The Book Buying Ban - How to tackle the TBR pile.

As an ardent book lover, buyer and as a library regular, I am always surrounded by books; old, new, second hand, borrowed. I love buying new releases, I desperately hunt down favourite authors in charity shops and I navigate straight to the book aisle when I do the weekly shop. I love adding books to the 'Tower of TBR' - even if it wobbles, I merely see it as a challenge to build it higher.

I know this is not unusual; it may even remind you of yourself. I mean, we all have massive TBR piles don't we?

So why a book buying ban?

Just before New Year I had a vague count up of the books I had yet to read. Littered across shelves, the bedside table, the drawers, the dressing table.. and it was A LOT. Let's say it was roughly 50...ish (OK OK, more toward 65..ish).

It surprised me; I don't know why as I had bought them all but I was still shocked it was so many. Although I read steadily and always have at least on the go, the pile never seems to go down. So I came up with the (some would say) drastic plan to have a month where I bought NO books. Ridiculous right? No new books, no e-books, no charity shop books - none at all. 

I don't really make New Year resolutions but thought this could be an interesting way to start the year- save some pennies and tackle that TBR Pile. Mind firmly made up, I even roped in fellow book reviewer, Kirsty from Kirstys Book Buying Addiction - (https://kirstysbookbuyingaddiction.home.blog/) 

As 2019 hit, our self imposed ban took hold. Many of the book loving community we love being part of on Twitter were surprised, some laughed and didn't believe we could do it whilst others openly admitted they couldn't do it. Let me tell you, I wasn't fully convinced I could myself.

I saw review after review of amazing books, I got emails about new releases that I just knew I'd love, every shop and supermarket seemed to be teasing me with glorious looking shelves of books with gorgeous covers and what was with all the emails with special discount codes for all of my favourite book buying sites?!

I'd say the first week was easy, just reading books from my TBR pile and loving them. I was making a brilliant start to this years Goodreads reading challenge (I set my target at 60) and was really pleased with myself - HA a month was going to be a piece of cake!

Slowly, as we settled into January and I went back to the day job the more I began getting twitchy - seeing books sneaking up on me and teasing me with their wonderful covers and descriptive synopsis. Reading books in the TBR pile was one thing but it meant I was discovering authors I hadn't read before and upon loving what I read, I wanted more.

Middle of the month was the worst, deflated after the festive period and general winter blues - usually I would pick myself up with a little dabble on Amazon or a trip to The Works. So I started to tease myself - creating wish lists on Amazon of all the books I would be buying if I wasn't on this ban. I'm not sure why I was intent on making life harder for myself but I clearly was.

Although I nearly broke once or twice and even though I was desperate for certain titles - I suffered on and as we got to the 22nd, 23rd, 24th of January I realised the end was in sight. I was going to be able to do it. 

I originally set the ban so I could tackle the TBR pile - the books I had selected to buy over however long it had taken me to amass such a collection but had never actually read. You know what, the ban worked - during January alone I read 20 books!

Now February is here and normal service has resumed. I would love to say I maintained a stoic view of not needing to buy more books, persevering with demolishing the wonderful TBR tower but that would be a lie. 

I think putting myself on a ban may have been a bad idea, stored up the problem and now February has come along and unleashed all that book buying energy. 

I have purchased a few books - I think it may be 25 ish books. OK, so I went a little bit crazy, splurged a little (a lot) but I'm determined it was just this month and I will be trying curb my booking buying for the rest of the year (month)... 

But can we all agree: Pre-orders don't count do they?

The Break - Marian Keyes

Available on Amazon 

Amy's husband Hugh says he isn't leaving her. He still loves her, he's just taking a break - from their marriage, their children and, most of all, from their life together. Six months to lose himself in South East Asia. And there is nothing Amy can say or do about it. Yes, it's a mid-life crisis, but let's be clear: a break isn't a break up - yet . . .

However, for Amy it's enough to send her - along with her extended family of gossips, misfits and troublemakers - teetering over the edge. For a lot can happen in six-months. When Hugh returns, if he returns, will he be the same man she married? Will Amy be the same woman? Because if Hugh is on a break from their marriage, then so is she . . . The Break is a story about the choices we make and how those choices help to make us. It is Marian Keyes at her funniest, wisest and brilliant best.

My Review:

This one really took me on an emotion filled ride. I have been through every feeling, particularly for our female lead Amy.  If I'm being honest - even now I am still unsure if I actually LIKE her not. 

When Hugh decides he needs a break, some time for him to break away from everything and everyone on some kind of 'anything goes' trail around Asia, Amy and his kids are obviously devastated. Amy has trust issues, we find that out early on, from a previous marriage so this is a massive deal for her (as it would be for anyone I guess!) Hugh claims he loves her and WILL be back after six months, but realistically even before he has gone anywhere I didn't imagine for one second he'd be slotting back into place.

The story follows Amy through those next days, weeks and months of his absence. Yes, there is the sadness and she is obviously traumatised - I felt so sorry for her, I empathised and really quite disliked Hugh but rest assured it's not all gloom and doom. 

We journey through Amy making some shocking and - quite frankly - stupid life choices in my opinion. I began to quite dislike her at some points, and my sympathy towards her started to wain - we also get to see all was perhaps not what we originally thought and Hugh, well for me, he doesn't seem as such an idiot really - in fact I had more sympathy for him at some points. 

There are plenty of laughs in this story. There are so many wild and wonderful characters you are assured to find moments of true hilarity. The characters are fantastic, well written and even though there are quite a lot of them I didn't think this took anything away from the story only added some fun, interesting aspects. 

Marian's writing style is captivating, you get so engrossed in what you are reading. I read this in one sitting which is quite some feat! I love the relaxed and witty way Marian writes, makes the characters relatable too.  Though we have many lighthearted moments this story does also look at some serious, deeper issues that have need to be addressed. It's done in a brilliant way though, totally in-keeping with the tone of the book. 

As a big Marian Keyes fan, this book did not fail to live up to expectations. I highly recommend The Break. It's a keeper for me - I'll definitely re-read.