Insecure Writer's Support Group

The Difference Between Reading Books and Collecting Books #IWSG

*If you’re looking for my A-Z post for today, check out the main blog page.

It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

Learn more here.

This month for the A-Z Challenge I’m looking at my TBR (to be read) shelf and reading at least one book for each letter. (Some letters turned out to be a book in a series, so me being me, I read the entire series.) Why not go and check out my posts and see if you can spot your book there?

Learn more about the A-Z Challenge here.

It made me think, though, about how books just seem to be bought and left to languish on either a physical or virtual TBR shelf. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t seem to have the time or the energy to read every book I want to. I give preference to ARCs (we all know that reviews during a book’s launch is vital), but other books have been waiting for a decade or more to be read. And I really do want to read them.

This challenge forced me to focus my reading time into something productive. I also like planning, so this worked out quite well for me. You are welcome to check out my A-Z posts this month and let me know what you think of the books.

reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary jim rohn
until i feared i would lose it i never loved to read one does not love breathing harper lee
a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies the man who never reads lives only one george rr martin
books to the ceiling books to the sky my pile of books is a mile high how i love them how i need them i'll have a long beard by the time i read them arnold lobel

I know there are writers who believe that if you don’t read every day, you can’t be a good writer. Maybe it has to do with a quote from Stephen King’s On Writing

if you don't have the time to read you don't have the time or the tools to write stephen king

I have a lifetime of reading knowledge – of being read to and reading myself since a young age – and I do read whenever I can. Sometimes I even binge read. Do I have more unread books on my shelves than read ones? Yes. Do I own every book I’ve ever read? No. Libraries are awesome. Does my lack of time and energy to read every day make me a bad writer? Absolutely not.

wear the old coat and buy the new book austin phelps

What are your thoughts about this subject? Do you have books languishing on your TBR? Have you done reading challenges?

*This month’s question is about audiobooks: I’ll do a whole post about it another time.

I also have two new books out!

And just check out this month’s book club selections.

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12 thoughts on “The Difference Between Reading Books and Collecting Books #IWSG”

    1. With my ADHD, I lose the plot when I listen to audiobooks (podcasts are okay as they’re short and can be replayed). Ebook and print work best for me, though I had to learn to appreciate eBooks (making the font huge helped).

  1. Oh, gosh yes. Priority to ARCs, books on the shelf for ten (twenty?) years, on the kindle for… around the same, I reckon. It’s the reason I do Reading Challenges, Alphabet Soup, Mount TBR, Finishing the Series…
    I’m only aiming at 52 a year, one for every Saturday review on my blog. If I aim for 52, I seem to get through 60. If I aim for 60, I fall short!
    People ask how I fit them in. Same as fitting in writing, really, schedule it. But when I get a book I’m not keen on, somehow those sessions seem to disappear. Which is where the new default of – if you don’t want to finish it, don’t – comes in. But if I’ve read more than 100 pages or 30%, I’ll review it.

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