead. I has your friend finished? Yeah, she said it was good. Who is the author's name is GM Fairy. That's not real. Who is that?

Amanda 29:58

Oh my goodness.

Emma 30:00

Literally, it's the literally if you Google Shrek Smut. That's that's what I Googled. That's what I Googled. I like it. So there you go. But in case you ever needed to find that, it's not on Kindle Limited. You have to buy it. Okay.

Amanda 30:15

I don't know that that's something that I'll be doing anytime soon. Shrek fanfic was not a thing I had on my bingo phone for this video. Not your plan? No. Not even something that I thought existed. So nope.

New Releases And Reading Rules

Emma 30:33

Well, I will say that there are a couple things on my TBR that my um two of my favorite authors have recently released brand new books. Um both are on my TBR, and I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not allowed to read them until I finish the things that have already been started. And I am a little mad about it because I uh desperately Sarah Kate came out with a new book. You know how much I love Sarah Kate. Um and then Anna Huang released the next book in the um in the it's called King of Gluttony. Um it's the Kings of Sin series, that's what it's called. Gotcha. Um and I have been waiting for both of those books to come out, but I am in the middle of one, two, three books right now. So I really should not. And then I just got four books at the library this morning. So not allowed to read the books. I did download them just to tease myself, I guess.

Amanda 31:42

Yeah. It's your motivation.

Emma 31:44

Yeah, I can't open them until I have finished the things I've already started. Sad day.

Amanda 31:51

And yet here we are, recording instead of reading.

Emma 31:53

Oh, you were reading before we were right up until the moment the camera's turned on. So I was. And I'll read after we're done. So well, TBRs are what they are. Whether you have a list in a spiral-bound notebook, which I do somewhere, an old list. And then Goodreads holds a TBR, your Kindle holds a TBR, your bookshelf holds TBR.

Amanda 32:24

And authors keep putting out more books.

Emma 32:26

God, would you just slow down? Please don't slow down, actually.

Amanda 32:30

My favorite. For me, I would appreciate it.

Emma 32:34

I have several authors I would like for you to hurry up, actually. There are a few of you that could move a little faster. I'd like the next book, please.

Amanda 32:46

Right? So directly into my veins.

Emma 32:50

Uh yeah. Like page more. I need that book.

Amanda 32:56

I wasn't gonna call her out, but biblically, yes.

Emma 33:00

Straight in. Do you know that she got printed? No. And is selling signed copies of The Blood Captive? That's so awesome. I texted her, I was like, I need one. I was like, it needs to come home on the shelf. And she said, I would die if you put it up on the I was like, I one of these days I'll I'll figure out how to get my hands on a copy. Yeah.

Amanda 33:30

I'm planning to work on the audiobook I'm narrating tomorrow, and I was gonna do like a little snippet and send it to her and just be like, just you know, just in case your preview of what it could sound like. Yeah. Keep it in ready. So yeah. So Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

We'll be back. Yep. This was fun. Talk about something that's uh maybe fucking you up a little bit. Maybe. Till next time. We're wrecked by fiction.

Emma 34:01

Bye.