New Year, Old Shelves: Book-Buying Stats from 2022... and My 2023 Book-Buying Ban

We start with a flashback. 

In a fit of self-imposed expectation -  after gorging myself on bullet journaling content on Instagram at the end of 2021 - I decided to impose some radically different structures on my Book Journal for 2022. Quite a few of these design choices ended up being totally welcome, and honestly, darn helpful... and one, in particular, threw one of my absolutely worst impulse habits into pretty sharp relief. 

I monitored each book I took onto my shelves. I started tracking all of my bookish buys, at the top of each month, on a spread I called "The Receipts." 

(And before you asked, no, I did not manage to spell "receipts" correctly each month. In fact, I got it wrong more often than not. Sometimes, I spelled it correctly, and still second-guessed myself, and had to do it over again anyways.) 

That's not all I tracked, either, as I also made sure to write when I had been given a bookish gift, or checked out something from the library, too. 

Am I positive the numbers are correct and squared away on everything? No, of course not. There's a margin of error for everything human-shaped, and honestly, I feel that mathmatical margin should have a higher allowance when dealing with an English major (Or, at a minimum, just this particular English major). But the fact of the matter is, even if there was some how a chance that I flubbed the numbers a little, the overall effect would still be the same: I spend way too much damn money on books. 

For instance, in January 2022 alone, I checked out ONE book from the library, purchased TEN discounted Kindle novels in ebook format, was delivered SIX books from a Book Outlet order for myself, and purchased SIX additional books for other members of my family. 

Of all those books, only ONE of those ended up getting read by the end of the year, let alone month. 

And it was the library book. 

You see my problem? 

Now I know what you're thinking: what kind of numbers are we talking, here? Well... 

All told, I read FORTY-SIX books in 2022. (Of those, far less than half were from my own shelves as they existed before the start of the year.) 

According to my own (flawed) bookkeeping, the number of physical, in-my-hand-and-on-my-shelves measurable books I either purchased or was gifted and own now, taking up room on my tangible, material shelves, is NINETY-FIVE.

And that's not including the THIRTY-NINE ebooks I also added to my Kindle. 

Nor does it factor in the SEVENTY-SIX books I checked out - be it in person, on audiobook, or on Kindle - from my local library. (That being said, a lot of those are cookbooks, or audiobooks I don't actually end up listening to, so... free pass, right?) 

I also ended up buying THIRTY books for other people - I'm such a giver! - which, depending on which member of my family you are, typically end up making their way onto my shelves, too.

As you can clearly see, that kind of math doesn't scan. Not even a little bit. What's the point of clearing books off of my shelves, like I did in June, if I'm just going to fill them up almost immediately with enough reading material it would take me another two years to clear it all out again, to find my way back to NOT zero, but instead, the over 300 books I had started with? Why do I do this to myself? 

Obviously, something has GOT to give. Which means taking a step back... once more, into a time machine, back to the years of 2015 and 2017. (We were so young back then.) 

By far, my biggest month for obtaining physical books was my Birthday month, back in October. Whether it was due to a self-indulgent Powell's haul, or presents from family, or a splurge at my favorite local secondhand store, I got a total of THIRTY BOOKS added to my shelves.

And of course, three from the library.

book buying ban: we've been around the world, and we'll do it again

First up: 2015. I'm a Junior-then-Senior in college at University of Washington in Seattle, soaring through my term on Panhellenic, living in the city over the Summer for an internship that falls apart almost immediately, and then, moving into an apartment for the first (and so far, last) time. I'm not yet horrifically depressed, and instead, only a gentle sort of semi-depressed, one that comes from being tremendously busy, and seeing a cliff edge in the horizon but not yet being close enough to panic about hitting the brakes.

I don't even mention my Book-Buying Ban until after it's already over, on January 9th of 2016, when I talk about what I learned from the experience. My reasoning behind the decision was basic enough - I was saving money, and reading books I already owned, natch - but I still ended up reading 79 books all-told that year. 

(Ahem. We don't need to talk numbers in the wake of this year's botched Goodreads Challenge... but it's nice to reflect on what you were once capable of, you know?) 

Some of the lessons I learned: how to effectively use every corner of the Tacoma Public Library system, both virtual and physical; understanding the emotional catalysts in play that make me want to buy books; recognizing the benefits of collecting hardcovers; the joys of having friends who lend you things without making you pay for them. 

