2BRd

Tag: zero TBR

  • Life is too short…not to buy books

    Why I still let myself acquire books…within reason

    When I laid out the rules for this “Read What You Own” challenge, I specified that this was not a “No Buy” challenge. There are specific instances where I’m allowed to buy/acquire new books. I didn’t want this challenge to become a slog. And if getting new books wasn’t enjoyable, I wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place!

    There are a few times in the year I really enjoy getting new books. First, it’s tradition that my father takes me to this little bookstore and gets me books for my birthday each year. That’s obviously something special I’m not willing to give up. Second, a couple of times a year we have a charity book sale at my work: this is something I want to support and have decided to continue to do so during this challenge. But I have made the rule that I must already have a book on my “want to buy” list in order to buy them during these times, and not just pick up a ton of books willy nilly. I also will read them within a reasonable amount of time so they don’t add to my unread books. (I do spread them out a bit with books I expect to DNF read in between.) I also periodically cut books from my “want to buy” list so it is only books I really want to read.

    I also am allowing myself to continue series’ that I am already reading during this challenge. One thing I’ve noticed so far is that I forget what happens in series if it’s been too long between books. If I’m enjoying the series enough to continue (I’ve been making an effort to stop series I don’t enjoy any more) then I feel I should get the full effect of them and not minimize them by potentially waiting years to continue them. I’ll be reading a lot of “so so” books, even if I end up DNFing them, so I feel it’s reasonable to allow myself periodically to read something I know I will really enjoy.

    Finally, I am allowed to get books and audiobooks from the library for book clubs, but I do try to be selective about the books I join in on and don’t read just any book. Audiobooks I listen to in the car, so they don’t really impact my “reading time”.

    The one type of book I am not allowed to buy during this challenge are digital books. Mainly they are too easy to stock up on and never read, because they aren’t “in your face”. But I’ve also soured to them recently. They are great for saving space, but I don’t like that they aren’t really something that you own. It never really bothered me until several books I had bought disappeared from my Amazon content library (and Amazon told me I would have to buy them again if I wanted to read them). Luckily, they weren’t anything I had spent a lot of money on, but I decided I don’t want to potentially throw money away: if I buy a book, I want to be able to read it as many times as I want without someone taking it away from me. I’d rather get a book from the library, to be honest.

    The second reason I’m not as keen on digital books is, I admit, for petty reasons. I have an old model kindle. BUT I love it. I love that it looks like a book page, not a tablet screen. I want to keep using it until it dies. Years ago Amazon took away the ability to wireless deliver books to it. That didn’t bother me, it was no big deal to download the book and transfer it to the kindle. But in February Amazon took away the ability for me to download the books. They already limited who could download the files (people with newer kindles could not), so there was really no (good) reason for them not to allow me to continue to do so. I am all for a company protecting its assets from piracy, but this felt (to me) like a money grab rather than actually to protect theft. Now, I don’t tell other people not to use Amazon, or criticize people who do (and I still buy other things from them sometimes), but those are the reasons I choose not to use them for digital books (or video or music).

    Long story short, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reading some books that I don’t already own during this challenge. But the books must be 1) well curated so there is a good reason to read them, 2) read within a reasonable amount of time from purchase so they aren’t adding to my unread books, and 3) a small percentage of what I’m reading – they shouldn’t overtake the challenge. Some acquisitions under very specific guidelines will keep this challenge fresh so I can actually complete it.

    Week 12 Update

    This week I had an extra day off work, so as a little mini vacation I spent it reading some books from authors I had enjoyed when I was younger, but had never gotten around to reading. Here are the totals:

    And these are the books I read:

    Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane – Suspense: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Natural Selection by Elin Hilderbrand – Short Story: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: N/A

    Final rating: 2 stars

    The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Charles R. Johnson – Short Stories: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    Oxherding Tale by Charles R. Johnson – Historical Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    The Pigman by Paul Zindel – Young Adult: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    The Pigman’s Legacy by Paul Zindel – Young Adult: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    The Silent Gondoliers by William Goldman – Fable: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene – Mystery: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    Eloise Goes to the Beach by Kay Thompson – Children’s: Worth It (if you’re a small child or love Eloise)

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • The New Natural High?

