So many books, so little time.
October 9, 2015 12:36 PM Subscribe
Looking for a strategy to decide what book to read next! I have a huge TBR pile. And I am uncharacteristically having a devil of a time deciding what to read next. What can I do to prioritize the pile?
I always have a big ass pile of books to read, but right now, every time I pick up a book, I'll read 10 or 20 pages and then my eye will wander to one of the 3 or 4 big stacks of books tbr and I'll think, oh, I should read THAT one first!
So right now I'm 10 or 20 pages into about 5 books and I need to just settle down and focus on one. They are equally compelling and/or they are equally valuable. This is a mix of fiction and nonfiction, long and short, new and old, serious and light, and my pile of writers include women writers, Black writers, Asian writers, Queer writers, as well as straight white male writers.
Can you help me figure out a strategy to focus on one book and stop whoring around among them?
I always have a big ass pile of books to read, but right now, every time I pick up a book, I'll read 10 or 20 pages and then my eye will wander to one of the 3 or 4 big stacks of books tbr and I'll think, oh, I should read THAT one first!
So right now I'm 10 or 20 pages into about 5 books and I need to just settle down and focus on one. They are equally compelling and/or they are equally valuable. This is a mix of fiction and nonfiction, long and short, new and old, serious and light, and my pile of writers include women writers, Black writers, Asian writers, Queer writers, as well as straight white male writers.
Can you help me figure out a strategy to focus on one book and stop whoring around among them?
You seem to require diversity in books, by writers of fiction and non-fiction, and you might want to ask why that need determines what you buy. Why not put aside all the books. Pick one out at random and read it all the way through. Then randomly pick up the next one and do the same thing. If the books you focus on bores you, put it aside and move on to another.
posted by Postroad at 12:40 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Postroad at 12:40 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Put the piles in a room where you don't read books.
posted by michaelh at 12:42 PM on October 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by michaelh at 12:42 PM on October 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
read them in the order you buy them.
that's what i do, with one caveat - there are two separate queues for fiction and non-fiction (which i often read in parallel with each other).
posted by andrewcooke at 12:47 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
that's what i do, with one caveat - there are two separate queues for fiction and non-fiction (which i often read in parallel with each other).
posted by andrewcooke at 12:47 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Next month is NaNoWriMo. A couple of years back, a friend and I who were unable to do NaNoWriMo changed it into a NaNoReMo instead -- National Novel Reading Month. Picked a big-ass book (Infinite Jest), and spent the month reading it. X number of pages a day. It helped a lot to have a deadline, even a made-up one, as otherwise big-ass books simply weren't going to happen.
Of course, any old book club could give you that, but those aren't necessarily the books in your pile. I'd latch onto NaNoWriMo and do a NaNoReMo, which gives you the focus of a deadline, which a lot of us haven't had since school. Sure, it's completely arbitrary, but once you start a book, that is the book you have to finish. Start with the biggest, and then the rest becomes easy.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:52 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
Of course, any old book club could give you that, but those aren't necessarily the books in your pile. I'd latch onto NaNoWriMo and do a NaNoReMo, which gives you the focus of a deadline, which a lot of us haven't had since school. Sure, it's completely arbitrary, but once you start a book, that is the book you have to finish. Start with the biggest, and then the rest becomes easy.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:52 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
When I used to actually buy physical books, I used to read them in LIFO order -- Last In, First Out. It's a bit counterintuitive -- why not read them in the order you bought them? Isn't is possible you'll literally never get around to reading your oldest books?
And, I mean, yes, that's totally possible and that was at least part of the point.
There were three main advantages of reading my most recently purchased books first:
1. It meant I was relatively current on my reading. If there was a book everyone was talking about, there was a good chance I would also have read it, versus only reading things many months or years after other people stopped caring about them.
2. If there was a book I really wanted to read, I could buy it and read it without upsetting my system, because it was automatically the Last In book.
3. It discouraged the endless buying of new books. If there was something in the pile I really wanted to read, I had to stop buying books until I worked my way back to it.
Less important advantages:
1. It allowed me to eventually declare book overload and get rid of some of the older books that I was clearly never going to get back to without feeling excessively guilty about buying books and then not reading them.
2. If you're literally managing your books in piles as I did, it is much easier to take the next book off the top of the pile than the bottom.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:05 PM on October 9, 2015 [11 favorites]
And, I mean, yes, that's totally possible and that was at least part of the point.
There were three main advantages of reading my most recently purchased books first:
1. It meant I was relatively current on my reading. If there was a book everyone was talking about, there was a good chance I would also have read it, versus only reading things many months or years after other people stopped caring about them.
2. If there was a book I really wanted to read, I could buy it and read it without upsetting my system, because it was automatically the Last In book.
3. It discouraged the endless buying of new books. If there was something in the pile I really wanted to read, I had to stop buying books until I worked my way back to it.
Less important advantages:
1. It allowed me to eventually declare book overload and get rid of some of the older books that I was clearly never going to get back to without feeling excessively guilty about buying books and then not reading them.
