Maintenance Monday

[calico_reaction]

Lists, Lists, and More Lists!

So I'm pretty detail-oriented when I'm interested in said details. In an effort to actually keep track of the books I read, in 2005 I made a list that's turned into the annual book list you see here. But that wasn't enough. See, I love using Excel (despite that fact that evil Microsoft makes it), and I created a "Book

Comments

[shanra]

Sure! ^-^ You can see the full, detailed ones here, if you're interested, but the basic idea is:

"For each ten books I read, I may buy one new/used book. For each month I buy no books, I may buy one book."

I'm like you in that I have to buy books if I want to read them. My library only stocks English bestsellers I've no interest in or Dutch translations, which I don't read, of books which I'm usually not interested in either.
I drew the line when my TBR pile spilled over 200 books all of which I owned hard copies of.

This system, surprisingly, works. For me anyway. ^-^ I tried a ban before this one and, well, I bought 20 books or so in a month after starting. (Oops.) The only trouble I have is that it makes it so much harder to pick books. No more "Ooh, I'll just order this one that sounds interesting too!" decisions. No more "Well, I'm ordering presents for my friends, so one more book for me won't hurt..."
It'll no doubt make me even more picky about which books I want.

That was all probably more information than you were looking for, so I'll stop rambling now. ^-^

[calico_reaction]

Interesting. Though I'm curious, the no-book-buying in a month means you can buy one book thing confuses me a bit, or maybe that's because if it were me, I'd buy that book as a preemptive reward!

[shanra]

Aah, it doesn't say too clearly, I guess. I can't buy the book until the next month. At least that's the general idea. I might decide to buy it on the last day of the month too. But no preemptive buying allowed. So far, it's only Christmas that had me break down. *quite proud, considering the fiasco that was her first attempt* (I had 20+ more books in a month. A month.)