    Finishing that title that’s been on your TBR forever

    This week I finished a book that has been sitting on my shelf for literally 29 years. Seriously.

    I bought this book, which was written by one of the managers of the Grateful Dead, when it came out in 1996. Now I love the Grateful Dead. The premise is an interesting one. I wanted to read this book. So why did it sit on my bookshelf for almost 30 years?

    I spent some time this week thinking on this question, because when I finally finished reading the book, it felt great! I really had a sense of accomplishment. Part of this is probably because I am a list person and crossing something off my list is gold. But it was also the letting go of the anxiety about reading it.

    I don’t know exactly why this happens to me. It seems to happen more often with non-fiction books than novels, but it’s probably anything my brain considers “difficult” to read. Not that this book was hard to read. But for some reason, I seem to feel a sort of apprehension about some books because I think they’re going to take a long time to read, not go quickly, not be as relaxing or enjoyable as the regular fiction books I read. Even though the topic is one I’m interested in. These are books I pay money for. I’m excited to read them. And then I don’t.

    I liken it to procrastination. It’s probably the same reason I put off tasks I don’t want to do at work. And then I stress over them and wake up in the middle of the night worrying about them. It would make MUCH more sense for me to do those tasks first, get them over with. And yet, I don’t do that. It has to be fear. Of failure, of not being able to do it. Or just fear of the effort it’s going to take.

    If you’ve ever seen the “Minimal Mom” on YouTube, you’ll have heard her talk about the “silent to do list”, where the clutter in your home stresses you out because subconsciously you are seeing in it all the things you need to do but aren’t. These books are the same thing: stress every time you see that bookshelf with all those books you’ve bought and never read. And sometimes it’s easier to pretend it doesn’t exist than to tackle it.

    So how to combat this?

    Something I’ve started doing, with all the books I buy, is to start reading them immediately (or reasonably soon after buying). I also do this now with the Amazon First Reads each month that I get for free. So I’m not adding any more books to my owned TBR. But there’s another reason to do this: I’m probably not going to get any more excited about or interested in a book than when I first buy it. Ostensibly I bought it for a reason – that I want to read it! I should read the book now, not 29 years from now when I’ve lost interest in it. It also forces me not to procrastinate. And as an added bonus it makes me think about what I’m buying, because I know I’m going to have to read it.

    The other way I’ve found to get over letting books sit unread because of procrastination, is by reading them. Like I said earlier, it feels great to finish one of these long timer books. So once you finish one, and another, and another, and you see it’s not harder to read them than other books, and you feel a sense of accomplishment on finishing them, it will push you to read more. You will gravitate towards these books as I have started to, you will want to tackle them, because it makes you feel good.

    So maybe reading those books that have been on your shelf awhile isn’t going to replace exercise as the best source of a “natural high”. (Too bad.) But by biting the bullet and tackling one of these books you’ve had on your shelf since the beginning of time (at least it feels that way), I think you’ll find that you’ll be motivated to read more of them, just as I was.

    Week 11 Update

    I DNFd two books this week and finished three. I forgot to count two DNFs from last week, so I have added those to the totals this week (Lenny Among Ghosts by Frank Maria Reifenberg and Salt & Broom by Sharon Lynn Fisher- both were Amazon First Reads). So totals are looking like this:

    These are the books I read last week:

    Living with the Dead by Rock Scully – Biography: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    When We Were Friends by Jane Green – Short Story: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 2 stars

    How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell – Children’s: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And these books I DNFd this week:

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • Add this One to the Toolbox

    Another Resource for Helping ID “Worth It” Books

    I’m going to be incredibly boring and discuss something again from Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. I really wish I had liked the book more because the ideas in it were very good (maybe I will like a sequel!). The owner of the aforesaid bookshop starts putting notes in the books in the shop as she reads them, as a way to reflect on what she’s read.

    This got me thinking: what if I wrote down just a once sentence “moral” of every book I read? Something about what each book is trying to say? I’ve been reading a lot on how to better remember what I read, and reflecting on it is one of the tips. I think trying to condense each book this way would be a good way to do this.

