Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Other Challenges Archive
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30-day Challenge! - Day 21 - first!: How do you manage your TBR pile?
hmm, I don't actually categorize my TBR-pile. I've only done it with books I have read so far - a way to get specific recommendations from books similar.I use the sorting feature on my TBR-shelf quite a lot though, and will move all the books in a series to 'page one' when I start reading that particular series
I don't catergorize my TBR list either:-). On Goodreads, any book that sounds remotely interesting to me gets added to my to-read shelf!For my TBR tree books, I have three literal bookshelves where I put them. As I read each one, I then add it to my "already read" book shelves.
Mod
Last December I decided to conquer a phobia. This is the phobia of lists, that’s right a fear of lists, I swear it’s real. So I gathered up all (well at least 95%) of my unread books and listed them in on my Goodreads to-read file. It came to a total of 107 unread books. To date this year I have read 28 books, not all have been from the list, ebooks are not on the list. At one point I remember my to-read list was under 100 books, I felt good, I figured I could finish some day. Today the list stands at 128, 21 books larger than last December. This does not include, again the ebooks on my Kindle, or any contained in the three boxes a friend recently gave me.
Last December I created a monster, an ego killing monster. I created the one list in life that I may never be able to finish. I realize my list is small compared to others. Perhaps with some professional help I can look at my list and not feel the crushing weight of defeat resting on my shoulders. I doubt it, but I can hope. Every month new books that sound terrific come along. I cease the attack on my monstrous TBR and pick up a new monthly group selection (usually not on the list) and read it. The list never gets smaller, just bigger.
Oh, just to rub salt in the wound. Have you seen the latest temptation on the Goodreads home page? In the upper right corner it says “New! Add Your Amazon Books”. All I have to do is press the ‘get started’ button and my to-read shelf will double in size. It’s like an addiction, I hate having a large list, and I’m fighting temptation to double it with just one push of a button. I guess on my death bed my last words won’t be “rosebud” they’ll be “the list, it's not finished".
I am gasping for air, laughing.BEST. POST. EVER!, Bob :))
Mod
And TBR just keeps growing from the different recommendations I get from people here on GoodReads. And I have to stop buying books.
Bob wrote:"Oh, just to rub salt in the wound. Have you seen the latest temptation on the Goodreads home page? In the upper right corner it says “New! Add Your Amazon Books”. All I have to do is press the ‘get started’ button and my to-read shelf will double in size. It’s like an addiction, I hate having a large list, and I’m fighting temptation to double it with just one push of a button. I guess on my death bed my last words won’t be “rosebud” they’ll be “the list, it's not finished". "No, it's not automatic... It pulls up a list of your Amazon purchases but it's still your choice which ones you want to list on Goodreads. Feel free to click and browse, then you can exercise your willpower on each book individually!
It's a hopeless dream, Kathy. TBR's have a mind of their own and as for buying books... well, at least we're not buying drugs, right? To answer the question: I don't manage my TBR, I just one huge virutal pile.
I use the official "to-read" shelf for unread books that I currently own and want to read someday. In general, these are books I paid money for, not free e-books.Then, a "Maybe-Someday" that I use mostly for free e-books that I own and might eventually read (this includes some free classics)
And a "have-but-won't-read" shelf for books that I own and had on my TBR at some point but have decided not to read for whatever reason.
Then, there's "at-library-ebook" and "at-library-paper" for books my library has that I'm interested in. That way when I see a book in a bookstore, I can scan it with the GR app and if the "at-library" shelves pop up, I just put it back.
Then a "recommendations" shelf for books that people have suggested to me but I haven't really looked at yet.
Then an "abandoned" shelf where my few unfinished books get put.
And I rarely use the Wishlist shelf - but generally this is used for upcoming books from favorite authors that I might want to talk about before I actually purchase.
So there we go... pretty much everything I've shelved on GR is books I own or have access to. If I listed everything I wanted to read some time in my life - well, like Bob said - that would be too intimidating!
My owned TBR was over 400 books at one point but I've cut back on purchasing and it's down to around 250 books at the moment. Whew! I've been trying to train myself to NOT buy a book if the library has it and not to buy it unless it's on a really good sale or if I'm going to be reading it within a week or two. It's taken a few years, but I'm finally getting the hang of it!
