SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

So- in preparation for our tbr cleanup challenge next year I was considering adding all the treebooks I own that I have not yet read.
And then I stood there and started looking and realized....this could double my tbr list! Which frightens me.

So do I do it? With the scan feature it wouldn’t be that hard. I suppose I ought to do it so I read them, or at least know the true number.

What do you do?

Mostly, I rattle my tail at the books in my home that I have yet to read. Occasionally I paw at them like cats do when they know that this thing belongs in a pit somewhere.

But I do try to have all books I am presently planning to read on my GR TBR so that I don't kid myself about how healthy I have to stay in order to live long enough to finish all those books.

Or buy them twice.

Again.

o.O

I remove things from my TBR once i own them but I do have a suggestion :) If you create a shelf and mark it "exclusive" it goes in like the read, to-read, and currently reading shelves. You can mark it as "owned tree books" and it won't actually go on your to-read shelf. It's its own separate shelf.

I set up customized exclusive shelves for my lists. There’s so many ways you can organize your books.

To-read, is sort of a dumping ground for anything that sounds sort of interesting. GR sends updates if a giveaway for a book on this shelf is happening.

owned-to-read is for books I own and fully intend to read sometime in the not to distant future,

owned-read-eventually are the books I own but don’t really want to read, have no idea what I was thinking when I bought them and should probably just donate/sell.

Oh I didn’t know about this exclusive shelf thing!
This may solve the problem! Thanks ladies!

Lol Allison 😆

I made an exclusive shelf for all the non-fiction that was on my to-read shelf. By moving these off my main to-read shelf they will not be included in my TBR challenge selection.

Ooh yeah that’s a good idea too! Thanks!

Dang, Bill, you do come up with the best ideas. I kinda gave up on trying to catalog dead-tree Mt. tbr, but this twist makes it seem like it might be a fun project.

Allison I also paw at them periodically : and I also managed to buy two of Diamond Age....

So I started this (only added one copy of The Diamond Age though) and even though I left the ones I wasn’t sure I’d ever read out it pits me into triple digits when combined with the to-read.

Soooo- Sarah-Anne you said we might get a physical books challenge add-on (she asked hopefully) ? 😊

I haven't been able to come up with anything that would work. It won't work as the TBR challenge because not everyone owns books. I thought about doing any alternate version of the TBR challenge that used a point system to encourage reading owned books but that was shot down by a couple of people. Or possibly a bonus to the TBR challenge.

If anyone has ideas I'm open to them.

Maybe just a separate challenge? Categories could include 'owned unread for more than 10 years' and 'most recently bought' and 'fattest hardcover' (not necessarily most pages, you see, in tree-books), and 'received as a gift' and 'rattiest mm pb.' Etc.

My plan was to add in physical books when the criteria works for that. When the criteria is something like "a green cover", I can use a physical book. When the criteria is something like "book 52" or "lowest isbn", I will use the TBR shelf. This way I don't have to go through all my physical books adding them to my TBR shelf ahead of time.

Yeah I was thinking a bonus add on round like this year but only physical

But clearly Cheryl should be placed in charge - those are great ideas!

I mean Cheryl should make us a list of ten of those - NOT take over from Sarah 😊

One of the difficulties with owned book challenges is that it has to accommodate print and ebook. And audio, for that matter. I own hundreds of audios that I haven't listened to.

Hmmm...

I keep a personal library catalog but I also read a healthy mix of DTBs and digital (ebook+audio).

Last year, my TBR challenge was "The Mt. TBR Struggle is Real" and the requirement was that I had to have purchased the book in question at least 12 months prior (to the start of the challenge).

As a self-proclaimed book hoarder, I can say this: I suggest you treat all of your books as library instead on separating them between DTB and digital. I have that problem and it's a killer. I don't think of ebooks as real and prefer DTBs. So I work on that but I don't even know how many ebooks I own. But I can tell you exactly where all my DTBs are: what room, bookcase, shelf and describe the cover to some extent.

Speaking of pawing at your books like a cat. I have some pocket books with rounded corners from the cats clawing at them. Most of those I read then tossed already. My Edgar Rice Burroughs books that I got in the 80s were in rough shape.

Bill wrote: "Speaking of pawing at your books like a cat. I have some pocket books with rounded corners from the cats clawing at them. Most of those I read then tossed already. My Edgar Rice Burroughs books tha..."

lol! My beloved copy of the Once And Future King was chewed on by a dog and I had to tape the cover back on (much to the chagrin of my paper-conservator sister!) I feel the pain. But I also love books that have seen life a bit. It's very wabi-sabi, no?