We take 2016 as it comes - and it seems to be, both personally and socioculturally, kind of a loss all-around - and we stumble into 2017 with the best of intentions. We've done it before, right? Why not make the challenge again? After all, we did it when we were just a poor college student... we're now a poor college grad, and that feels even worse! 

At the time, I head my blogpost announcing said ban with an image, of the 80+ books I have amassed, and not yet read. Oh, no. Eighty? Poor January 2017 Savannah might drop dead of shock if we tell her that we're now well into the four hundreds. (She'd also probably be angry about the fact that we're still single, and maybe even the haircut, but she'll recover.) 

My Word of the Year was "Curate," and I was feeling the editorial spirit; hence, why the intentional streamlining of shelves. More than that, I was having troubles going into bookstores and finding anything I was actually interested in buying, rather than reflecting on all of the unread things at home (Was 2016 just a particularly bad year for publishing, or something?). 

I ended up reading 60 books in 2017 - a steep drop-off from, again, 69 in 2015 - but expressed dismay that I didn't end up clearing as many books off of my shelves as I had originally intended. (That siren song emanating from the local library branch is a beguiling mistress.) 

Both years, though, I gave myself a couple of "outs" for my challenge: I would be allowed to purchase FIVE books on my Bloggoversary, in late July... and in 2017, I budgeted for TWO books on Independent Bookstore Day, as well (which brought the total for that year up to seven). And of course, library books were always a given, and I was open and available to receive books as presents, too. See? Totally doable. 

Which is why I know I'm more than capable of doing it all again. 

what the plan is for 2023

It's a testament to how badly I need this challenge this year, in how desperate my weasel-brain has tried to squirm its way into a couple of exit tunnels already, even before the year had really begun in earnest. "But this doesn't count for the library, right?" it whines over breakfast. "And not cookbooks, either? We love new cookbooks!" 

No, it doesn't count for the library. Or, for that matter, for cookbooks (because I am weak, and extremely susceptible to thrift stores). But I'm being a lot more conscious of why I pick up books in the first place... what makes me feel that desperate, wiggly sensation in my chest that makes me think, "I need to get to Barnes and Noble before it closes!" 

So remember how I said I had those pages in my Book Journal about what books I was buying, every single month, "The Receipts"? (Editor's note: I spelled it wrong again in typing this out.) I'm keeping those pages, but calling them something different: Book Cravings. When I feel those intense emotions in a bookstore, or when I find myself wandering through the paperback aisles in Goodwill, what am I feeling? What am I actually looking for, lusting after? Is it something I can actually find on a shelf? Is it something I can find on a shelf at home? 

Am I looking for an emotional release, some kind of self-soothing technique that's morphed into something transactional? When I use it as a way to celebrate myself on a good day, is it something that could instead be better turned towards a coffee with friends, or a call with my sister? Am I trying to distract myself from something important, that warrants more of my attention? Is there more at play here than just a credit card scan, or that pressed-paper, unbroken-spine, tactile sense of physical grounding when the cashier puts the book back in your hand, along with a receipt? 

You know, Book Cravings. Those things you're feeling when you're Craving a Book. It's not rocket science. 

I think that by tracking the emotions I tie to the act of acquiring new reading material, it will give me greater clarity as to how this particular hobby impact my emotional needs long-term (let alone the financial ones). Chances are, there are other needs here that are not being met when I download a batch of $1.99 romance novels on my Kindle that end up sitting there, untouched, for over a year, and I want to find out what they are. 

So, that's the plan! No Barnes & Noble, Powell's, King's, Thrift Books, or Book Outlet, until the new year... or, you know, July, for my Bloggoversary. Unless I want a cookbook, or to go to the library. 

Come on, guys. I'm being serious. Stop laughing!  

Have you ever undertaken a book-buying ban before? Do you remember when I completed these challenges last time? Let me know, in the comments below!

A Fresh Page: Setting Up My 2023 Reading Journal for the New Year

Out of all of the reading practices I've adopted over the years - withstanding, of course, this personal, venerated platform upon which I am currently inscribing - I think that keeping a book journal has been one of the most rewarding. 

