How My 50 Books for 2019 Found Me
Reading did me a lot of good in 2018, so I wanted to approach it more systematically in 2019. Here’s how I went about.
It’s only with hindsight that I discovered how much good indulging in books did me in 2018. So I decided to committ myself to reading 50 books in 2019. To be honest, way more books had piled up on my virtual list. So which ones should I choose?
Menial Tasks
To arrive at my reading list, I went through two stages, and am basically still left with a final challenge. For one, I had to go through the menial task of finding out what books could end up on my reading list. Fortunately, I had collected wishes in my amazon account for years, though I try not to buy most of my books through amazon. So I went through my amazon wishlist. Reading up on reviews and also following my gut-feeling as to what titles still appeal to me today (the oldest selections dating back to 2008!), I transferred those to the goodreads “want-to-read” shelf. That way, nearly 100 titles made it to my candidate list. I also paid a visit to my favorite book store and added another 10 titles from the usually excellent selection by the booksellers there. Together with what was already on my shelf at goodreads, I was left with a list of 169 titles — more than I would ever trust myself to cover in a single year.
Setting My Priorities
These first steps are menial compared to what came next: deciding which of these book candidates I would really like to read in 2019. In order to come up with a vague idea, I first decided why I would like to read — and came up with a formula of 50 percent pleasure and 50 percent learning. I then decided what types of books I would like to read (mostly nonfiction, books on recent economic and technological development, alongside some biographies and classics). I also like to drop in the occasional prize-winning novel.
Using an App
Based on this, I created a number of tags on goodreads mirroring these categories. I also created a shelf called “50 for 2019”. As a last step, I sorted all the books from my goodreads “Want-to-read” shelf in descending order of ratings, and transferred the first 50 of those onto the newly-created shelf. As I went, I tagged the selected works, thus assuring myself that I chose books according to my liking and desired mix. Surprisingly, what I came up with was pretty close to what I had intended. I only took the liberty of excluding “duplicates” by the same author, and deciding on the fly which one to keep. I swiftly deleted the other one from my shelves altogether, convinced that I will find plenty of books to read a I go. One additional type of tag I used was for the months, such as jan19, feb19… That way, I can sort through my list quickly and take care of my book supply in time for the month a title is due.
A Final Challenge
Now I am set for the new year, and will even be able to buy (or order) the first 2 or 3 from my local bookstore tomorrow, December 31st! Yet, there is one challenge I see come up. And that is my itching to jump at “hyped” books and prize-winners as they are announced. By nature, 2019s prize-winning books have not been coronated today. But once they will have been, how will I adapt my priorities and decision-making?
Do you have any experience with reading a lot, or on a broad range of topics? Do you use any apps to manage your reading? I would be happy to exchange on these topics, or any other you bring up, in the comment section.
