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Personal Reading Guidelines for Myself as of 2020
Tuesday, December 31st, 2019 11:41 pm I will work on whittling down the number of books I'm currently reading, and then put these into effect.
I have different and guidelines for physical books, audiobooks, and ebooks, which I'll get into below. I previously wrote a post here where I wrote about my plans for setting physical book reading guidelines for myself. I've since changed, altered, and expanded the guidelines in ways which I think will be beneficial and helpful to me. I may change, adapt, add to, subtract from, or alter any of these guidlines later.
Guidelines for Physical Copies of Books:
*No more than a maximum of four or five books at a time. The fifth slot is exclusively for favorite fiction and speculative fiction (especially fantasy) rereads. I can read books in that category in one of the other slots, but the fifth slot exists specifically in case I am reading books in all the other slots and realize I need to reread a favorite either for comfort or to give my mind a break. Favorite rereads in other genres go in one of the regular four slots.
*No more than one book in any one genre at a time. It's worth noting that for these purposes, while fantasy and other types of fiction are both technically fiction, a fantasy book doesn't count as the same genre as say, literary or contemporary fiction. Likewise, nonfiction books on radically different subjects do not count as the same genre. There are exceptions to the no more than one book per genre rule: 1. I can read two fantasy books at a time -- one in one of my regular reading slots and a favorite reread at the same time in my fifth slot. 2. If I am reading a fantasy that is dense, complicated, and/or extremely long (think LotR, Firekeeper, Kushiel's Legacy) I can read a shorter and less dense or less complex book in another slot. I may adjust it so I can use my fifth slot for that, too, if I get into trouble, but I'd really rather not. 3. I can work through a workbook or a book of exercises at the same time as a book on the subject in general (for example I can read a book of writing prompts at the same time as reading a writing memoir or a general book about the art and craft of writing), though I'd mostly prefer to avoid this. 4. This one is only a possible exception, and I probably won't let it stand. I may make an exception for religious books,where I can read one book of primary sources and/or mythology or history (of polytheistic societies or the evolution of modern Neopaganism)at the same time as I read a book by a contemporary practitioner of Neopaganism or polytheism, but I don't think it's advisable. As much as I would really like to do that, I think it would make it far too easy for me to focus on the books by contemporary practitioners because they are generally easier for me to read, digest, and process since I got sick, and to ignore and thus never finish the history, mythology, and primary sources books. 5. Books that I'm not reading all the way through, so much as using for reference, or reading a few things in, don't count towards my allocated number of book slots, though I would like to minimize the amount of these types of books I'm using at one time. Examples are -- reference books, poetry books (which I don't usually read straight through unless they are devotionals), books of prayer or spellbooks, sometimes books of writing prompts.
*I want to try to make sure I am almost always reading a fantasy book.
*I want to try to make sure I am almost always reading a religious book (either contemporary, historical, primary sources, or mythology)
*I want to make sure I reread some of my favorite books whenever I feel I need to, and also if I just generally want to.
As of right now, I seem to be doing best when I'm reading two or three books at a time, sometimes four, and occasionally one.
Guidelines for Audiobooks:
*I don't have a restriction on the number of audiobooks I listen to at one time.
*I think I may want to ultimately impose a limit on the number of non-fiction or mythology books I listen to at one time.
*I may also want to limit the number of series by a single author I listen to at one time (this only might apply with one author I can think of right now).
*I would like to try to come up with a way to make sure that when I start an audiobbook I haven't read before, that I finish it in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, I tend to forget what happened before, and it's harder for me to backtrack and remind myself with an audiobook than it is with a physical book.
*I want to try to keep my new audiobook purchases to a few very specific categories: 1. Books I've read before (especially favorites). 2. Books that I haven't read before, but that are part of a series I have read part of, or by an author I've read other books by and liked. 3. Nonfiction. The first two categories in this bullet point apply mostly to fiction of all genres. But with the nonfiction, I'd ideally like to keep it to ones of several specific, but sometimes broad categories. I'll write more about that (and what those categories are) in another post I'm planning. 4. Mythology.
*I'd like to try to limit the audiobooks I buy in the future to those with narrators I like to listen to, or at least those I don't mind listening to. I'll probably make exceptions to this rule -- there aren't a lot of religious books I want available as audiobooks, for instance, and I can't be too choosey. In another example, a series I'm really enjoying and find myself wanting to listen to when I'm too sick to read a physical copy has a narrator whose voice I don't like for two thirds of it. On the other hand, I don't want to waste money on something I'll never listen to -- one of my favorite nature writing books has is only available with a narrator I can't stand, and because of that, I never listen to it, even though, if I liked -- or could even tolerate -- the narrator's voice, I'd listen to it frequently. So I'd like to keep my exceptions to this rule few and far between, and to try to make sure that any exceptions I make are for very good reasons.
