Because Kelly and I had so much fun challenging ourselves to read series books this summer, we decided to continue to challenge ourselves. This time we’ve broadened the scope of our challenge to our own massive TBR piles. There are two parts of this challenge, and both are aimed at organizing and making a dent in our TBR piles.
Part 1: Actively organize, categorize, and otherwise be brutally realistic about the books you have in your pile.
So, what does this mean? Well, part one is entirely at your discretion. You can make a new shelf on Goodreads. You can choose to delete those freebies that no longer appeal to you. You can be as brutal or as gentle as you want.
The point is to look at your shelves and establish some kind of organizational system so that you have an accurate picture of how many books (that you ARE going to read) are sitting on your TBR pile and a way of dealing with incoming books.
For examples of organization goals or ways to deal with your TBR pile, visit Amanda’s or Kelly’s tracking pages.
Part 2: Actively work on bringing that TBR pile down to something that isn’t threatening you with bodily harm if you don’t start reading it. What? Those books are tough. They break kneecaps and take names!
Once you’re finished with part one, you should have a good idea of what your TBR pile looks like. The next step is to set realistic targets for yourself. There are four months left in the year. Prioritize the books you have on your TBR list.
Quantify your targets. One thing we learned during our All Series challenge is that we work better when we have an active list to work from. When you can see your little progress bar filling up, you’re motivated to keep reading. A good example of a quantifiable target would be: Get TBR pile below [X number].
For examples of targets to set, visit Amanda’s or Kelly’s tracking pages.
Vivienne September 1, 2012 at 3:19 am
Looking at my Goodreads ‘to be read’ list I have about 950 books. I am in serious danger of being buried alive and could easily not buy anything for years – except new and interesting books keep coming to my attention and favourite writers write new books.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 1, 2012 at 10:27 am
That…scares me a little. You’re welcome to join us. :)
Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal September 1, 2012 at 11:02 am
Now that this challenge has begun, I can READ ALL THE BOOKS! *is excited*
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 1, 2012 at 11:04 am
lol. I was just thinking that now that I have my reading priority down, I want to read other books. >.<
Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal September 1, 2012 at 11:09 am
Technically, you’d be working on the “get my to-read shelf below X # of books” part of the challenge if you went off list. WIN!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 1, 2012 at 11:10 am
You’re a bad influence. I like it.
Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal September 1, 2012 at 11:21 am
*muffles my evil laugh as I buff my nails*
*gives you a quick finger gunning*
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 1, 2012 at 11:29 am
*pokes you*
Amy @ bookgoonie September 1, 2012 at 11:06 am
Woot!!! So glad you are keeping it going. My TBR is uglier than I even know.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 1, 2012 at 11:10 am
Time to get crackin’.
Shaunesay September 1, 2012 at 11:16 am
You two crack me up! Okay, I’m in, but I’m really not sure how to go about it, I’ll have to think on that. I seriously have at least a couple thousand books here I haven’t read. I haven’t ever counted them, and the hubby is a bad influence as he is also a reader, so I have no one to stop me from getting moar books muahahahaha! Maybe I can just focus on my bookcrossing related books, that’s more like one bookcase instead of the entire house. :P
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 1, 2012 at 11:29 am
Hmm. Do you use GR to track your books at all? If you have a lot of physical books, you can use the GR app on your phone to scan your books and automatically add them to shelves on GR. That’s what I do with mine now. Makes life easier.
Shaunesay September 1, 2012 at 6:50 pm
I do have goodreads, I think I tried the scanner but haven’t used it actively yet, will probably do that. For this challenge I’ll definitely have to focus on just a piece of what I have, the whole thing would just be too massive, but anything will help!
Shaunesay September 2, 2012 at 12:46 am
Okay, it’s a work in progress, but here’s my declaration!
http://shaunesay.blogspot.com/2012/09/unbreaking-shelves-year-end-reading.html
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 9:42 am
I added you to our linky! (Now that we actually have one.)
Shaunesay September 2, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Awesome, thanks!
Shaunesay September 2, 2012 at 9:44 pm
I’m all done! Culled 28 right off the bat, decided on 20 more to try and read by the end of the year, which will still leave me at an embarassing 125 Bookcrossing TBR’s, but better than the 173 that I started out at!
Mariana September 1, 2012 at 4:18 pm
I liked this idea, but I have way to many books. Need to start a system now. Gonna work on that. Thanks
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 8:42 am
If you decide to join us, I now have a linky up!
Cody (The Boyish Booklover) September 1, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Oh man, I may have to join you since I’ve been out of the loop for a few months and I’m not sure where I lost control of my TBR list. *looks around* Nope. Still can’t find it. I will definitely be joining y’all.
PS- You girlies crack me up.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 8:43 am
Awesome! I added a linky, so you can share your progress with us. :)
Cody @ The Boyish Booklover September 7, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Finally got a tracking page setup on my blog and added my link. Just have to finalized my targets and whatnot.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 7, 2012 at 1:28 pm
I keep adding new targets. lol. I don’t know if that’s helpful or not.
