Bookish Thursday - What To Do, What To Do

 

Yep, my pile has grown over the past week or two. And I know there are at least 2-3 more books coming. One is for a blog tour review and another is one I have won. 

I NEED A BETTER SYSTEM!

I need to, and want to, become more focused on reading the books I 'win' and those which I buy. However, that means I need to STOP, or at least cut down on, the number of books I get from the library. 

On my shelves currently are enough books to supply me with ample reading material for the coming year. And we won't talk about the amount of books I have on my Kindle that I've won off Goodreads. 

I owe it, not only to the authors who have given me free books, but to myself to read and review those books. Plus, there are certain authors which have books coming out which I have pre-ordered and will be arriving in 2023. And I do have subscriptions with Book of the Month, Enchanted Fandom and Fairy Loot for their exclusive editions. Sigh...

And with wanting to write more and two classes I will be taking in the spring, my reading time will be more precious. 

However, I do have a serious FOMO (fear of missing out) and SOS (shiny object syndrome) when it comes to books. I think I might need a support group for my problem.

So...

• Cut WAY DOWN on the number of books I request from the library
• Set a TBR list for the month and stick to it
• Prioritize books which I have won or subscribed to

With a little over 200 books on my TBR shelf, I really, really need to be more serious about my reading.  

I won't even go into the number of books on my Kindle I need to read. I would like to use my iPad Kindle app on a more regular basis. Using my iPad overall for both reading and writing is a 2023 goal. 

But for now, I have two books which are a MUST read in the next couple of weeks as I am signed up for a book review blog tour. There is another book on it's way for a January review, but it's a short book of poems for children which I wanted to review and pass on to Lady K. 

Now for the BIGGEST fail of 2022 as far as my reading goes? 

My book journal!

I set it up and then tracked for a few weeks and then nothing. What that particular book, and other 'trackers', show me - I am not a tracker person. Nope. Can't sustain the habit of tracking water intake, books read (in anything other than Goodreads), vitamins taken, etc. So giving it up before the tracker police find me.

In the coming year I do want to do much, much better about being a 'responsible' book reader and read what I take in before hitting up the library. That being said, there are a few authors whose books I read, but don't necessarily buy, who might be releasing books next year. And then there are those books which look interesting. So they will go on my 'later' shelf on my library website. 

I does appear I will be making my goal of 150 books read for 2022 without an issue. In 2023, I will probably keep the goal of 150 books the same, but would like to have a back-of-my-mind goal of 200. Instead of mindlessly watching TV and playing video games on my phone, I would like to put on background music and read more. Will see how that goes.

How did your reading go this year? And what are you looking forward to in 2023?