Okay. So, I’ll be honest. I very nearly deleted this post from my editorial calendar after realizing that the concept for a dedicated TBR (“to be read”) shelf could be the most obvious thing in the world. But then I gave it a second thought and also realized that there have to be some of you out there who are like me and had never tried this styling hack before. With that in mind, I’m soldiering forward with sharing what I thought was an innovative idea (but now definitely suspect it isn’t) for shelving all of your unread books together on one shelf.
I fully admit to having an addiction to reading (last year’s tally was 54 books!), which means I’ve become more and more addicted to buying new-to-me books, too. My TBR list is extensive, to say the least, and up until now I’ve scattered them throughout the house in between all of the books I’ve already read and had for years. That means when it came time for me to grab a new book to start, I would end up wandering through the house making pitstops at each stack or bookshelf to find the exact one I was looking for. Then, it occurred to me recently if I collected them all in one place it might (a) keep me from having to do excessive wandering to find a specific book, and (b) teach me to stop book shopping so often since it would allow me to see just how much I already have.
So, I spent the day gathering piles of all my unread books together (plus the ones I have been meaning to reread), and then I moved those piles to the cubby bookcase in our living room. I thought this spot would be the perfect place for me to have all of my TBR books all in a nice even line since I would see it everyday and it’s centralized in our home. I emptied the two topmost cubbies of the shelf, refilled the blank space that was left behind with my TBR books, and then I moved the displaced “already read” books to the emptied spots I had made on the other shelves when I stole away my new books.
You can see all of this come together in motion on my Instagram feed thanks to this video I recorded of the process. At any rate, I now have two full shelves in our living room of books that I still need to read, or, like I said, that I’ve been meaning to reread. The pile was definitely larger than I thought it would be, so I think I’ll be kept quite busy this year.
Now that you’ve heard the full story, be honest…Do you already do this? Do you keep all of your unread books in one spot in your home, or do you have them scattered in between your existing books, like I did? I thought about using a labeled basket or tote, but as you can see from my newly packed shelves, my collection was too large to fit inside just one tote. Maybe someday I’ll wheedle this down to a manageable five books or so, but for now, I love gazing dreamily at all of the word-filled adventures I have yet to dive into. Speaking of, what’s on your TBR list for 2026?
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