*I have a list of audiobooks I want. Try to follow it. This is different than my audible wishlist, though there is some overlap. I don't buy auidobooks as often as I buy physical books, and so I tend to acquire the books on my audiobook wish list much more slowly than those on my physical books wishlist. But I have a list of audiobooks I want, and I'd like to try to stick to that until I complete the list. It may never be completed -- I add new books to it sometimes, and several of the books I want either aren't available in audiobook format or else have a narrator I can't stand to listen to. I also find that I strongly prefer having copies of my favorite books in both physical and audiobook format. But the upside is that the list of audiobooks I want is significantly shorter than the list of physical books I want, and it's likely to stay that way, no matter how man more books get added to audidobook formats, and no matter how many audiobooks I add to the list. Right now the list is mostly, if not entirely, in my head, so I'd very much like to get that written down somewhere.
My list of guidelines for audiobooks is a lot looser than those for physical books, and a lot of them are more guidlelines that I might want to set up, rather than guidelines that I actually have set up. Like ebooks, audiobooks don't take up physical space like physical books do, and my tablet is almost exclusively devoted to listening to audiobooks, meditations, recorded exercises, and podcasts -- so the space they take up on there is what I have that space for in the first place. When my phone plays nicely with audible, I don't mind audiobooks taking up space there, either. They also generally cost me less because I get one each month from my audible subscription and also because many of the books I know I want aren't available in audiobook format, or they are -- but have narrators I can't stand to listen to. I do occasionally buy audiobooks beyond my monthly credit, or more credits, but it's not common for me to do so. I usually read audiobooks in only a few very specific circumstances: 1. When I'm extremely tired, sick (with chronic illness problems, or more conventionally sick on top of that), or when I'm dealing with a lot pain, brain fog, anxiety, or some other type of emotional dysregulation. 2. On long trips, usually only those on public transit (which is most of how I travel) and usually also only on those where at least one leg lasts more than half an hour. 3. When I'm knitting, and not either focusing mindfully on knitting, or else when I'm not doing something else at the same time (like having a conversation with someone, listening to music or a podcast, or watching television or a movie). I have a tendency and ability to hyper focus which is not as strong as it used to be before I got sick, but which is still...not the norm for how most people seem to operate. In exchange however, I have an exceptionally difficult time multi-tasking and switching between tasks. Knitting is one of the very, very few things I can do while I do something else -- but that "something else" list of things I can do while I knit is also very short. I have a theory that because almost all of how I process, understand things, and communicate is verbal or auditory (and emotional, which doesn't really apply here), that it takes up an outsized amount of my brain, and also that I can't usually functionally do something else at the same time because almost everything else is so difficult for me. For instance, I have a lot of difficulty washing the dishes while listening to an audiobook, for example. Out of these situations that I tend to listen to audiobooks in, the overwhelming majority falls under the category of those situations I listed in section number one. Possibly because of this, but maybe not (I rarely, if ever, listened to audiobooks before I got sick, so there's no way to tell for sure -- though I strongly suspect one has a tremendous amount of bearing on the other), I can follow, understand and process audiobooks best if they fall into one of very few categories: 1. Nonfiction 2. A previous fiction or fantasy favorite of mine, especially those that I read before I got sick. 3. A book that I haven't read before but that is in a series I've read part of before, or sometimes that is by one of my favorite authors. Because of this, I'd like to keep new audiobooks I get to these categories, as well as including mythology audiobooks. I may make exceptions, as I have in the past, and also I was less careful before I realized those tendencies, but mostly I'd prefer not to. I feel it's a waste of an audiobook. Also because of the situations I tend to listen to audiobooks in, I usually listen to them even more for comfort than the physical copies of the books I read, and it's also more important that the audiobooks I listen to are those where I can miss a few words and have it be okay.
Guidelines for Ebooks:
*Try to limit the number of ebooks I'm reading to one or two at the same time.
*When I start an ebook, if I 'm going to finish it, make sure I continue it until it's done, and try to finish it in a reasonable amount of time, while bearing in mind the need to not make myself sick and allowing for that need (this might actually make a good basis for a guideline I'm considering putting in place for non-fiction audiobooks -- minus the not making myself sick part).
*Try to make sure that any future ebooks I buy are either: 1. Really cheap 2. Books I'm sure I specifically want a copy of in ebook format 3.Books I am pretty sure I want a physical and/or audiobook copy of, but that I'm not completely sure about, and that are also significantly cheaper in ebook format.
Other than reading directly off of a website or a computer screen, ebooks are my least favorite format for reading for a variety of reasons. Because of this, and because for some of those reasons it is also the least functional method of reading for me, that means I don't need a lot of guidelines for reading ebooks. But because I have trouble with the ebook format, the guidelines I do have for it are specific ones.
