creating a new tbr list.

The Seattle Public Library website is still down. I did see an announcement that they are slowly recovering services but it’s not clear how long it will take for internet access to be restored. Which means access to my online account is still not available.

The main way that I keep my TBR list going is that, when I find a book I want to read I look to see if it’s available at the library. If the library has a copy, I’ll then either put the book on my Hold list or my For Later list. This is how I keep track of the majority of books I want to read.

Since I can’t check out books from the Seattle library (you can but everything is manual and the employees have to write everything down by hand – it seems like a lot of work and I don’t want to subject the employees to that) I had the idea to go to the King County Library to check out some books. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of any books to check out and, with the SPL website down, I haven’t been able to log in and look to see what books are on my TBR list. Further, I couldn’t even remember what books were on my list that I wanted to read.

So, I had to create a new TBR list. But how was I going to do that? I get my reading ideas and ideas for books from a lot of different places and I don’t always remember where. Sometimes it’s an article I read in The NY Times Book section. Sometimes a podcast I’m listening to discusses a book I want to read. Sometimes I get book recommendations from blog posts. Sometimes I read a review about a book that sparks my interest. But I don’t always remember where I hear about a book so I couldn’t go back to look or listen or read to find these books again. Those places are long gone.

In exchange, did a few things:

The first thing I did was go onto Goodreads and I looked up upcoming new releases from authors I’ve read before. This led me to remember that I wanted to read the new Katherine Center book (The Rom-Commers), the new Ashley Poston book (A Novel Love Story), and the latest Erik Larson book (The Demon of Unrest). These all went on my new TBR list.

I then went to the bookstore and browsed and looked for books that sounded familiar. I found Happily Never After by Lynn Painter, which if it wasn’t on my TBR list previously, it is now.

I also went through all my pictures in my phone camera roll to find photos and screenshots of books I want to read. I am always taking pictures of books I see at the bookstore or just out and about whenever I see a book that looks interesting and I want to remember. Also, one of the podcasts I listen to has book covers in the podcast feed so I also take screenshots whenever the hosts talk about a good book.

I’ve got a bit of a TBR list going now but I know there are books I’m forgetting. Hopefully, the SPL website will come back online soon and I’ll have access to all the books I want to read!