The Sword and Laser discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
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To Read Piles
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42. 44 if you count a couple of books I've stalled in reading and may or may not ever go back to (I'm too stubborn to Lem, even if I haven't made progress in over a year).
Let me put my situation this way: while writing these words in my room, whereever I look, I see piles and piles of books that I plan to read someday. Yet this does not stop me from visiting local bookstores and enthusiastically buying more books. I just can't stop myself. :S
I agree with Mark the OP here. I often find myself reading one of my latest purchases, instead of one from my "to read" pile.Incidentally I don't think my "to read" pile has ever been BELOW 100 books. Not sure of the exact count at the moment because I have books stashed all over the house, garage, desk at work and the trunk of my car:)
According to my GR lists, I have 248 books that are both to be read and I own it....but I do know some people even worse than I am.
For me TBR is a very fluid concept -- any book that I buy is, by definition, "to be read" someday. The question is when (or if) that someday may occur. This year I finally read The Last Unicorn, which has been sitting on my shelf for at least 20 years. Other books get read as soon as (or almost as soon as) I buy them.(And the plain truth is that at this point I could probably never buy another book and never run out of things to read, even without rereading. Not that that will stop me, of course.)
In practical terms, my "to be read" list is whatever book I'm reading currently and any others in its series; when I finish those, I'll sit here and stare at my shelves or Kindle for as long as it takes for the next thing to catch my eye.
You guys are making me feel better about my own growing to-read list. :)For me, my to-read list on Goodreads are books I'd like to read sometime in the next year or so. Books do bypass the list when they are part of a bookclub (like Sword and Laser) or the next in a series if I found the one I just finished really compelling. Or whenever my library holds actually become available. (One big advantage of a big to-read list is that I can request stuff from the library that I know I wont get for a month or two or three!) Or when a new book comes out that I keep hearing people rave about (ala Redshirts and Year Zero this year at Comic Con).
Since I can average reading about a book a week right now, I try and keep my 'to-read' list at about 50 books -- right now it is at 60-something. I try and go through and cull books sometimes from the very ends of my list if I can't remember why I put it there I usually will cut it. I find that I usually start forgetting why I added books when my list gets larger than 50.
Heck, even my Netflix queue is 500 items long. I actually don't use the "to be read" shelf on GoodReads -- I'm just using GR to track & review the books I do read.
Its nice to see I'm not alone in the monster to-read piles. I always like to keep a lot of books on hand as I never know what I'll feel like reading next until I'm ready for the next one, though I'd love to get it down to around 20-30. It does stifle my new book purchases a little bit so I'm rarely on top of the current "hotness".
Mine is somewhere around 300 books. But I usually read quick and 10-20 books at the same time, if I'm not in the middle of a semester. The number gets higher during a semester. Good semester happens and I can hit about 90 books in three months covering both required and pleasure reading.
My to read list is currently sitting at 117. I constantly add to it more to remind myself to look for it at some point. I honestly know I won't get through it fast because I tend to get several books that aren't on there before grabbing one that is. I try to not add a whole series as well. I'll usually just add the first book to the list.
Mod
I have a long list of "may read someday" books that I don't own but will peruse occasionally if I need something to read.
I know time and newer books will mean that most on that list will never get read.
Which is fine, if they were important to me they would already have been read or at least bought.
Or conversely my TBR pile is every book that I haven't already read, and many that I might want to reread someday; the only question is the order.
I have 24 books TBR (didn't realise i had so many) which is no where near what you guy have owned and have waiting to be read.I have a terrible memory so i love my other shelves (namely my really want to read shelf) i have on GR. Although this has back fired some what and because i do remember them i buy them, i have an ever growing TBR list of books i own and thats only going to get bigger! Oh how i love buying books! :)
At least 200 minimum which are serious TBR. There's 85 on my Kindle (not counting stuff I forgot to download again when I had to replace it a few months ago). Same sort of number on the shelves which are definitely "to read" rather than mixed "might be handy/interesting". Then there's a bunch on my to-read list here which are for upcoming book clubs or courses, or books which clubs have read in the past that I want to read too. I maintain three seperate wishlists at Amazon which don't overlap here, each of 100 or so items. I don't own any of those yet but may in future. And there are the ones I have stacked up to read with my daughter or which she asks me to read after her.