I recently decided to use the shelves option here on Goodreads and I have also made an excel document to sort of "plan" all the books I still want to read this year. I like making lists and planning things, it gives me perspective and makes me feel better! On Goodreads I sorted my books with these shelves:
Read
Currently reading
To read (all the books I still want to read are on here, currently there are 165)
And then I made a few shelves to organize my reads (mostly to-read books, sometimes also books I have already read)
American
Asia
Classics
Dutch (one of my new year's resolutions was to start reading Dutch books again, since I only read English for the last 3 years)
Egypt
Ereader (all the books that are currently on my ereader)
Fantasy
Historical fiction
Light reading (chicklits and that sort of stuff)
Owned books (physical books that I have at home)
Russian
So that's how I organize stuff and I particularly like the genre/geographical shelves I made for recommendations
And then in my excel document I just list the months of the year and try to fill up 3 slots for books of my choice and two slots for bookclub books. Of course if I have a busy month (June for example with my final exams) I fill in less books. I like this, just to look at it and see how many and which books I can still read this year. I can also always change or add books, it's not like this is a final list with deadlines and stuff, it's just handy... I don't know, it works for me!
Mod
If you're a knitter you could liken your stash to your TBR list......although best not to as it is too depressing! I wish you could knit and read at the same time!I can never turn a second hand book sale down. Discovering GR has not helped my book situation....I love the filing feature and will take away some of the ideas here to refine mine. I have: may books, June books, next to read, Russian, scifantasy, then high priority (which is mostly classics) then unclassified which are all the recommendations found on GR which is where u need to refine.The trouble is I haven't even started to list many of my owned books! I like the idea if adding them to GR...the issue is Time!
Samantha -- if you have a smart phone the Goodreads app has a barcode scanner with an automatic shelving mode. So you can scan a bunch of books and shelve them all at once. It would still take time, but not nearly as much as entering a bunch of books by hand.
Mod
I love that part of the app.
I'd seen the scan function but never tried it. It is great. Although you can't enter books as "owned" on your iPhone. I think I'll pay my 9 and 6 year olds per book to do the scanning!
It is great, isn't it? Sadly, when I first joined the site and was entering my mountains of books in, I only had a Blackberry and there's no app with that OS.I ended up adding things piecemeal and rather haphazardly over a period of several weeks and I still occasionally find books I didn't add or added wrong.
I have the standard exclusive shelves, plus a 'TBR later' shelf. Then I subcategorise all my books into many different groups - by country, date range, genre, monthly reads, favourite authors. I think I have about 50 subcategories!
Day 21: May 21st Entry - Pretty much have an running list on my iPhone of what I would like to read of the ones I own, and my to read list on Goodreads are books I like to to get or rent at the library.To help me organize myself, every month I write down my list of books to read from shortest to longest, and if I have any library books those are read first. Helps me keep track of my bookclub books, and my own pleasure reading books.
May 21:
My initial tbr list, did not have any additional organization. Since I have added so many books recently, I have created shelves for the discussion groups I belong to so my tbr can be used for future nominations. I also have added some seasonal shelves, in case I come across a good book for winter/Christmas or spooky/Halloween!! I can see my tbr list totally getting out of hand though, so I might have to review, delete and reorganize at some point.
My initial tbr list, did not have any additional organization. Since I have added so many books recently, I have created shelves for the discussion groups I belong to so my tbr can be used for future nominations. I also have added some seasonal shelves, in case I come across a good book for winter/Christmas or spooky/Halloween!! I can see my tbr list totally getting out of hand though, so I might have to review, delete and reorganize at some point.
MK wrote: "Day 21 - first!: How do you manage your TBR pile?Today's question(s) are related to yesterday's, but so very closely related to each other (I suspect ;-)), that I made today a two-question day :D..."
In Awe... it is really organized list. I have a to be read, a read and a currently reading. I added a 2014 read list and will be doing that from now on... it seems like a great way to tackle my to be read list...
I don't really manage it. I have some exclusive shelves, the normal ones andbought-owned (the books I've bought or "inherited")
found (BC book or otherwise found)
maybe (books that may or may not be interesting)
tried (books I haven't finished or I gave away)
weird-books-with-finland-connection (what it says, I might rename it as WTF)
wish-list (books that might be interesting but also difficult to get hold of)
Most my TBR books are books that I own (I have one shelf that has all the books readily available to me), I use the GR TBR shelf as a reminder for interesting books that I think are worth reading. I live next to a big library so I know there are many books I could read. I don't really plan my reading (or if I do, I don't follow it), I pick books that interest me at that moment, which doesn't really make me a good participant in book clubs or for challenges...