We have been going back and forth about separate challenges for owned books...your suggestions are all good and definitely being considered. It just comes down to what works best for the group and the largest number of people.

Allison wrote: "We have been going back and forth about separate challenges for owned books...your suggestions are all good and definitely being considered. It just comes down to what works best for the group and the largest number of people. .."

Based on the ideas we have at the moment and the fact that we have a month I think we'll be able to come up with something.

Sarah Anne wrote: "I remove things from my TBR once i own them but I do have a suggestion :) If you create a shelf and mark it "exclusive" it goes in like the read, to-read, and currently reading shelves. You can mar..."

Yes I have the generic 'Want to Read' shelf (1179) but also a 'waiting on my shelf' shelf (413) for books I actually own.

Like MrsJ, I have bunches of digital books I don't care about so much right now. But, I need a dead-tree challenge very badly. So, maybe it doesn't work for some people. Is that not ok?

Cheryl wrote: "Like MrsJ, I have bunches of digital books I don't care about so much right now. But, I need a dead-tree challenge very badly. So, maybe it doesn't work for some people. Is that not ok?"

Of course, we realize that we'll never have unanimous participation. The goal is just something exciting, easy to join, and functional, which actually takes a lot of work. But I think we're zeroing in on a good model :)

If you are doing some sort of DTB challenge, I suggest adding a stipulation or deduction of some sort that encourages people not to add to their TBR as soon as they knock one off.

MrsJoseph wrote: "If you are doing some sort of DTB challenge, I suggest adding a stipulation or deduction of some sort that encourages people not to add to their TBR as soon as they knock one off."

Hah! That was a problem for me before half.com closed. Now it's a bit easier to avoid thrift stores, LFLs, and the like.

MrsJoseph wrote: "If you are doing some sort of DTB challenge, I suggest adding a stipulation or deduction of some sort that encourages people not to add to their TBR as soon as they knock one off."

Haha that could be funny. "The MRSJ'S LAMENT: Lose a point for every book you've added to your TBR this year" =P

Allison wrote: "Haha that could be funny. "The MRSJ'S LAMENT: Lose a point for every book you've added to your TBR this year" =P ...."

Oh man, I would be in the negatives so fast! I started the year at 209 TBR, I read 62 books. I'm ending the year at 279 on my TBR so far. (The year's not over yet!)

I have thought about putting my physical books on GR, but I honestly don't have that many. I got rid of most of them when I switched to digital. The ones I have now are more "this looked interesting and was like a dollar so what the heck, I'll probably never read it, but it looks nifty."

Allison wrote: "Haha that could be funny. "The MRSJ'S LAMENT: Lose a point for every book you've added to your TBR this year" =P

The struggle is real.

I'm just saying.

Cheryl wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "If you are doing some sort of DTB challenge, I suggest adding a stipulation or deduction of some sort that encourages people not to add to their TBR as soon as they knock one off...."

I wish. That's when I got into collectables. And I found a dealer bookseller on Instagram. He sells collectable science fiction and had a load of Andre Nortons. O_O

He totally has my number.

Ha! Yeah I think my GR toberead is almost the exact same number as last year so...

But it looks like I read 80+ books this year (though there are novellas and Sagas in there..)

So if I stopped adding books I could take it down in two years 😆

MrsJoseph wrote: "If you are doing some sort of DTB challenge, I suggest adding a stipulation or deduction of some sort that encourages people not to add to their TBR as soon as they knock one off."

Well, let see I started this group about a month or so ago and so at that time I had no TBR listing. I found some kind of challenge/goal of how many books for which you plan to read in 2017. I said 20. I will surpass that mark by 2 or 3 the way it's going now. But my TBR listing is right around 300 0r so. and that's just in a month., And it keeps growing.

My TBR on GR is mostly a record of the giveaways I've entered which allows me to be notified if the books are given away again.

Since I'm mainly interested in the social networking aspect of GR, I usually shelve books I've read for the purposes of discussion.

That said, I do need a challenge to prioritize books that I've purchased. This is especially important for the print format books because they are taking up space. I'm running out of space on the one bookcase that I have room for at home.

Cheryl wrote: "Like MrsJ, I have bunches of digital books I don't care about so much right now. But, I need a dead-tree challenge very badly. So, maybe it doesn't work for some people. Is that not ok?"

I think it is fine. Nothing is ever going to make everybody happy, but it is the way it is. I have a bunch of books, that aren't available in e-book format that I haven't finished or read so that would suit me.

