The Picky Pledge • Quarterly Check-In #3

Some of you might be wondering - what in the world is The Picky Pledge? Well, it's this fun partnership between Hannah of So Obsessed With & I, where we hold each other accountable for the books we acquire this year. For more details, you should check out the introduction post!

We're at the end of Q3 in 2015! (That alone is SERIOUSLY insane. It feels like just yesterday that Hannah & I were creating this little project of ours!) As always, we thought it'd be cool to share an update on The Picky Pledge - how it's going, the lessons we've learned and what we plan to make improvements on. (You can also check my progress via my official page for this project!)

For this section, we drew on some inspiration from our original stats post earlier in the year. Specifically, we updated our source breakdown and our book buying breakdown charts with the information from this year up until this particular month.

SOURCE BREAKDOWN

I'm still leaning very heavily on the review books, which isn't all that much of a surprise. I'm hoping that before the year ends, the chart will be a little more balanced. I'm nearly done with review reads, so that should definitely help the process of making things a little bit more even between the sources.

BOUGHT BREAKDOWN

I am totally proud of my progress with the stats for this section! I've definitely read more than half of what I've bought, which I'm super excited about. I truly think that I'm going to be able to read at least half of my remaining TBR before this year ends, and that would be my greatest Picky Pledge achievement this year.

1. I have "help lines". Whenever I'm at a bookstore, I actually text certain people (*waves at Macky, Rachel and Hannah) about books I want to buy, things I've found, and so on. They really help talk me off a ledge when I've got piles of books in my arms; they remind me that I've still got quite a TBR ahead of me, and that anything I want to buy can wait for now.

2. I've busted boredom browsing. I've been super strict about not going onto Edelweiss or NetGalley, unless I hear that a title I really wanted is on there. It has really helped me cut down on requesting things for review, because I'm no longer drawn in by random covers or book summaries, nor do I spend hours on there just click, click, clicking away.

3. If I feel even an inkling of doubt about making or accepting a request, I don't do it. In line with the previous item, I have become even stricter when it comes to requesting books for review. Honestly, if there's even a teeny tiny doubt, I just pass on whatever it was I was thinking about requesting for review. I just keep track of it via my "consideration" shelf to check out at a later date.

1. Focus on my actual to-read piles, physical and Kindle. I'm really determined to focus on reading my books, particularly as I'm nearly done with the review books I've got for the rest of the year. It'll be a nice change to not have to read by a certain date, and to get to things that I've had on my pile for years. I'll hopefully make a nice dent before this year ends, if I'm lucky.

2. Do not buy books for the last quarter of the year. It's impossible for me not to buy books, since I often pre-order books that I've read for review and loved. So, the way my ban works is simple - no new books that are not pre-orders, purchases at events or highly anticipated titles. I feel like it's a good time to really lay down the law on this, as Christmas is coming up too!

3. Do an autumnal cull. Every time the season changes, I find myself itching to reorganize. My bookshelves are not safe from that feeling! I really want to take the time to go through my shelves (of read books and TBR books) and just cull away. I've got a better handle of what I realistically do and do not want to read now, so it'll be a whole lot easier to do this - and hopefully, effective.