    Of course, I then had a realization: There are some books I don’t want to do this for – some books just do not feel worth taking the time to do that. Which led to the “aha” moment that maybe the books where it doesn’t feel worth the time to reflect on the book are the books I should have DNFd. So now here’s another tool in the toolbox to refine what I’m spending time reading, and what I’m putting aside.

    Week 10 Update

    Last week I read two Amazon First Reads and three physical books for a total of five books read. I decided to change up how I show my weekly totals. Instead of breaking them up between eBooks and Physical books, I’m just going to show how many I have DNFd and read so far (and how many of those were added books from the library), plus the total number of books I have left to read (with how many total books I have taken off my TBR list).

    These are the books I read last week:

    The Golden Age of Magic by Luanne G. Smith – Historical Fantasy: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 2 stars

    (I would have DNFd this if I hadn’t been reading it for a book club.)

    The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart – Suspense: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton – Children’s Fantasy: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    Abscond by Abraham Verhese – Short Story: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida – Literary Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • Why are there so many books out there that are just “okay”?

    And why are so many of them getting so much hype?

    First, my apologies for missing a week – I had a death in my family and honestly it just got away from me that I hadn’t posted anything. So I will be giving an update for both weeks eight and nine this week.

    Two weeks ago now, I read a book called Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. This wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but it did give some interesting ideas and really made me think as I was reading. There is some discussion of the book about bestselling books (and blockbuster movies) being bestsellers because they’re bestsellers. When a book sells a lot of copies, it is automatically assumed that it’s good, and it sells more books. Whereas lesser known books (and films) fall by the wayside because no one knows about them.

    I thought this was a pretty interesting thought, and I found myself continuing to think about it as the week went on. Why are there so many books out there that have so much hype…and they’re just sort of ho-hum when you read them? I’m going to liken it to tv shows again (sorry). Back in grad school, I listened to a lecture about network tv, and why you only see a certain type of show there: they are trying to appeal to the widest possible audience, they always wrap up the the story in one episode, you don’t have to have seen any other episodes to watch whatever one happens to be on. The truly great tv? It isn’t there. By design.

    I feel like the majority of books coming out today are like this: easy to read, you don’t have to think too hard to follow the story, you don’t have to have read other books in the series to know what’s going on, they don’t take too long to write so they can just keep churning them out.

    Now I’m not casting shade on these kind of books (or tv shows). If you get someone to publish your book and pay you for it, that is a huge accomplishment and you should be proud of it. Not every book needs to be Shakespeare. And if people like easy reads, they should read them. Know yourself. Read what you like. You also might find yourself at one end, especially when starting out reading a new genre, and work up to being more discerning.

    Here’s the but:

    BUT the people whose job it is to review books and make recommendations should not be telling people that such and such is the best book they’ve ever read when in reality it’s just an okay book. If they’re doing that, then people should stop listening to them. It’s one thing to say, “This isn’t the most profound book every written, but I enjoyed reading it.” It’s another to either not know what you’re talking about or intentionally mislead other people.

    I’ve been trying to read through all those Amazon First Reads I’ve gotten for free over the years: most of them aren’t great. Some I’ve enjoyed. But it is really doing me the favor of helping me to see how “meh” these books are, when compared to something like a Pierce Brown book.

    So, if you are, like me, trying to id the books that are more that just okay, ask yourself some questions before picking up that book with “buzz”: Did you like other books by that author? Did reviewers you trust like it? Are you really interested in the book’s storyline, or are you just mildly interested? Are you only picking it up because you saw it on Book Tube/Book Tok/in that magazine/on tv? Are you only picking it up because it’s the next in a series you’ve been reading (and not really enjoying)? Think about what’s important to you, and make your own questions. The idea is to narrow your reading down to what you really want to read, what’s quality (the definition of which can be different for everybody), and what is worth your time.

