I have many many books in my collection, both physical and digital. When it comes to my physical collection, far more of my books are unread than read. I want to change that without unhauling unread books. My Kindle and Audible books I have read or listened to about half of what is in my digital library.
There was once a time when I had read every single book that I owned, some of my books multiple times. I was a frequent visitor to the library, borrowing out dozens of books every week. Now I am lucky if I finish a book at all in a week. What happened? I grew up. I started working full time. I had other commitments after work that took priority. A lot of my free time that was previously reading time got taken over by writing my own stories. Earning an income, I now had money I was able to budget towards books. I would buy a book or two every week. When you are buying a book here and there but don’t have time to read them, those books build up. I now have over four hundred books that I have not read not counting my mum and grandfathers books I now have on top of that.
I was getting overwhelmed while trying to choose what books to read from my reading list. I don’t want to cull any of my books because I picked them all for a reason. I want to read all the books I own. Who knows, there may be a hidden GEM in my collection of random books I picked up on a whim that will become a new favourite.
I like reading multiple books at a time. So when I was working out how to choose which books to read next, I have broken up my reading list. I try to read one physical fiction book, one fiction ebook, one nonfiction book. My nonfiction book does not matter if it is physical or ebook format. Last but not least, one audiobook.
Finding the time to listen to audiobooks is easy, I do that on the way to and from work, while I am cleaning, mowing or any other task that allows background noise. I went and removed the music from my phone so I wasn’t tempted to only listen to music while driving. Majority of the books that I finished last year were audiobook, and that is the same for this year so far as well.
For my ebooks, I purchased myself a new Kindle Oasis to replace my old Kindle Keyboard that was starting to have issues. I need something that was easier on my eyes than reading off a phone screen which leaves me with migraines and eyestrain. I only have issues with eyestrain with the Kindle if I have been reading for hours and hours on end. I didn’t realise when I was upgrading my Kindle that the Kindles now have a backlight. I can now read with the lights turned off which I have found useful when I have wanted to read while staying with friends and wanting to read in the middle of the night but not wake anyone up, without having to resort to reading from my phone like I was doing previously. The other thing I like is the fact that the Kindle Oasis is water resistant. Most of my time reading off my new Kindle had been reading in the bath. Despite being water resistant, I still don’t trust having electronics around water, so it is in a ziplock bag while I am reading in the bath. I don’t read in the bath so much in winter, but during summer on a stinking hot day, it is nice to have a long soak and read without the worry of accidentally ruining a book.
With my nonfiction choices, it is a case of whatever subject takes my fancy at the time. I don’t always have a nonfiction book on the go since these are mood reads more than anything else.
With my physical fiction books, I could have easily started with reading my books shortest to longest to get more books to my read pile, instead I choose to read A Song of Ice and Fire series first and then after that series is completed I will decide from there what I am going to read next. I try to read a couple of chapters before I go to bed each night, just reading until I feel myself starting to drop off. I am reading nowhere near as much as I used to before bed. Sometimes I am lucky if I even finish one chapter.
As of 27th May 2020, my reading list is:
Physical Fiction: A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
ebook Fiction: Second Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn
Audiobook: The Restaurant at the End of The Universe by Douglas Adams Narrated by Martin Freeman
Nonfiction: Fixing Abraham by Chris Tiegreen