Over the years, Goodreads has fallen out of my favor, while Storygraph never even properly managed to engage my interest; the "BookTube" and "Bookstagram" micro-communities of more active social media platforms quickly fell victim to the poppiest of pop culture crowd (and while I've got no personal qualms against reading what I personally think of as "popcorn" or "blockbuster" fiction, I resent having been vehemently offered Maas as reading material by such aggressive supporters, when I already underwent the same from the blogging faction back in the original 2012-2016 years. I literally reviewed Crown of Midnight on here in 2013! That's a decade ago!). 

In terms of more tangible models, I never really got into annotating my reading material... beyond what was desperately necessary back in my English major years, when you've got in-class essays to write. And nowadays, I save my vast Post-It Note collection for my various cookbooks, instead. 

But a Book Journal? Man, does it go the distance. 

Hands-down, it has been the absolute best for not only collecting all of my handwritten book reviews in one place... but also, for organizing my thoughts and feelings for various blogposts, cataloguing how much I manage to read in a month, tracking things like purchases, library checkouts, new vocabulary, and so much more! 

The first step, of course, is choosing the format that suits you. I knew that I wanted to incorporate bullet-journal-style elements into my Book Journal's construction, so I opted for something that would accommodate a lot of personalization, while being structured enough that I would still be able to write paragraphs in it without issue. I use a personal favorite, the Leuchterm A5 Dot Grid journal. (This year is my fourth year using it for this purpose, but I also have two additional within my personal stationery, as a collector for both recipes and gardening updates.) 

And hands down, what has become one of my favorite mini-rituals to mark the yearly transition to a new installment, is by picking out what stickers with which to adorn the exterior from the ample ranks of Redbubble offerings. I try to find a pretty robust mix that serve as references to not only my personal reading habits and opinions, but hint as to some of my favorite novels and series. (For instance, favorites from my last journal included a "Clue Crew" flashlight in Nancy Drew's signature colors and font, the Goosebumps logo made up of some of its most iconic covers, and a QR code, which led to one of my favorite scenes from the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.) Can you guess the origins for any of the stickers I opted for this year? 

The first couple of pages in my journal, serve as sort of an over-arching, general year-at-a-glance set of record-keeping, in how many books I've set a goal to read in the coming year, and what the best book I read in each month was. 

These are similar in theming to pages that I had incorporated into last year, but one has gotten a minor upgrade: whereas my last book journal simply included a series of boxes to be filled in when each book was checked off my Goodreads challenge, this year, I've taken inspiration from more than a couple of different Bookstagrammer friends, and demonstrated the progress by way of a bookshelf, instead. For every book I read, I'll fill in each boxy shape with a corresponding monthly color... by the end of the year, I'm hoping to have a full, colorful bookshelf! 

I left a little more leeway in filling out my "Best Books of the Year" page, as well, as last year, things got a little bit... chaotic. Due to a couple of reading slumps I suffered over the course of the year, there were months where I was left to select from a meager amount of books, none of which made my personal grade of standard, whereas other months, I managed to read eight or ten, many of which had garnered personal preference or five-stars. Therefore, I left this year's boxes without monthly designation, so I can add them as I move along throughout 2023's literary offerings. 

Next up, my "Stats" and "Goals" pages, reflecting my reading progress the previous year, and what I'm aspiring towards in the coming one. As you can see in my 2021 reflections and 2022 goals, I had some pretty lofty ambitions for what I was looking for from the past year, which came about with... ahem... middling success. (I definitely hit that "three book Bingoes for the SPL Summer Reading Challenge" though, so we'll take it as a win!) 

Trust me, I was a lot more moderate in my planning for this year, with a lot of personal emphasis placed on actually ENJOYING the time I spend reading, rather than holding myself to a lot of self-determined numbers I'm supposed to hit. (Imagine, actually managing to enjoy a personal hobby, rather than feeling strung-out and sad when your Goodreads Challenge resets every December 31st... who'da thunkit?)

What can I say? It's really easy to beat yourself up about numbers when you surround yourself with people whose Instagram accounts regularly boast upwards of 70 or 80 (or in some surprising cases, 120 and 180! And those people are like, real, actual people, who work as lawyers and counselors and engineers, and some of them even have children!). This year, my goals are a reflection of the idea that I should actually be allowed to have a good time, sometimes. 

More planning for the coming year, organized around similar mental pathways, but with very different purposes: "What I'm Trying to Read in 2023" and "What I Want to See on the Blog / Social Media" this year. 