Rachel wrote: "So if I stopped adding books I could take it down in two years 😆 "

I feel that if everyone could just stop writing new books for a couple of years, I would stand a chance of catching up with my TBR pile!

My TBR shelf is almost all books I own no matter the format. These are the ones I truly intend to read within the next 12 months or less. However, I also have another exclusive shelf for owned books to read anytime. This include all the ARCs (I am not a good advanced reviewer), free books, books I bought for my hometown library and books I can't really justify on spending (mostly Kindle deals) and lost interest in.

Silvana wrote: "My TBR shelf is almost all books I own no matter the format. These are the ones I truly intend to read within the next 12 months or less. However, I also have another exclusive shelf for owned book..."

Do you mark those as read? I would love to have a shelf of "owned, unread" that's not TBR - especially since some books I own are for my wife, or my daughters.

Lowell wrote: "Silvana wrote: "My TBR shelf is almost all books I own no matter the format. These are the ones I truly intend to read within the next 12 months or less. However, I also have another exclusive shel..."

There's an "owned book" feature that's out of the shelf system. It's under "tools" on your "My books" tab on the web app. I'm not entirely sure I understand its benefit, but it might be a great place to keep all books you don't intend to read! Otherwise, I do like/have used the idea where you just make a new "exclusive" shelf for whatever books. (I have one to help me remember books I've decided I won't like, for example).

Allison wrote: "Lowell wrote: "Silvana wrote: "My TBR shelf is almost all books I own no matter the format. These are the ones I truly intend to read within the next 12 months or less. However, I also have another..."

Gosh, I totally missed that. Thanks for the help, Allison!

Lowell wrote: "Allison wrote: "Lowell wrote: "Silvana wrote: "My TBR shelf is almost all books I own no matter the format. These are the ones I truly intend to read within the next 12 months or less. However, I a..."

I only noticed it when I was trying to figure out how to mark all the err...books I bought on a whim. >.> Like I said, I'm not entirely sure I figured out its benefit for my own use, but maybe you'll like it and will reveal its secrets to us!

Lizzie wrote: "Rachel wrote: "So if I stopped adding books I could take it down in two years 😆 "

I feel that if everyone could just stop writing new books for a couple of years, I would stand a chance of catchin..."

LOL, yeah that isn't going to happen.

Lowell wrote: "I would love to have a shelf of "owned, unread" that's not TBR"

If you mean what I think you mean, then wouldn't an exclusive shelf be what you need? That makes it behave the same way as the standard shelves (read, currently reading, want to read), so that the book can only be on one of those at a time. Just tick the box for 'exclusive' on the edit shelves page.

To read all the books on my TBR is a strange concept for me. There are millions of books that I would like to read, so my TBR shelf will always grow faster than I can read them. For me the challenges help me decide what to read next, and to prompt me to spend more time reading.

Yeah, I have several levels of priority for to-read books. I also don't hesitate to put something down if I'm not getting anything out of it. But I sure would like to at least attempt all the tree-books that I did buy & that are taking up room in my home.

Another thing I do to lower my tbr artificially is I only add the next of an ongoing series rather than the whole series (this is mostly for junk food series like urban fantasy. So when I read one I put the next on tbr.) It doesn't help lessen the tbr that way but I also don't feel like i have to add all ten books in a series if I'm trying one.

Rachel wrote: "Another thing I do to lower my tbr artificially is I only add the next of an ongoing series rather than the whole series (this is mostly for junk food series like urban fantasy. So when I read one ..."

That's cheating, and by cheating I mean I go to the next level and use FictFact solely to monitor series so they don't blow out my TBR list by adding them at all. I'm part way through about a dozen series at last count.

Donald wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Another thing I do to lower my tbr artificially is I only add the next of an ongoing series rather than the whole series (this is mostly for junk food series like urban fantasy. So w..."

So I had never heard of FictFact and had been using a really clunky spreadsheet to keep track of my series. You have just made my life so much easier!

IDK. While I would totally like to know what it would feel like to climb out from under the weight of Mt.TBR, I also get a kick out of it being so large.

I like the fact that I've reached S.A.B.L.E. I just wish I had more time to read all of the books.

S.A.B.L.E. ?

I think this is "Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy" unless MrsJ is involving her books in the Southern Alberta Balloon Launch Experiment?

Ah, ok. Well, yeah, I think it's pretty easy to reach S.A.B.L.E. when one belongs to a great group like this!