I don't manage my TBR pile. It will be neverending, so I just accept that! ;)
Loved your post , Bob! I can relate to that SO much.As for a TBR file, I don't know how to do it on GR. I use my iPhone almost continually as my youngest son has countermanded my laptop for the longest time! There are many things I can't do on here.
Mod
My TBR pile keeps growing uncontrollably because I can't resist $.99 or free kindle books.Three of my GR groups each are always posting about these "deals" and I can't resist.
Thanks Bob. I am neither tech savvy nor a technophile; probably more of a technophobe. So perhaps I ought to stay away from the rabbit hole and allow the white rabbit to continue on his journey, being as late as fate would have him be.I really appreciate the information though. Perhaps one of my children will come to the rescue!
In my TBR-list the first ten or so books on the top are library loan, which kinfa have a top priority over all the other books. If I don't read them on time, they get to move down in the list, but still stay there to wait a new opportunity. In the end of TBR-list are the books we have at home and can be read at any time I want or are books that I'm interested in, but haven't had time to look from anywhere.I have two exclusive shelves of my own, abandoned and on-hold. Abandoned is for books I've tried to read (sometimes multiple times) but haven't finished, because they were either plain bad or boring. On-hold shelf is for books I've read a little, but for one reason or another given up for a while. These books I will finish, when I have more time or interest in them.
I've also created a non-exclusive shelf called owned-books for titles we have in our home collection of books (they are mostly my boyfriend's books, but I don't separate them from the ones I really own myself). And then I've a bunch of other non-exclusive shelves for tracking things, like genres and stuff.
My TBR books are in the TBR pile.occasionally I try to trim it.Delete books that no longer appeals, often I wonder why I added those books.
As to the ever growing part of it , I keep adding new ones to it thanks to GR homepage , peoples review, this groups monthly reads or buddy reads or what .I do try to trim it though.
Like Bob said I hate too long and unmanageable list.
I have a few on the shelf. But overall I make lists because I'm a library person, not a book buyer. I have a spreadsheet (several, in fact!) of all the books I've read & when; I have a TBR best sellers list; a Classics TBR list; one for children's books, banned books, YA books (I think that's all). I just like lists, I guess. Then when I read a book I might get to mark it off of several lists! Yay! ;)
I write down all the books I'd like to read in a notebook. When I go to the library or to Barnes and Noble I check the notebook and jot down a few titles from the list. After a book is read I put a line through it so I know it was read and that I don't need to seek it out again. :)
Loretta wrote: "I write down all the books I'd like to read in a notebook. When I go to the library or to Barnes and Noble I check the notebook and jot down a few titles from the list. After a book is read I put a..."Love it!
Terris wrote: "Loretta wrote: "I write down all the books I'd like to read in a notebook. When I go to the library or to Barnes and Noble I check the notebook and jot down a few titles from the list. After a book..."Thanks! :)
Hmmm- I don't sort them. Just don't have the time. :)
I added "look for at store" and "get from library" shelves to Goodreads for books I'm actively looking to buy or planning on getting on my next trip to the library.If the library books are non-fiction and I remember, I put the call number into the review space so it's easily accessible.
I'm not organized enough to remember to take a notebook with me, but I know I'll almost always have my cell phone, so I'm never without my list.
as mentioned in Message 1, I use the custom "exclusive" shelves to do some basic
triage
on what would otherwise be a huge/unwieldy "to-read" shelf, so mine look like this:currently-reading: usually I have 6 "slotted" in here, although I may not actually be reading all 6 at once (typically 3, 4 or 5)
on-deck: books that are absolutely next in line to be started after I finish a currently-reading book
next-up-sooner: all the books that I have specifically planned for the next calendar year - this shelf should approach zero size by December 31st
next-up-later: books that I most likely won't get round to til next calendar year, but you can never start planning too early! this shelf will get gradually larger through the year as books get dropped from next-up-sooner and promoted from next-get after I buy them (or acquire the free Kindle/gutenberg ebook in the case of older titles)
[come January 1st next-up-later and next-up-sooner swap names!]
next-get: books that are next in line when it comes to a bout of retail therapy!
to-read: general hodge-podge of titles that I intend to read "one day"
I also make use of the "position" setting that you can use on any shelf which allows you to control the specific order in which they are listed, so that I can "float" or "sink" titles on populous shelves so as to see more easily which are in line for promotion or relegation to adjoining shelves
I also had them in those 3 original shelves until a few days ago. The "to-read" meant that I want o read them at some point in the future, could be tomorrow, could be in 10 years. I don't own most of them. There are currently over 1300 books in there.
I don't. I simply add titles I see in magazines or reviews and come to them eventually.
