Reading 1001 discussion

Share your experiences with list burnout. Any suggestions on preventing burnout?

I kind of hesitated to answer because I feel (compared to others in the group) that I am a bit of a lightweight when it comes to books read from the list. :)

I do read A LOT, but I don't focus on the list. Partially that is because I am not willing to spend $$ on obscure books that I can't access through the library (or at least obscure in Canada) and there are some books I will never read, by choice (eg. de Sade). Obviously, I am not a completest - which takes a lot of pressure off.

I've found the above approach works for me. When I read a dud from the list (eg. The Quest for Christa T.) I can make myself finish it without feeling like it is a burden on my reading time. Then I can read something fun (in the above case, I followed with: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers) as a palate cleanser!

I think this approach also allows me to find challenges like the Randomized Reading List fun.

I do something very similar to Valerie. I was burning myself out trying to do both BOTMs, TBR, keyword, quarterly, randomizer, yearly, etc. Also, when the NYT published its list of the best books of the century earlier this year, I was embarrassed how few I'd read. I decided I needed to spread myself out more. So 1 BOTM, 1 keyword, 1 TBR and the quarterly if I am into it. After every list book, I choose from my list of new/fun books or let my randomizer pick one.

Although I am a total completest, it's just a fact that there is no way I'm going to read everything on the list before I die. And I will die happy if I never read another Pynchon ;)

Jane wrote: "I do something very similar to Valerie. I was burning myself out trying to do both BOTMs, TBR, keyword, quarterly, randomizer, yearly, etc. Also, when the NYT published its list of the best books o..."

Ha, ha you and me both! "And I will die happy if I never read another Pynchon ;)"

I am a slow reader and read less than 50 books a year so I choose wisely. I tend to pick challenges that let me choose what I get to read as apposed to the randomizer list which I do not do. I have been happily reading from the list for probably 10 years now and so far I have avoided burnout. Like others have said I have no delusions that I will finish the list, there are books and authors I will not read and I am okay with that. I am with Jane in not reading any more Pynchon, I tried to read Gunter Grass and that was a struggle too. I will also avoid Samuel Beckett. One change I made this year was adding audiobooks to my repertoire and I have really enjoyed it especially non-list books.

Whatever you do or not do have fun and keep reading:)

Oh, I've experienced this several times and probably right now. Symptoms (for me): reading less than my 40-page daily budget (which is how I manage to read around 40 books yearly); low motivation to write reviews and/or contribute to discussions (partly writer's block, but also lack of interest induced by the specific book). This year has been my worst for quite some time: only 20 books read in 9.5 months! Granted, there were a few chunkies (including Joseph), but still, I can't remember the last time I read less than 30 books in a year.

I'm a completist and will surely try as much as humanly possible to finish the List before I actually die, even if I have to learn Dutch on the way. I don't avoid any authors or topics (I don't mind Pynchon; there is a fair bit of philosophy in Sade beyond the depravity; American Psycho is a great satire if you can stomach the gory bits); even though some authors make me cringe or are coma-inducing (I'm thinking Woolf, Handke, Atwood, Welty, Bellow, among others), I will never not finish a book. So, how do I go through the List burnout when it happens?

My strategies:

- (as others mentioned) Read something (usually non-List) fun or interesting for you on the side
- (applicable for people in my situation) Read something in your mother tongue; I try doing this with List books, but fate has it that books I flagged to be read in French are rarely picked as BOTMs or, worse, are not selected as part of my TBR challenge. For the latter, it's even more ironic since I am in charge of the randomizer! At least, I'm honest...
- If you are doing the TBR challenge, only include books below 300 pages in your selections. It's funny how a shorter book can help you bust a List burnout, especially if you are trying to read the Annual and all the Quarterly reads.
- Pace yourself and learn to say no. Nowadays, I very rarely read both BOTMs because I would not be able to fit them in my monthly reading schedule. Sure, it's fun to collect points (motivating factor), but when the points collecting becomes more important than the enjoyment of reading, you need a (self-) intervention.
- If all else fails, step aside the List/the group for a while. "A while" can be just a few days or a longer period (like the 18 months I took off the group some time ago). As long as you stop feeling like you have to force yourself to read one/several List books.

Those are some great tips!

When I joined this group a couple of years ago, it did amazing things for my list book reading. Suddenly I was getting through a lot more, and I especially liked that the BoTMs were often not the popular books that always seem to get picked in other groups.

But lately I have found myself with less reading time and less motivation. I don't want list books (or non-list books) to be my only reading, so I have ambitious plans each month, and if (like now) it's halfway through the month and I'm a couple of books behind on my plan, I start to feel stressed.