    Week 8/9 Update

    Over the past two weeks, I read two library books for Goodreads challenges (and a book club), plus one Physical and one eBook. The totals look like this:

    These are the books I read the past two weeks:

    An Age of Winters by Gemma Liviero – Historical Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum – Urban Fiction: Worth It (for the ideas)/Not Worth It (for the story). If this author writes a sequel, I think it will be worth reading – it took her this book to develop the characters. Needed more editing.

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Dark Age by Pierce Brown – Science Fiction: Worth It!!!!!!!!!

    Rating after 50 pages: 5 stars

    Final rating: 5 stars

    Hungerstone by Kat Dunn – Horror Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • The Pile

    Cutting Through All That Sameness

    Reflecting on the books I read this week, I was thinking about how many books there are out there that are just okay/good/fine. There’s not really anything wrong with the writing of them, but there’s just nothing special about them. There isn’t a character that you really connect with. It isn’t a story that you keep thinking about even when you aren’t reading it. It doesn’t make you feel anything out of the ordinary. Nothing makes them stand out from the rest. These books are what I call, The Pile.

    The Pile is where all those books live that aren’t bad. They just aren’t great. And unfortunately, books from the Pile get publicized. A lot. They’re everywhere. Book Tube. Those summer reading lists in magazines. Your mother’s friend who wants to recommend you a book every time she sees you. They often sound good, so you add them to your TBR. And after you’ve read them, you realize they’ve had no lasting effect on you at all. They were just, okay.

    I liken books from the Pile to network tv. Well, to be fair, most tv today. Appealing to the widest possible audience and giving up any risks or anything truly great in the bargain. You’re not going to find a Luther or Sherlock here. These are the shows where you don’t really have to pay attention to the details and can still understand what’s happening. The shows you can just have on in the background. That you can watch next week even if you missed this week and not have actually missed anything.

    There’s nothing wrong with books from the Pile, just as there’s nothing really wrong with network tv. If that’s what you like, go ahead and read it (or watch it). But if that’s not what you like to read, if you come away from reading one of these books wishing that you hadn’t wasted your time, it can be frustrating. It’s not always easy to identify these books. With a book that’s bad, you know it, but with a book from the Pile, you might think, “Well, it’s not so bad, I’ll keep reading.” And then suffer the reader’s remorse that follows.

    After a lot of thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that the way to think about it is: you shouldn’t be reading something just to get through it (most of the time). There are situations where finishing a book just to finish it is important (some classics, your book club book, etc). But generally, if you’re thinking about what you get to read after you finish this stupid book, you should stop reading right now. Because it’s not really good enough for a book to just be “fine”. There are too many books out there that are “GREAT!” that you could and should be reading instead. Why waste time just wasting time?

    And I think what it takes to stop wasting this time, is hyper awareness of your feelings as you read. Check in every so often while you read: “How many stars would I give this right now?” “Am I enjoying reading this?” “Am I wishing I was finished and moving on to something new?” This challenge has helped me so much, just by making me really think about how I am feeling about a book after 50 pages. Consciously asking myself if I want to keep reading. This is great at weeding out the bad books. But in order to weed out the “just okay” books, you have to keep asking yourself these questions. Because if nothing better is happening after 50 pages, if you don’t love any of the characters, if the story isn’t drawing you in. If it’s just background noise, maybe it’s time to put it down and read something different. Something great.

    Week 7 Update

    This week I brought my TBR down by 6 books (read 4, 2 DNFs). But I did purchase one book, We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida which I had previously listened to the audiobook from the library, and am going to read as part of a Goodreads challenge.

    That makes the current counts:

    These are the books I read this week:

    What the Light Touches by Xavier Bosch – Historical Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman – Short Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    I Think We’ve Been Here Before by Suzy Krause – Literary Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mario Puzo – Historical Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And the books that I DNFd were The Last Second by Cathering Coulter and Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Danielle Coombs.

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • I Couldn’t DNF Dune (but Probably Should Have)

    I’ve owned a copy of Frank Herbert’s Dune for a long time. It’s a science fiction classic. It heavily influenced George Lucas and Star Wars. As a child I had a Dune poster from the original movie in my room that I got out of a cereal box (despite not seeing the movie). I felt like I was just waiting to read it and have a new series to love.

