First things first, it's my turn in the rotation over at Access Romance Readers Gab. Stop on by and read me blather on about readers emotionally connecting to stories, how author's can't win for trying, and stumbling across that well-written story you just don't love.+++++
In the Weekend Was A Success department - I saw Lil' Sis and Lemon Drop on Saturday and we hit some thrift stores in her area. Wahoooey! I found a workable "costume" for the Gilded Age party at the upcoming Deeanne Gist getaway at the Biltmore. I found a long black skirt, a scoop-neck embroidered white blouse, and some Mary Jane-lookin' black heels. All for the Salvation Army bargain basement price of $8.40.I've got some Victorian-ish jewelry at home I can use to dress it up, and I think I'm good to go. Sort of a Gibson Girl meets spinster school teacher look.
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In the Weekend Wasn't So Successful department, I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I wanted. Maybe 100 pages? Tops? What I did get accomplished was weeding Ye Olde TBR Mountain Range That Can Be Seen From Space. I didn't touch my Harlequin collection, but did get through contemporaries, romantic suspense, mystery/suspense and historicals. The trick to weeding your TBR? Ask yourself this important question:Will I ever read this? I mean, really? Ever?I got rid of quite a few books by asking myself that question. The biggest sub genre on the chopping block? Single title contemporaries. I know, I'm a hater and part of the problem. But one thing I've realized over the years is that when I want a contemporary story, I'm just much more likely to gravitate to category romance. Just am. But take heart contemporary lovers. I didn't get rid of all my single title contemporaries. Uh, just a good chunk of them.
But you wanna know the sad truth? Even yanking somewhere in the ball park of 100+ titles out of my TBR, I still own an obscene amount of books. I mean, just ungodly. And dang, I knew it would be hard - but it was nearly impossible for me to dump any historicals. Even the Regency historicals where an evil ex-mistress was mentioned in the back cover blurb. It's a sickness I tells ya.
13 comments:
I am so impressed that you got rid of that many.
I need to do that.
Again.
Aloha, Wendy! Sadly, my TBR pile was shipped across the Pacific in the hopes that I would sit on the beach, sip Mai Tais, and finish a book a day.
Ha!
Life in Hawaii is the same as Anywhere, USA - kids, laundry, PTA, homework, yard work, etc.
Perhpas I'll follow your example and try to weed. But like you, I find it hard to give up any historical romances as they are my escape back to Europe (which is too far from Hawaii for any vacation in the near future).
So that's what you can do to a TBR pile. I thought the only option was to let it grow :)
How often do you weed? I haven't weeded in uh, 3 years - wait, 6 years. Crap. Wonder if I need to do that again. Procrastination is my best friend.
Cindys
Victoria: Well, considering how many books I own? Not that impressive.
Kim: Most of the historicals I got rid of were parts of series I knew I'd never finish/read. Other than that? Yeah, eveything else stayed behind.
Vi: Every so often I go thru and do a weed. Um, mostly when I start to run out of space.
Cindy: Oh gosh, this was my first big weed in a long while. I did do a weed earlier this year, but solely concentrated on paranormals (of which I didn't own that many to begin with). The one area I tend to weed the most frequently (like once a year...maybe) is category romance. But at this point, I think I've culled that down just about as far as I'm willing to go.
NEVER get rid of historicals!
She who dumps history is condemned to repeat it!
I've yet to do any weeding. Getting rid of something that may SOMEDAY be needed/wanted is pretty gosh-darn difficult (I was raised by Depression-era people. My dad actually saved used balls of twine). But I'm running out of room and there are so many intriguing titles coming out in September alone...
But ALL of my TBR pile is historical, so I guess I'll just have to read faster.
Sounds like a fun weekend. I love going to thrift stores and finding hidden treasures.
When I weed through the tbr pile first I check to see if the library has it. If it's not from a favorite author, not part of a series that I'm keeping or I can't remember why the heck I got - it goes as long as the library has it. :)
I need to go through my TBR bookshelf and weed out. My library is always happy to see my cast-offs, as is my oldest niece. Might have to take a few days off from work to accomplish this mission.
Sounds like you found yourself a great costume!! I hope you will post pics when you get back. And how are you going to wear your hair? I'm thinking a Gibson style doo would look very fine if you can do that by yourself.
And I don't dare ask what books you purged - my heart couldn't take it.
Ouf, it's been a while since I made it out here. Sorry Wendy!!
I love Lemon Drop nickname for your niece. It's so cute and gosh, she's growing fast!!
and cool on the outfit. That's the best, something that suits for cheap :)
I consider the weeding as your week-end was a success. Hard work you did there!
A year and a half ago I did a major weeding and alphabetizing project of all my books (mostly crime fiction but a handful of romance authors) and I deployed that very question. I got rid of tons. Unfortunately, I still have tons but they're alphabetized and I have a higher chance of reading them.
Taryn: LOL! Well, I promise. I only got rid of a handful of historicals. Like I said, mostly series I had no interest in finishing etc.
Karen: You might want to employ the "read first chapter method." Pull out some books you think you *might* want to dump, read the first few pages and see if it "sticks." If it doesn't? Maybe consider weeding it? Good luck! It's so hard for me to get rid of historicals, so I feel your pain!
Leslie: I'm trying to do better about using the library. There's no reason for me to buy everything, especially when the author isn't necessarily an "autobuy" and work has it available for me.
Liza: That's why I hardly got any reading done last weekend. Weeding the TBR was time consuming!
Kristie: Yeah, I think I'll be wearing my hair up - assuming I can tame this mane to stay in some sort of bun. And never fear! I did not purge any books that you've told me I HAVE to read - LOL.
Nath: It was hard work. Especially since I own so many darn books. The only area I didn't hit was my back-log of Harlequins. Oy!
PK: Since the vast majority of my TBR is romance, I try to keep it grouped by sub genre (historical, contemporary, erotic etc.), and I did some tidying up - but not enough. One thing I tried to do was get author backlists all together on the shelf, in one spot - but it's pretty hit or miss still. *Sigh*
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