Working Through the TBR
I started out this year with towering piles of to-be-read material. One huge stack of nonfiction. Another of fantasy. Another of chick-lit. One of short stories (yeah, me, the one who doesn't really like to read short stories.) Horizontal rows across the bottom of my bookshelves, lining up so-called literature.
Some of you may recall that I tagged each book at the start of the year with a purple Post-It flag. I intended to add a different color each month, so that I could track how long I'd kept the new books, on top of all the old books.
Well, I'm working through the to-be-reads. I've handled approximately half of the books. Many of them have been read. Some have been started and discarded after an obligatory 50 pages. Fewer have been discarded after a page or two. And a very few have been donated to the library when I picked them up, realized I had absolutely no interest in reading them, and sent them to a better home.
I haven't tagged the new books I've bought this year, mostly because I've read them immediately upon receipt. (I haven't bought very much - some YA dark fantasy, and a single mystery that is probably the next or the next-next thing that I'll be reading.)
With Book Expo America approaching, I know there will be an influx of new books. My personal goal is to get all of last year's BEA books read or discarded by next week. (I'm not going to make that goal, but it's good to have aspirations :-) ) And I'm going to remember this little post while I'm at BEA, contemplating whether I really need this ARC or that one...
Do you have a stack of to-be-read materials? If so, do you manage it in any way? Do you ever discard to-be-reads, just because they aren't "fresh" any more, they don't "spark" your interest in the way they once did?
Mindy, housekeeping before the long weekend
Some of you may recall that I tagged each book at the start of the year with a purple Post-It flag. I intended to add a different color each month, so that I could track how long I'd kept the new books, on top of all the old books.
Well, I'm working through the to-be-reads. I've handled approximately half of the books. Many of them have been read. Some have been started and discarded after an obligatory 50 pages. Fewer have been discarded after a page or two. And a very few have been donated to the library when I picked them up, realized I had absolutely no interest in reading them, and sent them to a better home.
I haven't tagged the new books I've bought this year, mostly because I've read them immediately upon receipt. (I haven't bought very much - some YA dark fantasy, and a single mystery that is probably the next or the next-next thing that I'll be reading.)
With Book Expo America approaching, I know there will be an influx of new books. My personal goal is to get all of last year's BEA books read or discarded by next week. (I'm not going to make that goal, but it's good to have aspirations :-) ) And I'm going to remember this little post while I'm at BEA, contemplating whether I really need this ARC or that one...
Do you have a stack of to-be-read materials? If so, do you manage it in any way? Do you ever discard to-be-reads, just because they aren't "fresh" any more, they don't "spark" your interest in the way they once did?
Mindy, housekeeping before the long weekend
(Anonymous)
Then there is the TBR physical pile. There are about 50 books there. These can be split into two categories: historical finds, and want-to-reads.
The historical finds are my bugaboos. They're often by authors that I loved reading, but got tired of. One set of books are collectors items. I really should find them a home where they'll be loved.
The want-to-reads are a mix of genres. I can't ever tell what I'll feel like reading next.
Adrianne - who really ought to trim down the pile again
In law school, I had a friend who religiously traded off non-fiction, classic, trash fiction, one by one by one. I'm nowhere near that structured, but I do try to mix up the genres so that nothing gets too flat in my mind.
Right now, though, I'm eating a lot of YA fantasy - some of the relatively complex stuff. And I'm loving it.
And I read in order of deadline, then in order of how I get them. Deadline refers to ARCs and stuff.
If I don't like the book on first pass, it doesn't get a second pass, and neither does the author--barring recommends from trusted friends etc.
On the other hand, tracking favorite authors who are now publishing under a different name is also an adventure.
I actually told Larry Smith, at some con or another that an author whose first set of books he'd pointed me at was now writing under a different name (Lyda Morehouse / Tate Halliday). He hadn't known that, but my copy of the second Tale Halliday book is, in fact, sitting in my pile at Larry's table at Balticon right now.
Of course, that's all of the library discards I intend to read. The (much smaller) stack of books I've bought is slowly getting done. I just stare at it until something pops out that looks yummy enough to read. And then I read it.
Now, I consider my time to be too valuable. (And that's not even looking at what my employer would bill out for those hours! :-) )
If you feel comfortable talking about it on this public board, can you explain more about your relationship with Mysterious Galaxy now? Where exactly do you live? It sounds hours and hours from San Diego!