    And then last week, I finally read it.

    And I found myself wondering what I was missing. Parts of the book engaged me, yes, but others dragged. It was well-written, obviously. But my personal enjoyment of it was hovering around “meh” for most of the book. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and found I most liked one that died near the beginning. As per ush.

    But I just couldn’t DNF it. It was Dune for pete’s sake. DUNE!! You can’t DNF Dune! And part of me is glad I finished just so I can say, I read it and this is what I thought of it. But when considering making the most of my precious precious reading time, I probably should have once I figured out this wasn’t the next Lord of the Rings for me. I wish it was. Really I do. But I did learn an important lesson this week, and that is that I still have a long way to go on this journey. And maybe someday I won’t balk at DNFing a classic.

    Week 6 Update

    So first off, the digital book I won on Fable, the one where there was a message saying I had won it, about a week later switched to a “sample” and I got an email saying I hadn’t won it. Not sure what happened there, but I took the book off my TBR (I might read it later, but not adding it now).

    I also got a book from the library in order to complete a Goodreads challenge. So that was no gain or loss.

    And I received the new Natalie Jenner, Austen at Sea, which I had pre-ordered like a year ago. So that increased my TBR.

    I read three books this week (plus the library book, which didn’t count in the numbers) and DNF’d one other book. This brought me down under 600 books!

    These are the books I read:

    Dune by Frank Herbert – Science Fiction: (kind of) Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3.5 stars

    Clear by Carys Davies – Historical Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 1 star

    Dawn of Avalon by Anna Elliott – Fantasy: Not Worth It (unless you’ve read any of the other books in the series)

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Austen at Sea by Natalie Jenner – Historical Fiction: Worth It!

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And this is the book I DNFd:

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • Ain’t Nobody Have Time For That

    DNFing, Part II

    I managed to clear nine titles from my TBR this week!

    Of course, I only read five of those all the way to the end. Four of them, I DNFd.

    This is a big deal. As I said in earlier posts, it is against my nature to DNF books. I find it really difficult to stop reading something once I’ve started it, even if I don’t even like the book. And I don’t think I would have DNFd those four books this week, if I wasn’t focused on this challenge.

    Because of this challenge, I’m hyper aware of how I’m feeling about a book as I read it. I’m thinking about what I would rate it, because I’m sharing how I felt about it after 50 pages here on this blog. I’m thinking about the difference between reading a good book that I really want to read and reading a book that’s just “meh” that I got for free. I’m thinking about all the books I really want to read and the time I’m wasting when I’m reading something I don’t even want to read. These are the books I DNFd this week:

    The first two were Amazon First Reads. If you don’t know what those are, if you are a Prime member you get a free book (from a list) every month. The past year or so they have also been giving an additional free short story. Until I started this challenge, I don’t think I actually read any of the books I got from First Reads. They usually aren’t books I would pick up in a bookstore, but some months have more interesting choices than others. Though I will say that it isn’t often that I can’t find something. (Of course, I still pick something every month. Why?! This is why I have a problem.) These two books I attempted this week, there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with them, but I just didn’t find myself wanting to keep reading. I wasn’t really interested in the characters. If these were books I had purchased, I probably would have kept reading them. Because they were free, I think I more easily gave myself permission to let them go. Doesn’t mean I can’t pick them up again someday, but right now, they weren’t holding my attention.

    The other two books were ones I had downloaded for free when I first got my kindle. I didn’t make it to 50 pages in One Night in Boston – I just disliked the main character so much I knew it was never going to work. As for the other book, I actually find freemasonry really interesting. But I decided my time would be better spent reading a book about this topic than this book, which was basically outlining the rituals. In the past, I would have definitely pushed through this one, and to be honest, probably not gotten much out of it.

    These were two very different kinds of books, but I really feel like I’m growing because I was able to stop reading all four, letting me spend time reading something I really was enjoying. That I’m actively trying to go through my owned books I think is making it easier to let ones go.

    Week 5 Update

    This week, I did win a free digital book from Fable (affiliate link there) called Two by an author I really love, Kristin Cast. I will be reading that as part of a book club starting next week. Fingers crossed it’s worth it! But that upped my TBR by one.

