SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

This is how I plan out my reading. How do you guys plan yours? :D

July2021

I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to add pictures to this site...wish they would update some things...not like Bezos doesn't have the money...lol

Like this?


(And to answer the question: I don't really).

I don't really plan my reading as such. For me it's a prep a book for every occasion. I always bring a book to work, also a couple of e-books on the phone, I also always bring my kindle with me everywhere in case I'm waiting or sitting somewhere and a book on the night stand and a book I read together with my partner when we get a chance.

Jemppu wrote: "



Like this?


(And to answer the question: I don't really)."

How did you do that? O.o

Barbara wrote: "I don't really plan my reading as such. For me it's a prep a book for every occasion. I always bring a book to work, also a couple of e-books on the phone, I also always bring my kindle with me eve..."

Nice! I read mostly on my kindle anymore. I try not to carry books around. If I have a physical copy of a book I try to keep it on the nightstand for nighttime reading, but I don't really come across physical copies of books very often...my kindle is just so convenient...

I use a text note in a notekeeping app (Simplenote). I list about a dozen books out of the much larger pool of what I own or what is otherwise available. If there is no time constraint such as a starting date for a group read, I just pick one that matches my mood.

@James Clarke: The city I live in has this amazing second hand book place, I would shop there or the local waterstones while having coffee. I always liked having physical media, but the kindle is so handy, especially with the more heafty volumes. :D

I use a spreadsheet with all the TBR books on one tab and then the other tabs are for the various challenges I'm taking part in with one final tab combining all those challenges into one spreadsheet. I then just pick and choose as the fancy strikes me. Blue is completed, orange is in process and whites are haven't started yet

image:

you're all so organized, i love it

satisfaction comes from all all blue spreadsheet and (hopefully) a lot of good reading experiences (though a few have been bad this year)

I have never planned on what to read; I'm very much a mood-reader.

I generally only plan for my three RNG picks each month but I also have a copy of the group spreadsheet that I use to pick library books. I have a column for where within the five library systems I have cards to the books reside.

CBRetriever wrote: "I use a spreadsheet with all the TBR books on one tab and then the other tabs are for the various challenges I'm taking part in with one final tab combining all those challenges into one spreadshee..."

I really like this idea! That makes it really flexible! Good deal!

James wrote: "How did you do that? O.o"

Adding an image is easy - from your link, you can right-click on the image and copy image URL: https://i.imgur.com/5Hg1eiz.jpeg

From there you just need to type in the image HTML (can be found under the "some html is ok" link) into this comment box: 〈img src="URL you copied here"〉(Those represent the < and > brackets.)
You can leave it the default size or add height="# of amount of pixels", or width the same way, after the quoted URL and before the close bracket. I usually just use one or the other and GR will automatically keep the correct ratio.

Like this: 〈img src="URL you copied here" height="300"〉

OK... Hope that helped. :)
To answer your question - I do not plan my reading like that. My plans usually consist of "I WANT TO READ ALL OF THE BOOKS RIGHT NOW" and then starting like 12 of them at a time and seeing what sticks.

The calendar is very cool. I’m curious, what do you do if you want to insert a book in the middle? Or if you get ahead/fall behind on your scheduled dates and need to shuffle things around? Do you have to manually change the dates on everything after the first book you change, or does it do that automatically?

I gravitate toward Excel for most things, and this is no exception. I like being able to see a lot of info in a relatively small space, with filtering options, sorting, searching, formulas, etc. Plus I have other tabs on my worksheet for the group shelves, audiobooks, and whatever other random book-related things I want to plot out. Sometimes I even use it for temporary non-book-related things just because I’m in this spreadsheet so often that it’s convenient.

I create my schedule by choosing the reading order for the next several books I want to read, with a rough estimate of how many days it will take but not a precise schedule. My planning process goes something like this:
● Find various series for which I already have at least the first book on Kindle, that I’m interested in reading. Since I like to read related books together, I put the entire series on my schedule. If I decide I don’t like it, then I’ll abandon it and either slide everything else forward or insert something new to take its place.
● I try to alternate my series picks between SF and Fantasy to keep some variety, but it depends on what I currently have available.
● In-between each series, and in-between every 3-4 books in a longer series, I insert standalones. These range from books I already have on my Kindle, to group reads, to my quarterly classic selections.
● If a standalone book gets chosen by this group at a good time for me, either when I’m not in the middle of a series or I don’t mind taking a break from it, then I insert it on my schedule to read at the appropriate time. I’ll either take something off to make room for it, or move the original book down to another position on the schedule, or just let the entire schedule shift down, depending on the situation.
● It doesn’t happen often, but if I don’t have any owned books I’m interested in scheduling, then I’ll use the group shelf and pick something I haven’t read yet. Most of my owned books are from the group shelf anyway, because I’ll pick them up when I see them go on sale.

