The Week That Was…

/ Theresa Smith Writes

Second week of the school holidays, only three days left until it’s back to the grindstone…trying to enjoy it while it lasts. At least the sun is shining and we are currently having some pretty glorious winter weather out here in Central Australia.

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I embarked on a very satisfying project this week. The corner of my bedroom has looked very crazy book lady for the last couple of years. I had a small cube bookshelf packed with titles to be read, but this had long been obliterated by piles and piles of other books to be read. I’m not exaggerating, it’s lucky I have a big bedroom because I’m talking thirty books high, three piles wide and five deep, along with baskets jammed full at the very back in front of the bookcase. So I bought myself a bigger flat packed bookshelf, hauled everything out, including emptying the existing bookshelf, and began sorting. I built the new bookshelf myself after my teenage son tried to delay by going out with his friends, donated some titles I’ll never read, set a stack aside for giveaway through my Facebook book club, and then turned the rest into this:

My own TBR library in the corner of my bedroom! I’m so excited! I can actually see my books and properly make reading selections. The smaller shelf on top of the chests (which contain things I don’t need access to) holds my publisher and author sent review TBR and the bigger shelf (which is the one I built this week) are my own purchases. Books that are read are in the lounge, already organised onto shelves inside cabinets and cupboards. I feel like I have finally implemented a long needed system. I do still have six baskets and three plastic tubs of own purchased TBR tiles tucked away elsewhere, but I figure they might dribble onto the shelves over time as I read these. I have of late been turning to e-books because finding something in the piles was just too much hard work, but this will set me back onto the right path. You may well see some older titles being reviewed more in between the new releases from here on in. The books are two deep on both shelves, but this is still easier to manage. I think though, that new purchases need to be e-books from here on in! Publisher sent titles will fill the gaps I make here by reading, but really, there’s not a lot of room for more. I still can’t get over all that floor space!

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When an author you admire releases a book trailer for their long-awaited next novel. This:

The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley is out in late October. I can’t wait! And isn’t this just the most gorgeous trailer?!

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Joke of the week:

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Read of the week:

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Seeing as it’s school holidays, I have indulged in a bit of TV watching. Last Saturday I watched all of this:

The fact that I watched it all in one day (eight episodes) should indicate how much I enjoyed it. Really looking forward to season two but as yet there is no firm release date. I may need to read the books in the meantime because this ended on a pretty big cliffhanger!

I’m now about halfway through this one:

This is an interesting interpretation of Dracula and I’m quite enjoying it. It is very well cast and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers wears Dracula as well as he did Henry VIII.

It’s funny, but while I don’t read very much supernatural horror, I do tend to gravitate towards it with my TV viewing.

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Very excited to be teaming up with Tracey Allen from Carpe Librum for a community buddy read of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier in early August.

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What I’m reading right now:

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Until next week…

27 thoughts on “The Week That Was…”

  2. I’m impressed by your shelf building skills:)
    Just one suggestion: make sure you add any eBooks to whatever you use to track your unread books. I add mine both to my Excel file and to my Want to Read shelf at Goodreads, and I tag them in both places as Kindle. If I don’t do this, I forget all about them.

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    • At present I track my NetGalley ebooks but not my personal purchases. And consequently I forget all about them! So that really needs to be the next step in my organisation!
      I’m still impressed I built it myself but it was not without moments of deep regret part way through, let me tell you! Especially at the point of trying to work out what to do with this particular style of screw that was not depicted very well on the instructions! But it was all the more satisfying packing it up with books at the end.

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  4. Am I the only one who’d love to see a before and after photo of your book nook? I love re-organising books and coming up with better systems. I tried to zoom in on your photo to see if I can identify any of the books on your shelves, lol!

    I hope you enjoy the Alison Weir novel. I’m loving this series and gave this one about Jane Seymour 5 stars. Oh, and did you mean you have books on your physical TBR that aren’t on your GoodReads TBR? This would drive me nuts. How do you keep abreast of everything? This explains why Rebecca isn’t on your GoodReads TBR.

    Speaking about Rebecca, I’m equally thrilled about our upcoming buddy read next month 😀

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    • Oh, my Goodreads TBR is not actually at all representative of my actual TBR. It’s just the product of random clicking! 😂 I don’t even ever look at it! I have no actual catalogue or list of my TBR at all, which is why it needed to get off the floor! I should do something though, I have double ups of e-books and paperbacks.
      I should’ve taken a before picture. I thought about that after (of course)!
      So far, I’m really enjoying the Alison Weir. I like her writing style, it’s very accessible. She’s such an accomplished writer too!

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      • Really? That makes me want to plonk down on the floor in front of your shelves and add them all to your GR bookshelves for you. I’m such a perfectionist when it comes to maintaining my GR bookshelves. I even order my ‘Up Next’ bookshelf. I include private notes about when I received each book, embargo dates and what was unsolicited and what I requested. It all helps me stay on track and I look at mine every day. Isn’t it interesting how we all organise ourselves? Would love to know how others reviewers organise and prioritising their reading.

