Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Top Ten Book Related Problems I Have



Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.


Here are my top ten book-related problems:


1. There are too many of them. Most of my book-related problems relate to this one inescapable fact. I'm a librarian, so I can't help but hear about all of the books, and so I keep finding more and more books I want to read. Sometimes I wish I could just ignore what's being published but that is just impossible. I have often wished that everyone would just stop writing and publishing for about 5 years so I can catch up, but that is unlikely.

2. I frequently let myself get suckered into trying the new hot book just because it is new and hot. Most recently that was The Girl on the Train. Luckily, I have gotten good at putting books down when I'm not loving them, and I wasn't loving that one and I put it down. It's a constant battle I must fight though, sticking to what I want to read without being tempted by what everyone else is reading.

3. My reading tastes are all over the place. I can't focus or get really into a genre because I like them all and I just don't have time to read them all. I envy the people who only read historical fiction or only read romance or only read mysteries. They really know their genres well and are able to keep up with them.

4. I constantly make more assigned reading for myself. I have a long-standing tradition of being in more than one book group at a time. Right now I'm holding steady at two: the Not-So-Young Adult book group at work, and what I refer to as my "real life" book group. And then there are the book challenges I so frequently fall prey to. Assigning and scheduling reading for myself makes it difficult to just read whatever I feel like at the moment, which is really the best way to read.

5. Everything is a series. I've been trying to avoid reading anything that's the first in a series, unless the entire series has been published and I've heard good things about all the books in the series. (Recently that was The Selection series by Kiera Cass.)

6. Although I have a shockingly good memory for titles and authors, the details of books I read get lost pretty soon (especially the endings. I can never remember how books end.) This can make it difficult to sell others on particular books unless I've just finished reading them.

7. When I try to read in bed I usually fall asleep almost immediately. When I was a kid I could stay up reading half the night, but now, I'm lucky if I can get through a chapter before falling asleep.

8. Reading in a moving vehicle makes me very sick. This has plagued me since childhood. So many long, wasted car trips! There was a time when I was able to read on buses on my work commute, but no more. I have partially combated this with audio books, but I can only do audio for certain books that are easy to listen to, and I wish I didn't have to have a separate "commute" book.

9. I'm always thinking about what I'm going to read next, and it often distracts from what I'm currently reading. Usually about halfway through a book I'll start feeling impatient to get on to the next thing, even if I'm enjoying what I'm reading. Why? Why do I do this to myself?

10. Focusing is really, really hard. I know it looks like I read a ton and it is my primary pastime, but the fact is that I can't ever truly focus on what I'm reading and can rarely read for more than a half hour at a time without becoming distracted. I'm a very inefficient reader.

2 comments:

Krystianna said...

I personally hate that there are so many books out there that I want to read but I know that I probably won't have time to read them all. Plus, my TBR pile is absolutely huge! I also hate cover changes. Great list. :)
Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

Lindsay @ Lindsay's Library said...

I'm with you on several of these -- falling asleep reading in bed, quickly forgetting the details of books and reading in the car. I don't get sick reading in a moving vehicle, but I have a really hard time staying focused. I can usually only read 10 or so pages at one time. You're right about prime reading time being wasted!