Maggie wrote: "I don't. I simply add titles I see in magazines or reviews and come to them eventually."I've added so many books from this group alone, my TBR is out of control! :)
I use my Goodreads TBR list as much to categorize information as books I might be interested in reading. I like to be able to see books written in different eras, so I have century folders organized by original publication date and I like to see books that interest me written by authors from different countries, so each country has a folder even if several have only one or two books. If I find myself looking up a category for some challenge, my own curiosity, etc., I make a list for that too, so now I have lists of various award-winners for Bingo challenges. I probably won’t ever read the over 2000 books currently on my want-to-read shelf but this way they are on my radar. The TBR list the counts for me more like most people’s I’d say is the subset on my “read-soon” list as this contains books that I have a copy of, particularly piqued my interest and/or I feel I really ought to read due to the book’s classic/literary/other status. This subset is generally around 200 books. If it grows beyond that, I look through and reassess.
My GR TBR's had a decade to grow, so it's both ridiculously sized and convolutedly shelved. At various points, I've broken it down via a variety of demographics and priority levels, the latter including work popularity, length of time spent unread on my shelves, and whether an unread author is being accumulated to an inordinate degree. Combining the various demographics allows me to narrow down my possibilities to manageable degrees, whether I'm in the mood for long waiting 21st works or am amassing 1870s translations for a challenge.Recently, my reading years have followed a vein of my beginning with older/challenge works, and then focusing on more contemporary works once I've finished my allotment, prioritizing my 'lagging', or oldest 20% of my TBR. As such, I've begun delineating what chunk of my TBR was published at least 50 years ago, as well as 21st c. works that have been waiting to be read around 8-10 years.
I have TBR on Goodreads
on my bookcases here at home
at the library
at library eservices
on KU/Kindle account
at used book vendors' websites
at Chirp maybe soon.
I always have several personal challenge reading lists of various social groups I identify with and am interested, including in Hispanic, Texan, women, Earth. I like best to do mix of fiction and nonfiction on a topic. But not always work out that way.
In 2022 In will do a read down of my TBR of classics, mostly fiction literature. For example, I am planning various lists of widely varying length, including:
Science Fiction
Gaslamp Fantasy
Mystery
People of Color
Fairytales from around the world.
I gain a sense of accomplishment when I can finish my personal challenge lists.
It helped when I put all my "owned" books on GR, especially the ebooks which I don't see around the house and forget I owned. Without that, I would have bought the same books more than once. I generally decide on a whim what to read next, except that I belong to one real-life book group and several online. Lately, I have been using challenges to determine what to read next.
Tara wrote: "Not well"LOL!
I think the word "manage" is not quite the best option for this question.
I don't manage my TBR:s at all. Its an organic list with its own life and soul and power and will and I have long since stopped trying to control it. =D
Nike wrote: "I don't manage my TBR:s at all. Its an organic list with its own life and soul and power and will and I have long since stopped trying to control it. =D"Precisely. I also have no desire to ever actually read everything on it. Thats not the point in my mind.
I just became a GR friend to someone who has over 2600 books on her TBR, I admire that!
Robin P wrote: "I just became a GR friend to someone who has over 2600 books on her TBR, I admire that!"I've hovered around the 1700 mark for my TBR for some time now. It's long enough for me to not get bored, but short enough that I can finish it in less than a couple of decades.
Today's question(s) are related to yesterday's, but so very closely related to each other (I suspect ;-)), that I made today a two-question day :D.
Until just a few weeks ago, I had *NO* idea that you could create your own, custom 'exclusive' shelves on Goodreads. I thought you were limited to the standard:
- read
- currently reading
- want to read
This led to my tbr pile just being a hot mess, and my currently reading pile being all the books I wanted to read in the next month. (I know you can 'order' the 'want to read' shelf, but after a day or two of piling more tbr's onto a recently re-ordered 'want to read' shelf, I just stopped re-ordering it.)
WELL! Once I realized you could create not just your own custom regular shelves, but your own custom 'above the line' 'exclusive' shelves, this made things MUCH easier! Still tweaking it, but this is what I have right now:
• read
• currently-reading
• to-read
• 1-current-month-book-club-reads
• 2-ongoing-long-club-reads
• 3-next-month-s-book-club-reads
• 4-prev-book-club-reads-still-tbr
• 5-book-club-extras-when-time
• 6-book-club-reads-opted-out-of
• 7-want-to-read-soon
• 8-set-aside
• 9-will-not-finish
Who wants to play!