The standalones tend to get moved around a lot, but my series plans usually stay the same. I’m whatever the opposite of a mood reader is, plus I prefer to go into a book completely blind which means I don’t usually know what mood a book will suit anyway. I enjoy having a plan so that I’m never dithering about what to read next, with the freedom to change things if I want to. Whether we’re talking about books or something else, I find that if I don’t get plans down in writing somewhere, my mind just keeps re-making that plan and won’t leave me in peace until I’ve written it down. Once my mind is confident I won’t forget what it wants me to do, then it shuts up until it finds something else to bug me about.

Below is a screen shot of how my schedule looks at the moment. I need to add some more stuff on there, in case I bounce off one or both of the upcoming series I have planned. I’m usually planned a little further out than this. Gray rows are books I’ve finished (there are hundreds of gray rows not shown above), and the blue and pink rows are just random colors I picked to help me visually group series books together while the unhighlighted rows represent standalone books. (I’m treating The Broken Empire and The Red Queen’s War as all one series since they’re in a shared universe based on my understanding.)

The Est. Finish is calculated based on # of pages and whatever average pages per day I think I’m currently hitting. It calculates from whenever the last “Act. Finish” date is that I’ve filled out, so if I finish my current book today, 3 days early (I wish!), all the future est. dates will automatically adjust forward by 3 days. I’ve changed my pages/day in the formula a few times over the years. It’s at an all-time low of 50/day right now and as you can see I’m not doing very well at hitting even that lately. I don’t try to meet those dates though, they’re just there to help me try to position some of the time-sensitive things correctly, such as my quarterly classic reads and group reads. Plus it’s nice to have a general idea of what I’ll be reading this summer, this fall, etc.



(Sorry... if I respond to a post that includes "plan" in the title, odds are that my reply will be ridiculously long!)

YouKneeK wrote: "The calendar is very cool. I’m curious, what do you do if you want to insert a book in the middle? Or if you get ahead/fall behind on your scheduled dates and need to shuffle things around? Do you ..."

Wow! That is great. I am honestly barely into the beginnings of planning out my reading. My main reason for planning my reading out is I tend to go on a big kick of reading for a month or two, then it kind of dies. I want something that will continue the motivation, even if it is at a lower pace. For the past few weeks I have been hitting about 110 pages per day on the kindle, and no idea yet on the audiobooks yet. I set myself up to read 100 pages a day, so I am about a day ahead of schedule. I am just immediately going on to the next book. If I start to get days ahead I might give myself a break or throw another book in the middle. I'm not sure yet. I am not even sure if I like this way yet. I have the audiobook and the kindle books I am currently listening to and reading in there. I really like what you have, and if this way doesn't work out I just might steal yours...lol.

That makes sense, plans can be very motivating for some people, myself included!

I’ve only just started listening to audiobooks regularly this year. I’m tracking that on a separate tab of my sheet, but I haven’t gotten quite as organized with it yet.

And you can’t steal anything from my post, because I give it freely. ;)

Ha! Thanks!

Yall people are too smart for me. If I was to try and plan something I'd be stuck trying to think how to plan it and I would never read. I'm more of a try to write another chapter guy, get stuck pick up a book and read guy.

Lol I just find a book that sounds good

I'm in a challenge group on Goodreads and I make a monthly plan there. Then I ignore it and just read whatever is overdue back to the library.

The detailed planning some conduct is very impressive and I feel a pang of jealousy. If only I were like that! But I'm not, LOL. Like some others, I'm a mood reader too, and often flip between books when the mood changes. I usually have several books on the go at once.

Barbara like you I like to have my kindle or a book with me wherever I go, just in case I have a few minutes downtime. I have a slightly ridiculous dread of being caught somewhere hanging around with nothing to do and NO BOOK to read. LOL.

I do try to stick with general time-frames for challenge reads, and when a beloved author brings out a new book, I usually drop everything and dive straight in. Otherwise, my choices are pretty random.

