Musing Mondays, hosted at Just One More Page…


Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your to be read list…

By some definitions, I don’t have a “TBR” list. I don’t classify a book as “TBR” unless it’s actually in my possession, and then I tag it as “to be read” when I add it to LibraryThing.

These days, most of my prospective reading comes to my attention via other book bloggers. When a review catches my eye, I’ll link to it in the “Books that caught my eye this week” portion of my Saturday Review. Periodically, I’ll go through those links and compile them into a wish list, which is what I would term the books that this question calls “TBR.” The last time I did that, I turned it into a blog post, and it’s probably past time for me do it again. I’m not sure whether I’ll put them into another post or bite the bullet and set up an official Amazon.com wish list next time, but I do need to collect those book notes somewhere so I don’t forget that I’m wishing to read them!

How do you manage your own wish list?

This week has been a book bonanza! I received four books in the mail for upcoming reviews. I also excused myself from my no-bookstores-for-Lent vow last weekend (which was only a week before Easter anyway) and treated myself to a post-birthday splurge at Borders.

Received for review:
The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use by Karen Burns, directly from the author
Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family, by Amy Tiemann, Ph.D. (Amy’s blog was one of the earliest occupants of my Google Reader), thanks to Jessica Chun at Penguin USA/Gotham Books
The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff, for an upcoming TLC Book Tour
Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, by Ayelet Waldman, an ARC I actually requested myself (via a click-through ad in Shelf Awareness), which is only worth noting because I almost never do that

Birthday Dispensation Shopping Spree, It’s Almost Easter edition:
The Only True Genius in the Family, by Jennie Nash
Serendipity, by Louise Shaffer
The Doctor’s Wife, by Elizabeth Brundage

What new books have arrived at your place recently?

We have looked at the widgets section on Library Thing before, but it appears that Library Thing has added an all-new widget building page, with more options than ever, including the ability to customize your widget, chose colors, animate your books so they change every 5, 10, 15, etc seconds, add your Amazon Associates ID, have your widget show a portion of your review and/or your rating, and much more!!

You can visit the LT blog to learn even more with their Widgets Get a Lot Better post!! OR . . . you can run over and play with your widget now by going here!!

My Answer: You won’t know this unless you actually go to my blog to see it, but yes, I do have a LibraryThing widget in my sidebar. I’ve had one for quite a while, but as soon as I read about the new widgets, I had to go over and check them out! I built a new one, but it’s not heavily customized – I just chose the options I liked for one of the basic widgets. The animations are cool, but I decided not to include them in my widget, since I wasn’t sure if they might slow down my page load time, and I’ve got quite a few widgets already. I like the fact that the new widget shows my tags and ratings (for the books that have them) – I think that makes it more informative. When I get a chance, I may go back and tweak the display options a little more, but I’m not sure I want to build my own…yet. I like that LT has given us so many new widget options, though!

1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
3. Is this normal for you?
4. Where do you keep your current reads?

I could just direct you to Rebecca‘s post at The Book Lady’s Blog, because I’m going to say pretty much the same thing she did (although she said it better), but I probably really should answer this myself.

But if Deb can go back to an earlier BTT post for the question, I can return to one for my answer:

I’ve known people who have their “bedside” book, their “traveling” book, and their “waiting in line” book all going at once. I’ve tried that kind of thing, and I’m not good at it at all. It works a little better if they’re different types of books – one fiction, one non-fiction – but I can’t do more than two at once, and I always drift more toward one than the other anyway, so one book at a time really works better for me. But since I’ll usually start the next book just as soon as I finish one, I guess you could call me a “chain reader” or a “serial (book) monogamist.”

I am currently reading just one book, which is normal for me. I’m lucky I can keep up with that pace sometimes, to tell you the truth. I take whatever book I’m reading with me everywhere, since I never know when I’ll find a few minutes on my hands, and I’d rather spend them reading than staring into space. I read every night before I go to sleep, but if I had one book set aside just for reading in bed, it would take me weeks to finish it – my eyes would start closing too soon for me to get very far each time I picked it up.

Occasionally I will have two books in progress at once, but what that usually means is that I’ve put one book on hold before finishing it because I have another that I need to read for a deadline, rather than actively going back and forth between them.

Are you a reading juggler, or do you stick with one book at a time?

Last week, Anonymous left this comment: “*sighs* The last two of these have sucked royally…I love this thing, but now I’m having to go back in the archives and find ones that aren’t totally ridiculous and moronic…“. This week, I’m dedicating #1 to Anonymous 🙂

And…here we go!

1. Anonymous…oh, never mind. I was taught not to say anything if I couldn’t say something nice. (But have the guts to leave your name next time!)

2. Every day is a winding road (or so said Sheryl Crow, at any rate)

3. Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, and then you will kindly get the heck out of my way.

4. The few weeks of greenery before it all turns brown for the summer what I look forward to most about Spring. (Here in Southern California, summer is the dry – very dry – season.)

5. Who needs therapy when you have a blog and a few good friends?

6. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups MUST go into the Easter Basket!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to nothing in particular (but Katie’s looking forward to a sleepover with her two best friends), tomorrow my plans include coffee with my sister, and the day’s pretty open after that and Sunday, I want to make it back home from Mom-in-law’s before dark!

Hope you’ve got some nice plans for your weekend!

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