Actually I view every book on the planet as "to be read", I just don't own all of them. Yet. :)
1000+ Ahem. I've been given books since I was a little child and once I started getting money from my parents and later making my own money, I've been buying more books than I can read. I only consider books I already own as on my TBR. So it's way beyond a pile by now. If they were all in one place, it would be a room of unread books.
I don't feel pressured though. It makes me happy to have an entire RUB at my disposal for every reading mood. :)
I always have a lot on the list and on my "to read shelf" (I actually have a little book case of books I still have yet to read).This week I bought 4 rather large books in a single bid on ebay. Now they are sitting in front of me I realise that's about 3 months worth of reading acquired in about 1 minute. Sometimes I wish I could just absorb books into my consciousness!
Im the
Lone wolf sitting on a grand total of five.
Lone wolf sitting on a grand total of five.
I never have a clear concept of how many books are on my 'to read' pile, which is totally metaphorical. Books I've read get mixed up with books I've bought and want to read, and the there are all those books I've nabbed for the kindle, and then there are the books my friends and family have that I must get around to reading.There are a lot, but I never keep even a guestimated check of numbers. I don't always read new books I've bought either. Sometimes I will buy a book and feel really excited about it, but when I read the first page I realise that is is not a book for now, and put it away for later. I also have times when none of the many books I own are 'right' for now, and I have to in search of something to fully suit my mood. I'm weird.
Few years ago, I found myself stacking books (before kindle) I want to read in that particular moment. But, as always, my atention goes somewhere else and those books become dust collectors. Now, I'm buying books only when it's time to read them which is so easy with kindle regarding their ebook offer.So there you go, when I wanna read something I buy that particular book and nothing more.
I use my 'To Read' thread for recommendations. I have 'Waiting on My Shelf' for books I own that are unread. At the moment it says 247 but I know I have quite a few uncatalogued books hanging around. Even though I sometimes get panicky at the thought I will never read all these great books I remember rereading books many times as a child because I couldn't get hold of enough new books. My present situation is preferable.
My to-read pile is over 1k. But hey, I used to write random books I wanted to read on slips of paper.To make it more useful, I've started putting my to-read books on additional shelves. Then if hit national poetry month, for example, I can combine "to-read" with poetry and track that pile down.
Sometimes I'll get the first page of to-read from the library and speed date them, deciding I'd I still want to read them, and DO it.
When I read physical books I never had a "to read" pile I'd buy a book, read it and then go buy another book. Occasionally I might buy 2 or 3 in one trip and then read them back to back.
Now with the Kindle though I have an ever growing stockpile of books on the machine that I've picked up free or cheap and a growing list of ones to buy that I'm listing here on GR.
My current list is 25, but I think I have more on my kindle.
Easily 25 unread on my Kindle , and 60+ on various shelves around the house. I need to make a list, cos I've started discovering duplicates...
I regret every time I go to the library because I find something I just have to borrow despite having next to no time to get through them all, and end up renewing them on end, that is when I remember to! :(
Jenny wrote: "My to-read pile is over 1k. But hey, I used to write random books I wanted to read on slips of paper.To make it more useful, I've started putting my to-read books on additional shelves. Then if h..."
Like you I'm over the 1k mark, well over it. I view them as a to be read someday pile.
At the start of each month I take the ones I plan to read and place them on there special spot on the bookcase. For the month of July I have 2 books left in that spot.
My problem is I like books. I like searching through op-shops for them, with no clear idea what I might come out with. I like the smell of books, the peaceful quiet of bookstores and knowing that someone else read the book I have just picked up. I buy two or three books a week.So my to-read list is in the 100's; they line the wall of my bedroom from floor to window, waiting for me.
Generally I try to alternate reading a new book (new author or new series) with an old favorite.
I did a quick count of my book stashes on the weekend:Bookshelves in house - 102
Kindle/Nook etc - 12
Desk at work - 12
Box in car trunk - 17
Cabinets in the garage - lots and lots 200+
Note, these are just my books. My wife has a similar number.
Ruth wrote: "Sometimes I will buy a book and feel really excited about it, but when I read the first page I realise that is is not a book for now, and put it away for later. I also have times when none of the many books I own are 'right' for now, and I have to in search of something to fully suit my mood. I'm weird."Not so weird. I do much the same thing. The next book I pickup is based almost solely on my mood at that moment. I have a hard enough time getting book club reads done on time, let alone be able to plan out my reading schedule as I've seen some do. I'm almost jealous of their organizational abilities. :)
Like Igor mentioned, ebooks have been nice since I can hold off on the purchase until I'm ready to read. I am, however, a sucker for gift cards and have been known for going on ebook buying sprees when I get one in my hands. These make up a significant portion of my Goodreads to-read shelf.
