I’m very excited about today’s post because I love talking about plans and lists and how I get things organized. Granted, that doesn’t always mean that I can keep it organized, but we’ll keep that between us. As the title states, today’s post will be all about how 2022 is going to be my year of reading. I’m so excited about that because it means that unlike in 2019 and 2020 (where I was pretty much only reading U.S. president biographies), I will have a lot more variety in what I’m reading. Most importantly, I can start making my way through my Master List.
I have a severe problem, and the name of that problem is my addiction to acquiring books.
For example, back in July OF THIS YEAR, I was at over 2700 ebooks. That’s not including all of my actual physical books that I keep in my room.
The problem is that it’s now November of this same year, and I have over 3100 books!
Even though I took this screenshot just a few days ago, I think I have already added a handful more books to my collection. Do you know what that means?!?! I added 400+ MORE BOOKS in 4 MONTHS! I don’t even remember what I added. I don’t. I do not remember; I just know there is a long list, and I have to get through them all.
We are not going to entertain the notion that I will not read through all of those books. That’s not actually the point while still being the point of my Master List.
As you can see, or partially see from this screenshot, I use a board project in Asana to keep track of my physical and ebook books. It needs to be updated because I’ve added who knows how many more books to my collection since my last update (so ignore the date, I thought I would be updating it on the 9th, and that did not happen. It’ll be a good weekend project for me).
So how I organize my book list is by author’s name and in alphabetical order. It is far easier to keep track of the books by the author’s name than in any other way, at least for me. Especially since I have several series (whether complete or incomplete), it would be hard to keep track of the remaining books if I went by the title alone.
Then comes the big question “Why am I focusing on this Master Book List?”
I had mentioned in the previous post that I would be reading my books in the order that they appear on my list and that I would not be jumping around but staying in an alphabetical reading pattern. And that is for one reason and one reason alone: I don’t remember what most of my books are about.
I have no recollection, no foggy idea of why I chose a large portion of the books I own. Here I’m referring to the ebooks and the ebooks alone. Compared to my ebook collection, I have a small number of physical books, and it’s much easier for me to remember why I have the physical books that I do. But my ebooks don’t have that same privilege. So rather than straight-up deleting them and then reacquiring them on a later date (it has happened before) only to remember why I got rid of them in the first place, I have to do this.
So my plan is simple.
I will read the books, not going for speed here because 3100 ebooks alone is no picnic), then review them on Goodreads. I do have two special lists in Asana [insert screenshot] to keep track of 1)Deleted (Do Not Buy Again), which is for books that I have read and reviewed but have no desire to reread; and 2) Deleted (Did Not Read). That 2nd one is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s still a necessity because that happens with books. Sometimes they are just not what I want to read, or I thought it would be one thing, and it turned out to be a completely different type of book.
This is where I am ending this post today, but this mini-series is not over. This mini-series would be lacking if I did not introduce the primary enabler for my book-buying addiction: Bookbub. Do I love Bookbub? Yes, yes, I do. But still, I have to put myself in time-out if I get too book crazy. But more about that tomorrow.
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