Today should be cat pictures, but I got interrupted when I was blogging yesterday and never did get my post up. I will return to cat photos next week. I find one thing that limits my reading as the year gets going is I want to read everything on my TBR. I am an indecisive reader. This leads to me not reading anything. It's terrible. A lot of it is that I have too many books on the go and can't focus on one book. Sometimes this works really well for me... Sometimes it doesn't... Then, I saw this fun idea on Instagram where people are making up slips of paper with the books that want to read this year and to draw one to decide their next read. It won't work all the time for me because I am participating in reading challenges and accepting review copies here and there, but I am hoping it will help me get to some of those lost books on my TBR that have been there forever.
I imagine it will take a while for the amount of papers to decrease. I plan to add new papers to carry on with the series, as new books arrive, and this is not all the unread books I own. I plan to keep the slips of paper in another box as I draw them and use that as more of a determination that the TBR is decreasing in size. I also added slips that say e-books so that I get a kick start when I start to neglect my virtual TBR.
First up, I chose Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk. I bought this book following some blogging buzz surrounding it, but just never got around to reading it. I am not sure how long it would have taken if I hadn't pulled its name out of the box. So far it is good, and I look forward to carrying on with this project in 2014 and onward.
I may add e-books in but just doing this much last night took forever. I have a big TBR. I have had slow reading years and didn't stop acquiring books during those years. Last year was really bad. I only read about 70 books and a bunch of those were audio books. This meant that my TBR pile likely increased in size instead of decreased. I did do a big purge because of the move, but I have to do another one and just have been waiting until I was ready to rearrange my bookshelves.
How do you pick what to read next?
I tried out a free subscription to
Grammarly to write this post. I wish it wasn't so expensive because I imagine I would actually use it. I am terrible at proofreading. I just write a post and stick it up without stressing over it. I know many of my blog posts are badly written over the years. However, 30 dollars a month is a lot. The other two options are a bit cheaper, but just not something I am willing to spend all at one time. (At least right now.)
I loved that book!!! And that's an interesting method. I may try it next time I'm in a bit of a slump!
ReplyDeleteI have a spreadsheet that I've used the last several years and I just add new books to it in random places. Then, I just read down the list. But I really kind of like the randomness of "picking a piece of paper". I supposed I could use my spreadsheet with Random.org to do the same thing but a box filled with the names of your books just seems so much more fun!
ReplyDeleteI have half a shelf at work of tbr books which I pick from if I finish a book at work. But I also have group reads, book club reads, and challenges which interfere with that, but if I find myself skipping a book a few times in a row I take it off and figure I'll come back to it at some other point. I usually don't though.
ReplyDeleteAs for the grammar, I wouldn't worry about it. I barely proofread at all, errors are all part of the fun :)
I love this idea! I've used slips of paper for all kinds of things in my life from chores to art. Before blogging, I used to pick my next read by telling one of my young son to go to a specific book shelf and pick a book for me. Whatever. And that's what I'd read next. Back then I had my shelves ordered by genre so I knew where I was sending him so not completely random :-)
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! I have 2 shelves but they're double stacked and books end up getting forgotten. Plus I like the random element for when I just can't make up my mind. Also getting out all my books sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteThat book is fantastic! And I love the idea, too, but will have to get through the glut of review copies I foolishly accepted at the end of 2013 before I can try it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea! I hope it works for you. I'm terrible at choosing my next book to read. What with my own books, library books, and ebooks I just have too much choice. Same problem as you in other words. The reason I'm doing loads of challenges this year is to try and get some of my own books read. I also want to try and buy less this year but it's hard.
ReplyDeleteWaiting for Columbus has been on my TBR shelf forever too. Maybe your reading it now will inspire me to read it this year too!
ReplyDeleteI like this idea! It's not too different than some of the methods I've used over the years when struck with total indecision. Sometimes you just have to get creative. :-)
I can't subscribe to Grammarly for the same reason. :-(
OH! I loved loved LOVED Waiting for Columbus!! yay
ReplyDeleteI'm terrible at getting to my TBR when there are new books calling my name. This year I pulled out a shelf of fiction that I'm going to prioritize, I hope, but without any pressure attached like a challenge. We'll see how long it takes!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Waiting For Columbus! I really enjoyed it myself when I read it a few years back! This is a fun way to pick your next read...I might try it myself :)
ReplyDeleteThat isn't a bad idea - I never seem to have problems choosing which book to read next week, more that i don't have enough time to read all the books!
ReplyDeleteOooh, that sounds like a good idea! Although most of my TBR are ebooks.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I noticed you used Grammarly? Were you, by any chance, invited to do a blog post in exchange for sponsorship? I got an email like that, but when I searched on the internet, I saw a few posts saying it was a scam, and I'd like to know what your experience was like.
^_^
I don't have a good system for choosing what to read -- I keep a spreadsheet of books I'm interested in, and I pick whatever I feel in the mood for in the moment. I love the notion of drawing slips of paper out of a box, but I know I'd rebel against the system. :p
ReplyDeleteI don't write out my books onto slips of paper. I already have my list of books to read on a Google spreadsheet. When I have some rare, non-review-book time, I head to Random.org and let the random number generator select a line number corresponding to a row on the spreadsheet. It is actually quite fun to see which book gets selected and which ones don't. I can't remember a time where the book that was selected was one I regreted reading either. Slips of paper, random numbers - I think they are all the same idea and a helpful solution when you simply have more books than you can possibly read.
ReplyDeletePick a Papaer sounds like something I should do. I keep trying to prioritize my TBR shelf and make a year long reading plan. But alas, I am too much of a mood reader, a whim reader, to stick with any long term plan. There are books that are *eventual* books that I never seem to get to. I'll be eager to see how it works for you.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I have seen many readers do this type of thing in many different ways. I think I should just buckle down and do it with the books I own and haven't read yet. Because I need to read those, too (not just the ones I get from the library). I'll be interested to see if you like this kind of choosing process for sure!
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