Tuesday 6 October 2015

The Top Ten Bookish Habits I Really Want to Kick

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at 'The Broke & The Bookish' - to join in simply follow the link!

This week it's all about bookish habits I want to break, and at first I couldn't really think of any, but slowly they started crawling out the woodwork until I was inundated with habits I really would rather do without...

1. Stressing about the Goodreads Challenge
I know some incredible people who don't let the goodreads challenge stress them, but I also know a lot of people that do. 'Just don't set a challenge' I hear you cry, but the problem is that I love a challenge, and the idea of seeing just how many books I can read in a year is too good an opportunity to miss. But then the challenge bar starts judging me by telling me just how behind schedule I really am and I let it effect what books I read. No more! I actually managed to complete my challenge way ahead of schedule this year and instead of moving the goalposts and making it harder for myself for the rest of the year I decided to pat myself on the back for finishing and allow the last chunk of the year to be filled with books I wanted to read and re-read, rather than stressing about how behind my quota I am...

2. Not Letting Myself Re-Read Favourites
This one is kinda linked to the first one, but also linked to the sheer number of awesome books that hit our shelves every year. I become so swept up in all the new releases (and trying to hit my Goodreads Challenge) that I rarely let myself go back and re-read favourites, which is tragic because I love re-reading books. Sometimes I'm really in the mood for Harry Potter, or I want to re-visit Tortall or spend some time in The Dells or Thisby. A lot of this problem would go away if Goodreads would just add a re-read option but so far no luck. That's one thing I really want to work on, letting myself take a break from all the exciting shiny new books and sinking back into some favourites every now and again.

3. Making Myself Miserable Reading What I Feel I Should Rather Than What I Want
Shiny books are awesome, and being sent them by publishers is even more awesome. But unfortunately that puts a lot of pressure on what books I read when. I find my reading schedule gets dictated to so much by what books I feel I have to review and I rarely allow myself to pick up a book just because I want to. It's silly and foolish and whilst most of the time I really don't mind, sometimes it really sucks the fun right out of reading when I feel I have to read a book I'm really not in the mood for.

4. Not Allowing Myself to DNF books
This links in to number three - if a book has been sent to me for review for a publisher I find it nigh on impossible to put the book down part way through and say 'you know what, this book is not for me. I am not going to finish it and I'm not going to review it.'
I'm getting slightly better at DNFing books that I've picked up for me rather than pushing through them, but I'm still terrible at doing it for ones sent to me for review. Definitely something to work on because life is just too short to waste on bad books.


5. Saying yes to ALL THE BOOKS
I am so much better at this than I used to be, but it's still something I need to work on. The temptation to request all the books on Netgalley is something that every book blogger faces, which then results in a lot of stress and panic reading. Like I said, this is something that I've stopped doing as badly, but there are still odd moments where I say yes to books and then think that was a terrible idea, why did I do that?...

6. Reading Multiple Books at the Same Time
This can be a good thing and can also be bad. Sometimes I like having the variety of skipping between different stories, like when I'm reading a paperback during the day and then switch to a kindle book when I'm reading in bed at night. But other times, when I have four or more books on the go at the same time I just end up feeling guilty and inevitably leaving one behind where it will languish in half read state for some time. So whilst I really don't think that reading several books at the same time is always a bad thing, I do think that reading more than three at once is a bad idea for me...

7. Leaving Books to Languish Unread on my Bookcase
Most book buying sprees result in the purchase of several books and usually at least one of them will be something that I'm not a hundred percent sure about but it looks interesting enough to give it a go. Unless I start it within a couple of days of buying it though, I tend to get easily excited by other books I do know about and am desperate to read. Thus the book gets left on the shelf gathering dust, making me feel guilty, and leaving me constantly saying I'll get around to it soon... I think next year I should make a stack of books that have been sat on my shelves waiting to be read so I can finally get around to them.

8. Waiting to Write my Reviews
Again, another habit that I am much better over but not entirely broken of yet. I need to get on and write a review for a book within a few days of finishing it, any longer and my brain starts to get fuzzy and I can't remember all the things I wanted to say about it. The more books I read between finishing a book and writing the review for it, the harder I find it when I sit down to write the review. And the longer it goes the more reluctant I am to actually do it because I know I'm going to struggle (at least at first) to remember all I wanted to say. Vicious circle really!

9. Taking Forever to Finish a Series
We're often faced with a year to wait between installments in a series, perfectly reasonable because of how long it takes to write, edit, publish etc. But my little brain often then has issues remembering all the details of the previous book. I forget names and events - some books are easier to remember than others though so this doesn't happen all the time. However with the volume of books I'm reading, to try and think back to a book I read over 150 books back is quite often difficult. So when a new book in a series comes out I often want to go back to the start of the series and re-read them. Which then runs into my earlier bad bookish habit, not allowing myself to re-read... So I'll want to read this new book, but also want to go and re-read the first books so I remember what's happened up to that point, and I end up not getting around to it for ages.

10. Having Multiple Copies of the Same Book
This could be a bad bookish habit, but also not at the same time depending on your view. I never used to do this, but then I started finding so many gorgeous covers for US books, or new editions of books and I want them on my shelves even though I already had a perfectly lovely copy. It tends to only be with my favourite books, but I have quite a few where I have several copies of the same book, including 'The Night Circus', 'The Scorpio Races' and 'The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy'. Lovely for the pretty lovely gorgeous books, less good for shelf space and my bank balance.

So there you have it, my top ten bad bookish habits. Are there any that we share? Let me know and link me to your top tens in the comments below!

32 comments:

  1. Waiting to write reviews is such a good one. I kick myself sometimes for bot writing the details down, because then I spend a lot of time looking at other people's reviews to jog my memory about what the book was actually about. Or maybe if I started taking notes while reading, buy that would slow me down so...