When I say "what I'm trying to read," I was originally trying to generate a space for some direct, tangible titles off of my TBR shelves: a plan I could make for myself, and a list to pull from whenever I was feeling uninspired in choosing a new read. Instead, what ended up happening, was I started writing down genres, like "More Rereads of Books That Have Inspired Me in the Past" (like The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, or So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfield), or "More Thick and Dense Science Fiction" (like The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin, or Leviathan Wakes, by James Covey). As it turns out, I'm such a mood reader, that it extends to my goal-setting, too: I can't tell you exactly what titles I'm intending to hit by the end of the year, but I certainly know what vibes I want to feel. 

Meanwhile, my "What I Want to See on the Blog" and "Instagram Plan" pages are similarly minded. As these have, in the past, served as a concrete space for discrete and specific goals to hit, they are now a space for detailing how I want these spaces to make me feel. Instead of counting comments or daily hits, I used this space for generating aspirational qualitative goals, rather than quantitative. And again, a lot of them are focused on personal enjoyment! 

For instance, from my Blogging goals page: "More proof that I'm having FUN while I'm reading and writing... more jokes, memes, GIFs, and general good vibes, all around." Meanwhile, from my Instagram-focused goals: "Focusing on sharing the things you enjoy about reading communities, and having a good time!" 

And certainly not a mention of follower counts in sight. 

Beyond all that, I've got a couple more pages you'll be seeing on this space in the coming weeks... both tied to other kinds of records I'm keeping for myself this year, and personal challenges I'm striving to meet in 2023. But to be perfectly honest, they're pretty personal, and not the most relevant to anyone else setting up their book journal, so I figured they could find a home in a couple of different blogposts instead. 

And with that, our reading year is off to a great start! 

Do you keep a regular Reading Journal as a part of your bookish practices? Have you already checked off a title or two for your Goodreads Challenge this year? Let me know, in the comments below!

My 2018 Planner, Journal, Stickers, and a New Year's Surprise: Planner-ed Out Perfect, Part 7

There's a new year ahead of us, and the blank pages of my 2018 planner are just waiting to be filled. Not only am I, once again, head over heels for my planner of choice, and decking it out with stickers galore, but I'm also making a few more changes to my personal stationery this year.

With a journey back into journaling already in the works, and a special surprise to get me writing in the new year, I figured it was time for another installment of my planner updates! 

2016's multitude of materials - including a 2016 Day Designer, my art journal, a small portable calendar, and even a tinier journal - squares up against this year's brand new 2018 Day Designer and my new journal

2018 Day Designer - Why Mess With a Classic?

Truth be told, I actually did consider almost not purchasing my trusty Day Designer again this year... mainly because I wasn't sure if I needed all of the room in a daily planner. 

When I first got going with this particular format, it was because I was not only a full time student and active sorority member, but I also was taking part in plenty of other activities across campus. Now that I freelance from home, there's a lot less in my life that requires concrete planning and organization, especially blocked out hours of scheduling. 

I toyed with the idea of getting a Rifle Paper Co. planner instead - because they're just SO PRETTY - and using the weekly setup rather than the daily. I even considered pursuing the bullet journal path, because not only would it be a way for me to work out some daily creativity, but, hey, maybe I could get a few new Instagram followers out of it!

However, I had to just think realistically about myself and my habits: at the end of the day, I am a girl ruled by to-do lists. So when it came time to make the choice, I knew that I needed a Day Designer in my life again. This year's selection, from the Flagship Collection in White Marble, was absolutely the right move (and in my mind, it kind of looks like mountain ranges, which is definitely this PNW girl's kind of thing!).

My brand new Day Designer, with some brand new stickers to go inside it!

Sticker Haul - Because We All Need More Gold Foil in Our Lives

A couple of days before the New Year, just before my family was about to embark on our Portland Trip (book haul forthcoming!), I decided to make a spur-of-the-moment Scrapbook.com order for some stickers to bring into 2018 with me. What I found was honestly more than I knew what to do with, and I did everything in my power to keep my order under $25. 

You see, I don't know when it happened, but American Crafts recently came out with a large listing of sticker books - each 30 pages, with plenty of decorative, functional, and washi stickers packed throughout - from all of your favorite artists. From Heidi Swapp, to 1canoe2, Paige Evans to Maggie Holmes, Shimelle to Jen Hadfield - there are so many sticker books from so many cool people, each retailing for about $20. 

