So this year I’ve decided to embrace my weird obsession with tracking what I’m reading. I love updating Goodreads. Organizing my bookshelves is possibly one of my favorite activities (right next to reading them) and organizing my Goodreads shelves has recently been something I do to keep myself sane during my incredibly stressful mornings. Thinking on this mid last year I made a simple excel sheet to track how many books I was reading versus how many I was allowed to buy. This year I’ve made it prettier and have decided to employ a spreadsheet from Brock at Let’s Read. That link there will take you to the video he created for his spreadsheet which is magnificent.
So what’s important to me this year in tracking what I read?
First off I want to read more. Especially more diversely, and I mean that in several ways. The last two years I dove in to YA and just gobbled it up. It’s fast and easy to read and I blazed through a ton of it. This year I’m planning on cooling those heels and going back to my old love of Adult SFF. I’m also making plans to read more non-fiction (at least one a month), more classics (at least two a month), and I’ve been picking up adult fiction to pad my shelves. So, I’ve created some challenges for myself, looking at other monthly challenges from bloggers and booktubers I like and the things I want to read.. I present the monthly TBR Challenges!
- One Book That’s Been On My Shelf Over a Year
- Finish or Catch Up On a Series
- One Science Fiction Read
- One Fantasy Read
- One Middle Grade/YA
- Two Classics
- Two New Purchases (Books bought within the last month)
- One Non-Fiction
- Two TBR Jar Picks
In addition to this I’m on another book buying ban. This one is Read 3, Buy 1. These books cannot include library books since I’m also doing #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks. I had a terrible habit last year of checking books out of the library and reading them then counting them towards my Read 2, Buy 1 ban at the time. This did nothing for my TBR pile at home. I’m not going to tell you how many books I own, but I am going to tell you it’s more than you think. So, so much more than you think.
I’m using Brock’s spreadsheet to track other things as well. Gender, ethnicity, country of origin, length, used/new, etc to see what my reading habits are. I certainly didn’t do myself any favors – starting off the year buy a huge batch of used books (I had trade in credit!). But I’m officially on this ban and officially tracking these books so I can get through them.
My goal with all this, besides to answer the weird and twisted need I have to organize, is to see and fix my reading/buying habits. I have no guilt over buying books but I want to be able to read them as soon as I can after buying them and then if I need to trade them in. I want to open up space on my shelves for the new things I want to read. I’m quicker to DNF – my 100 pages rule is still going strong, and I’m more definite in what I’m keeping and unhauling.
Is anyone else tracking their reading? Any one have any other neat ideas?
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