Cody @ The Boyish Booklover September 7, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Meh, can’t hurt, right? Or can it? Hopefully not, because I’m sure I’ll keep adding more too. Haha
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 7, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Mostly I added targets to account for what I was already reading. So… I guess that’s helpful. Kinda.
Cody @ The Boyish Booklover September 7, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Haha hey if it helps you! I’m having a heck of a time trying to keep my targets for this separate from my running list of goals for Bloggiesta. That’s a bit of a brain teaser.
Cody @ The Boyish Booklover September 7, 2012 at 1:26 pm
I was wondering though: How do you create those little progress bars? I think they’re brilliant, and would love to add them into my tracking page as well!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 7, 2012 at 1:30 pm
I use a plugin. I think there might be a way to do it on WP.com blogs, but I don’t remember. Sorry. =/
(You might want to try searching for NaNoWriMo progress bars. I think some of those might work on WP.com.)
Cody @ The Boyish Booklover September 7, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Oh sweet. And no worries. I’m sure if I Google it, something will come up. LOL
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 7, 2012 at 1:44 pm
There might be information in the WP.com forums, too. Those can useful sometimes.
Cody @ The Boyish Booklover September 7, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Good idea! I will see what I can find. Thanks!
Alexa September 1, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Oh goodness I would be scared to actually find out how many books are on my tbr pile! I hope that this challenge goes well for everyone who is involved. I just can’t take this on while I’m in school because I know I’ll barely have time to read all the review books I have to review each month, let alone the ones on my tbr pile of books I own.
Good luck ladies!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 8:47 am
Thanks, Alexa.
Felicia September 1, 2012 at 8:22 pm
I am tackling the physical shelf this weekend! I can’t delete anything from the kindle because it isn’t just me (I have 4 other people on my account) but I might create a virtual shelf of books that I want on them! Let’s get this party started!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 8:46 am
Yay! Anything that helps to create some organization is a good thing!
Anne September 2, 2012 at 8:59 am
This sounds like a great idea! Luckily most of my TBR is a list instead of a pile, but even that is getting ridiculous! I think I made it over 500 this week! I’ll be thinking about how my organization is going to work, and I’ll probably join by the end of the week.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 9:08 am
You’re free to link up whenever you can! I mean, up until December 31st.
Kristilyn (Reading in Winter) September 2, 2012 at 4:24 pm
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!
I AM SIGNING UP NOW!!!!!
YES, MY COMMENT REQUIRES ME TO YELL ALL THE WORDS AND TO USE AS MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!
(Seriously, though, I can’t wait to go through my books to really figure out what I WILL and WILL NOT read. I need to get this pile a heck of a lot SMALLER!)
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 2, 2012 at 8:17 pm
I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE TALK IN ALL CAPS!!!!! AND USE A LOT OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!
Lianne @ The Towering Pile September 2, 2012 at 10:20 pm
I’m glad you put a linky up! I get a weird amount of enjoyment from reading other people’s goals. :P
I’m almost done my lists of series books, and… I have a problem. I had no idea how many of my books were series books. But the prioritisation has begun! I will get those series under control!
Thanks for starting this challenge! :)
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 3, 2012 at 9:21 am
Kelly and I weren’t sure what kind of reception we’d get with this, so we didn’t have a linky. And then… people just kind of ran with it. Glad you’ll be joining us, Lianne! :)
Smash Attack September 3, 2012 at 9:52 am
Oh dear. You are forcing me to GAIN CONTROL.
Word.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 3, 2012 at 9:53 am
*hands you the whip*
Get control of those books, Smash! ;)
Anne September 3, 2012 at 7:13 pm
I don’t know about you, but I’d have to wrestle that whip away from the books first… they’re the ones in control here!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 3, 2012 at 7:45 pm
I am always in control, of course. Always. In. Control. And never in denial.
Small Review September 3, 2012 at 3:37 pm
I would take this challenge, but I’m pretty sure I’d fail. Hard. :P
On a more ego-flattering approach, I totally ROCK at adding books to my TBR!
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 3, 2012 at 7:45 pm
I’m pretty good at adding books to my TBR list, too. At least this challenge we’re just focused on making a little dent. If we add more, it just means we need to read more, right?
Logan September 6, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Amazing idea! I’ve had to take a hard look at my review and ARC pile and I need to accept that some of them just do not need to be read. But then I don’t know what to do with them and they remain on my floor. Sigh.
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 6, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Oh! Have you heard about ARCycling? That might be a good place to get rid of any unwanted ARCs!
Corina Lombardi September 9, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Any chance you have room for more? :)
Amanda @ On a Book Bender September 9, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Of course! Is the linky not working for you?
Corina Lombardi September 9, 2012 at 4:50 pm
It’s working just added it! :)