There's not enough bowel movements left...

Musing Monday is a weekly meme, hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop on over to Just One More Page or leave a link to your Musing in my comments.

This week Buried-beneath-Books-Becca asks:

How many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile.

Actually apparently I asked this question – I can’t remember asking it but it does sound like me because I do suffer from TBRA (To Be Read Anxiety). My TBR is NOT stable, is definately increasing (can you sense the panic?). Once upon a time I could manage my TBR by stacking everything I had ready to read on my bedside table. Now I have a bedside book-shelf which is chokers and I have to admit it does fret me a bit when I look at it for too long, so I am not counting how any books are on it to answer this question!.

But I have a cunning plan - it's as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University (HA! I love Blackadder!). You might have noticed I have two current reads on my side-bar. One is for Book Club (a must-read for each month) and the other is from the TBR shelf. And further to that the one from the TBR shelf will be one that has been given to me by a friend as a you-must-read-this book.

And further to that even, I’m not sticking with the ones I don’t like just because they’ve been recommended to me. As my friend Renae, says life’s too short to be forcing yourself to read something you’re not enjoying and giving up on a book is a luxury I can afford now that uni is finished. I ploughed through some hideous stuff all in the name of good grades but, to be fair, I did usually come to see the virtue of these books after being led through them by the nose, as it were, by my very clever teachers.

Just last weekend a friend asked if I still had the book she loaned me (and was I enjoying it?). I had to confess I’d not even looked at it but I have moved it to the top of the pile. The danger of this cunning plan is that I loose control of my reading, allowing it to be dictated by kind and generous reading-devoted friends so I’m not going to be too rigid but it does help the TBRA to have a plan at all.

Has anyone seen that Two and a half Men episode where Alan has a meltdown in the bookshop? He’s talking about all the great books he hasn’t read and Charlie tells him you just need a system – put a book by the loo and every couple of weeks you knock off a classic...Alan dielivers this one line which sums up my TBRA...

There’s not enough bowel movements left...

What a crack-up such clever writing on that show...

**edit: I've just read the Musing Monday coments on Becca's blog and I agree Blogging has increased my TBR pile exponentially so ...I blame Becca...of course!