How to limit that to be read stack

[jbcohen]

A lot of us here have very large to be read stacks and frequently spend a large chunk of their incomes on both printed and electronic books. This begs the obvious question what is a sucessfull method to limit the growth of the to be read stack and restrain our urges to spend a sizable chunk of our family income on books? I have always found that the best way to accomplish this feet is to limit the sources that I buy from. I buy printed books from Gold Eagle, a division of Harlaquin books who publish the Mack Bolan saga of books (for those who are interested in the mack bolan books here is a web site that talks all about them - mackbolan.com, and readgoldeagle.blogspot.com) and Baen's monthly bundle. Since the sources are limited that puts a lid on the cost that I am spending each month to entertain myself. Obviously since they are free of charge I am welcome to acquire any of the free books from Amazon, Baen or wherever I might find them. I bet other members have different ways to limit the to be read stack and avoid reading themselves out of the monthly rent or mortgage.

[Asawi]

Money isn't a problem for me, since I borrow almost all my book from libraries.
The TBR list length IS a problem though...
That list is way too long, and for every book I take away from it, it seems I add two. <sigh>.
Relying on library books there is also the constant problem of books on the waitlist coming in about three at a time. Strangley enough there's NEVER the opposite problem: Nothing to read! But then that would be far worse, wouldn't it?!

So no, I don't have any good strategies at all! None whatsoever!

[DiapDealer]

Keep reading and stop acquiring is the only way to put a dent in your TBR pile.

But if you're getting them free and/or cheap (or you're not hurting for money), why on earth would it matter how big the stack gets? Almost everything has been on my TBR list from the time I learned how to read. I've just never "formalized" the list.

[Teknikal]

Same problem here I think my problem stems from me reading way to many different series it's at the stage where by the time I get through one book there are usually another two or three released elsewhere.

I don't really think it's a real issue though I just read the one that interests me most first and I prefer having some options to fall back on.

[jbcohen]

I posted a link to an article some time ago from the Washingtion Post that talked about the dificulties various librarys are having attempting to acquire the boosk that you and I want to borrow. Seems the problem is that publishers are attempting to kill off public libraries they would rather you and I buy per book that we get from them. As I have said frequently in these pages that the slogan for my local library should be - What ever you want we don't have it - what ever you don't want we got. I tend to do my business with publishers that are quite happy to sell to libraries, I have asked them neither Gold Eagle nor Baen have any problem selling any book to the library as long as the library comes back to buy more books from them. What these publishers are looking for is long term customers rather than the customer that buys one or two boosk from them and disapears. They want customers that buy and buy and buy they make more from long run customers then the one time buyer.

How are you going to limit the growth of the to be read stack Asa?

[HomeInMyShoes]

I have two piles. Potentials to To Be's. I tend not to pick up too many freebies. I only have a finite amount of time in my life to read. Stockpiling past six months is just ludicrous because what I am interested in changes all the time. I put freebies into the potentials unless they are on the immediately want to read list which is pretty doubtful. Most freebie stuff tends to be marginal on my interest level.

I give myself a strict budget of $20 a month (about $0.67 a day). I've done that for the last eight months and I'm fifty bucks under budget so far. It makes me really look for deals and minimize purchases by reading more public domain, and more from my library. I don't limit myself to e-books which means I have access to almost anything I want to read through my library. I've only found a couple of things I actually had to buy in the last couple of years.

[copyrite]

Don't go lookin' for books to be added.

(Should try taking my own advice!)

[ekster]

Ever sense I got the ereader, my to read list definitely grew... I used to read through every book, regardless of how I felt about the book at the beginning, the middle or the end.

But I learned to stop and be more selective. I pay a lot more attention to the preview, and if it doesn't interest me, I skip the book. If I keep reading the book and nothing grabs my attention, I just put it away (it's okay to go through some chapters that seems low or uninteresting, but if not a single one has my attention, it's time to move on.) If I keep skipping a certain title over and over when picking a new book to read, I just remove it afterwards.

Yeah, I miss some books... but it's not like I can read everything anyway. I rather spend more time with titles that hold my attention that just reading for the sake of finishing the book.

[jbcohen]

I have found in my travels in reading that when I read one book by a new author and I like that author's writting I will generally like the other books that author has written. However, there is a few exceptions to even that rule, Mercedes Lackey, I seem to like some of her books and not others. As a consequence I tend to read everything ever written by a particular author. I have been told by a pal that writes the previews for a living that the previews are rarely written by the author and are written to make the book seems exciting, therefore I do nto think that you can tell much by the preview for the book. I typically require a free page so I can determine if I like the authors writing. Not something that tends to be a tall order since Amazon and Google books are happy to show me one page for nothing.

[ekster]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I have been told by a pal that writes the previews for a living that the previews are rarely written by the author and are written to make the book seems exciting, therefore I do nto think that you can tell much by the preview for the book. I typically require a free page so I can determine if I like the authors writing. Not something that tends to be a tall order since Amazon and Google books are happy to show me one page for nothing.

Good to know about the previews. I didn't think that they would do that but it explains some of the disappointments I've had in the past.
But I meant more the first few chapters that we can easily access now thanks to ebooks, not those special previews found all around. Or just go to a bookstore and read the paperbook for a bit.

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by copyrite

Don't go lookin' for books to be added.

Yep, that's what I would need to do. But probably never will! And honestly, this forum doesn't help much.
Every month's book club discussion adds a couple of book to my TBR.

[copyrite]

Yeah I'd have to stop reading my favorite authors' blogs, where they also mention what they like to read. ARGH!

[Redcard]

Here's how I do it. I use the kindle samples to my advantage.

If I want to read a book, I get the sample. I then read it. If I like it, I put it in a stack/file listing. One week later, I read the sample again. If I still like it, it goes into the final stack. That stack, I read it again one week later, and make a decision on buying it or not.

For free books, I give myself ten percent of the book. I'll read through ten percent, and decide at that point "Is it worth continuing?" Usually, this is not even to the first plot point. If it's not, I stop.

Fanfiction (yeah, I read that too), I read the first chapter and decide to move on or not.

All of these things are very good ways of cutting that list down dramatically.

[jbcohen]

I would recommend ekster looking up specific books that you are interested in and doing two things: 1) Go to amazon and query their database and read the excerpt that amazon gives you for $0 and see if you like that and if you do that's probably a pretty good indicator that you will like the book that you are contemplating, while I understand you have a Sony PRS reader it still does not hurt to read the free page from amazon, I don't know if Sony will show you a page for free; 2) look at the books that you have read already and the author that wrote those and look at the web sites for those authors and pick up other books that the author has published. I find that this quite often works great, for example: I read Lion of the Farside by John Dalmas and that one was great so I went and picked up a copy of the General's President also by John Dalmas and that was excellent as well. I also have a copy of another Dalmas book that I will read shortly. However, I have found that this rule has some exceptions as well, for example Mercedes Lackey, a lot of mobile forums members have told me that her writing is some times great and sometimes not so great so just because I like her book called Bedlam's Bard however I am having a hard time getting interested in Secret World series,

[DianNC]

Originally Posted by Asawi

And honestly, this forum doesn't help much.

That's how my TBR list became so lengthy! I try to limit my time spent on browsing the Reading Recommendations thread, but it takes real discipline. So much good info there!

I do manage to find a lot of recommended books through my local libraries (I'm fortunate to have 3 as resources), but that doesn't diminish my TBR list much -- it just grows my 'Wish List'!!