Tag: Book Count

Coming in May and Update

Current reading stats
New: 138
Re-reads: 28

How I choose the next book to read often depends on how many books are on my To Read list.  The fewer I have available, the more time I have before they are due back (if they are checked out of the library) and I will often just pick the one I’m most looking forward to.  The more I have on that list, with some getting close to their due date for return, I will pick up the one with the closest due date.

After finishing a book the other day, I went to look at all the books I had checked out and on my To Read list to decide which one I wanted to start next. I had quite a few on that list and was really torn because the bottom couple just weren’t books I was all that excited about starting because I wasn’t thrilled by the previous book in the series.  I ended up just going with one that I was way more excited about, thinking I had a bit more time to get to the others before I had to return them.

After doing this a few times and looking at my Coming Soon list of books that are getting released in the next month, I realized that Michelle Sagara’s next House War book, Oracle,  was due out on May 5th.  It has been a bit since the last release in this series and I thought it might be a good idea to do some re-reading.  IF I could get my To Read list under control enough that I’d be able to have time to do that.

Unfortunately, I had a ton of books on that list and a whole crapton on my hold list that would be coming available at random times along the way.  I finally decided that if I kept skipping over those bottom list books, then maybe I should just not bother with them all right now.  I ended up returning a bunch of books to the library so I could focus on the ones I was actually really excited about.  If I get really bored, then I’ll consider checking them out again at some point in the future.  Then again, I may not.  Seems I’m having difficulty finding the time to read all the ones I’d really like to at the moment, so why waste that time with the ones I’m just not all that jazzed about?

Besides, a Michelle Sagara book will ALWAYS take precedence over any other book.  Well, unless it is an Anne Bishop book.  I honestly don’t have a clue what I’d do if those two authors ever released a book at the same time.  Fingers crossed that I’m never quite that lucky.

Even after pairing it down, I still seem to have too many on that list.  If I truly want to have the time to re-read all the connected books from the House War series (that is an awful lot of reading because it connects with both the Sacred Hunt books and the Sun Sword series), I’m going to have to pair it down quite a bit more.  I may have to settle for re-reading just the House War books for now.

No matter what I choose, there is going to be a lot of reading in my future.  As if that is any different than any other day.  😉

 

March Update and Upcoming in April

As of right now, my current book count stands at 112 new and 27 re-reads.  Seems that I am continuing with my theme of re-reading some of my favorites this year.  This month, I re-read one of my all time favorite series, Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra.  I probably should have read House War (another favorite) first as that is the series that has the next book out (May5), but I’m sure that is going to be the next on the re-read list.

I’m doing a lot of re-reading because I am STILL struggling to find new authors to read that I love.  Heck, I’d be thrilled with even just one at this point.  Sure, I’ve found a couple of new ones that I like, but I don’t love them and that is getting frustrating.  I have grabbed more new books lately that don’t just jump out and grab me when I read the synopsis on the off chance that something will spark when I read the actual book.  That hasn’t quite worked yet, but I’m still holding out hope.

Something I realized the other day is that I’m not actually writing very many reviews.  While I think it is probably impossible for me to write a review for every single book I read (my current average is about a book and a half a day, so that would be a bit much), I do think I should probably be writing up at least a few more than I currently am.  I didn’t realize how difficult it might be to write up something on a book that isn’t either awesome or awful and since I haven’t found much in the first category and try exceptionally hard to avoid the second, that doesn’t leave me with all that much to write about, so I’m going to work on that for next month.

April 7th brings the new release in the Jane Yellowrock series, Dark Heir.  I’ve got that one on pre-order and cannot wait to get it.  The 7th is also the release day for Diana Rowland‘s latest in the Kara Gillian Series, Vengeance of the Demon.  This one I don’t have on my To Buy list, but I am on the waiting list through the library.  So glad that I know I’ve got some things on my upcoming reading list to really look forward to.

Can’t Wait! and Update for February

March 3 is the release date for the newest book in the the Courtyards of the Others series by Anne Bishop, Vision in Silver.  I’ve already got this on pre-order and will be getting started reading it as soon as it shows up on my reader.  Still going back and forth on trying to decide if I want to re-read the other two books in the series before it comes out as a refresher.  Gonna have to give that some thought.

So far this year, my book count stands at 78 new books and 15 re-reads.  Apparently this is going to be my year to go back and read some of my favorites again as I still haven’t really found a new author to grab my attention.  Not that I have much problem at all re-reading my favorites, they are favorites for a reason.

Along the Anne Bishop theme, I’ve re-read all the books in the Black Jewels world.  I’ve actually had times where when reading a book again after a while I realize that I don’t actually like it as well as I thought I had.  That is so not the case with that series.  I have a feeling it will be the same with the new Others series, so maybe I will go through with the refresher read after all.

 

So Far – January 2015

As of today, I’ve already read 19 books.  For the most part, while I have enjoyed what I’ve read, I haven’t just loved it.  I think I’ve gotten to a point where I need to find a new author I love to add to my favorites list, though.

Last year’s new author was Kristen Ashley.  I still have quite a few of hers to read, but as most of them are not available through my library at the moment, I’m having to read those as they come.

Other than those books, I haven’t been absolutely absorbed by anything I’ve read in a while, so I think I need to do some research into some new authors that I have yet to read.  Finding the Goodreads site recently is probably where I’m going to start.

I was lucky enough to get a couple of gift cards over the holidays, so that opens  my options up a bit more, especially with as stingy as I’ve been when it comes to what I’m willing to actually pay for now that I’ve discovered the wealth of options available to me through the library’s digital content.  Unfortunately, that wealth of options also means I’m more willing to read all kinds of stuff whether I actually like it or not just because it is available, so I may have to seriously rethink that as well.

2014 Final Book Count & Looking Forward

I managed to get my database updated with the last few books I read in 2014 and was a bit stunned by my final totals.  I really didn’t think it was possible to read more books than I did last year, but not only did I do that, but I did it by quite a bit.

Last year I hit 465.  This year, I hit a whopping 509.  507 of those were new to me books and only 2 were re-reads.  I really think I had one or two more re-reads in there, but I didn’t get my database set up figured out to keep track of those until way later in the year.

And yes, I have a database that I built to keep track of my books.  I started with a notebook that I kept authors, books and series lists in, but quickly outgrew that when I had so many that it was hard to find what I was looking for.  I then went with a binder that I could keep more organized, but again seriously outgrew that when I wanted a quick and easy way to see totals.  I still keep the binder for a fast look-up when I’m not wanting to get on the computer, but I doubt I will be doing that much longer as I’m about to the point where I’m going to have to split the one binder into two.

The database started as a simple thing that just listed the author, book title, series and order (if there was one) and the year I read it.  It has grown over the last year to add in additional methods of keeping organized as there have been several times I wanted to look up a book but couldn’t for the life of me remember the book or even the author, but I remembered the general subject.  Now, I have a genre/subject designation, re-read options, a notes section and whether or not I own the book.  I now have the ability to actually go in and search for very specific information and not have to spend hours looking up the books that I think are possibilities and reading the summaries to figure it out.  Yes, I’m such a geek when it comes to stuff like that.

Hopefully with the better organized database (I still have a ton of genre entries to fix on the books that were already there), it will be a bit easier when I need to go find the next book in a series, especially as some authors just don’t have clean websites that lists that kind of information.

As for 2015, I’m not setting a reading goal.  I seriously doubt I will want, or even be able, to read more this year than I did in 2014, especially if I’m going to spend any time at all writing about what I read.  I’m sure I will still read way more than is probably healthy while getting very little else done.