Speed-Dating Books: Check Your Shelf Pt. 1

I have a totally stupid number of material possessions, the most insane of which, out of all, is my Unread Books Shelf. In total, these standing shelves boast a total of almost 199 books to sort through, because I am incorrigible and absolutely prone to fits of book purchasing at a rate that greatly exceeds the amount of time I spend reading them. (And no, that's number is not including my Kindle, either.)

Back when I instituted my first book-buying ban as a 2015 resolution, I had about 80 books on my TBR shelves. At the top of my 2017 Resolution, I had over 100. I complained in my yearly wrap-up for 2019 that last January, my physical TBR shelves alone were at 147... so clearly this problem is not getting any better.

Seriously, I read about 60 books a year - at least in the past few recent years - and even if I read only books that I already own right now off my shelves for the next three years, I still wouldn't have tackled all of them. And that's incredibly disheartening, from both a personal reading rate perspective, and a monetary perspective... I'm a huge mood reader, so that sort of pace likely wouldn't be sustainable for me, anyways, and what would likely happen, is that I'd get bored. I also do a lot of rereading during a calendar year, so those numbers would also likely be much lower.

This is important, because this egregious surplus was one of the reason I began instituting one the greatest practices I utilize in the scope of my reading hobby.

You might remember it from a past year's Valentine's-adjacent post: the year I decided to not care as much about not having a date for Cupid's chosen holiday, and learn to love a book from my shelf instead. By "speed dating" a selection of titles from my TBR, I was able to better organize my shelves and make decisions about future reads, in a quick, fun kind of self-motivated way.

Well, I can't say it's made up a ton of my blogging content since then, but it's done wonders for my own personal bookish habits. Flipping through the past year plus' worth of book journal pages, I think I've invoked this particular exercise around six or seven times, usually before vacations as a means of weeding out what really deserves a place in the suitcase. It's honestly helped me determine what I want to read next, and for someone who is a total mood reader, that can be a really big deal. In fact, the presence of a book in the lineup for "speed dating," makes me much more likely to pick it up even further down the road... there have been books I've casually allocated for "Summer" or for "Maybe Later" that have ended up getting read before those that have been on my shelves for much less time.

Here's a refresher: 

1. First, you pick a stack of books you want to read from your shelves, usually around 8 or 9. 
2. You gather the rest of your materials: a notebook and something to write with, a timer (or your cell phone), and maybe a snack or something. 
3. Assemble the books in a stack, and set your timer to approximately five minutes. 
4. When you start the timer, you pick up your first book, and read for the complete duration, until your timer goes off. 
5. Then, quickly jot down a couple of notes on how you think it went! Did you enjoy the style, the voice, the action? Would it be a stretch read, or an easy one? 
6. At the end of your notes, write down whether you want to read it "Now," "Soon," or "Later." If "Later," try to specify when. 
7. When you feel satisfied with your notes, start the timer again, pick up your next read, and repeat the process until the stack is finished! 

personal disclaimer 

Something important to note, though: this entire post and project has taken on an entirely different meaning than when I first started trying to write it, back in February. Back then, it was a decision made to honor the season of Lent in the Catholic calendar... that me giving up buying books or checking them out from the library, leaving me to only read the books down from my own TBR shelves, was a gentle sort of elected sacrifice. One that was still going to be difficult for me - I add, on average, a little over ten books to my shelves a month, whether from purchase or rental - but would hopefully do me a lot of good: I'd finally get those unruly stacks into some order, and could maybe donate what I didn't think needed a place there when I was done, while finding a regular daily reason to reflect on my faith.

However, in the weeks since that point, libraries have closed their doors indefinitely. Non-essential retail workers - like those at bookstores - have been sent home, to prevent the spread of Covid-19. While big chain stores like Amazon have switched over their models to prioritize the distribution of essential goods, particularly medical supplies, others, like independent bookstores have shifted their business model to online-only, as they try to keep their businesses afloat remotely.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, I'm left with plenty of books. And as I mentioned in my last post, I'm having a really hard time reading them.

So, while this project was originally a means of keeping my shelves in order, now I'm learning to appreciate the books I have all the more. I am very lucky to have become such a heinous book hoarder in the past few years, and now, I have the opportunity to reap the benefits.

I don't know, I just wanted to add in this note as a sort of proof that I've been reflecting on the sheer dumb luck of my circumstances. And kind of give a rationale for why I'm going to be doing a lot more of this sort of thing in the coming weeks... provided I can turn off the news, turn off my brain, and get back into reading a lot more in April.

the exercise  

Here's the list of books I picked up, in the order that I read them, and what my general thoughts were on each after a few minutes of perusing...

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe), Neal Schusterman
In a world where death has been eliminated, the human population has been kept in check by an organization of designated killers, called "scythes." After two teenagers are taken on as apprentices, they must decide whether to join their ranks...
Wow. Genuinely unexpected... I thought I'd think it would be too cheesy, but it's actually feeling a lot more science fiction-y than anticipated. I haven't read a YA Sci-Fi pick in a while.

