TBR Tag was created by Dana Square and A Perfection Called Books

Debby (Snuggly Oranges) tagged me in TBR Tag. I don’t usually do these because, I’m lazy, but this one seems pretty fun, so let’s go. Also, it’s really appropriate that Debby tagged me since she influenced some of how I do things now with her spreadsheeted glory, which you should check out. Also, for the record, I don’t personally like to tag people, so consider yourself tagged if you want to play too!

If you’re sure you’re ready for this, let’s get started.

How do you keep track of your TBR Pile?

I do several things when I get a new review copy in: shelve it on GR as a review book, add it to my personal book catalog, put it in a pile for my next month’s book haul. What’s most important in terms of TBR is that I also add it to my spreadsheet of books to read, inspired by Debby’s systems. My TBR spreadsheet actually has four tabs. Though I have a to-be-read shelf on GR, this is the one that I use for the shortlist of things I can hopefully definitively say I’ll read before I die someday. Sometimes I go through and sort my physical review copy piles, but they’re mostly a big old mess, so I rely on this spreadsheet entirely.

What you see there is my ARC spreadsheet and the tabs for the others (and, yes, those are all the unpublished ARCs I currently have and plan to read). Actually, there are sometimes finished copies on here, but only if they arrive early enough that I think I have time to squeeze them in by publication. If not, they go to the Finished tab, which could be more honestly be called the Oops It Published Already tab. I’m not showing you a picture of that one, because it’s got a lot more books on it. The third tab is egalleys, which I have a fair number of, but I only read a few. These are usually cheat reads and I really need them to grab me from the beginning. They’re definitely mood reads. As I clear out my physical review copy queue, I might read more egalleys, but we’ll see about that. The final tab is the short list of free reads to get to.

How do you determine what to read next?

Are you ready for this? I generally read four books at once: two print books, an egalley, and an audiobook. Each one has its own “logic” for the selection of the next read.

The two print books are my primary reads and I make the swiftest progress on them. For every 25 pages of my primary book, I read a chapter of the secondary one. The primary book is just whichever has the least pages left, so that I can get books moved through the queue as quickly as possible. Long books take a while as a result. This is a weird system, but I’ve gotten used to it and it really helps propel me through some of the things I do want to read but maybe don’t like as much as some other things.

Print Book 1: Until I clear out my review copy queue, I’ll always have one review copy going at any given time. Currently, I’m prioritizing ARCs. I’ve got them scheduled in my blogging calendar for no more than a month before publication. I read based on the calendar; all ARCs are read by publication date. If there’s a day open for a review and I don’t have any ARCs, I read a title from my Finished tab. I choose one by going to random.org, entering the appropriate numbers in the random number generator (currently 2-37, since I have 36 review books and a header row). I get three numbers from the number generator and choose the one I’m most in the mood for at the time. Why do I do it this way?

Print Book 2: In a recent change, I’ve decided I don’t want my life to be centered quite so much around review copies. It was too stressful and I didn’t like how much awesome backlist stuff I was missing out on. Now, I’m always reading at least one “free read” aka a book I chose. And by chose, I mean some more random.org shenanigans mostly. This stuff comes from my Free Read Options tab, which consists of books recommended to me by people I know really know my taste. They’re the books I want to get to soonest. I give each friend a number and random.org to see which friend’s section I should choose a book from. Currently, I’m working on The Son of Neptune in the Heroes of Olympus, which was recommended by both Debby and Gillian (Writer of Wrongs). Next up after that is The Lies of Locke Lamora, recommended highly by Jessie (Ageless Pages) and April (Good Books and Good Wine). There is also a category for books from my personal collection and books from my massive GR TBR shelf, which will of course also be chosen through random.org methods.

Audiobook: This one’s mostly straightforward, since I’m usually busy with review audiobooks. When I run out, there’s a panicked search for audiobooks I want to listen to and an attempt to make choices. I haven’t completely indexed all of the books I want to try on audiobook (I’ve tried, but it’s a Herculean task), so I just sort of make shit up. Thankfully, due to secret project, I’ll be busy with review audiobooks for months.

So yeah. I have a problem. I will engage in all sorts of mental gymnastics and make a bunch of teeny tiny choices to avoid making a small choice. I see that it’s absurd. And yet I cannot stop.

The book that’s been on my TBR the longest:

I’ll just consider this to mean review copy, because if it means the first book I bought and own but haven’t read, I have no idea. Ditto first book added to my GR shelves, since that wouldn’t be accurate, because I used Shelfari for years before GR.