I have different and guidelines for physical books, audiobooks, and ebooks, which I'll get into below. I previously wrote a post here where I wrote about my plans for setting physical book reading guidelines for myself. I've since changed, altered, and expanded the guidelines in ways which I think will be beneficial and helpful to me. I may change, adapt, add to, subtract from, or alter any of these guidlines later.
Guidelines for Physical Copies of Books:
*No more than a maximum of four or five books at a time. The fifth slot is exclusively for favorite fiction and speculative fiction (especially fantasy) rereads. I can read books in that category in one of the other slots, but the fifth slot exists specifically in case I am reading books in all the other slots and realize I need to reread a favorite either for comfort or to give my mind a break. Favorite rereads in other genres go in one of the regular four slots.
*No more than one book in any one genre at a time. It's worth noting that for these purposes, while fantasy and other types of fiction are both technically fiction, a fantasy book doesn't count as the same genre as say, literary or contemporary fiction. Likewise, nonfiction books on radically different subjects do not count as the same genre. There are exceptions to the no more than one book per genre rule: 1. I can read two fantasy books at a time -- one in one of my regular reading slots and a favorite reread at the same time in my fifth slot. 2. If I am reading a fantasy that is dense, complicated, and/or extremely long (think LotR, Firekeeper, Kushiel's Legacy) I can read a shorter and less dense or less complex book in another slot. I may adjust it so I can use my fifth slot for that, too, if I get into trouble, but I'd really rather not. 3. I can work through a workbook or a book of exercises at the same time as a book on the subject in general (for example I can read a book of writing prompts at the same time as reading a writing memoir or a general book about the art and craft of writing), though I'd mostly prefer to avoid this. 4. This one is only a possible exception, and I probably won't let it stand. I may make an exception for religious books,where I can read one book of primary sources and/or mythology or history (of polytheistic societies or the evolution of modern Neopaganism)at the same time as I read a book by a contemporary practitioner of Neopaganism or polytheism, but I don't think it's advisable. As much as I would really like to do that, I think it would make it far too easy for me to focus on the books by contemporary practitioners because they are generally easier for me to read, digest, and process since I got sick, and to ignore and thus never finish the history, mythology, and primary sources books. 5. Books that I'm not reading all the way through, so much as using for reference, or reading a few things in, don't count towards my allocated number of book slots, though I would like to minimize the amount of these types of books I'm using at one time. Examples are -- reference books, poetry books (which I don't usually read straight through unless they are devotionals), books of prayer or spellbooks, sometimes books of writing prompts.
*I want to try to make sure I am almost always reading a fantasy book.
*I want to try to make sure I am almost always reading a religious book (either contemporary, historical, primary sources, or mythology)
*I want to make sure I reread some of my favorite books whenever I feel I need to, and also if I just generally want to.
As of right now, I seem to be doing best when I'm reading two or three books at a time, sometimes four, and occasionally one.
Guidelines for Audiobooks:
*I don't have a restriction on the number of audiobooks I listen to at one time.
*I think I may want to ultimately impose a limit on the number of non-fiction or mythology books I listen to at one time.
*I may also want to limit the number of series by a single author I listen to at one time (this only might apply with one author I can think of right now).
*I would like to try to come up with a way to make sure that when I start an audiobbook I haven't read before, that I finish it in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, I tend to forget what happened before, and it's harder for me to backtrack and remind myself with an audiobook than it is with a physical book.
*I want to try to keep my new audiobook purchases to a few very specific categories: 1. Books I've read before (especially favorites). 2. Books that I haven't read before, but that are part of a series I have read part of, or by an author I've read other books by and liked. 3. Nonfiction. The first two categories in this bullet point apply mostly to fiction of all genres. But with the nonfiction, I'd ideally like to keep it to ones of several specific, but sometimes broad categories. I'll write more about that (and what those categories are) in another post I'm planning. 4. Mythology.
*I'd like to try to limit the audiobooks I buy in the future to those with narrators I like to listen to, or at least those I don't mind listening to. I'll probably make exceptions to this rule -- there aren't a lot of religious books I want available as audiobooks, for instance, and I can't be too choosey. In another example, a series I'm really enjoying and find myself wanting to listen to when I'm too sick to read a physical copy has a narrator whose voice I don't like for two thirds of it. On the other hand, I don't want to waste money on something I'll never listen to -- one of my favorite nature writing books has is only available with a narrator I can't stand, and because of that, I never listen to it, even though, if I liked -- or could even tolerate -- the narrator's voice, I'd listen to it frequently. So I'd like to keep my exceptions to this rule few and far between, and to try to make sure that any exceptions I make are for very good reasons.
