RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[quillpunk]

Raise the flag! Sound the horn!

It's Wednesday!

What are you reading? 👀

Comments

[olivermoss]

I am nearly caught up in all the Beacon Hill Sorcerer books, which means I've read more this year than I have in years. I sometimes have the worst time trying to find stuff I want to read. But, this year I have a very long TBR list and my goal is for each book is to either read it, or get far enough in to know I don't want to finish it. Do I finally start to get caught up on Murderbot? Try one of the horror books I've got? I've got so many options. Finally read fiction by Le Guin because I read her book on writing a lot?

[quillpunk]

Congrats! It is a *very* nice feeling when the TBR list is actually getting shorter (and not doing that other unmentionable cursed thing that I'm cleverly not mentioning). Good luck with deciding what to read next! :D

[olivermoss]

Thanks! I wish there was a good TBR website or app so I could just link my list at times.

[apachefirecat]

Have you ever tried GoodReads.com? That's pretty much my other "Internet home". I definitely recommend it!

[olivermoss]

I haven't. I really should have given it a try by now. I had some people warn me off of it ages ago, but honestly I should just try more things myself.

[wearing_tearing]

A good alternative to Goodreads is The StoryGraph!

[white_aster]

Another option for tracking TBR might be Storygraph. It also (though I haven't really used it a lot) has a "Recommendations" feature, where it looks at your read/TBR and tries to rec you things. I'm not sure how WELL it does that, but if you're just looking for some things to browse through, it does do that! (as evidenced by me just now trying it and going down a rabbit hole of "ooh, I've never HEARD of this author!")

If you've used Goodreads before, they also make it very easy for you to import all your Goodreads library/reviews to Storygraph, to get started.

[olivermoss]

I did try Storygraph, but it only lets me put 5 things on my TBR list which is not nearly enough. I might get more set up there once I've gotten through more of my list and am looking for reccs

[white_aster]

Huh, that's really weird! In my use, for any book, they allow read, currently reading, to-read, or did not finish as statuses, and I don't think there's any restrictions on any of them. I've got an embarrassing amount of things labeled as "to-read"! :P Maybe there used to be restrictions that they ended up getting rid of? There is an "up next" flag, too, but I've never used that, so I'm not sure how it works.

[olivermoss]

I tried getting set up there just a few weeks ago because someone on my flist was using it for reccs. It only let me add 5 to my TBR list on a free account.

[white_aster]

Ah, ok, I just made a new account, and I think I might've figured it out? I was only able to have five at a time in my "Up next" queue. But I could mark as many things as I wanted as "to read". See image here, and hopefully you can see where the two different options are, in the red circles: https://postimg.cc/p96ryBHD The top book there has a "to read" status, and is in the "up next queue", and the bottom one also has a "to read" status and when I tried to add it to the "up next" queue, I'd already added 5 and it gave me the "up next limit reached" error.

The "to read" status is similar to the "read", "currently reading", etc. status: they're meant to be unlimited buckets that you can put many books in. The "up next" queue is a limited bucket if you want to prioritize things, though.

Hope this helps!

[olivermoss]

Ah, I see. It was a skill issue! It is also possible to generate a link of the TBR pile. With how long my list is having a prioritized bucket is good. I'll poke at it some more when I get a chance. It might be useful once my list gets smaller.

Thank you!

[white_aster]

Knowledge issue! :P Storygraph isn't THAT much different than Goodreads, but I remember when I starte dusing it that it was sufficiently different that it took me a bit before I felt I was doin' it right. ;P

[olivermoss]

Outside of Letterbox'd I don't think I've used any online tracking / organization site in ages. I am used to sites and apps being very intuitive to me, but these are different beasts.

[quillpunk]

Might I recommend bookwyrm? The To Read list looks like this. (I don't use that function nearly enough, lol.)

[olivermoss]

Ooh, I will give that a try. I have paper lists as well, but I like having something shareable. Thanks!

[wearing_tearing]

Catch up on Murderbot! That's always a good read. And what horror books have you got?

[olivermoss]

I really, really need to get caught up on Murderbot.

I've got When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole and Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie. I've also got a few spooky books like Dreams and Shadows by C Robert Cargill who is a horror person, but I don't think his books are horror exactly? I may have more horror-adjacent than actual horror.

[wearing_tearing]

I've been wanting to read some Alyssa Cole! I saw she has a new Horror release next month, so it might be time to pick that up. I've read Episode Thirteen and, despite not quite working for me, I definitely recommend it if you enjoy mixed media novels!

[olivermoss]

Episode Thirteen sounds really interesting in terms of format. I really want to get to that book. I haven't read any Alyssa Cole yet, but again I am really interested.

So many things on my list that seem good, need to test them all

[wearing_tearing]

So many things on my list that seem good, need to test them all
Same! Sometimes I pick whatever sounds interesting, read a chapter or two of it, and then decide which book I want to continue at that moment :D

[olivermoss]

I am trying to power through one at a time. Start a book and either finish it or be satisfied that I don't want to. I've had a lot of trouble finding books I like for a long time. Some of the stuff sitting on my TBR is probably good, but I've been put off a few times by terrible reccs or even getting caught up in buzz around new releases. Not booktok hype at least, but... a lot of the genres I like tend to be self pub and that scene is a mess.

[wearing_tearing]

Some of the stuff sitting on my TBR is probably good, but I've been put off a few times by terrible reccs or even getting caught up in buzz around new releases.
Totally understandable! Sometimes that puts us off a title that might sound like a good read.

I'm not familiar with the self-pub scene these days... All info I get from it are from some Romance people I follow that like to do roundups about what's been going on in the community; the mess that exists sometimes? Yikes.

[olivermoss]

I tried to do the trans-read-a-thon to support trans authors last year, but it was all self pub and some of the books that were put on a lot of TBR lists turned out to be terrible and got backlash. I guess that is the problem with sharing based on TBR lists rather than reccs? One I read didn't have a grasp on paragraph structure and subject attribution. Cute idea, cute cover, author had a strong social media profile, but when it got time to read.. not super great.

Amazon is always trying to recc me self pub that turns out to be unreadable, even before ChatGPT. Some of the reccs I've gotten in fandom were... misleading. So, I just kept not even trying for long stretches of time even though I really, really wanted to find books I liked. But, I am confident there are good things on my TBR list I just need to power through.

[wearing_tearing]

Ooooff, yeah. That can happen with random TBR lists out there. Even more so if they're by someone you haven't tested re taste in books yet.

You can do it! I feel like once we commit to getting through our TBR, we're able to make progress and find good things to read :D