First, I'm going to avoid impulse purchases of books. No more of that 'I've never heard of this book before, but it sounds good and it's cheap. I'll buy it'. I'm putting a stop to that. I usually buy all my books online anyway, so it wouldn't be difficult to find out what the book's about. But, I think I'll try to wait at least a week before buying the book. That way I'll have a better feel if it's a book I actually want, or if it's just shiny.
Secondly, I've divided my 'want to read' shelf at Goodreads - which functions as a 'to buy' shelf for me (plus whatever's there from the library) - into tiers.
Tier 1 is the books I have to buy. The one's I know I want to read. Mostly what will be on here I'm guessing is authors I love, series continuations and books that I am beyond excited for.
Tier 2 is the books I really want. The books I'm a little less sure of, but am almost entirely certain I want to buy.
Tier 3 is the books that… Well, I'm not sure about. They sound good, or there is something about them that interests me. But I'm also holding back for some reason.
Now, my plan is that I'll buy all the books of tier 1 before I buy any off tier 2. Books can change tiers at any time, but they have to go to tier 3 before they can be removed from my list.
I'm really hoping that this helps me to read the books that I really want first - though, this might just be a by-product of my love of lists and organization and a desperate attempt to get organized. This should also help me prioritize series I've already started.
So, do you have a system for buying books? Does anyone really need a system for this? Am I totally over thinking things and making it all more complicated than it needs to be? Have you ever wound up with books that you really aren't interested in and never even start them?
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Veronika · 477 weeks ago
I have to admit, I'm super-jealous of your wonderful goodreads shelf system. My tbr list consists of hundreds of books, half of which I don't even remember of adding lol. I tried to make a wishlist one but I failed miserably. I do have a wishlist on The Book Depository, and all the other sites I order from, and I always think about what to choose for ages before ordering something.
Great post! I totally should try something like this, but with my organization skills I think I might be a hopeless case.
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AmyAelleah 80p · 476 weeks ago
Don't be fooled, I'm not half as organized as I try to be. I do know that I have a very low number of books on my TBR list, especially compared to some people, but that's because I only want the books on there that I fully intend to read. And to get that number down, abut once every eight months, I go through it, deleting the books that don't interest me. And, truthfully, the books I can't even figure out why I added in the first place. That actually just happened with me looking at a book and wondering what it even was and then I read about it and I started questioning why I ever added it because it didn't sound like something I'd like AT ALL. LOL I just need to quit adding books on a whim.
I think I need to take my time when it comes to ordering books, too.