Balancing Your TBR

We need to balance out our TBR, and I'm not talking about stacking all the books into a jenga tower.  (Though I do currently have my TBR stacked on a shelf in my closet, as I ran out of room on my bookshelf.)

We need to balance the genres we read.  We need to read new things, different things, books that help us, books just for fun.  We need to read a variety of books, a variety of genres.

Why We Should Read Newly Published Books

Being a writer myself, I whole-heartedly agree with supporting new authors, especially the self-published ones.  We should read their books and recommend them to everyone.  With all the trash that is getting put out there, when we find some new clean literature, we should encourage the author to write /more/ clean books.  New books often easier to read, with the language of the current times, and the messages may often be very relateable and applicable.

But if the only books we read are the new ones, the ones with the shiny covers, the ones that everyone is reading, we have a problem.

Why We Should Read Older and "Classic" Books

Yes, classics are often dull and boring, with characters that talk weird and waaaaaay too much description.  Even Tolkien, as much as we love his works, can sometimes be a bit of a pain to read.  Having been forced to read some bland, boring books for school, thinking about older books, classic books, brings up unpleasant memories.

But we all have our favorite classics (Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Pimpernel), so we know that not all classics or older books are dull and boring as we remember.

Just because the cover is plain (or even horrid), just because the author is long dead, just because the writing is difficult, doesn't mean we should give up reading them.  We should add some old books to our TBR.

Why We Should Read Hard Books

If you breeze through a 500-page fantasy novel, but put off and struggle through an instructive spiritual book, what does that say about you?

Reading books on the things of God, on theology, on our walk with God, is harder.  I understand this completely.  It takes a more brain power.  We need to focus on the meaning, on understanding it, while reading.

When I first tried to read Charity and Its Fruits (by Jonathan Edwards), I couldn't finish it.  I couldn't keep my mind focused on it and eventually I gave up.  But then I came back to it.  I read it while walking laps around the back yard.  I sat in the barn and read it aloud to the horses.  And by the end of the book, I was able to sit on the couch and just read it and focus on it for longer periods of time.  But I had to train myself.

We need to make sure we are reading books that are edifying, that encourage us in our daily walk with God, that teach us about Him.

Why We Should Read Unknown Books

Usually, when we are looking for something new to read, we pick something that everyone is going on about.  If so many people have read a book and liked it, it's got to be good, right?  (Think The Wingfeather Saga, The Lunar Chronicles, Fawkes.)  The author's blog is really nice, the cover looks amazing, and the plot sounds really interesting.

But when someone recommends a book that you've never heard of before, and you see the cover is kind of bland, the author lived about 80 years ago, and no one else has ever heard of it, you usually just pass it up, right?  And I understand.  100%  Why risk wasting your time and money?

But sometimes those little ol' books that seem fair to middlin' can surprise you.

Like The Great and Terrible Quest.  This tiny book sat on the shelf in our home-library for ages before I finally decided to flip it open and give it a try (after all, it was small, insignificant, and sounded like a kids book).  Long story short, I fell in love, read it every year, and would proudly recommend it to anyone.

Why We Should Read Different Genres

Let's be honest-we all have our comfort genre.  Mine is fantasy.  Growing up watching and reading The Lord of the Rings has given me a love for books with long journeys on horseback, epic swords, muddy cloaks, maybe an elf or two, and beautiful dresses.  I hear about a good fantasy novel/series and I'm instantly looking it up.

Someone tells me about a very good contemporary novel?  50% chance I'm not even going to look it up.  75% chance I'm not going to even remember the title.

Some of y'all might have read my post about We Need to Read.  And one of the reasons we read is to grow.  If we're reading nothing but the same genre over and over, we're eventually going to stop learning and growing as much.  Like playing video games-yeah, it helps your hand-eye coordination and your problem solving skills, but eventually you have to admit that you're slightly addicted to it, and why not play some Sudoku and learn some different problem solving skills.

 The Benefits of Balancing Your TBR

Balancing helps us enjoy our books more.  I read Disassociate right after finishing the Out of Time trilogy, and I'm going to be honest-Parvin and co. really made Celeste and Mick look dull and boring, and I struggled with getting through the first book.  It just wasn't as fascinating as reading about Parvin, and I kept comparing the two.  I read the second book sometime later and I enjoyed it much more and found that Celeste and everyone weren't as bad as I thought.

We are (some of us) adults and yes, we can still read our favorite little heart-warming books.  Just because we're no longer in school and now spend our days working or in college doesn't mean we can't read that horse book that we always loved.  But we need to read more than that, and because we're older, we need to read adult books.  I mean serious books, like a devotional book or a how-to book.

Two of my favorite reads from 2018

We need to read, not just for recreation, but to learn and grow.

Don't be afraid to look into the insignificant reads.  Some of my favorite reads of 2018 were books that I was only reading to "balance out" the genres-a biography (which I have recommended to tons of people), a dystopian (the Out of Time trilogy), and a spiritual (I just wanted a short read for a Sunday afternoon).

Old and uncommon books are cheaper.  I love shopping at used book stores.  In fact, I probably only go into a Barnes and Noble once or twice a year.  But I'll come out of a used book store with a stack of new books to read.  And usually without doing serious harm to a twenty dollar bill.  Antique stores, thrift stores, yard sales, library sales...all good places to find good books for a few dollars.

I hope I've convinced you to try a few different books this year.  Let me know how it goes!