This week's topic is taking stock of those Mid-Year Milestones, in particular what are we reading right now and what's still in the TBR (To Be Read queue).
That last bit makes me laugh because - seriously? - my TBR is SO long I have no idea how many books are in it. Literally. I'd be afraid to total it up. I even have phases of the TBR. There's the books that I definitely want to read as soon as I can. There's the stuff I "have" to read - friends' books, stuff for critique, books for contests. There are books that I probably want to read, when the time is right. Books in this queue can have lingered there for years, even a decade or more. (My assistant Carien calls these TBR orphans and makes a concerted effort to pick up one at least once a month.) In between, is a more nebulous group of books that are ones that people have recommended to or outright given me. I really want a system of denoting WHY I have a certain book on my Kindle or stacked in my office. Or in my TBR armoire.
(The latter is a real thing. Were I at home, I'd take a photo of it and show you. But it's kind of scary, so maybe this is all for the best.)
My most-active TBR list is best encapsulated by the list on my "device," as opposed to the cloud, on my eReader. I just counted and there are 90 books there.
That should say something about the lower-priority piles.
eep.
All that said, I do keep a list of books read. I started doing that in 2013, as part of a concerted effort to get back into reading regularly and consistently. Writing tends to overtake my reading life, so I'm working to tip that balance back again. In 2013, I read 74 books and in 2014, I upped that to 130 books. So I set the more ambitious goal of 150 books for 2015, which means that now, at 45% through the year, I should be at 67 books read.
I'm at 51. Alas.
I can totally catch up though, right??
So, what am I reading? I'm 26% into The Faery Bride by Lisa Ann Verge, a recommendation from the lovely and talented Grace Draven. I'm kind of on a theme of researching Fantasy Romances and this is an old school one (originally published in the...80s? I can't tell. Maybe 90s. And now republished by the author). I think that next up will be Intisar Khanani's Thorn, which has triggered some talk in my circles that she brings a different take to princesses and fantasy. I'm also tempted to catch up with Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling series, because the newest book, Shards of Hope, is getting such rave reviews. However, I trailed off on that series about... 3 books ago? So none of them are in my queue, which means I'd need to buy them.
You can no doubt detect the problem there!
Most recently I read Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking. Really loved it. I think all creative types - maybe everyone - should read it, too. My Goodreads review is here, if you're interested. If you've read it, you'll get this. If not, go read it.
Take the donuts, people!
LOL, your TBR list with its varying piles sounds like mine. There are the 'have to read it ASAP', which I'm almost caught up with. (Sorry I took so long getting to Talon of the Hawk.) The 'want to read it soon', which is huge. The 'I need to read this someday' - which I can't even think about right now. And then, I have to be in the mood for a certain book at a certain time. If I stopped buying books, I could probably get caught up, but we all know that ain't gonna happen. ;o)
ReplyDeleteRight? It's like being a certain kind of hoarder. I simply can't say no to a book...
DeletePhases of the TBR pile...yup. i totally get this. Research for what I'm writing seems to get priority....until that one fiction book grabs me and reels me in until I've devoted what's between its covers.
ReplyDeleteI rarely do deliberate research reading, but I do cast about in my queue, looking for the books that will light me up and feed what I'm writing at the time. :-)
Delete