2. If you're literally managing your books in piles as I did, it is much easier to take the next book off the top of the pile than the bottom.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:05 PM on October 9, 2015 [11 favorites]
I would mix them up by genre and make a hard copy list to follow in order. But I really like crossing things off lists.
posted by something something at 1:10 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by something something at 1:10 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have the same problem and this question gave me an idea. I think the read them in the order you acquired them is probably good advice. Maybe buy one book at a time from Amazon and keep a wish list (which I'm sure will get out of hand as well) and when finishing one book order the next.
posted by Che boludo! at 1:10 PM on October 9, 2015
posted by Che boludo! at 1:10 PM on October 9, 2015
I separate them into two rough stacks - "light and fluffy" and "will require braining" - and alternate. If one requires rather a lot of braining, I may cheat and read two fluffy ones in a row, but mostly alternating works well. I also get a ton of books from the library, and while I use that approximate method on them too, books with a due date get priority over books I own. (Which means there are books I am super-excited about that I bought in June that I haven't gotten to yet, but I own them, so they're not going anywhere.)
posted by restless_nomad at 1:37 PM on October 9, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 1:37 PM on October 9, 2015 [6 favorites]
Whenever I have a backlog of books I'm planning to read, I try to plan it like a mixtape/cd. Sit down on the floor with all of them and put them into a rough order that looks like it will flow from one to another, whether it's themes, locations, genre, etc.
posted by mannequito at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by mannequito at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
I promise you I have a bigger-ass pile of books to read than you do, so this is a problem I have faced for many years. I use a combination of sequence and randomness. Well, not randomness, exactly—it's more like dowsing. I wander past the piles of books and usually one of them will call to me. I don't bother worrying about whether it fits into any grand scheme (because that way madness lies), I just start reading, and if I'm enjoying it I keep going. Now, after I finish that there will often be an obvious follow-up; for instance, after I finished Stephen Kotkin's recent bio of Stalin (which is terrific, by the way!), I realized now would be a good time to read Sheila Fitzpatrick's The Russian Revolution. If there's no obvious follow-up, I try the dowsing thing again. The important thing is not to get caught up in some overarching logical pattern, because it will become a crushing burden. Just enjoy your abundant harvest!
posted by languagehat at 1:51 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 1:51 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
I find myself much more inclined to read when there are fewer books around (which is why I'm a library person, not a book-buying person). I'd grab two books, put them next to the couch, and squirrel the rest out of the way for a while. Scarcity can be a funny thing.
posted by orangejenny at 1:52 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by orangejenny at 1:52 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I joined the Seasonal Reading Challenge group on Goodreads (each challenge lasts three months) and it changed my reading in a few ways. The year I read the most books was the year I was doing this challenge all 4 quarters. I don't do it anymore for other reasons, but it had me finishing up series, trying new books and finally finishing a few I never thought I'd get to. You can't claim points until you finish the book, so starting a bunch happened less for me.
I also have 3 books going at once, usually one audiobook for the car, one ebook and one physical book. I try to mix up the genres, but if one of them is from the library it gets put in rotation even if I have a similar one going. Also, I am a little more ruthless in stopping a book permanently if I don't like it and I have list of books I've stopped reading and may go back to.
posted by soelo at 1:59 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I also have 3 books going at once, usually one audiobook for the car, one ebook and one physical book. I try to mix up the genres, but if one of them is from the library it gets put in rotation even if I have a similar one going. Also, I am a little more ruthless in stopping a book permanently if I don't like it and I have list of books I've stopped reading and may go back to.
posted by soelo at 1:59 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
If whoring around works for you, do it! I can only keep track of two books or so now, but I used to have ten going at a time when I was a kid. One can be your porch book, one can be your couch book, one can be your bed book; or you can just grab whichever you happen to be in the mood for at a particular moment.
posted by metasarah at 2:56 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by metasarah at 2:56 PM on October 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
Put all the books in a big stack and take the two off the top.
Measure the books against each other in how willing you'd be to read it next.
The one you're willing to read next put in one stack; the one you're less willing to read in another stack.
Keep doing this until you have two equal stacks.
Then, do it again but only with the stack of books you are more willing to read.
Pretty soon, you'll have an idea of what you want to read.
posted by Piedmont_Americana at 4:37 AM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Measure the books against each other in how willing you'd be to read it next.
The one you're willing to read next put in one stack; the one you're less willing to read in another stack.
Keep doing this until you have two equal stacks.
Then, do it again but only with the stack of books you are more willing to read.
Pretty soon, you'll have an idea of what you want to read.
posted by Piedmont_Americana at 4:37 AM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Play BOTNS Bingo! It's a random bingo card generator produced by my favorite podcast Books on the Nightstand (BOTNS). The podcasters use it to kickoff their listeners' summer beach-reading season but I use it year-round.
Each square in the bingo card has a brief book description. Some of them are typical descriptions like Science Fiction, Biography, Best Seller, etc. The atypical ones are things like Books Published before 1970, A Book You Think You Will Dislike, A Book with a Number in the Title, A Book with a Red Cover, etc.
Usually I fill in a few squares, then I discard the sheet and generate a new one. For the next one I am going to play a true Bingo just to change it up a little. It's a fun way to decide what I should read next.
posted by Soda-Da at 9:01 AM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Each square in the bingo card has a brief book description. Some of them are typical descriptions like Science Fiction, Biography, Best Seller, etc. The atypical ones are things like Books Published before 1970, A Book You Think You Will Dislike, A Book with a Number in the Title, A Book with a Red Cover, etc.
Usually I fill in a few squares, then I discard the sheet and generate a new one. For the next one I am going to play a true Bingo just to change it up a little. It's a fun way to decide what I should read next.
posted by Soda-Da at 9:01 AM on October 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
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Start a weekly or monthly book review column on your blog (or start a blog) and give yourself a self-imposed deadline.
posted by Tamanna at 12:40 PM on October 9, 2015 [1 favorite]