After doing a significant amount of soul searching - as in, a good 20 minutes of review reconnaissance and light Instagram stalking - I decided to pick up the sticker book of one of my favorites, Dear Lizzy. But to keep myself from feeling too bad about all of the other sticker books I was walking away from (for now!), I picked out a cute sticker pack from Simple Stories - in the Beautiful collection - as well. 

Back in October, I had purchased stickers from one of my favorite YouTubers of the moment - Cheyenne Barton on YT, cheyenne barton illustration on Etsy - when she first opened her shop, and I've been saving those for 2018, too! 

I had plenty of new washi already purchased this Fall to bring into the new year with me, as well, including three 9 pk. collections of washi from Ms. Sparkle and Co. Paperie, in Camping, Floral, and Red Floral (and yes, I am aware that equals a total of 27 new rolls of washi). I also got a set of the Hearth + Hand washis from Target (which rounds it out to an even 30).

stickers from one of my fave YouTubers' Etsy shop (gentleandruthless), the best Office Max purchase I've ever made, and literally two separate orders of Redbubble stickers that I'm equally obsessed with

Jammin' in my Journal - Getting Back into Daily(-ish) Writing

I knew I wanted to get back into journaling in 2018 as early as October, when a quick trip to Office Max for printer cartridges yielded this striped notebook, college-ruled and hardbound, on sale for less than $5. If I was thinking a little more clearly about my ability to write on a yearly scale, I would have picked up two!

This notebook is perfect, because it is incredibly sturdy, comes with a ribbon placeholder attached, and the paper inside does not let ink bleed through easily (if at all! However, I have yet to try out my Tombow markers on it, at least right now). The outside of it isn't too bad, but I'm looking forward to decorating it sometime in the very near future with a huge assortment of nerdy stickers from Redbubble.

I actually got all of these stickers in the last two months of last year, when I realized what kind of a bargain they were: getting 10 stickers in the small size reduced their overall price by 50%, and there was an additional 20% sale going on across the whole site. Two sticker orders in two weeks left me with twenty new stickers, and I already knew I was going to use them to decorate my planner for the new year (Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest!)

{quick sidenote: When I told my sister this story, she asked me how I always know what stickers to buy. She said it was hard to think about all of the fandoms she's a part of, and didn't know what to even begin searching for. So here's my tip: first, make a list of various categories that are important to you, like bands, movies, books, and TV shows, then go through them and write some of your favorites from each.

Think about things that really express who you are, from ties to where you come from (like my 10 Things I Hate About You sticker), to how you define yourself (the Ravenclaw badge), from things you loved as a kid (like the map from Treasure Planet, an illustration of the infamous pirate Anne Bonny, or the Mindelan crest from Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series), to things I love now (Troy and Abed from Community, the front page of the original Frankenstein manuscript, and the tooth fairy from Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy franchise). Pretty soon, you'll have a solid list of items to search for, and at least one is bound to find a worthy spot decorating your laptop, or water bottle, or journal!}

Having an Inkling - My New Fountain Pen

And here is my New Year's surprise... my own fountain pen, and a pot of ink! 

My younger sister Delaney's girlfriend came along for the ride when we went down to Portland, and over brunch one day, pointed out that she had seen a shop she thought I would be interested in, that sold paper. Upon entering Oblation, we ascertained that it did, in fact, sell paper - from Rifle Paper Co. calendars, to Moleskin notebooks - but it also carried stamps, wax seals, journals in every kind, vintage typewriters, and, as you can probably guess, fountain pens. 

While I was busy wandering around the home-printed cards, my mom was already laying ground with one of the very kind salesladies to purchase me my first fountain pen, and by the time we left the store, I was the proud owner of a cost-effective, glamorous, and exciting Pilot fountain pen, and a pot of Namiki ink. 

I've already decided that it's going to be pretty much the only thing I use to write in my journal for the coming year!

What does your planner look like for 2018? What kind of journaling are you going to be doing in the new year? Let me know, in the comments below!

Table for One! : How to Speed Date Books

A few days ago, in the middle of the pink-and-read-hearted muddle that is Valentine's Day, I had an idea for a really good post. 

While everyone else was busy alternatively sucking face or crying into a bucket of Ben and Jerry's - what the media tells me are the only two appropriate ways to spend the holiday - I had a funny idea for a blogpost about how to plan a perfect date with a book. What kind of titles to choose and where to take them, the foods they'd pair well with and what you should go out and do afterwards... I thought it would not only be a cute take on those kinds of lifestyle blogger standbys, but it would be a  quirky way for a single lady to take on the holiday, that didn't necessarily involve a pint of Chunky Monkey.

