Monday, March 18, 2019

SOL 18/31: So Many Books, Never Enough Time!


I have a bad habit of requesting books and then returning them to the library unread. I eyed a stack of "unreads" that I pulled yesterday to return to the library.

And my reasons for checking out the books:

Favorite authors - Where the Past Begins: Memory and Imagination  by Amy Tan (and it's a memoir), The Lake on Fire by Rosellen Brown

Beautiful covers - How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery (and I recognize the author) and The Snow Angel by Josie Angelini (and it's a winter title and appeared on some Mock Newbery lists)

I read about it somewhere - The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time by David L. Ulin, Becoming Madeleine by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Lena Roy (and because I love Madeleine L'Engle), Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (and it's a graphic novel which I'm always trying to like more than I do), and Death Coming up the Hill by Chris Crowe (discovered while reviewing my notes from Paul B. Janeczko's NCTE 2014 presentation) 

In order to prevent an intervention for my obsession, I've been thinking about what to do. I've contemplated telling myself that I can't check out any books until I read the unread books already on my shelves at home (not happening). I think the root of the problem is that I read about a book that sounds interesting, I navigate to the library site and request it, and then the books on my holds shelf become unmanageable. It's an easy way to avoid writing the title down and then losing the piece of paper. But the next step I need to take is to pause the hold for a selected period of time. That step reserves my spot in line, but doesn't deliver the book until the date I choose. So I'm off to look at my holds and add the pause step to most of my holds. 

I could also put the title on my "For Later Shelf" at the library. Thanks for listening to my meandering thoughts as I've figured out some solutions for my obsession with requesting books.

Quick, is there anything I returned that you think I should read?  I can add it back to my holds . . .

5 comments:

  1. I have the same problem...having to return unread books. I like your idea of using a date on the hold; I have the option to do that, but never have. I think you just helped me a bit with my problem! :-) ~JudyK

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  2. Adding a date to the hold may help... but I doubt you’ll ever give putting lots of books on hold. We just have to try to read them all!

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  3. At least your problem is free...I do that AND I buy more books than I can read, too. I have the little lists of books all over the place, in my phone, on sticky notes, on margins of notebooks. I think I actually DO need an intervention! Now I have more to add to my list - several of those you returned peaked my interest!

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  4. My problem is actually buying them... not borrowing them. But don't my husband! The only one I have read in your stack is Hey Kiddo, and it was a great graphic novel. Also, you need to read Elisabeth Ellington's post today about checking out more than one book at the library - one never knows what kind of reading mood we will be in, so we must be prepared.

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  5. Your post made me laugh too! I tend to get a little (ok, a lot) carried away every single time I go to the library. I check out ten books, and can only get a two or three of them read! And then I feel like I need to renew them, but I STILL don't get them read. I have read HEY KIDDO- definitely an important book to know.

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