The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1), Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next - an intrepid Literary Detective for SpecOps Division #27 - is sucked back into battle against an old adversary, as the boundaries between reality and fiction bend. When a priceless copy of Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen, and Jane Eyre's Rochester seems to make a foray into the real world, can Next set it right?
This book is a frequent reread and personal favorite for a reason, and I've been looking for a reason to jump back into the series one more time, in the hopes that my brother will read it before he leaves for school in the Fall.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton
At a deadly party, the night will end in murder... unless you're able to stop it. You've got more than one try, but there's a catch: should you fail, you wake up again the next morning in the body of another member of the party. When everyone's trying to catch a killer, you need to stay one step ahead of the house's other inhabitants, or else you might just end up a victim yourself.
At first blush, not as good as I'd hoped it would be right out the gate. I bought a copy for my best friend for her Christmas present, and I was hoping that I could read it alongside her, and we could kind of book club it. Unfortunately, I'm not interested enough, as of yet.

Jane Austen: A Life, Claire Tomlinson
A densely-packed and comprehensive biography of the life of one of British literature's preeminent female voices.
It's kind of funny: last time I undertook this project and attempted to get into this read, I picked up this book, and also reached page 6. Nothing like consistency, right? I think, however, it doesn't impress much on me more than that, as I recognized rereading very little of its contents. However, after reading through all of Romantic Outlaws last year, I might be ready to make this my big biography read of 2020.

The Hours, Michael Cunningham
A Pulitzer-winning interpretation of Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway across the fictionalized lives of three women: Woolf herself, a '90s socialite, and a '40s housewife. 
I haven't read Mrs. Dalloway since college, and now I'm really wishing I had paid more attention. I think that same course is where I was first informed of this book, too. If I read this one, I'll be able to watch the movie as well, which has Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore. I'd enjoy to do both, and soon, I think.

Wine, All the Time, Marissa Ross
A comedy writer-turned-wine blogger tackles the subject at a beginner's level, serving as an introductory course to varietals, regions, methods, and more. 
The subtitle is "A Casual Guide to Confident Drinking," and it really is. I didn't think this would be making it into my "read soon" pile, but damn! Not to be snotty, but I thought it might be a little dumb for a comprehensive book... it really does give off that coffee-table-at-Anthropologie kind of vibe. However, Ross does a great job navigating the subject with an approachable yet authoritative tone. And she writes for Bon Appetit!

Beartown, Frederick Backman
A small town prepares for a major hockey game, but is shaken to its roots when the daughter of the coach is sexually assaulted by one of their star players. 
No matter how many times I attempt to read this one, no matter how many people vehemently tell me to do so, I don't think I'll ever actually bring myself to reading this one. I kept giving excuses about how it wasn't the right time of the year to read it, or that I wasn't in the right headspace, and I've kept it on my shelf for two years, but honestly? I am utterly uninterested in reading about the rape of a 15 year old girl, no matter the ending. There are better things to do.

My Life with the Saints, Fr. James Martin
A preeminent Jesuit author reflects on the saintly figures who have thematically impacted his life and faith journey. 
Well, that decision took very little time: by the sixth page, I was scrambling for a pencil with which to make annotations, much like I did with my Lenten read of his last year, A Jesuit's Guide to Everything. I love the way he speaks so frankly and personally about Catholicism, without judgement, guilt, or pretense.

The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
A high-society family is rocked when the bad behavior of one sibling, jeopardizes the inheritances of the remaining three. 
A fun, bubbly, scandalous sibling story, starring a cast of affluent and affectionately big-headed characters... or at least, that's how it seems form the first chapter or so. Simply due to the drama factor and glittering cast, I can already tell I'm relegating this to a vacation stack.

Sightwitch, Susan Dennard
A prequel installment in Dennard's popular Truthwitch series, this novella follows Ryber, as she mounts a desperate attempt to rescue her Sight sisters from beneath the mountain. 
I've honestly been wanting to read this one for a while. It's a novella, it's a prequel, it's one in a series I share with my brother, etc... but the style is so different that I was a little daunted by it. Still, it feels pretty approachable, now that I know what's going on. Maybe on vacation?

the outcome 

By the end of the exercise, I finally felt like I had not only a better hold on my shelves, but also had come up with a stack of books I was ready and excited to read!

First of all, the "Now" category - like last time - ended up finding two different reads I wanted to pursue next: Neal Schusterman's Scythe, and Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. Both seemed like fast-paced, high action reads, and felt pretty approachable, with one being YA, and the other a reread. I can't wait to get to both of these soon!

I then set up my category for "Soon," with a stack of books I hoped to get to by the end of the month. That TBR lineup included Claire Tomlinson's Jane Austen: A Life, Michael Cunningham's The Hours (and by extension, Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway), Marissa Ross' Wine, All the Time, and Fr. James Martin's Life with the Saints. 

The "Later" pile isn't so much one stack, as it is a hypothetical determination as to when I might want to be picking these reads up again in the future. For instance, I might keep Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest on deck for a future easy vacation read, while Susan Dennard's Sightwitch I might be getting around to sooner, so I can share it with my brother for his Spring Break vacation next week. Stuart Turton's Evelyn Hardcastle, however, I might keep on ice until something like October... I think it would be a thrilling Fall read, don't you?

One of the biggest surprises from this experience, though, came courtesy of Frederick Backman's Beartown. I didn't decide to read it at all; instead, I'm giving myself some grace and freeing up space on my shelves by making the decision to donate it. Life is too short to force yourself to read books that don't make you happy to read them... especially not these days.

Would you ever be tempted to do a round of speed-dating with books like this? Have you done so before? Let me know, in the comment below!