I love making lists. When I have an entire day off, I will make myself a list of all the things that I need to get accomplished. I usually follow it rather well. When it comes to book lists, though, I find that I have a very hard time reading the books I set out for myself. This year I actually posted a reading pool for the Once Upon a Time V challenge and I thought I was doing really well. Then, I piled all the books that I still was supposed to read together and the pile was rather tall.
I am not sure what it is. When I make the list, I really want to read the books on it. When I look at the list now, I still really want to read all of the books. There are just too many distractions in life. Diana Wynne-Jones passed away and I started working her books into my reading. Then, other books that would work for the challenge came in for me at the library. Then, I got a bit obsessed with Charles de Lint. It is also very hard to ignore the rest of my TBR pile... There is also new books arriving that I really want to read. How do you make out with lists of books you want to read?
For me, I am actually doing good. I have read the following that was actually on my list of books I want to read:
Empire of Ruins: The Hunchback Assignments III by Arthur Slade
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
Terribly Twisted Tales edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Shadow Hunt by Katherine Langrish
Sister Red by Jackson Pearce
Among Others by Jo Walton
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne-Jones
Nightschool: The Weirn Books - Volume 2 by Svetlana Chmakova
Ursula by Fabio Mo and Gabriel Ba
Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Shottie Young
Trickster: Native American Tales by Matt Dembicki
Paronormalacy by Kiersten White
That works out to 16 books read off my initial list.
I still would like to read the following: (Turns out that part of the reason my pile was so high was because I included books that are not actually on my list...)
The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan
Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey
Radiant Shadow and Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
Steal the Dragon by Patricia Briggs
The King's Daughters by Nathalie Mallet
The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
River Secrets by Shannon Hale
The Infinity Gate by Sara Douglass
Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine
The Return of the Shadow by J.R.R. Tolkien (currently reading)
Dark Moon of Avalon by Anna Elliott
Sea Glass by Maria Snyder
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
The Hundred Thousands Kingdom by N.K. Jemisin
The Dragon Book edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Queen of the Darkness by Anne Bishop
Melusine by Sarah Monette
Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
Dragon Seer by Janet McNaughton
That leaves 26 books that I was still hoping to read...
See? I am reading the new book by Carrie Ryan right now. I thought it was on my list, but I only received it in the mail after the fact. Then, I have some non-fiction books that I am slowly reading my way through, but I only actually have one non-fiction book on the initial list. I have The Reckoning and River Secrets on my read soon pile. Oh, and Radiant Shadows. Then, I don't know what I will read. The possibilities are endless! I am going to try and ignore my TBR pile and concentrate on this list for the next little bit. We will see how it goes!
If you are participating in the Once Upon a Time Challenge, how are you making out?
I, too, am a list maker, and find myself reshuffling the order, adding and changing out...
ReplyDeletecongrats on doing so well on your list. I am doing well on meeting my challenge goals, in spite of my not using the list I made to help me meet it. some of the books I've been waiting for have been coming in, and then the usual distractions...
but your post has me thinking I will be sitting down with my original pool. There were some reads I know I really want to get to.
~L (omphaloskepsis)
I make thousands of lists and I rarely stick to them. I think it makes me feel like a more organized person to make lists, but then I revert back to my normal self of choosing what I am goig to read based on the moment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I feel like a really terrible fan. Your post was the first time that I heard that DWJ was dead. I think I have read everything that she has written. How could I not be in tune to this sort of thing?
You are doing an amazing job with this challenge! I have no idea how well I'm doing since I haven't been keeping track.
ReplyDeleteI love making lists if for no other reason than to toss around all of the wonderful book options that I can make for myself!
ReplyDeleteI don't really make lists, though I track books I want to read on Amazon. And sometimes, if I'm in the library, like yesterday, I'll get all these books that I've been wanting to read that all are miraculously in stock! Yesterday, I got Castle Waiting, Vol. 1, Tender Morsels, When Everything Changed and the next book for me in the Falco series. Glorious! Now I just have to READ them all in the next two weeks...
ReplyDeleteI'm an incredibly visual organizer and I love lists for many things, but I never do well with book lists (which I why I didn't make one for Once Upon a Time this year).
ReplyDeleteI used to have a great strategy in which I'd make a literal pile of the books I wanted to read and then thumb through the pile to pick out what was next.
Since I've gotten a Kindle, the pile method doesn't work so well and I find that very worthy books (The Wise Man's Fear) get overlooked because they've been moved past page 1 of the menu.
Maybe a list is in order after all . . .
"When I make the list, I really want to read the books on it. When I look at the list now, I still really want to read all of the books. There are just too many distractions in life."<----YES. YES. YES. That says it perfectly!!!!
ReplyDelete*contemplatrix: Yes, making the lists is funner sometimes than actually following them...
ReplyDelete*theveryhungrybookworm: DWJ's death was very recent. It's a sad thing!
*Kim: I don't usually follow book lists, but I still try...
*Debi: lol It does!