Member-only story
New Year’s Resolution: I’ll Pare Down My Reading List — to Just 50 Books!
Transforming my “to be read” list into an achievable goal
Avid reader here.
Two decades ago, I began tracking books: those I’ve read cover-to-cover, plus the titles I’ve heard of and might like to read.
Now that I’m in my mid-forties, the result is a list of thousands of titles: 2,000 read, 3,000 unread.
Because I’m not caught up at my current rate, if I stick with my current rate I’ll never catch up.
When I’m in my mid-sixties, I’ll have 4,000 read, 6,000 unread.
When I’m in my mid-eighties, I’ll have 6,000 read, 9,000 unread.
That might be OK. I don’t have an obligation to read everything on my “to be read” list.
However, because I’ve put effort into identifying those books, I’d prefer that my list be useful to me. The point of my list is for me to consult it. As long as the list is enormous, it isn’t practical for me. I don’t have time to repeatedly analyze my own uncategorized list of thousands of titles just to find the next one I want to read.
I have to do something different.
