Issue #40 Biblyotheke In The House
Hello, my exuberant readers!
I've been reading. A lot. By a lot I mean I finished 15 books in May of which seven were read the week we were in DC. My schedule then was up / museum the hell out of the day / home and read for the night while TEH watched basketball. My interest has waned a bit since we've been back to L-ville but I am keeping pace with the plan I had set out not to long ago.
What is the plan you may ask? Glad you are interested so let me tell you! I have library cards at three libraries (Louisville, Grand Rapids, Up North) and I use their ebook collection heavily which is to say I max out my limit of the number of titles I check out at every opportunity which is roughly 20 items across all three systems at any given time. The problem, a good problem but still a problem, as I was not reading the titles rather I made vague promises to do so and then let the books expire to only check them out again or added them to my wishlist for another check out or swapped them for another book and so the pattern went. Sometime in early May, I went through the books finished list from so far for the year and noted I was nowhere near my monthly goal to hit a total of 50 for 2018. I can do a book a week. Easy peasy but I had not read any books for January and only one book for March which I read at the end of the month. I read and comprehend at 75 pages an hour. Most books are about 350 pages. This was no work for me except I was not doing it. I was imbibing in a lot of television and getting back into video games but I was not reading.
(A painful part of this admission is there are so many new books coming out and so many published books I have been dying to read that my lack of reading seemed so overwhelming and daunting.)
I am spoilt for choice. Not only do I have books from the library, but I buy books, I have books I've lugged from home to home that have not been read, and my other indulgence is obtaining ARCs (advance reader copies), AND LASTLY, I have graphic novels and prose books for my reviewing gig at No Flying, No Tights.
Good lord.
In early April I made a list of titles I checked out from the library with their due dates in my Notes app on my phone. This helped organize what to read and when, at least from the library. I also made a list of ARCs with upcoming archive dates (the website I use allows you to download books, if you're approved, until the archive date and typically you can post reviews after that date) as well as a list of titles I need to review for No Flying, No TIghts.
And this worked well and I was starting to read until I looked at my wishlist across all three library sites and saw I had over 250 books I wanted to read. This does not account for the hundreds I have marked on Amazon on private wishlists or the smattering of titles on GoodReads.
Oy!
This is where the numbers came in. At 75 pages an hour and roughly five hours per book, I could conceivably read three books a week. Let's say across all wishlist holdings I had about 400 books, Reading at three books a week, It would take me a little over two years to read all the books. (There will obviously be cross-over across the sites which will make this project a teensy bit easier.)
This is doable.
Now obviously there is some consideration to be made to new titles, books I discover I no longer want to read (best discovered using the "look inside" feature on Amazon), or books I do not finish. I gave myself some hard rules. I could only add one book for every one I removed; if a book wasn't jelling with me, give it a 100 pages (or 10% on the Kindle) and stop reading. Some books would far exceed the average page number such as the new The Odyssey which is 600 pages, 100 of that the author's note and Forever Amber which comes in a hefty 1000 pages and I returned it to the library when I recalled I had already read the book ages ago.
The other thing is, I have to be ruthless on how I am finding out new books. No more newsletters, of which I was subscribed to at least a dozen on books alone, and unfollow / unlike accounts dedicated to books or literature or anything related. This first bit is huge. I am a newsletter junky (this is for another time) and removing myself from these communications gave me a bit of FOMO but it had to be done! It has to be done! Admitting myself that often I was stressed by the choice of what was available to me to read (and the overabundant newsletters in my inbox), I have to remain stalwart in my convictions!
Since I know some of you are avid readers and would like to find out what I'm reading, you can follow me on GoodReads or LibraryThing.
And please, for the love of all that is sacred, do not recommend books to me unless you will die from the lack of recommendation and only telling me will save you from a long history of illness or your eventual demise.
Until next time!
You've just finished reading A Most Unreliable Narrator,
the spill-your-guts newsletter by Lisa Rabey. You can
find me on Twitter or Facebook if you're so inclined.
If you dig this, pass me on to a friend!
Comments? Questions? Want to say "Hi!"?
Just hit reply and send me a note!