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      • Any time Theresa 😉 But imagine the sense of satisfaction after you’ve added them all in. You could multiply the feeling of satisfaction you had when you re-organised your book nook tenfold by having it all sorted in your GoodReads. Then you could utilise the ‘check duplicates’ function to identify where you have paperback copies of ebooks on your TBR. I know you said above that you use the TBR shelf on GR to identify books of interest you haven’t purchased or received, but you can still accomplish this by creating a bookshelf called Want to Buy. I also have a ‘sticky’ shelf called Maybe that I use for books I’m thinking about but haven’t decided on yet.

        And Shelleyrae, I’d love to see photos of your bookshelves! I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t. The crazier and messier the better, right? And I think a blog post about that app sounds like a great idea! Sounds like it would help a lot of readers to organise their books.

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      • It sounds like you use Goodreads to its full potential! I’ve downloaded the app Shelleyrae recommended and have begun adding some books. So far, it’s very simple to use. I will look to using Goodreads in the way you do at some stage, for sure, because it sounds good the way you’ve laid it out.

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      • Tracey! I am now obsessing over my Goodreads want to read shelf! 😱 It started with looking through and removing titles I no longer wanted to read which led to importing my kindle titles, which inevitably led to adding all of my NetGalley titles to their own shelf and to finish, I had to also add the eArcs I have been sent by authors direct. I knew this would happen once I started…I just can’t stop!!
        I’m using the database that Shelleyrae recommended for my print tbr. So far, 192 print books scanned in. So many more to go!!
        But yes, you are right, it’s quite satisfying!

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      • Yippee, now we can all check out your updated shelves Theresa! Seriously though, now that everything is being entered, don’t you feel an amazing feeling of accomplishment? You can see your entire TBR, physical books, eARCs, NetGalley titles etc. And if you create a few more bookshelves and categories, it will help you choose and prioritise better, I promise. And wow, 192 books scanned, that’s IMPRESSIVE!

        I have a GR shelf for DNF books and my Maybe shelf as mentioned. Also an Up Next and they all help me sort, categorise and prioritise what I need/want to read next. So when I see a book in a publisher’s catalogue and request it, I mark it Maybe in my GR shelves as well as Requested or Waiting. When I see a new release I think I’d like, I mark it Maybe then when I see it in a publisher’s catalogue, I remember the title (from that process), I go to request it, and also tick the bookshelf Requested or Waiting. It’s the perfect system for me.

        Another benefit of all your updating is that when friends do a Compare Books with you on GoodReads, they’ll get a much more accurate result. And you will too! I love that function, especially for deciding whether or not to accept a friend request. Your GR recommendations will improve (if you ever look at it) and you’re also supporting authors by adding their books to your TBR. Win/Win 🙂

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      • It does feel good but I’m a long way off my entire TBR being there. I use Google Play books as my main ebook provider, so that’s where the bulk of my ebooks are. It’s going to take me a long time to enter all of those, but I will aim for it. The best thing so far is discovering titles I forgot I had!

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  5. Sigh, I so need more bookshelves, my piles have piles, but then I have no place to put the shelves lol.. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to share pictures of my various book hoardings.
    I use the bookcollectorz app/software to catalogue all my books/ebooks, I love it and it makes things so much easier.

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    • Is that an app that you can just install on your phone? I only use my phone and tablet for everything, not a laptop. I’ve been nosing around for a catalogue system for ages. I don’t really want to use the Goodreads want to read list because that’s often where I mark books of interest that I haven’t actually bought or received, so it doesn’t really suit this purpose. I started an Excel sheet but I quickly lost interest in that.
      I could do with so many more shelves but I don’t have any spare walls really. It’s a conundrum!

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  6. I’d love to see photos of your bookshelves Shelleyrae! I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t. The crazier and messier the better, right? And I think a blog post about that app sounds like a great idea. Sounds like it would help a lot of readers to organise their books.

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  7. Oh, what fun! I LOVE rearranging bookshelves unfortunately I’m a neat freak so they’re all organised already but I do have a largish bookshelf where each shelf of books is organised by genre but I’m thinking of arranging each genre in alphabetical order as well because sometimes the need to play with books is a must, lol. My old laundry room is now a small library as we moved the laundry to the garage and extended one side of the house to give us a bigger kitchen, dining room and to provide me with a small library room and a book nook which I’m in love with and can’t stop looking at at least once a day. I also have one three tiered bookshelf of only rural romance authors and they’re arranged in alphabetical order. I sort my TBR pile by how long I’ve had the book and by their yellowing/mouldy pages and they go onto my coffee table (in the rumpus room) and once read I donate them. When they are all gone I’ll go through my bookshelves and start that system all over again. Lol.
    Since 2003 I have listed the books I’ve read in a lovely Max Dupain notebook by author, title of book and date. I also love using the Goodreads shelves. Theresa, I’m with you on the ‘want to read’ shelf, I only use that for books I come across on GR that have been highly highly recommended or an author has asked nicely to add their book to that shelf.
    An interesting blog post, Theresa, and all the comments were fun to read.

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