Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Can This To-Read Collection be Conquered?

As a reader, I'm spoiled by the sheer range of books available to me, especially in e-book form. My To-Read collection on my Kindle is almost at 400 items. Most of these are samples, but I do have several books in there that I haven't had a chance to read yet. This doesn't include items in my Cloud, either. As for physical books, I probably have over forty I haven't read yet. The stack is most likely taller than my child. I'm planning on posting a picture at the beginning of 2013 as part of wrapping up my reading in 2012, but I doubt I'll make much progress in a couple of weeks.

I consider myself a fast reader; even with a full-time job and a young child, I can still read two or three average-length novels a week. (Non-fiction may take longer, and of course there are door-stopper novels out there too.) I've read 160 books in 2012. Even so, at this rate, it'll take me over two years to clear my To Read items, and that's only if I don't add more books in the meantime. Rest assured I will.

Do I have any hope of making progress with my piles, or will I have to take my Kindle with me when I go? I hate to say it, but in order to make any progress, I have to be very picky about the books I read--and read through to the end. That's why the vast majority of my To Read items are samples; I don't feel guilty about rejecting them if they don't appeal to me. If I've downloaded a free book and realize partway through it doesn't appeal to me, then I'll abandon it and send it to my Limbo collection. I may even have to do this with physical books; I'm planning to drop an out-of-print science fiction series mid-way through, even though I have the next book in the series, because I'm tired of the plotholes and don't care enough about the characters.

How about you? Is your To-Read pile as big as mine--or bigger? Do you have any secrets for dealing with it? Or are you savvy enough to keep your piles of books small?

2 comments:

PT Dilloway said...

I think I ONLY have 40 books on my Kindle to read. A lot of it is because Amazon will put books on sale for $2 or so and I buy them but then I don't have time enough to read them all. I have a dozen paper books to read too. Argh.

Misha Gerrick said...

I sort of phased out my TBR list. I just have too much going on in my life to put myself under that sort of pressure.

I wish I could read as much, but I have music, painting, writing, editing, work etc. that needs to get done first. :-/

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