As you can tell, that post didn't happen... mainly because my singledom in dating is only slightly less tragic than my current singledom in reading. If you look at my Goodreads profile, it currently says I'm in the middle of two different books, but the truth is, I've been in a little mini-slump for about two weeks. So, I was stuck without a bookish date on Valentine's Day. Cue the sad '90s montage music.

But wait! I might not be able to date a book... but I could definitely speed-date a few, instead!

Thankfully, the Internet - specifically, the Librarian and Educator side of Pinterest that I've come to know and love, and totally gets me - had plenty of ideas.

The UnQuiet Librarian // Book Patrol // Mrs. Readerpants // The Booklight // Beth Reads

For some, it was called hosting a "book tasting," while for others, it involved  a round of "book musical chairs," but all gathered together under the "book speed-dating" umbrella when it came to the intentions of the activity: It was a great way to get people interested in a diverse range of titles in a short amount of time, while also providing a fun and exciting reason for them to get more involved in the process of how they chose what to read in the first place.

Naturally, I was on board.

Here's How to Do It: 

1. Gather a couple different titles... the more variety, the better! 
Spread your reading wings, and pick through as wide a range as you can gather up in your arms, without dropping anything. For me, that magic number was about 8! Picking out titles was a pretty easy step, because I organize the shelves on my TBR bookshelf by genre, anyways, so I just made a quick run-through and selected some that looked interesting. However, I didn't just automatically zoom straight to books I had been eyeing... give books that you've not given a lot of attention to a chance, as well!

2. Set a timer for between three and six minutes.
This is pretty much depending on how deep you want to go before you have to start over again. I think a four-minute amount is probably my favorite, because it allows you to read at least a couple pages into the book, and get a feel for the writing style and narrator. For me, this resulted in somewhere between 5 and 9 pages per book... and in one, it got me all the way to 15!

3. Start reading! 
By this point, you've probably taken a peek at the cover, title & author, blurb, etc... but you also have to be aware that first impressions might not always be the right ones. That's why taking a chance to read beyond the cover is important: you get a better feel for elements like writing style, character voices, and description, which will end up deciding how much you enjoy the book a lot more than how it looks on your shelf.

4. When the timer stops, put down the book, and jot a few notes about how you feel. 
For some, this might be a simple smiley face or star scribbled next to the title, while for others might benefit from a 1 - 10 rating system. For me, I allotted two single-spaced lines for writing notes, and then summarized by judging each on a "Sooner-Later" scale. Only give yourself about a minute to write, because this exercise is all about fast timing!

5. Move on to the next title! 
Start the timer again, and pick up your next tome. Keep going, even if you think you've found the book you want to read next... for me, that was book 3, out of the 8 I'd gathered! You might think you've found your bookish soul mate, but you really have no idea who might be just around the corner. Give every title in your stack a chance, and keep consistent with things like timing, and the ratings you dispense. By the time you're finished, you'll have a much better feel for the books on your shelf, and probably have a few book "dates" lined up, too!


(I know what you may be thinking: "Savannah, I don't have time for this!" or "Savannah, this is such a waste of time if you're planning on reading all of these books anyways!" But here's the deal: if you actually plan this exercise out carefully, and follow the allotted schedule of how this should proceed, you're really only taking about 45 minutes to tackle this thing, start to finish. And even though you might be planning on reading all of these titles already... life is short. Read the books you want to read. And if you don't get around to all of those titles, at least you know if you like the taste or not. )

Personal Variations and Special Tips: BuJos and Book Clubs

Listen, I get it: it's a little weird to date your books. Reading only a couple pages at a time out of each book, then moving aside, is something that would typically make my reading-cheater heart ache! But it really is a great way to get to know your shelves - and reading preferences - and there are plenty of ways to make it more interesting. 

For instance, I got a bit of an easy boost from the proximity of Valentine's Day by having flowers on hand, but also added a nice tablecloth, so that none of the crumbs from my kitchen table would get stuck in my books. Some bloggers suggested setting the mood with music in the background, while others recommended light snacks to chew on while you chewed over a new read. For someone looking to unwind after a day at work, or fill up a lazy Sunday afternoon, this might be a perfect way to relax!

