How to manage your TBR list

Keep the list in one place

Books you want to read turn up everywhere: a friend’s recommendation, a review, a video, a shelf in a bookshop. Saved in screenshots, chats and three different notes apps, they are as good as lost. Pick one place for the list and add every new title there, right away.

It also helps to note why a book caught your attention: who recommended it or what you heard about it. A year later, a bare title on a list rarely tells you why you wanted it.

Give every book a priority

A flat list of a hundred titles does not answer the only question you bring to it: what should I read next? A simple priority does. Three levels are enough: must-read, interested and maybe.

In Pagetime, when you add a book to “Want to read”, you choose “Must-read”, “Interested” or “Maybe” with one tap, and you can change it later on the book screen. The shelf lists books by priority, then by how long they have been waiting. Its heading shows how many books there are, how many are must-reads and how long the oldest one has waited.

Let waiting time answer for you

How long a book has been on the list is information too. A book you have wanted for six months is either one you really mean to read or one you no longer want. Once a season, go through the oldest titles and ask whether you would add each of them today. If not, take it off. Clearing a wish list is not a failure; it makes room for books you want now.

Choose the next book in a minute

When you finish a book, the list should make the next choice easy, not harder:

• Start with the must-reads. That is what the priority is for.
• Alternate. After a long or demanding book, pick a shorter or lighter one, or switch between fiction and non-fiction.
• Read the first pages. Ten minutes with the opening chapter tells you more than any description.
• Keep the number of books in progress small. One or two at a time is easier to finish than five.

In Pagetime, a book on the Want to read shelf shows its page count and, if you have timed some reading, roughly how long it will take at your pace. The guide on how many pages you can read in an hour explains the estimate.

Avoid adding the same book twice

A long list collects duplicates: the same book, added months apart. When you type a title in Pagetime that is already in your library, the New book form tells you which shelf it is on. You can still add it, for example as a different edition.

A list, not a to-do

A to-be-read list is a note for the future, not a debt. Pagetime does not send reminders about books you have not started. If a book keeps slipping down the list, that is an answer too.

The free version holds up to 5 books and includes 20 page scans with text recognition in total. Deleting a note does not restore a used scan. Notes and the timer work offline without an account; sync is free after signing in. A subscription removes the book and scan limits and unlocks your full stats history, year in review and folder export. Pagetime is coming to iPhone and Android; you can leave your email below to hear when it is available. Until then, one list in one place is the best start.

This independent guide is published by Pagetime and is not authorized, sponsored or endorsed by Apple Inc. or Google LLC.