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    1. I tired making notes for a while whilst I was reading to help refresh my memory, but it just jarred me out of the story which was frustrating. Alas,I think I'm doomed to forever have to write my thoughts on a book immediately or lose them to goldfish memory! So glad I'm not the only one though :)

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  2. Nice topic. I'm guilty of a few of these myself.
    My TTT

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    1. Always reassuring to know I'm not the only one! Thanks for reading.

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  3. I have a problem which is the opposite of your #2. I reread too much. I love rereading, and do it often that I don't have time to read anything new sometimes. I need to change this soon.
    Felling obligated to read something is not a good feeling. That's why I am cutting back on ARCs these days. I miss reading older releases!

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    1. I seem to bounce from one extreme to another, so I'll go through a patch of doing nothing but re-reading favourites, and then I won't let myself near them in favour of new releases! The pressures we put ourselves under! The number of older releases that have passed me by is shocking, I need to get to some more too! Good luck!

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  4. A tip for leaving a few days until writing your reviews is to make notes! Depending on where I am and what I'm doing, I have a blogging notebook at home and I use the notes on my phone to jot down whatever occurs to me that I may like to mention or refer to in my review. I couldn't not make notes now!

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    1. Please send me your note making abilities now! :) I tried taking notes whilst reading but I found it jarred me out of the story too much and ended up being more frustrating than my memory blank at the end. Although you've made me curious whether I might be better at it now... Shall try! :)

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  5. I have always admired people who can read multiple books at the same time - I just have never been one of those people. I really like your list and wish you the best of luck accomplishing it.

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    1. It can be good up to a point, and then my brain combusts from too many plots! Thanks so much for reading!

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  6. I can definitely relate. Especially to re-reading. I used to reread so much more before blogging. So I have been trying to reread this year, and I've been dong well. Although, not recently.

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    1. So glad it's not just me, and that's awesome you've been managing to get back to some old favourites! I'm hoping to soon, fingers crossed I actually stick to it...

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  7. Great list, you definitely included some things I wish I had included on my own list! Like reading multiple books at the same time; I just can't do it, too confusing, haha!

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    1. Thanks so much for reading! Too many plotlines, not enough brain cells to cope! My brain combusts if I try to throw in too many at once...

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  8. I regret exactly zero of my multiple copies of the same book.

    But that bank balance . . . O_O

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    1. Yeah, I don't regret the books, just the negative monies that result... How could I ever truly regret the beautiful books on my shelves?!

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    1. So good to find other people who have the same problem! ;)

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  10. I agree with #7. I do that and it's so bad. I make TBRs to help cut that down, but it doesn't really work.
    - Emma @ Emma Likes Books
    http://emmalikesbooks.blogspot.com/

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    1. I'm really hoping to cut down on some of them next year, but so far I'm the same, nothing has worked. It's probably the habit that makes me feel the most guilty!

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  11. I agree with a lot of these, especially the last three! I don't get stressed about the Goodreads challenge, but I always set it to something that seems doable, and then adjust it higher during the year if I need to. I hope you have a great day!
    Here's my TTT: http://bookishutopia.blogspot.com/2015/10/top-ten-tuesday-bookish-things-i-want.html

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    1. It's ridiculous because even if I' way ahead on the GR challenge I still end up stressing out about it! I think it's just designed to stress me... :P

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  12. I can relate to 'waiting to write reviews' - I'm still new to reviewing, so I haven't quite got into the habit of writing a review as soon as I've finished the book. I have really enjoyed writing reviews, but it also takes me a while to get my thoughts down. It sounds like a good idea to get them done as soon as possible, then there are no worries! :) I also may do the same with my unread books - make a stack next to my bed so I force myself to read them haha. You'd see them every day and feel even more guilty! :-p I guess it's good to remind yourself that you must have been really excited for it at some point! Maybe even read one of your older books, then read a newer one. I think that's what I'll do.

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    1. That's a really good idea to try and alternate older and newer books. I always have such grand plans for my TBR pile but I never end up sticking with them... It definitely helps the blogging to establish a routine, or at least for me it has. When I fall out of the routine everything tends to snowball so I try and really keep on top of it.

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  13. Totally relate to #1 & #4.
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/top-ten-tuesday-25/

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    1. So glad it isn't just me! Thanks for reading!

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  14. Great list Rosy - I identify with so many of these...well, actually all of them. I would really like to kick these habits too! :)
    Michelle @ The Unfinished Bookshelf

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    1. Yay! Bad Habits twins! Always reassuring to know I'm not the only one with these habits!

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  15. I'm glad I'm not the only one with multiple copies of my favorite books!! I've been trying to break the habit for the sake of shelf space especially, but I haven't been successful so far.

    It all started with my favorite book, Jane Eyre. So many publishers over the past several years have released Jane Eyre with beautiful new covers drawn or painted by different artists. I thought I'd only collect different editions of that one title, but then I started seeing beautiful artistic covers for some of my other favorite books, and it's gotten a bit out of hand!

    I live in the US, and often I love the US and the UK covers of the same book and I end up buying both just to look at like art pieces.

    Another reason I have multiple copies of some of my favorite books is because the paperback editions are much easier to carry around, or to read while lying down, but sometimes the hardcover is much more beautiful, so I end up with both. I own the US paperback version of The Night Circus and I've been trying to resist buying the UK hardcover too, but I may eventually lose that battle with myself :)

    I've got to reign it in sometime, but it's going to be hard to do :)

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    1. I'm so with you, the classics keep being given new gorgeous covers and it just makes it so hard to stop! Mine is Pride and Prejudice, I keep finding new beautiful covers for it...They really are like pieces of artwork, and I love having them on my shelves, it really does make it hard to stop!

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