    In addition to the four DNFs that came off my TBR, I read five books. Here are the counts:

    These are the books I read:

    The God Project by John Saul – (Supposed to be Horror, but it’s more Suspense): Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 2 stars

    This was a book I inherited from my sister, and as I’d never read a John Saul book, I thought I should read it (and finish it). But I kind of wish I hadn’t found it buried on a bookshelf.

    Death Row by Frieda McFadden – Short Story: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Eleven Numbers by Lee Child – Short Story: Worth It

    Final rating (story was 50 pages): 4 stars

    When Night Falls by Margaret Daley – Short Story: Not Worth It

    Final rating (less than 50 page story): 1 star

    National Velvet by Enid Bagnold – Novel: Worth It!

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 5 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • Back to the 1900s

    Powerless for three days

    We had a tornado come through the area this week, which knocked out the power for over three days. And sadly, that affected my life almost nil. Granted, I had to go into work two of those days (one of which I had planned to work from home, grr), so it’s not like I had zero access to electricity. But when I was home, things went pretty much the same way they go when I have power. I found that I didn’t miss tv, though the people I live with did (to be fair, I’d already cut down on how much tv I watch dramatically). The power outage was just an excuse to not have to watch shows I don’t enjoy, and to read more. The only downside was that after the second day the shower was cold.

    So, am I ready to eschew modern conveniences to live in the forest with a stack of books? No. Of course not. But I don’t think it hurts to every once in a while take a step back and realize that we don’t need a lot of the things that dominate our lives.

    Except hot showers. We need hot showers.

    Week 4 Update

    This week, I read one physical and one digital book. I also purchased a physical copy of Pierce Brown’s Dark Age for my collection (allowed because it is the next book in the series and because I am collecting the series in hardcover because it is that good) and with the new month I received two new free Amazon First Reads. So my TBR went up even though I read two books. Oh well, c’est la vie.

    Here are the two books I read this week:

    Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith – Detective Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    A Rush of Wings by Kristen Heitzmann – Suspense: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • Exclusions

    Is it cheating? Well, maybe a little bit.

    The first rule of my “Read What You Own” challenge was that I was excluding foreign language books, coloring books, puzzle books and audiobooks from my list of “what I own” for the purpose of this challenge.

    Is this cheating? Yes and no. Let me go through why I decided to exclude each category.

    Coloring and Puzzle Books: I don’t consider this reading. Though I wanted to track which of these things I owned (mainly so I didn’t buy any dupes), I’m not in any rush to finish either of these categories. Though at some point, I do want to make my way through these – I paid money for them (or got them as gifts) so I should use them and not just let them waste away on my shelves – I don’t really feel an urgency at this time. When I get my unread books squared away, this is definitely something I want to tackle. But, right now, it’s not a priority.

    Foreign Language Books: I like to learn languages. I’ve started on a lot of languages. I always think it’s a great idea to buy books in the language I’m learning. They are inevitably too high a level for where I am in my study. And they sit on my shelf. Do I want to read them all? Yes. Can I read them all? No.

    I fully intend to read the lower level books (ie the children’s books) during this challenge. But I am giving myself a pass (and a break) and not requiring myself to read all the foreign language books during this challenge. Someday…but not today. The months it would take me to get through Les Miserables in French would pretty much guarantee that I never finish this challenge.

    Audiobooks: Confession time: I don’t consider listening to audiobooks reading. It’s listening. Also, I never just sit and listen to the audiobook. I am always doing something else and not giving it my full attention. I think that makes a difference. This is my personal opinion. I don’t care if you consider it reading, and count it in your read books. That’s up to you, and obviously is totally fine. I don’t judge anyone else. Obviously, there are people who need to use audiobooks. I’m not anti audiobook. But for me, it doesn’t count as reading a book.

    BUT I listen to audiobooks when I’m in the car. I’ve cancelled my Audible membership and have been trying (similar to this challenge) to go through all the ones I’ve bought over the years. I don’t want to include audiobooks because, for me, they are a separate activity from reading. Sometimes I listen to a great audiobook, and then read the book, but they aren’t the same for me.