My planing goes very well. I have a spread sheet, select a few tasks and find books for them. I had about 20 tasks/books. These included several June group reads and a buddy read from other groups.
Then...
Well lets just say i started the group reads first because there is a time limit for them... Which lead me to looking at other peoples profiles and books already read to include books then recommended on the page of the book i just finished. To then try to find them on the library app Libby (for a free read) to find if the are part of my kindle subscription, and if not to then compare prices on google books....
So some books were reshelved and new ones assigned.
But the good thing about planning for the challenge is you have a rough idea of what you need so when a book appears for your scrutiny you may already know which task to assign it too.

Mine aren't planned as to date and time - just by the year for the challenges. And I pick as the mood strikes me. I'm now doing two I'm unsure about:

Vacuum Flowers
and
Ivory Apples

and am still reading Tombland which is a book that struck my fancy.

What is this “planning” you talk about?

I definitely don’t plan. I plan to buy books when they come out and then they get put in a pile ready for me to get into the right mood to read them. I’m a mood reader. Haven’t been in the mood for reading at all lately. I’ll get back to it soon.

I rely greatly on recommendations. I've picked up several books I first learned abut from this and other groups on goodreads. Currently reading 'I Am Bob' and just picked up 'Blindsight' to read next.

I plan to read approximately 1000 books each year with all the challenges I sign up for and all the books that get added later in the year because of said challenges, some of which choose the books monthly and I don’t know ahead of time what they are. Then I manage to read about 70-80 books, not all of which fulfill any challenge requirements at all.

plan??? I went from several months off, to working 60+ hours a week. I randomly read whenever I get a chance.

I'm working on my oldest book (2011) for one of the challenges, but i have a lot of Andre Norton from 2012 and Marion Zimmer Bradley (I may never read the MZB books - read post 39 here for why: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

Then I'm on to 2013 for one more book that's also part of this year's challenge, so I think I'm not doing too bad in clearing out the older books.

I started doing a monthly reading plan a couple years back, inspired by another GR group. It's just a list of books I want to finish and books I want to start for the month (including group/buddy reads) and a goal of how many I want to finish. There's still always books that I read as the mood strikes me.

I also often plan out the next couple books I want to start and I agree with YouKneek, writing them down keeps me from constantly thinking and planning about the next book(s). (though these 'plans' are also subject to change)

I use a couple of methods, first the 'want to read list' on Goodreads is handy to remember books I am interested in. Secondly, my library also has a 'to read' list which I use quite often. I often will go on a genre binge for a couple of months, then shift, to sample something news.

Jacqueline wrote: "What is this “planning” you talk about?"

Ha ha ha. I understand you, Jacqueline.

I love how so many people have different ways to tackle reading. Definitely got some great ideas! when I am not slacking I am able to tackle between 5 and 10 books a month...depending on size. I might try to use CBRetrievers idea of a spreadsheet. the thing I like about that is being able to keep track of page count. Using something like that I could really start to see what my average daily page count is to make planning even better... O.o

I am another “mood reader”, modified by things like library due dates. I actually value the luxury of considering what to read next, reviewing the TBR shelves, etc. For me it’s an important and fun part of the reading for pleasure process.

I plan my reading on an Excel Spreadsheet. My plan starts with 26 books in a year. I put the books in the six categories I enjoy reading: 10 Fantasy, 8 SF, 2 History, 2 Mystery, 2 Writing, and 2 Classics. After I started my Goodreads account and entered all the books that I knew I had read, I came up with a plan.
On 07-14-16, I began recording the dates I started reading a book and when I finished reading each book. I add wildcards to my list to add recently published books (like Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir), and other books that are recommended to me (like The Shadow Within (Babylon 5 Book #7) by Jeanne Cavelos).
I read 22 books in 2016, 27 in 2017, 28 in 2018, 30 in 2019, 29 in 2020, and I have planned 30 for 2021. My plan extends through the end of 2025. Before Goodreads, I didn’t plan, and I read very little. The plan has been working for me, and I am able to read interesting books in each category each year since 2016.

Sometimes I can read 9 in a week and lately I’ve been lucky to read 9 in 6 months. Just not in the mood I suppose. Today I’m more in the mood to read but I have masks to make. I promised my daughter I’d make some for her friends father. It’s compulsory to wear masks indoors in our state at the moment. We live in a town in the bush and we have to do it too. I’ve sold all my masks and have to make more. I’m not in the mood to make masks but I still have to do it.

As others have stated, I'm a mood reader as well. I have an ever-growing TBR pile l that I pick from, but each time I choose a book, it seems I add at least three more! I don't plan because for me, spontaneity is key to my enjoyment of reading.

