(no subject)

[the_rck]

I have got to start tracking where I get book recommendations from and a bit more about the books than just author and/or title. Right now, I see a mention of something that sounds vaguely interesting, and I copy it into a document that I keep open all the time. Every so often, I go through the list and search it in my local library's catalog. The things the library has go on one list, to be put on hold as I have time to read, and the things the library doesn't go on another list for searching on BookMooch.

The problem is that I can't tell, from the information I've got, whether a particular book is YA fantasy or a mystery or a weighty historical novel. I can't tell whether it was an Amazon recommendation or came from my dearest friend. I don't know if it was a single sentence description that intrigued me but told me nothing or a twelve thousand word analysis of structure and symbolism.

When I'm deciding what books to get from the library, I have to judge how much time each book I'm requesting will take to read, how much each will weigh, how they'll read if I'm interrupted a lot, whether they'll fit my general mood and so on. I also have to consider whether or not there's a lot of demand for the title (and whether it's old enough that it might just disappear if I don't read it soon).

When I'm deciding whether or not to get something from BookMooch, I have to consider whether or not I'll actually read it without a due date, whether or not I can give it to someone else if I don't like it, whether or not it's worth spending extra points, time and goodwill to get it internationally (seven times out of ten, the answer is no, but it isn't always). I also have to consider my to be read pile and how fast I'm not reading things and weigh that against the odds of finding another copy if I wait.

I have 815 books listed on my BookMooch wishlist. Many of those are duplicates, different editions of particular titles. I list all I find because I want to get notice when any edition comes up. I'm not picky. I just want the words. I'd love to reduce the size of my wishlist. The current list is unwieldy given that I can either navigate twenty entries at a time or view the whole list and get thrown back to the first screen of twenty any time I delete an entry, regardless of which navigation method I'm using.

I can request some of those books, ones that I just want to read, from the library via interlibrary loan. I think I need to make yet another list of books that I'd be happy doing that with and then see which of those I could get that way. I'm reluctant to request manga through ILL. It seems silly to put a bunch of people to that much trouble for something that I'll read in under half an hour. Still... There's a lot of manga that I want to read but don't want to own.

Comments

[marith.livejournal.com]

I should really do more with Bookmooch. Unfortuantely I'm just terrible at actually getting to the post office and mailing physical objects. *eyes the three things waiting to go out to various people guiltily*

Btw, thank you so much for the thank you letter! That was incredibly sweet, especially the bit Delia wrote. :) I wasn't expecting that at all.

[the_rck]

I like BookMooch a lot. It's fun getting stuff in the mail, and I feel better about getting rid of books when I've at least made an effort to pass them on to someone who wants them.

I'm glad you liked the letter. ::grins:: Delia likes writing letters. As long as they're short.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

I track books that I want to read by putting them in a text file on my computer. Lately I've taken to copying in a couple of sentences of any review that was written of the book, or a note about why I want to read that book (if someone described it to me verbally) so that I can remember later on why I wanted to read it. I also try to include who recommended it, but I'm spotty about that. I figure that since it's a text file, I am free to paste in as little or as much as I like.

I'm not sure if that's useful info, but hey. :)

[the_rck]

I pretty much track through a text file. I just haven't been keeping details beyond author and title there. I should start. It wouldn't be that hard.