I did myself no favours this year by putting older and longer books on my Takedown list. Shorter books are definitely the way to go... but I was concerned I would be left with all the long ones ;( Not sure what to do about that.

For now, I'm concentrating on the Takedown and Keyword challenges because I haven't missed a month on those yet, and I'm determined to finish Joseph by the end of the year. I may read one BoTM this month, The Thinking Reed, because I own that one. But I have crossed Sergeant Grischa off my plan, and next year maybe I wouldn't try to do two monthly challenges as well as the BoTMs.

My aim is not necessarily to read every book on the list, but to read 1001 of the books - anyway that's my goal for now.

I find that audio is great for the longer books, when they exist in audio. Then I'm doing something else at the same time, so I don't get impatient.

Also, when I've read one volume of a many-volume listing, I will count it (unless it's an annual or quarterly challenge). Then I may read the rest or I may not, but it helps me get started.

Both Patrick and Rosemary mentioned something that I have found very useful to avoid burnout - saying 'no'.

Up until 2 years ago I participated in the TBR takedown, plus other challenges, plus my personal challenge of an A-Z classic author annual challenge. Even typing that makes me tired! Ha, ha... Anyhow, I gave that up because it wasn't fun any longer and I was burnt out (esp. on the A-Z challenge). Now, I find I can more easily fit in Quarterly reads that I am interested in and the Randomizer challenge - and not be stressed about having to read X books from the list.

Hmm, I guess I am doing okay with reading from the list right now because I do have access to many of them via Hoopla Digital (Florida Library). If I lose that I would greatly decrease my reading because I would not spend a lot of money to read a book that I might not like. I do mix my reading with a lot of other challenges. I like lists so I work at the Booker, the Pulitzer and I make TBR list for them and use the number that the TBR challenge gives me for 1001 books. I also read book club books, I like to follow the Jewish Book Club here on GR and will read their monthly choices. So I mix up my reading quite a bit. Also I may not have read as many books at Amanda Dawn has read but I am quite astounded that I've read over 700 of the list. I am not going to read all of these. I will not read the grossly perverted or the non translated ones.

There are times when I wish that I would do more rereading but having the pressure to read other books usually results in that not happening.

Kristel wrote: "So I mix up my reading quite a bit. Also I may not have read as many books at Amanda Dawn has read but I am quite astounded that I've read over 700 of the list. I am not going to read all of these. I will not read the grossly perverted or the non translated ones.."

Yeah over 700 is amazing! Honestly I'm happy for everyone's millstones here: people have busy lives, different reading speeds, and different levels of access to books- not to mention different goals for this list! I think 'the ones I'm interested in" and "the ones that are translated to my language' are great end goals to set.

The way I didn't get burned out previously is that I've always been super susceptible to gamification, and this group has been awesome for that, as well I'm that person that loves making spreadsheets and loved planning reading goals for each month, each challenge, etc. Doing half as reading and half as audio when doing either lab stuff or puttering at home (depending on where my life was at) really worked too so I was never stuck on 1 book.

But you know what....I got burnt out with it this year with less than 100 books left... I have literally 30 books -exactly- left right now and I'm reading other stuff this month XD (booker and Giller nominees on audio!) Running out of 1001 audios to chose from has definitely reduced my list output.

I also had a rough health year : I had a not-quite-a-stroke ME flareup this January, and then because ME also lowers your immune system I contracted sepsis from a minor infection in May and genuinely almost died this year. Not to make a dark joke but it really did almost become the 1001+ books I read before I died lmao.

My hands were bad on and off, my brain was bad on and off, I fell behind on my own usual standards and then it felt like a slog to try to get back on them. Had to realize I made those arbitrary high standards for myself, and I'm allowed to break them at will (so much for my boasty 'I'm going to finish the list even the untranslated obscure ones this year' goals I set in December lol).

I've been a bit of a pathological overachiever my whole life and this year has been a strong lesson in letting go- big life things and book list things included lol. I told my favorite nurse this year that I didn't like pushing the help button in the hospital because I had this complex about getting 'a good grade in patient' and she had to be like "if you want that we'd rather see you admit you need help and be realistic about what you can do alone/at this time"...which getting permission for that sounds silly but has changed my outlook on life.

So, I'm admitting it's not happening this year, I don't have to listen to the arbitrary goal I set, I'll space the 30 remaining books out over next year and I feel good about that/more happy to be doing the list again at a C+ instead of an A+ effort now...which is a big deal for me.

