Adding Exclusive Shelves at Goodreads For Better Organization

I took some time to organize my shelves at Goodreads a bit better after learning that it was possible to create new exclusive shelves. This meant that my To Read shelf could be broken up into smaller shelves! I had actually noticed this possibility months ago but didn't pursue it at the time, and then I forgot all about it.

Anyway, I rediscovered that I could break up my "to read" list into different shelves. There are different opinions about the best way to do this. Many Goodreads members like to use their To Read shelf for books they already own, with a different shelf for those they don't actually have in their hands yet. That's perfectly logical but not how I wanted to organize mine.

I had a pretty long list of books on my To Read shelf. The problem was that it was a mixed bag that included everything from I have to read this!!! to the more uncertain I might want to read this someday, but I might not.

I didn't want to try to renumber them in a futile attempt at prioritizing them, so I decided to make three new exclusive shelves:

1. must read (I really, really want to read this.)

2. to read if time (I want to read this, and although it's not a priority at the moment, that could change.)

3. undecided (I'm not sure about it yet. It could end up on either of the above shelves or neither. Sometimes this is because no summary is included on the book's page.)

Granted, I could have accomplished this by adding non-exclusive shelves instead, but I already have plenty of those. I do wish I'd thought to add an Available on Goodreads shelf for books available directly through the site's e-reader; I'd have to go back through them all again to that.

Did I manage to get all the books exactly where I wanted them? Probably not, but it's pretty close. Considering how many I designated as Must Read--and how many books I'm always adding--I'm sure I'll have to go through this again soon.

Are you on Goodreads? If so, have you divided up your To Read list, or do you like having them all on one shelf?

Sunday Six, July 15, 2012

Well, last week was even more of a challenge than the one before that. Things kept coming up that needed my attention, so I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to meet my goals.

Last week

1. Created several genre shelves so that I could add at least one to each book listed as "to read" on Goodreads. That way, if I'm in the mood to read something from a particular genre (horror, classic, etc.), I can just pull up the list for that shelf and make my choice. I resisted doing that at first but finally conceded that it's a useful thing to do.

2. Finished reading two books. I finally finished one that I'd started a while back. Before that, I read something else from start to finish; it was pretty short, though.

3. Posted a review of Wheat Belly. This is the one I had intended to post a week earlier but hadn't quite finished the final draft.

This week

1. Post on at least two blogs. I haven't been online much lately, so I'd like to start catching up.

2. Start reading a new book. I don't have any books in progress right now, which means it's time to choose another one and start reading.

3. Finish writing my latest book review.

---
Do you read in a wide variety of genres, or do you tend to stick to a genre or two?

Sunday Six, July 8, 2012

Last week was a challenge. Despite some major time constraints, I did manage to accomplish a few things.

Last week

1. Finished reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I'd been meaning to read for years.

2. Wrote and posted a book review of The Scarlet Pimpernel. I actually intended to post a review of a different book, but I wanted to tweak it a bit, so I postponed that one.

3. Revived Diary of a Non-Person with a post about SnackWell's cookie cakes.

That means I did what I set out to do last week.

This week

1. Organize my "to read" shelf at Goodreads. It has almost 200 books right now, so I'd like to add a few genre shelves for classification purposes.

2. Finish reading a book. I'm hoping to finish the other book that I've been reading so that I can finally start another one (or two).

3. Post a book review. This will probably be the one I intended to post last week but replaced at the last minute.

---
Do you have a long list of books you'd like to read?