The Infamous TBR Stack
Author: Trish Milburn
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: July 2005

When I saw Mary’s article about her to-be-read pile in the last issue of Love Notes, I had to laugh because my TBR pile isn’t really a pile. It’s more like a mountain.

I’ve realized that my TBR stacks are kind of like a timeline of my career. There are the early historicals (when they still published a fair amount of American-set historicals) that I got while attending Duel on the Delta conferences in Memphis. Back then, I was still writing my first book, a historical set on the Oregon Trail. And I have the research books like Everyday Life in the Wild West and Pioneer Women that I was determined would help me make that book great enough to sell.

When I made the decision to focus on contemporary romance, my TBR pile changed to reflect that. There are single titles galore and stacks of category lines, particularly Superromances, Intimate Moments and Intrigues, all of which I’ve submitted manuscripts to at some point. More research books on characterization and revision joined the shelf dedicated to writing books.

When a friend suggested I write a young adult book, those types of books appeared in the TBR pile. The same happened when I began to write my women’s fiction book. In one trip to the bookstore, I made my credit card scream buying several NAL Accent trade paperback books. When I decided to try my hand at chick lit, I made myself not buy any. I didn’t want what was out there to taint what was going to be my unique twist on the chick lit voice and setting.

Some of the most recent additions have been Bombshells, and hopefully someday my story will join that stack.

It seems, though, that the mountain has grown faster than I could read the books. Add in the fact that I now have lots of published friends and I buy their books, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll probably never be able to read everything I have. While I’m a fast writer, I’m an awfully slow reader, and I dedicate more time to writing than reading in hopes of publishing my own novels.

Even though I have literally hundreds of books in my TBR pile, just having all those books in my office is inspirational in a way. I dream about the day when my own books will have a spot in someone else’s TBR pile – or if they’re like me, their TBR mountain.
 

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