I use my to-read shelf as a way to try to guilt myself into getting to those books I've purchased which may have been sitting around for a while. However, if too many books stay on the shelf for too long I get really annoyed and eventually delete them all. Since I've started on the site, I've done that about three times now.
Does anyone else buy non-fiction or books they feels they "should" read and struggle with them between sword and lazer picks? Currently I have something like 50 including the autobiography of Tolkien, Martin Luther king, gore Vidal and adolf hitler, as well as the god delusion, and a book of pros and cons of cloning. :/None of which grabs me more that reading a mikey Spillane or leviathan wakes.
I am up and over 1k as well (1,436 as of right now), and it changes constantly. I add some, take some off, based on what all I am reading now, what friends are reading, and reviews I see on GoodReads. And the recs feature on GR? DANGEROUS!
My TBR list is probably around 200 titles. I'm a library borrower more than a buyer, so I sometimes have to wait quite a while, after I've first heard of a book, for a copy to become available. I think I would feel a little...anxious...if I didn't have a long list of titles to choose from. I never know what I'll feel like reading in any given week; a girl needs to have options, you see.
Melanie wrote: "I am up and over 1k as well (1,436 as of right now), and it changes constantly. I add some, take some off, based on what all I am reading now, what friends are reading, and reviews I see on GoodRea..."Very dangerous I agree. Some days I feel like kicking myself because I will end up spending so much time looking at the different books I want to read and adding them to my tbr shelf then actually reading my book.
This site is addicting.
This is my to-read list...
Oooh, read that Stephen Baxter one I see
I think I also recognize Philip Jose Farmer's The Dungeon and Peter Hamilton.
My 'to-read' list is to make sure I remember books that I want to read. If I don't throw the book on there, its possible I'd forget it.
I binged on a bunch of the closing sales for the Borders bookstores, plus compulsion buys at book sales, and hard to find books at cons. I'm currently at 230 unread books. But like Esther, better too many than too few. At least I got rid of my 'I brake for bookstore' bumper sticker. Which made me compulsively stop at any used bookstore I passed.
There are 68 books "to read" on my GR shelf. The list is comprised of audiobooks I've downloaded and not gotten to, Kindle books downloaded and not gotten to, dead tree editions on my night stand, and books recommended here and in another forum I participate regularly.That said, I blame Jenny for me not getting through my pile very quickly...she keeps having me add things.
I just counted 50 books in my bedroom that I have not read yet. This doesn't include the books in the living room or stashed under my desk.Damn.
terpkristin wrote: "That said, I blame Jenny for me not getting through my pile very quickly...she keeps having me add things. ..."And who can I blame?
You! I blame alllll of you! And the podcasters. And the list makers (I can't resist a good list). And the award nominators. And bloggers. This is why I named my blog Reading Envy because I feel like I'm peering into other peoples' reading and wanting what they have. I'm a little relieved that it is contagious, haha!
Mod
About 31 physical books in three separate to-read piles in my apt (that's not counting all the shelved unread books).
Probably about 50 (many from project gutenberg) e-book to-reads on Kindle and iBook.
Yeah, it'll take awhile...
becoming more active on Sword and Laser has only added to my current 'pile'. I have found it to be both a blessing and a curse. They have pointed me to authors I haven't read before and find I really enjoy them. The curse is that once I read a book and enjoy it, I then want to read all the author has written. Hence the growing stack.
My to-read shelf on Goodreads currently contains 105 books. These are books that I have purchased and just haven't had a chance to read, yet. I would say half of the to-read books are e-books on my Nook and the remaing are physical books that are sitting in piles throughout my apartment.
There seems to be a tendency to read the latest purchased book but some of them stick around for a long time (my record is over 12 years on the pile ... that book was The Gormenghast Trilogy, which I loved).
Sometimes I look at the stack and think I'm crazy; I guess its much easier (and faster!) to buy them than to read them. What numbers are people sitting on at the moment ... there must be someone out there who can put me to shame! ;-)