I'll admit I always feel a bit bad when my name name has come up (always intended as a compliment though, everyone here is lovely! ) about other people kind of apologizing for not reading enough/as much as others. Well- wrong and I'm switching the turntables- I'm looking up to everyone here who has said no when they're burnt out and decided to space out their list reads :)

(Also I'm giving myself permission to do Halftime, Port, and a New World sometime later in life or not at all. because Halftime is like 800pgs long, in German, and doesn't sound that exciting to begin with. Frig that, my life might be literally too short for that lol. I'm doing things that make me happy to be alive :)

Amanda wrote: "Kristel wrote: "So I mix up my reading quite a bit. Also I may not have read as many books at Amanda Dawn has read but I am quite astounded that I've read over 700 of the list. I am not going to re..."

I did notice that your reading had changed this year and I do remember you mentioned at the start of the year that you were ill. It does sound like life has been very challenging for you. I am sorry for your health struggles and pray for a return of health. It seems like you’ve set some good goals for yourself. I also love doing list, spreadsheets, etc, so I get that. I think the list gets less fun the fewer books to choose from. It just becomes work and who needs that. I brought your name up as a compliment. You are one of a few people setting high marks. Don’t go away! And enjoy your reading. May it restore you and not destroy you!

What a year you have had, Amanda! I had ME for around 10 years but I was lucky and I have recovered. It feels like tempting fate to say that, but I have been fine for about 7 years now. I read a lot in the time that I couldn't work much or at all - in fact that was when I joined Goodreads and found out about this and other lists - but I am not sorry to be reading less now because I am able to do more other things, and I hope that will happen to you too.

What you said about the nurse and the help button, that is an amazing insight, I think!

Amanda, I would give you an A++ for all sorts of reasons such as the books you read, the perseverance around your health issues, the fact that I love reading your reviews, even the ones that sound like this: "not my kind of book" but especially the ones where I learn all about something I didn't know anything about because of your unique perspective. You shouldn't judge yourself for not hitting an arbitrary goal, you should judge yourself by your brilliance at knowing when to move the goal!

Kristel wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Kristel wrote: "So I mix up my reading quite a bit. Also I may not have read as many books at Amanda Dawn has read but I am quite astounded that I've read over 700 of the list. I am ..."

Thank you for the kind message Kristel, just seeing these today <3. It's true that the spreadsheeting is less fun when you start having less options, but that is okay, I'm happy with what I've decided on, and that does mean I get to hang around here for another year. :) I'm just going to put less pressure on myself to write reviews for absolutely everything. Yall can't shake me that easily lol.

Rosemary wrote: "What a year you have had, Amanda! I had ME for around 10 years but I was lucky and I have recovered. It feels like tempting fate to say that, but I have been fine for about 7 years now. I read a lo..."

Thank you Rosemary! I didn't know you also had ME at some point, even though I wish it on absolutely nobody, it is comforting to meet other people who understand <3. I had it for 4.5 years as a teen-young adult, and then after a 5 year remission, have had it again for 4 years at this point. I'm so happy to hear you recovered and yes, it has happened before, so I hope someday I'll be in remission again too :)

Gail wrote: "Amanda, I would give you an A++ for all sorts of reasons such as the books you read, the perseverance around your health issues, the fact that I love reading your reviews, even the ones that sound ..."

<3 <3 <3 that genuinely touched me to read Gail :) I think I'm going to chill on list books until the end of the year and then hope with spacing them out I'll be back to reviewing in the new year :)

I gave myself permission to not worry about the 1001 list for this year, after struggling to complete even 1 book per month from the list. I finished a ton of books this year (460+) and did finish books off the 1001 list after all, but just whatever I was in the mood for, rather than anything on a schedule. I was running low on List books I didn't need to use interlibrary loan to get, and with starting a Booktube channel I was doing all sorts of other reading that I was more excited about. Now that I had a year's break from focusing on the list, and I've collected more books from the List to read, I am ready to resume focusing on the List books.
As of a few weeks ago, I now am doing a new volunteer job, at a used book store, where I get 'paid' with a free book every 6 hours, so my access to titles has increased a lot, which should help with staying motivated to read the rest of the List.

The list is books to read before you die, and I am hopefully not dying so soon that taking a year off will spell failure.

Jamie wrote: "I gave myself permission to not worry about the 1001 list for this year, after struggling to complete even 1 book per month from the list. I finished a ton of books this year (460+) and did finish ..."

Wishing you a happy 1001 filled reading in 2025, Jamie. You had an amazing year of reading in 2024.

Kristel wrote: "Jamie wrote: "I gave myself permission to not worry about the 1001 list for this year, after struggling to complete even 1 book per month from the list. I finished a ton of books this year (460+) a..."

Thanks, Kristel :)
Best of luck with your reading in 2025. Sounds like we follow a lot of the same lists, besides this one. So many excellent books, so little time!