My To Be Read list, my bookshelf, and Dude the cat: some thoughts on TBRs and some pictures

[juushika]

Last year for my birthday, because she is a wonder, notsuchastrangr sent me a slim little Moleskine (a ruled cahier). It's too small for lengthy writing but the perfect size for notes and for carrying everywhere, so it immediately became my permanent to be read hardcopy list. It's a dream to use, the perfect size and durability, more than long enough for its purpose, and there's even a pocket to store my library card. It's such a small thing, yet I couldn't have hoped for a better gift.

I have something of a fetish for my TBR list. When I'm in heavy reading mode—as I am now—I live by it. I'm constantly scribbling in titles and notations, and there are few pleasures like crossing off items I've discarded or read.

Most of my listings appear as BOOK TITLE, AUTHOR, listing only the author's surname (to save space). A few appear as Author: AUTHOR, listing the author's full name (to make it easier to find them). I'm usually drawn to works, not artists—it's an exception to the rule when an author's entire oeuvre catches my eye. On a similar note, when listing authors I'll often add a sublisting for one or two of their books.

I then annotate each listing with a number of markers:

pre:
notations before the book title indicate my level of interest in the novel
? indicates that I know little about the book. I'll later look up reviews and see if it's at my local library, and remove the question mark (formally adding it to my TRB list) or remove the listing
* indicates immediate or outstanding interest in the book—it's near the top of my TBR list
* circled indicates that I plan to pick it up on my next book run—it's on hold, or I know it's on shelves/in stock

post:
notations after the book title indicate where I can find the book and how I discovered the book
(afs)/(yas)/(sfs)/(new book)/(CALL NUMBER) indicates where the book is shelved at the library: adult fiction, young adult, scifi/fantasy, new book, or nonfiction
(n@l) indicates that the book is not at the library
(h) or (hold) indicates that I've place the book on hold
(initial) such as K, W, M remind me who initially recommended the book
checkmark indicates (for author listings) how many novels by that author I've read since listing them
(genre) such as manner(punk), steam(punk), myth(punk) indicate that the book is part of a (sub)genre I'm exploring

Books end up on my TBR list for all sorts of reasons. Reviews and mentions online are the most common source, I take some personal recommendations from friends and acquaintances, and I browse bookstores and library stacks for titles and covers which catch my eye. The rare exemplary author, and more often the treasured subgenre, will lead me to seek out books with a purpose. There are books which have been on my TBR list for years, and books which I write down just for the pleasure of crossing them off. There's a lot of joy in the notation—the same sort of joy found in writing reviews or collecting books. Books are primarily the words themselves, but they are also an act, a culture, a physical object. This is one of the reasons that I keep a TBR list in hardcopy and wouldn't own a e-reader if I could: I enjoy the physicality, the interactiveness, of books to handle and hold.

Speaking of: I own hundreds, probably thousands of books, but most of them are in boxes while I live as an unofficial houseguest. A small chunk of my collection lives with me in the bedroom, but for that reason and because it's cheaper most of the books I read these days come from the library. Even when they don't belong to me, thought, I still love the books I can have, for a little while, and hold.


My current not-quite-a-bookshelf.
Click through for annotations of what's what.
Why post all this? Because it interests me, and because it would interest me if others did the same. I'd love to know how the rest of you interact with books, if you do: how you view them and how you chose them, what your TBR list and stacks look like, what your bookshelves and book piles look like.

And if books aren't your thing, have a picture of Dude scratching to get out of the room.


If he stare at it long enough, it does indeed open.