(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish.)
Few things in life make this girl happier than setting goals and achieving them. It’s that time of year again, so here are my book-related goals for 2013.
Sort out shelves
I live with with Best Friend, obviously, but I’ve left tons of books at my childhood home (about four hours away). Next time I’m there I need to go through and decide what can be donated/sold and what needs to come back with me.
This may or may not necessitate the purchase of another bookshelf. Or a bigger apartment.
Get back into Bookpedia
Bookpedia is a program that lets users catalog their personal libraries, keep track of books they’ve lent out, and create wishlists. I’ve been using it since 2007, but something happened when I moved from my old desktop to a laptop, and the entire program got lost in the shuffle. I’ve finally got it re-installed, but my library is gone, so I have to re-catalog everything. Fortunately it’s not something that has to happen quickly!
Complete book challenges
My history with challenges is less than stellar, but I’m hoping that my 2013 reading challenges go smoothly. Generally the biggest trouble I have with them is finding the books at my local library. Which brings me to my next goal.
Library FTW!
I never officially declared a book-buying ban, but I’m liking the perks of depending more on libraries — my wallet remains fat and my bookshelves don’t collapse under the weight of new books.
This year I’m planning to continue this tradition. I live in a small town, though, and my local library is not as well-stocked as I (or anyone else I know) thinks it should be. I’ll likely renew my card a bigger library system in a neighboring county — it’s $10/month, which I think is a crime, but as long as I check out enough books per month it will be a good investment.
Investigate PaperBackSwap
I need to check out PaperBackSwap in more detail. If it’s a good, cheap way to get the books I want and send off my books to others who want them, I’m all for it.
Rejoin Top Ten Tuesday
This is my first TTT since March of 2012. Memes can get a little stale when you do them for years, so I took a break — but now I’m back and hoping to meet more bookish people.
Bring it on, 2013!
Good luck with your goals. I need to use my library way more than I do.
Thanks, Jenny! I love using libraries, but the one in my town is severely understocked (or so I think). Less than 20% of the books on my TBR list are available there, plus they’re lacking what I would consider “basics,” namely a copy of Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo and about half of Shakespeare’s works. It’s a shame; a beautiful 8 million dollar building that is under-serving the community.
Wow, that was a bummer of a reply. 🙂 Good luck on your goals this year too!
Best of luck with all of your goals. Does your library offer inter library loans? My local library isn’t that great but I can reserve books from 5 other towns that surround hours and they have a van that delivers them to my library so I don’t have to drive all around the state. It’s a great service and is how I get most of my audiobooks. I didn’t even know about until I accidentally stumbled across mention of it on their blog one day. They also have overdrive which has a lot of audio and ebooks.
Paperbackswap is how I’ve acquired most of my wishlist books. The only catch is the shipping out cost, media mail has become much more expensive than it used to be. It costs about $2.47 for each book I ship out but it’s worth it when I get a gem in from my wishlist.
I’ve tried the inter-library loan once, and it was a huge letdown. I submitted the request on the library’s website, but never heard anything back. Maybe it would go better if I requested the loan in person. But I work with websites for a living, so I get super grumpy when other people’s don’t work right. 🙂
Awesome, I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on PaperBackSwap. I think $3 is great for a book — considering that paperbacks these days run between $6 and $10. I’m willing to put up with the fuss of printing and shipping if it means books come right to my door, and I’m sending mine out to good homes.
I highly recommend PBS and have had really good luck with only a few icky books in bad condition. The popular books and new releases sometimes have a long waiting list attached to them. Often it takes years before a book cycles to me but I have so much to read I don’t mind the wait.
That’s good to hear, Laurie. I can imagine the wait would be long for newer books, but hopefully it’s shorter for older ones. I’m definitely okay with waiting on a book if there’s lots more to read while waiting. 🙂
Such a great list! Organization is really at the top of my list for the year too. I haven’t heard of Bookpedia, I’ve been using LibraryThing for what sounds like the same functionality, but I’ll have to check it out. And I am definitely planning to use the library more than ever before this year. Books are expensive! And finally, while you’re checking out Paperback Swap, you might consider looking at BookMooch too. I’ve been using it for years to swap books. Good luck with your goals!
Thanks, Jessica! I’m a huge organization junkie, and it’s been awhile since I really went through and took an inventory of what I’ve got.
I used LibraryThing for awhile several years ago, but the thing I like about BookPedia is that it still works offline. You need an Internet connection to add books (it searches through sites like Amazon to pull them in), but once they’re in there you can tag and categorize until your little bookish heart bursts! Plus you can keep track of books you’ve loaned out, and BookPedia will remind you when they’re due.
Books are ludicrously expensive. I bet I’ve saved almost $1000 in the last couple years by using the library and Half-Price Books.
BookMooch looks pretty similar to PaperBackSwap. I’ll have to do some more research.
Thanks for stopping by!
Oh I need to check out Bookpedia – I love book cataloging (I can spend longer organising books than reading them!
Good luck with all your goals!
Completely agreed, Kat — if I could organize for a living I would be a happy camper. 🙂
Good luck with your goals too, and thanks for stopping by!
I, too, desperately need to reevaluate my book shelves…and better yet, a book cataloging tool for my home library? Thank goodness you stopped by my blog! Good luck on your book challenges. I was going to participate in a few, but I just joined a selection committee for a state book award, so hanging in there is going to be my challenge. Love the look of your blog!
I’ve always found it helpful to know exactly what I’ve got (and to get rid of what I definitely don’t want to keep) before I start trying to organize things. I love Bookpedia, but a spreadsheet could work just as well.
Being on a selection committee, how awesome! It’ll be lots of reading, but think of all the amazing stories you’ll read and conversations you’ll have. I’m jealous. 🙂