*I have a list of audiobooks I want. Try to follow it. This is different than my audible wishlist, though there is some overlap. I don't buy auidobooks as often as I buy physical books, and so I tend to acquire the books on my audiobook wish list much more slowly than those on my physical books wishlist. But I have a list of audiobooks I want, and I'd like to try to stick to that until I complete the list. It may never be completed -- I add new books to it sometimes, and several of the books I want either aren't available in audiobook format or else have a narrator I can't stand to listen to. I also find that I strongly prefer having copies of my favorite books in both physical and audiobook format. But the upside is that the list of audiobooks I want is significantly shorter than the list of physical books I want, and it's likely to stay that way, no matter how man more books get added to audidobook formats, and no matter how many audiobooks I add to the list. Right now the list is mostly, if not entirely, in my head, so I'd very much like to get that written down somewhere.
My list of guidelines for audiobooks is a lot looser than those for physical books, and a lot of them are more guidlelines that I might want to set up, rather than guidelines that I actually have set up. Like ebooks, audiobooks don't take up physical space like physical books do, and my tablet is almost exclusively devoted to listening to audiobooks, meditations, recorded exercises, and podcasts -- so the space they take up on there is what I have that space for in the first place. When my phone plays nicely with audible, I don't mind audiobooks taking up space there, either. They also generally cost me less because I get one each month from my audible subscription and also because many of the books I know I want aren't available in audiobook format, or they are -- but have narrators I can't stand to listen to. I do occasionally buy audiobooks beyond my monthly credit, or more credits, but it's not common for me to do so. I usually read audiobooks in only a few very specific circumstances: 1. When I'm extremely tired, sick (with chronic illness problems, or more conventionally sick on top of that), or when I'm dealing with a lot pain, brain fog, anxiety, or some other type of emotional dysregulation. 2. On long trips, usually only those on public transit (which is most of how I travel) and usually also only on those where at least one leg lasts more than half an hour. 3. When I'm knitting, and not either focusing mindfully on knitting, or else when I'm not doing something else at the same time (like having a conversation with someone, listening to music or a podcast, or watching television or a movie). I have a tendency and ability to hyper focus which is not as strong as it used to be before I got sick, but which is still...not the norm for how most people seem to operate. In exchange however, I have an exceptionally difficult time multi-tasking and switching between tasks. Knitting is one of the very, very few things I can do while I do something else -- but that "something else" list of things I can do while I knit is also very short. I have a theory that because almost all of how I process, understand things, and communicate is verbal or auditory (and emotional, which doesn't really apply here), that it takes up an outsized amount of my brain, and also that I can't usually functionally do something else at the same time because almost everything else is so difficult for me. For instance, I have a lot of difficulty washing the dishes while listening to an audiobook, for example. Out of these situations that I tend to listen to audiobooks in, the overwhelming majority falls under the category of those situations I listed in section number one. Possibly because of this, but maybe not (I rarely, if ever, listened to audiobooks before I got sick, so there's no way to tell for sure -- though I strongly suspect one has a tremendous amount of bearing on the other), I can follow, understand and process audiobooks best if they fall into one of very few categories: 1. Nonfiction 2. A previous fiction or fantasy favorite of mine, especially those that I read before I got sick. 3. A book that I haven't read before but that is in a series I've read part of before, or sometimes that is by one of my favorite authors. Because of this, I'd like to keep new audiobooks I get to these categories, as well as including mythology audiobooks. I may make exceptions, as I have in the past, and also I was less careful before I realized those tendencies, but mostly I'd prefer not to. I feel it's a waste of an audiobook. Also because of the situations I tend to listen to audiobooks in, I usually listen to them even more for comfort than the physical copies of the books I read, and it's also more important that the audiobooks I listen to are those where I can miss a few words and have it be okay.
Guidelines for Ebooks:
*Try to limit the number of ebooks I'm reading to one or two at the same time.
*When I start an ebook, if I 'm going to finish it, make sure I continue it until it's done, and try to finish it in a reasonable amount of time, while bearing in mind the need to not make myself sick and allowing for that need (this might actually make a good basis for a guideline I'm considering putting in place for non-fiction audiobooks -- minus the not making myself sick part).
*Try to make sure that any future ebooks I buy are either: 1. Really cheap 2. Books I'm sure I specifically want a copy of in ebook format 3.Books I am pretty sure I want a physical and/or audiobook copy of, but that I'm not completely sure about, and that are also significantly cheaper in ebook format.
Other than reading directly off of a website or a computer screen, ebooks are my least favorite format for reading for a variety of reasons. Because of this, and because for some of those reasons it is also the least functional method of reading for me, that means I don't need a lot of guidelines for reading ebooks. But because I have trouble with the ebook format, the guidelines I do have for it are specific ones.
