Saturday, September 12, 2009

Weekly Geeks - "What's the Plan" Response

This week's question at Weekly Geeks is:
Do you have a plan of what you're going to read the rest of the year? Have you had a master plan all along? If so, have you stuck to it? What helps you to decide what you're going to read next? Challenges? Book groups? Or do you have the luxury of closing your eyes and picking any book off your shelf?
The second question is talking about spreadsheets and ways of organizing books to be read, but I don't.

Anyway my answer is more or less option three. I do tend to read whatever suits my mood whenever I finish my previous book, but these days, I'm usually picking up books I've been sent for review before I tackle anything on my shelf. Hardcover books usually get the pick over e-books too (and I'm feeling a bit guilty over that, as I have a couple of e-books I've received from the LibraryThing Member Giveaway that I need to read).

There's also a couple of challenges calling my name too: The Arthurian Challenge, the Pre-Printing Press Challenge, and the What's In A Name Challenge. All of them need some reading to be done towards them. Where I can, I'm overlapping books for those (mostly the Pre-Printing Press and the Arthurian Challenge).

I don't spreadsheet my reading, but I do have a document where I list the books I've been sent, where the reviews are to go and when I finally get to them and get the reviews posted. It's nothing fancy, but it does keep my commitments at the front of my mind. There's also the rough list of my TBR pile/Unread Books on my blog.

I choose my reading based on what I feel like. Sometimes I get a real itch to read an old favorite or something, where I can almost see specific passages, or else it will be because I'm in the mood for more like the previous book I read, or I'm on a particular author "kick". The last is what's motivated me recently with Michelle Moran's books. At the moment I'm reading Cleopatra's Daughter and loving it. Not overly certain what's next on the list though. Perhaps A Breath Of Snow and Ashes, as the book following it is due out soon. Not particularly organized perhaps, but fun.

10 comments:

Kristen said...

I'm a little random too.

Erotic Horizon said...

I like the randomness of your reading and the fact that you actually keep a list...

I am famous for blue tacking a piece of paper by the PC to keep me on track - but no major list...

happy Weekly geek my dear..

E.H>

gautami tripathy said...

I too am random in my reading and I like it that way!

Weekly Geeks: Planned reading and Spreadsheets

Anonymous said...

I'm disorganized too. Glad you're enjoying Cleopatra's Daughter. I have a copy on its way to me now.

Elena said...

It's a fun way to be Kristen.

Thanks, Erotic Horizon. The list actually came out of a joke: I'd say that my tbr pile would reach the ceiling if I kept it stacked in one place. To prove it one day, I started making the list. Haven't actually stacked up the books yet to see though. That would be an interesting project to do one day...

Gautami, thanks for stopping by. Random is good and fun too.

reviewsbylola, I'll bet you'll love it when it arrives. I'd love to see your review. Thanks for commenting.

Kerrie said...

They sound interesting challenges Elena. I have wondered about joining some overlapping challenges, whether that would increase my sense of achievement. I found a challenge recently, Lost in Translation, that I had already completed (without knowing it) and that made me feel pretty good. I have my ongoing Agatha Christie Challenge too.

Maree said...

I'm a random reader too.
Happy Weekly Geeks :)

pussreboots said...

I have given into following my whims with reading this year. My post is here.

Elena said...

Kerrie, I'm going to say thanks on that interesting challenges comment. The Pre-Printing Press Challenge is my creation (which means I should have done more on it than I have to date). I think the other challenges are interesting too, which is why I joined them.

I guess you could see overlapping your challenge reading to be cheating a bit though.

Thanks for stopping by Maree and Pussreboots.

Allegra said...

I really have no way of deciding what books to read! Once I kept a list of books I've read, but it didn't last long. My TBR pile is usually just in my head, so you can imagine how difficult it gets to keep track of all those books I've heard about!

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