I’m curious on how people decide what they are going to read and if anyone has a guidelines on how they shape their yearly goals.
The obvious one is number of books. I actually have strong opinions that this metric has become problematic. Outside of the goal that everyone should read at least one book a year, anything over that number is meaningless (unless you are raising money for your elementary read a thon and trying to earn the class a pizza party!)
This latest trend of trying to read as many books as possible tends to lead to quantity over quality and the standards severely take a hit. No not all books are created equal.
My first metric is my TBR list. My current stands strong at 350 with about 25 of those not valid because I have forgotten to change the status. Every year I swear the only books I’m going to buy are those on that list and then fail miserably.
Second- End of year best of list (and no not you Goodreads!). I try to hit up the major ones and provided I haven’t already read some, pick and chose some that I have missed. I’m an all genre reader so I like to hit genre specific ones!
Third- Favorite authors. Love to anticipate a new novel or next in series. Also love to go see if those three authors are ever going to finish their goddamn series. I also have some watchlist authors that have stepped back and I hope they write more.
Four- Recommendations! If you love a book so much you need to tell me about it…I’m interested!
Five- New authors/genre. I love nothing more than to discover someone/something new and then go back and read everything they have ever written. This year was litrpg.
Six- Brain rot. Sometimes you just need junk food and I’m not immune to pure unadulterated crap! I usually use audiobooks for this because I don’t need to pay attention quite as intensely.
Seven- Hate read. I will hate read books so I can smugly tell you why your taste sucks. And this isn’t the same as brain rot. I freely understand certain books are guilty pleasures… but if this is your literary masterpiece…child please.
Eight- Bookstore recs. God bless the people who write the notes on why I should read this book. I hope your pillow is cool on both sides. They are little treasure for me and I enjoy read and buying your rec! Also whoever wrote these mid 2010ish in the Stockholm airport book store, we are book soul mates!!!
What is your criteria?
by ObligationGlad
5 Comments
Honestly, I have a stack of to be read books, but I can never really know where I will go next until a finish whatever I am reading. Each book leads me in a direction I can only partially predict, so for me it is more like discovering a path while walking along it.
My criteria for what to read is just personal interest and recommendations from close friends.
I don’t overly care about the amount of books I read a year. My main goal is that I aim to read at least an hour a day. Usually at night before bed, however I also utilise audiobooks during the day to supplement. So I naturally through that, get to about 30-40 books a year. Sometimes when a really good game comes out I read a little less.
I have a system where I write a spreadsheet of books down separated into 4 categories.
– Non-Fiction
– Scifi and Fantasy
– Classics
– Modern Fiction/literature
Each category has 13 books. That I assign to a card number(each category being a different suit). I then will randomly pick a card from a deck and that’s the book I read.
I’m not insanely strict with it. If a good friend recommends a book I will read that. Sometimes my wife finds a book and wants to read it together so I do that. Or other times I get into a fun series I want to keep reading- but I find it a fun way to get a book going when you get into those moods where you struggle to know what to read next.
I read a great quote the other day, “your TBR isn’t a to-do list, it’s a menu!” So I curate a general list of what’s on my radar, but then read what calls to me or what’s to my taste at the moment.
I just choose a number that feels right for me and pushes me a bit. Whatever is ready on Libby is what I read. (Or listen to) I don’t think much about it. I don’t need every book to be the best book I’ve ever read. If something sounds interesting, it goes on my TBR list and put it on hold on Libby.
I usually pick a number of books for the year based on how much time I expect to have for reading. Some years I know I’ll work like crazy, or that I’ll be travelling, or busy with some other project.
As for which books I’ll be reading, that I decide when I finish reading the previous book. I mostly pick them from my to-read list on goodreads, but planning ahead doesn’t work for me. This year I read a lot of art and history books as reference material for my new novel, and once I was done I wanted to go back to some light novels to rest my head. Now I’m about to finish the nine novels of Twelve Kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono and I have no clue what will come next for me. I’ll see what I’m in the mood for when the time comes.