Tips and tricks for identifying TBR books to fit a prompt

[Christine]

I'm finding various ways to pull titles from my existing TBR list, and thought I'd share.

1.) You can view your TBR list and add columns to the view: Click Settings at the top right, check the columns you want to see, and click the "Save Current Settings" button in the lower left of the Settings box. Then you can click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to sort in the opposite order. So you can sort by title, or number of ratings, etc.

2.) I find it immensely helpful to look for Goodreads lists on topic (often linked in the prompt discussions), and simply scan for anything labeled "Want to Read."

3.) For more flexibility, you can export your entire list to a spreadsheet:
* go to My Books
* click Import and export in the left navigation bar
* click the Export Library button near the top
* wait a bit - if you have a lot of books it'll take some time
* click the link for "your export from {date} to download the file
* open in Google Sheets, Excel, etc.

Once you've opened the list in your favorite spreadsheet app, filter the Bookshelves column to include only To-Read books

Now you can:
* search for words in the Title or Author column
* split the text in the Author column into two columns to help with searching for same letter starting first name and last name
* scan for items with an Additional Author and compare with the Author to look for two women
etc.

Any other good tips? Some of these will be rough to find!

[Melody]

Christine wrote: "I'm finding various ways to pull titles from my existing TBR list, and thought I'd share.

1.) You can view your TBR list and add columns to the view: Click Settings at the top right, check the col..."

Christine, you blew my mind with the info that one can download lists at all! As a spreadsheet nerd, this is very valuable information! This whole time I'd been manually tracking my books, challenges, and reading lists on Excel, which I enjoy doing anyway, but this'll help a lot with the organization. Thank you!

[Theresa]

I wifh these tools worked vis. my massive, completely disorganized print library! 🤣🤣

I think the only help there is to make 2019 the year I finally sort, organize, and reshelve my print books. They got completely messed up my last move...about 10 years ago.

Great job, Christine.

[Megan]

You can view your to read shelf by a list or show it by cover.

I just found out that you can sort your to read shelf by "Random" - so if I'm ever not sure what I feel like reading I can randomize it and see what is lingering out there on my to - read shelf. sometimes I get fixated on page count, year published, date added.

If you are a person, like me, who likes shelves - then you can batch edit things to add to a specific shelf. Makes it easier rather than clicking one by one, you can do it in a grouping.

Lists are amazing - especially since you can quickly scroll through and see if there anything you already flagged as want-to-read.

I'm not sure if those are helpful but I thought they were fun at least.

[Nadine in NY]

Wow!! I did not know you could randomize your shelf!! That's an awesome thing :-)

[Megan]

I know- my mind was blown. I clicked it and then the first book that came up I was like "when, and how, and why is that on my to read shelf??"

Made a mental note to go clean that up pronto lol

[Mariann]

I can’t get the “printable “ list to print correctly. Is anyone else having this problem?

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

Theresa wrote: "I wifh these tools worked vis. my massive, completely disorganized print library! 🤣🤣

I think the only help there is to make 2019 the year I finally sort, organize, and reshelve my print books. The..."

If you use Goodreads on your phone, you can at least scan physical books and easily at them to your lists that way. Still takes a while when you have a LOT of books, but I've started scanning in new batches that I pick up used and putting them on my want to read list right away, and sometimes I go through sections of my library and scan in ones I particularly want to remember to read.

[Katy]

Mariann wrote: "I can’t get the “printable “ list to print correctly. Is anyone else having this problem?"

Yes. I ended up downloading the picture to Photshop and changing the dimensions. Otherwise, it was so huge I was only getting about 1/4 of it.

[Theresa]

Raquel wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I wifh these tools worked vis. my massive, completely disorganized print library! 🤣🤣

I think the only help there is to make 2019 the year I finally sort, organize, and reshelve my ..."

yeah....not sure I really want to know how many books I own....let's just say I have books in every single room of my apartment, including bathroom, and in most rooms there is no wall space to hang art because it is all bookshelves overflowing with books.

Then there are the ebooks on Nook and Kindle....

I'm a book-a-holic. And proud of it!

In truth, I need to go through and purge books (many formerly OOP or classics I now have in ebook, so the yellowed tatty paperbacks can go), then get all the stack on the floor onto shelves, if that is even possible. Only then will I consider adding them to GR. I also need to purge GR want to read!

I'd rather be reading.

[Hope]

This is so cool! I wish I'd know this before I deleted my Goodreads account a few years ago...

[Christine]

Megan wrote: "You can view your to read shelf by a list or show it by cover.

I just found out that you can sort your to read shelf by "Random" - so if I'm ever not sure what I feel like reading I can randomize..."

These tips are gold, thanks! It took me a while to find the Random option at the bottom of the page, but I got there!

[Courtney]

Amazing tips! thanks for sharing!!!!! :)

[L Y N N]

Theresa wrote: "Raquel wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I wifh these tools worked vis. my massive, completely disorganized print library! 🤣🤣

I think the only help there is to make 2019 the year I finally sort, organize, a..."

I'm with you!

[Mamabee]

Christine, thank you so much for the clear step-by-step instructions. I had planned to start out 2019 by reading 10 books off my to-read list and seeing where they fit in the 2019 challenge, but I had no real plan for where to start. This makes my analytical heart happy - yay!

[Sonali]

Christine wrote: "I'm finding various ways to pull titles from my existing TBR list, and thought I'd share.

1.) You can view your TBR list and add columns to the view: Click Settings at the top right, check the col..."

Thanks a lot! This is very helpful!

[KF-in-Georgia]

Is there a link to the 2018 challenges? Or older ones? One of the 2019 challenges is "Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge." I wasn't on the POPSUGAR site until just today.

[Nadine in NY]

KF-in-Georgia wrote: "Is there a link to the 2018 challenges? Or older ones? One of the 2019 challenges is "Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge." I wasn't on the POPSUGAR site until just today."

There's a list now: All Past Popsugar Challenge Categories

[KF-in-Georgia]

Thank you.