What Makes Me Add a Book to My TBR? // Thoughts, Opinions, & My Guilty Pleasures

I have a long TBR.*

To be honest, my TBR isn’t actually long. It’s literally endless. *cries*

There are over 130 million books in the world. But THAT WAS IN 2010. Help. And yet, out of those 130+ million books, us readers somehow choose certain books to add to our TBRs. I, personally, have specific preferences a book needs to have before I hit the ‘want to read’ button. But I break those a lot and just end up adding it anyways shhh.

So today, I’ll be sharing some reasons why I’ll add a book to my TBR!

*But the way some people keep their TBRs under 200 books must be some kind of sorcery??

a note that these are my personal opinions and this post is not meant to criticize anyone for their tastes in books, or to annoy anyone. thank you! ❤️

because everyone else has

And by this, I’m mainly referring to extremely hyped books. The books I’m terrified of reading because the hype might have already ruined it for me. I’ll have very high expectations for it, and then when it turns out to be not as good as I thought… bye I’ll go cry in a corner now.

But if everyone has promised that the book lives up to its hype, naturally I’ll try reading it. I TRUST THEIR OPINIONS OKAY.

The hyped books I do read are usually books that I’m genuinely interested in, I mean, there are all the YA “classics” that everyone has probably read (like ACOTAR which I have not read and am never going to read), though most of those don’t interest me. On the other hand, here are some popular books I’ve actually enjoyed that are so worthy of the hype:

it’s by an author I love!

live footage of me when an author I adore announces their new book

After reading a good book, I usually 1) sit in shock because it’s over, and 2) develop a strong desire to read other books by the same author.

BUT. I’m also scared that their other book(s) might disappoint me. And when that happens, it makes me sad 😔

Some of my favorite auto-buy authors are (and by this I mean anything they write I WILL read (even their grocery lists)):

• Joan He
• Anna Marie-McLemore
• Aiden Thomas
• Adiba Jaigirdar
• Chloe Gong

psst! all of these authors have upcoming releases coming out this year, go preorder their books!!

the cover is gorgeous

I almost always judge books by their covers. But don’t we all?? It’s like an unspoken habit among all readers. If there’s a cover I love, I’ll most likely add it to my TBR 99.9% of the time. Really. Pretty covers play a major role in intriguing me and urging me to find out more about the book. I need more pretty books please 🤲

And anyways, judging books by their covers never hurt anyone 😌

it has tropes I love reading about

I have a love-hate relationship with book tropes. I enjoy reading books with overused tropes if they are done well. A little part of me withers up and dies every time I read a book with insta love (I hate it with a burning passion).

Tropes I Love 💖

• slowburn romance
• fake dating
• enemies-to-lovers
• friends-to-enemies-to-lovers

Tropes I Hate 💔

• insta love
• love triangles
• the “chosen one”
• the MC who’s “not like other girls”

it’s diverse!

One of the things I’ve learned to love about the bookish community is it’s shown me how important diversity is and why it should be present in books.

With diverse books, readers learn about new cultures, read about new identities and learn to appreciate how rich and diverse the world is. Books like these shed light on global issues, narrate historical events, and spread awareness among readers, all while keeping the reader interested and gripped in its grasp.

I mean, I’ll still read a book even if it isn’t diverse, but I’ll definitely still be more interested in reading a book with diversity in it.

it sounds interesting

Yes this does count!! This is probably the main reason why my TBR grew to be so long, now that I think about it but shh let’s not talk about that.

If a book sounds even remotely interesting to me, I’ll add it because what if I want to read it in the future? And what if I lose knowledge of it and then I DON’T REMEMBER WHERE TO FIND IT. My worst bookish nightmare.

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what makes you add a book to your tbr? what are some of your favorite tropes?? are your tbrs long (like mine)?