While I would always recommend setting up a table or page for your bookish notes beforehand, in order to distract as little from the reading and discovery process as possible, I also think this would work especially well for people who love to use a bullet journal. Having a page in your bujo for bookish dating would not only be a cute spread idea, but would be a helpful way to keep track of your recent reads!

To be honest, this also seems like a great option for setting up book club choices. Maybe making a group trip to the library and staging your own mini-book-tasting would be a good option for those who have a hard time making good group decisions! At the very least, it would give you a few ideas for titles to pursue outside of your group's reading habits, as well.

And speaking of libraries, if you're someone like me, who checks out 11 books from the library at a time and reads about only half of that before they're due back, it might be a great way to sample, and prioritize. Same with those who love their Kindles as much as I do, and have tons of chapter samples sitting in their hard drive that never get read to the extent they deserve. This kind of a reading exercise might be a means of working through to the  titles you really want to sink your teeth into, and you can always clear out that digital storage space for the kinds of books you'd rather not.

There's plenty of fun to be had with picking a winner title, too, like taking it on a special date. For instance, I've been missing out on the ability to be independent now that I'm living back at home... taking a book on a solo restaurant date or park picnic might be a fun way to exercise that particular privilege, while also honoring the importance of reading time!

The End Result: Soon, Soon-ish, Soon-ish Later-ish, and Later

Speaking of winner, the winner of my particular Solo-Speed-Read-Dating was... Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl! This contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew made it easy to relate to the characters right off the bat, while also making all of the plot points of the original play immediately recognizable. I was a little worried that it would get a little too pretentious, due to the source material, but instead, it made me think of Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld, a book I enjoyed this past year.

It wasn't the only "Soon" rating I had: I'm also really excited to start reading The Magicians, by Lev Grossman. Not only is it a book I've been dying to read for a really long time, but the style of the book was funny and clever, and reminded me of the other kinds of contemporary fantasy novels I love to read. I look forward to picking it up soon.

There were also titles that I was excited about, but not the most excited about, and those got a "Soon-ish" rating from me.

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility  I  just wasn't ready to jump into right now, while Agatha Christie's Mrs. McGinty's Dead was set aside for the same reasons: I love these authors, and I would love to get back to their voices soon, but I'd rather take a little time to explore some new ones, first. Glennon Doyle Melton's Love Warrior was added to this pile, too, because I always love a good memoir, but I'm looking for something I can spend a little more time on, instead of a first-person life story I can finish in an afternoon.

I only had one "Soon-ish, Later-ish" title, mainly because I couldn't quite decide whether it merited a place in either stack. Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen: A Life read very easily, but it still managed to pack a lot of information into the 6 pages I was able to read. That being said, there are a lot more pages in this book than that, and I'm going to need to dedicate some time to it to really enjoy it.

And, of course, there were two books placed in the "Later" column... which  isn't necessarily a bad thing!

When I first came up with this project, I was afraid I'd come across books I wasn't invested in reading at all, and I'd just be stuck with more pages crowding my bookshelf, but that wasn't the case with either of these reads: it's not that I don't want to read them ever, it's just that now isn't quite the right time.

For instance, Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map was excellent at portraying an evocative version of gritty London, but just didn't feel like the right thing to be reading... it seems much better suited to be read in the oppressively hot dog days of Summer, or the gloomy fog of Fall. Similarly, Benjamin Alire Saenz's Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was full of fabulous writing and formatting, telling a teenage boy's perspective in clipped, abbreviated verse that breezily traipses down the page... which makes me think I'll enjoy it even more if I read it on vacation, during the summer.

In the End

Of course, I could be wrong about all of these. My tastes could change, and I could alter my schedule in my TBR stack to pick up one of my later novels in the middle of March! But the thing is, I now know if I could. I have a taste for the books now, and I'm exciting to dive back into them, no matter what time that may be.

I really enjoyed this experience, and it's something that I'm definitely interested in trying again soon. In fact, due to the sheer number of books that currently occupy my TBR shelves, I think I might even want to try implementing it on a monthly basis... I know that setting up a monthly TBR is a pretty popular bookish practice, but I like the informality and wide range of speed-dating better. You might be seeing this kind of post back again soon!

Have you ever tried speed-dating a book? Do you think you'd ever try your hand at this kind of solo reading exercise? What's your favorite kind of "date" to take a good book on? Let me know, in the comments below!