Keep or Ditch: Purging My Kindle TBR Pile

by Madeline Iva

I was traveling over the weekend and wanted something to read on the plane.  I hauled out the ol’ kindle paperwhite and shuffled through the covers in my TBR piles.  Alas, nothing called to me.  Nothing!

Oh, there were books there, plenty of them.  So many in fact, that I have a TBR pile that’s just erotic romance, a TBR pile that’s just fantasy, and one that’s just paranormal. That’s in addition to two other TBR piles–one that’s labeled ‘priority’ and one that’s general. But I wanted to read something exciting; something a friend might vigorously recommend, screaming “This is the most orgasmic novel EVER, you HAVE to read this NOW!”

We’re not even talking about the books piled up in my home.

Okay, that’s a tall order.  The rational side of my brain is saying, “How do you know there’s nothing like that in your TBR pile? How do you really know?”

Good friends, I’ll confess I’m a bit OCD when it comes to being organized. If I ever get a tattoo it’ll probably say something like “purge baby purge” because there’s nothing so invigorating as throwing out the old to make room for the new.

So this is my experiment — a kind of scorched earth policy for all those unread books languishing on my Kindle.

THE EXPERIMENT: Start reading as many books as possible from my TBR collections.  See how it feels to ditch a lot of books.  See what the level of quality is for the tons of free reads I’ve picked up.

THE RULES: Open up 20+ books on Kindle, force read the first 5 pages and instantly decide to keep the book or ditch it.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR: 

Let’s be honest: some insane hawtness is always welcome.
Good writing and great characters
A compelling atmosphere/location doesn’t hurt. I’m loving me some Gothic these days.

THE HAUL: here are the discoveries–

Him by Carey Heywood (contemporary)

Being Neighborly by Carey Heywood (contemporary)

Friends with Partial Benefits by Luke Young (contemporary)

Tragic by J.A. Huss (contemporary) it’s about models, Shari Slade recommended this one.

Julian’s Sins by Robin L. Rotham (BDSM)

Off the Rails by Isabelle Drake (contemporary–and a Lady Smut writer)

A Rouge in Sheep’s Clothing by Elf Ahern (gothic historical)

Bannockburn Binding by Tracey Cooper Posey (steamy Time traveling vampires) This one is a bit whack.

Forbidden by Tracey Cooper Posey & Julia Templeton (historical)

Faelorehn by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson (fantasy)

Smoldering Nights by Lisa Carlisle (paranormal romance)

In For a Penny by Maggie Toussaint (it’s a mystery–not sure if it’s a romance as well)

The results where different from what I expected.

Toss toss toss: Why does it seem to take so much energy just to start a book? I don’t know, but I ended up tossing almost everything out. My Erotic Romance TBR collection? Gone.

The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained:  I discovered that faced with the prospect of ditching each book I started reading, I was full of mercy. I was happy to keep any book that was ‘fine’.  Not thrilling, just not annoying.  Even so, most were very easy to ditch.

God those covers are small and blurry on the Kindle. I think this puts me off as a reader–I love a glorious hot cover.

No Rapes, Please: A huge chunk of the books I ditched, surprisingly, started off with the heroine being raped: either by her father, by a semi-virgin boyfriend/nut, by an evil gang, etc. These were very easy to toss. Note to self: don’t start a book that way.  Seems a little overdone.

That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed books in which a character has been raped at some point, but those moments tend to be buried further into the book. They don’t start off with a rape right in your face, page one.

Are Free Reads Quality Reads? Yes, most of the books I ditched I’d gotten free, either on book bub or because the author publicized that the book was free on Amazon. Ten of the books above were free as well–but I realized I have some other connection to the book.  Either I know of the author, or they were recommended by an author whom I trust.  Only two books on the list above were free reads and I knew nothing about them…

I found there was a correlation between being able to read the title of the book on my Kindle and the book starting off well.

THE RESULTS: It feels so good to purge! I now have ten books to focus on, instead of 100.

In the future I will pay more close attention to other aspects of the free read offered.  Is this a highly successful known author putting out her book for free to scoop us all in? Are there over a hundred reviews on Amazon? I might actually read an excerpt of the book first before grabbing the free read.

To find quality reads, I’m going to have to start buying more books, even if it’s just moving up to the books that are .99 cents on Book Bub.  This hurts, because I’m a cheap bitch, but I’m going to suck it up and do it.  It’s only .99 cents.

I’m also using the author function on Book Bub to follow authors I like so I won’t miss any of their free reads or sales.

The next experiment? Collecting a bunch of books that are ‘recommended reads’ based on what I’m buying online and see if this function really works.

Madeline Iva writes fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance.  Her novella ‘Sexsomnia’ is available in our LadySmut anthology HERE, and her fantasy romance, WICKED APPRENTICE, will be out Spring 2016.