    For my own sanity, I needed to make this challenge doable. So these things, that are really different activities from reading for pleasure, needed excluded. They are all categories of books I own and want to make my way through, just not as a part of this challenge. They may be the next challenge! #ReadYourAudiobooksPuzzlesColoringForeignLanguage? Well, maybe not.

    Week 3 Update

    This week I managed to read two physical books and four digital books (all Amazon First Reads).

    Here are the tallies for this week:

    Down 11 books!

    And these are them:

    Blood Communion by Anne Rice – Gothic Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    The Fourth Girl by Wendy Corsi Staub – Thriller: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    The One That Got Away by Mike Gayle – Romance (short fiction): Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    The Sublet by Greer Hendricks – Thriller (short fiction): Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Not Quite By The Book by Julie Hatcher – Bookish Romance: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 5 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    No Exit by Taylor Adams – Thriller: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • My “Read What You Own” TBR Challenge

    Welcome to my journey!

    I have a serious problem.

    I have over six hundred books on my TBR – just counting the ones I already actually own. I don’t know how this happened.

    Yes, I do. It was a combination of taking advantage of the free books available for kindle, buying books for decades that I never got around to reading, and acquiring books into my collection from family members…that I also never got around to reading.

    It’s not that I’m not a reader, I am. Have always been one. But once I started to have my time mostly taken up by schoolwork, I didn’t read as much. And then my tv watching took over my free time and I read even less. So I was reading far less than I was acquiring. For years. Decades even. So here we are.

    I have set a challenge for myself to read all the unread books I own, whether physical or digital. I am calling all of these together my “physical TBR”: these are books I do not need to buy or get from the library, I already own them in some format.

    I see a lot on Book Tube where people just get rid of a bunch of their books at one time after deciding they aren’t really going to read them. I don’t have the personality to be able to just take things I own off my TBR, so that is not an option for me. I don’t feel like buying and getting rid of books without reading them is the answer. That’s just throw away culture. That doesn’t mean you should never get rid of books, but we shouldn’t be normalizing wasting money either. 

    These are the rules I’ve set for myself:

    1. Puzzle books, coloring books, audiobooks and foreign language books are excluded (for now).
    2. I am allowed to be brutal with DNFing, especially for free books (kindle First Reads and other free kindle books). The goal is to get through everything so I can choose what I want to read right now instead of reading something I wanted to read twenty years ago – and it doesn’t mean I can never finish those books. But I am wasting time on 2 and 3 star books. I do not intend to race through books I am enjoying, but I also do not intend to waste time on books I am not, even though that is what I normally do! 
    3. I am allowed to continue series so I don’t forget what happened in earlier books. Caveats: I’m going to be very selective of series I continue and I will try to decrease my TBR some before reading the next in a series (leaving them for times I really need a good book!).
    4. This is not a “no buy” challenge, but there is some overlap. I am allowed to buy books I have already read but are collecting and am allowed to have books bought for me for my birthday etc. I am also allowed to buy books already on my “TBR but don’t yet own” list from my work charity book sale. 
    5. I will try to avoid “x number of books to read before you die” type lists because it causes me to add books to my TBR that I don’t really want to read. Same thing with “top 10” type videos. I will also sporadically prune my “TBR but don’t yet own” list. I don’t want to come out the other end of this with a daunting ready made tbr. 
    6. I will not purchase any digital books during this challenge. 
    7. I am allowed to get a book or audiobook from the library to participate in a book club where the book is already on my “TBR but don’t yet own” list, but I will be selective in this. 
    8. I’m not setting a time period because I don’t want this to be a chore that I give up on. I may set a time period when I get closer to finishing. 
    9. I will read 50 pages of any book before DNFing, except in extreme circumstances which I will note at the time. 
    10. I have finished all library books that I had (including Amazon Prime borrows) before beginning this challenge and intend to only get additional books during this challenge as outlined above. 

    Let’s take a look at the initial counts:

    I’ll be posting weekly updates. Time to get started – wish me luck!