I'm a mood reader too. I do keep a list of books I want to read in 2021, with all kinds of genres. Each time I finish a book, I pick a new one from that list. Since I have 360 books on my GR shelves, it would cost me some time to look for a new book to read if I didn't check my TBR 2021 first.

I guess I am a mood reader. I never went by a reading schedule. However, in a weird way I don't like to go too long without reading a book whatever the mood is. Often I will be in a rut and have to force myself out. It doesn't help either being in graduate school. By the middle of semester I am too focused on school and have not time for pleasure reading. The reading challenge helpful because it will make me read something when I realize I am falling behind.

Mood reader as well, but I keep a tracker with links to threads of potential upcoming group reads and buddy reads, and jump on to those I can once they come up.

I also keep a yearly spreadsheet, and put in higher-priority reads in advance. My Goodreads TBR is too overgrown and unwieldy to keep track of otherwise.

It's...beauty-full

Wow...that really is something @Melissa... O.o

I love planning everything, not just reading but everything. I can spend hours/days/weeks planning something that would take me 30 minutes to do. I don't like executing plans though, so I guess it's good that I enjoy the planning process itself?

Again, not just reading, but everything, I find that *for me* it works much better to document what I've already read/done, than to plan what I should read/do. Should read/do = Ugh, so much work, don't wanna. Have read/done = Wow I'm so accomplished!

That said, when I still kinda tried to plan to read certain books at certain times, like group reads for several groups, or readathons and whatnot, I used a secret GR group to add them to my "schedule". I quickly noticed that I hated adding books to a GR group shelf, and especially editing them on the shelf. (I'm a mod, I get to do this a lot, sarcastic yay.) So I stopped both the adding of books to my secret group and scheduling my reading, because I don't think I read even one of those books when I'd planned to. But this is a good option for someone who actually wants to plan their reading this way, and wants to keep it on Goodreads. I still use my secret group for lots of things, just not the group shelf.

I like planning too and lists I can check off but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything goes according to plan! 😂 I’ll do it with video games too since I’m a completionist at heart and want to do every quest or get every item but like with BOTW I need lists to keep track.

And I’ll too spend so much time planning, especially at the beginning of the year, more time planning than reading 🤣
I have just a notes page on phone and I keep track of what I am reading and plan to read. I also have one for every challenge I’m doing. This year I’m really trying not to change the books for challenges and keep the original plan.

But I’m such a mood reader so we’ll see how that goes. I’m already off schedule because I Read the first book for the Expanse series for the Read Alll the Books Challenge and loved it so much decided to just read all short stories and books in the series immediately!

I just find having it on my phone easier and my notes page will sync up with my computer if I’m using it that. I love seeing everyone’s spread sheets!

(I have several RPGs I've bought years ago but not started because my character creation plan isn't ready.)

And the amount of series I've been able to drop off of my TBR because I didn't start them when the series was incomplete and I've now completely lost interest? Huge! Leaves more time to read other books I have zero interest in :P

Wow, that is impressive Melissa! I have an Access database that I use for cataloging. (I only shelves books on GR and LT for the social aspects of sharing reviews, but I have all my owned or borrowed books cataloged in the database.) The database automatically generates a few graphs with stats, but there are no fancy maps and it’s not NEARLY as aesthetically pleasing as your spreadsheet!

Anna, I’ve always liked the idea of a secret group, even if I don’t really need one. The only time I've actually used one was when I needed to shelve a certain set of books that included Bunnicula for a certain critical screen shot. ;)

I’ve done that too Nicol, created lists to make sure I can check off ALL the video game quests! Plus I’ll sometimes do what Anna mentioned and plan out my character creation. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to fit video games into my schedule, though. Except games on my Oculus Quest, but I usually play the more active games on that (so it counts toward exercise too!) and they don’t really require planning. Although I did have a Beat Saber spreadsheet at one point…

YouKneeK wrote: "The only time I've actually used one was when I needed to shelve a certain set of books that included Bunnicula for a certain critical screen shot. ;)"

Excellent use of a secret group! :D

I have to say I haven't really been much of a planner as far as my TBR, but Melissa's spreadsheet is so amazing that I'm feeling inspired to try something similar.

every year, just before the challenges start, I export all my books from Goodreads to a spreadsheet, delete the Read ones, and then paste it into an empty version of my old spread sheet and organize it. The only problem is that my TBR keeps getting larger and larger every year...

So starting one is easy