Narrowing Down Your Reading List

A cup of tea, a comfortable chair, and a good book makes for a great afternoon in my mind.  Given my self proclaimed bookworm status, I seem to have a never ending “To Read” list.  I’m no longer in school and other my own desire to keep up with professional literature there is no one telling me what to read.  How do you prioritize all the books, journal articles, and other material you want to read?

Some of the things I do to manage my reading backlog:

  • I switch back and forth between fiction and non-fiction reading.  This help me to balance academic reading and pleasure reading. 
  • I’ve started to alternate print media and e-books.  My thoroughly enjoying my Kobo, but still like to use the local library for print media. 
  • I’ve picked a couple of journals which I read each issue of (or at minimum browse).  My personal picks are The American Archivist, The Public Historian, and Archivaria.   I also read Canada’s History Magazine on a routine basis.  
  • When I see an interesting article or become interested in a specific topic, I try to read that material relatively soon.  I know my personal habits – if I don’t read it within a day or two is bound to end up permanently sitting unread and bookmarked. 
  • Reading lit reviews, recommendations of colleagues and friends helps weed out thing that might not be such a great read. 
  • I use Good Reads to keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to read in the future. 
How do you prioritize your reading material?
Photo credit: Wonderlane

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