The book that’s been on my review book TBR the longest is Blue Magic by A.M. Dellamonica, which came out in April 2012. What sucks is that I read Indigo Springs specifically so I could read this and loved it, but then never got to Blue Magic. Now I don’t remember much from that and would maybe need to reread the first book. I won this from GR and won’t win another thing from there until I review it, which is the only reason I haven’t banished it to the permanent collection or given it away by now (I do this temporarily to prevent deep hopelessness setting in).

I can if I banish them from my sight.

A book recently added to your TBR:

The last two books I added to my review book spreadsheet were Symbiont and The Inheritance Trilogy omnibus, which both arrived from Orbit yesterday. What’s hilarious is that Symbiont is a LONG book and it’s completely dwarfed by the omnibus, now the longest book on my TBR by more than double (with Symbiont being the next longest). It’s safe to say that I probably won’t read the omnibus until the rest of the queue is cleared out, even though I’m excited for it.

Some slim reads from Orbit! #sarcasm #books #squee

A photo posted by Christina (@reader_fictions) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:19pm PST

The last book I added to my to-read shelf on GR was The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil, which I just heard about yesterday, thanks to Morgan (Gone with the Words). I really enjoyed Keil’s Life in Outer Space and this one sounds like it might be even better.

A book added strictly for the cover:

Hmmm, the problem is that I have worked through a lot of the review copies where I did this. I’ve probably got an egalley like this though. From my review TBR, since I cannot even consider my GR shelves right now, the closest fit to this is Monstrous by MaryKate Connolly. I’ve not been particularly into middle grade lately, but the cover’s so cute and I don’t know. Downloaded.

Or there’s the latest book I added while putting together Cover Snark (and I don’t read blurbs): A School for Brides by Patrice Kindl. It’s a companion to something I haven’t read, which I wouldn’t usually add to my shelves until I finished the first book, but IT IS SO DAMN CUTE.

A book on your TBR you plan never to read:

There are a whole bunch of books that I own that I regret and secretly hope never to get to. Maybe I should just cull them all from my collection, but I also sort of feel like I need to learn a lesson about wanton book collection. Technically, though, I don’t keep books on my TBR that I don’t ever plan to read. Some of them I don’t really WANT to read, but I am sort of planning on it. Sort of. One such book is Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini.

I ask myself this a lot.

Curiosity, for sure. That’s why I owned and read Hush, Hush, which didn’t turn out so well. Also, I feel like I should read something if I actually shelled out money for it. When I get my new bookshelves, I may cull books that I acquired for free that I don’t want to read. We’ll see. My hording tendencies say I shouldn’t, but I probably should.

An unpublished book on your TBR you’re excited for:

*brain overloads*

Okay, fine, if I have to pick just one SHADOW SCALE SHADOW SCALE SHADOW SCALE. *sobs with wanting* The actual answer is a million things, but that one’s so shiny and the wait has been SO LONG. OH ALSO LION HEART. BECAUSE I LOVE HAVING MY HEART DESTROYED. Also, just all the things okay. That hurt me.

A book on your TBR that basically everyone’s read but you:

This one’s tricky. It would have been The Raven Cycle, but I’ve read it now. Or maybe Unspoken, but whoops, I read The Lynburn Legacy too. Bragging aside, I’m actually making a concerted effort to catch up on these sorts of books, so I’ve read most of the big hitters. Here are some I have yet to get to:

1. The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater
2. Golden - Jessi Kirby
3. Wanderlove - Kristen Hubbard
4. Every Day - David Levithan
5. Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta
6. Tiger Lily - Jodi Lynn Anderson
7. Vicious - V.E. Schwab

I’ll get to them just in time for no one to care.

A book on your TBR that everyone recommends to you:

Wait, how is this different from the previous question? How can everyone recommend me a thing they haven’t read? *scratches head*

Okay, maybe I just wanted to use this gif.

A book on your TBR that you’re dying to read:

Hellhole by Gina Damico. I get to read it SO SOON. I’m so so excited. Damico is the master of lols and feel-smashing, so obviously I’m incredibly excited. Also, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, since both Dahlia Adhler and Lindsay Ribar have told me it’s SUCH a Christina book.

How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?

That would be the to-read shelf, plus the one where I keep track of my review audiobooks. You do the math.

Okay, fine. It’s 4485, and, yeah, I only add one book in a series at a time. Now thank me for making you feel better about your own reading goals. Awkward girl out.