I try to set up my life so that the “next steps” are often right in front of me. When I sit down to write a blog post, I usually have 20-25 ideas already sitting there waiting for me, so I can just pick one and get to it. I keep a list of ideas with the #blogideas tag in my Roam notes database, and it makes consistent writing easier.
The same is true with reading. When it’s time to grab the next book, I have a list ready to go. From his book “Steal Like An Artist“, author Austin Kleon shares this quote:
“Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.”
In my case, I’m both very good about that, but also very bad.
On the bad side, I simply don’t have many physical books. My appreciation for them is beginning to grow again, so that may change over time, but right now the vast majority of my reading is done on my Kindle or using my big reading shortcut.
On the other hand, I do keep a good-sized queue, which as of today has 147 books in it. Really, whenever someone mentions a book that I should read, I drop it on the list with a few quick notes about why they recommend it. In the past I was bad about leaving those notes, so I’d see a book on my list but have no idea why it was there. Now my notes look something like this:
For me, it’s the “#toread” tag that makes all of the difference. When I finish a book, I change that to #donereading so I can filter appropriately, and it makes it very easy to see what’s still out there to get done.
If all goes well, by the time I finish those 147 books, the list will have somehow swelled to 200.
Do you keep a solid list of books that you want to read?
