Today’s question: How do you get your books for reviewing? Do you track them somehow (excel, database, etc), or just put them in a tbr (To Be Read for anyone that doesn’t know) pile?
I get books from all over. I request from publishers, mainly through Shelf Awareness, and sometimes authors if a book sounds really, really good. I have received a fair number from LT Early Reviewers and just won a book the other day from Member Giveaway. I have several contacts who reliably offer me books I’ll like. Most of my ARCs now come from contacts and the odd lone offer. I also buy books, both new and used, and I even get books out from the library if I’m not sure I’ll like them but still want to give them a shot, or if they’re romance novels because I’m 99.9% sure I’m not going to reread them.
When I get a book, I stick its release date or blog tour date on my google calendar, and then I make sure I read it by then. Easy enough. I thought about tagging them in LT, but that seems purposeless when I can just glance at my calendar to see when I need to review everything. An Excel spreadsheet would probably be a good idea, but since I go to google calendar all the time anyway, it’s the easiest. I also keep the books in their own pile and try to read them in chronological order. If I’m ahead, like I am now, I then know I can read other books for fun, or I can try to get further ahead because I have essays coming up!
I get books the same ways you do. I use a spreadsheet, but don’t let publication dates worry me too much unless I’ve agreed to have the book read by a certain date.
Kathy’s last blog post..Review: Very Valentine
I have way too many books all coming out at around the same time…so some of them fall by the wayside. I only request or accept books I REALLY want to read, so I will read them all someday
lenore’s last blog post..Library Thing Tuesday (41) + picture of Emmy
I checked out LT’s Member Giveaway feature right after it was announced, but didn’t see anything tempting. Guess I should go back and give it another look – although I really don’t need to be adding one more way to increase that massive TBR pile!
JLS Hall’s last blog post..Tuesday Thingers: Swap This Book
Thanks for the reminder about Member Giveaway. I like the idea of putting the release dates in Google calendar.
Shana @ Literarily’s last blog post..Tuesday Thingers
I’ve never heard of Member Giveaway (is that the section I just found on Library Thing? – If so, I’d never noticed it before and assumed it was a new thing.)
Wow – you told me about two things I didn’t know about prior to this week – I didn’t know that Google had a calendar – I’ll have to go check it out.
Thanks for participating in Thingers last week! I’ve got the post up for this week – What’s your favorite genre? ~ Wendi
Wendi B.’s last blog post..Tuesday Thinger: Favorite Genre(s)