Sunday, August 28, 2016

How I Use my Goodreads TBR List

I love making TBR lists to see what I would like to read soon. I have tons of TBR lists on my blog. This year alone I have my 2015 Releases I Want to Read, 2013/2014 Releases I Still Haven't Read, Series 2016, Books I Want to Read this Summer. But I tend to read very few books from those lists I make. My goal every single year is to reduce the number of books I have on my Goodreads TBR list. I currently have 352 books on my TBR list. I'm reading three books currently. I wanted to do this post to show you how I use my Goodreads TBR list and how I eliminate books from the list.

1. To Be Read List: this feature on my blog is often hard for me to decide which books to put on the list unless I have a specific challenge I'm participating in that month such as Take Control of Your TBR. Otherwise I really struggle, so I use a site called random.org to pick 3 books off my goodreads TBR list and they are often books I have forgotten were on my TBR list and weren't on my immediate radar, so it is a pleasant surprise sometimes to find a new favorite author through this feature.
2. Finding My Next Book to Read sometimes: Sometimes I'm stuck and I have no idea what I'm going to read next, so this is where goodreads and usually random.org comes in handy. Often times I have an idea of which books I'm going to read next in my head.
3. Challenge Planning: I participate in the Monthly Keyword challenge every year and I use my TBR list to get ideas of which books I'm going to read for the challenge. This isn't one of those challenges that gets done spontaneously. I have to plan.
4. To Save Books I Want to Read: This is probably the most important use. If you see me in Barnes and Noble I will most likely have my phone out to save books I want to read. I no longer have a Barnes and Noble membership, so I do not buy books from them that often anymore, but I always like to browse and find books that I would like to read.

There will never be enough time to read all the books that I want to read. I would be sad to run out of books to read. There are so many amazing books in the world and I'm thankful for goodreads for helping me to discover them. Before goodreads books seemed limited, but with goodreads it is a constant battle to keep up with all those amazing books.

6 comments:

  1. I used to be much more intentional about my TBR lists and what I would read next, but lately I just grab what I'm in the mood for. Have you ever participated in the goodreads seasonal reading challenge? I used to do it and loved it - Angie (Pinkindle) is the one who showed it to me. You should ask her about it, I think you'd love it (if you aren't already participating, that is) :)

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  2. This is interesting, I need to spend some time redoing my goodreads as when I first got it I just slapped books into the TBR list but not all of them are what I want to read some are just maybe some day books, or recommended, etc. I have wanted to work on it for a while..right now it's just a place to put my books...lol.

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  3. Racheal, how did you get the TBR Time Results? I've been trying to find something on Goodreads to do that, but I can't find anything.

    Also, I have 2 to-read lists: want-to-read (the default TBR) and a "someday" shelf. They are mutually exclusive. "Someday" was supposed to help me reduce the number of books on my TBR list. As both lists are now over 700 books, I don't think it worked...LOL. I really need to go through both lists and prune them aggressively. There's no way I'm ever going to read all the books on those lists!

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    1. Never mind my first question. I found the calculator. Fun! It's not accurate because it doesn't take into account the fact that a healthy percentage of my reading is re-reading, but it was reassuring to see that I could actually get through my 748 books in under 4 years—assuming I did no rereading, and read new books at the same pace as re-reads, which is unlikely. Still, I guess I could get through them in 6 years if I worked at it!

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    2. And also if you did not add any new books to your TBR. It is a never ending cycle. I know mine will never be zero. I need to go through it again and get rid of books that I don't think I'm going to read.

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    3. I seem to add two or three books for every book I read, which is not a formula for getting through the TBR!

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Hi my name is Rachael and I want to thank you for commenting on my blog. I appreciate every single comment I receive and I reply back to all comments.