Ask HN: How do you plan and track the books you want to read?

8 points by notkid ↗ HN
Hey,

I think I have a problem. My want-to-read list on Goodreads currently has more than 2100 books. I probably have more than 50 online classes that I want to take.

I constantly find new things that I want to learn about. I have multiple lists on Goodreads with titles of "Urgent reads" and "The most urgent reads". Things get reprioritized so often that I don't actually end up reading or learning much.

I recently started building syllabuses around different topics for myself to put together relevant things together and then I try to force myself to focus on a single syllabus at a time.

I am experimenting with another system for books. I have a table of books, where when I get excited about a book, I upvote a book. Only after a book is upvoted more than 3 times, I download a sample of the book (if available on Kindle). Only after I read a book, I buy the book. This helped a little, but not enough. Now, I have 10 books that I started reading.

I am curious about how others approach this. What is your framework? How do you self-discipline? Are there any good tools?

6 comments

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what makes you think that a new tool will help your self discipline?

Let go or be dragged.

by shelf and nightstand

it's nice to read from paper after looking at screens most of the day

Buy the books, have a big threatening pile of them glaring at you all the day; from time to time pick one out to read. This is the principle of the antilibrary which Nassim Taleb attributes to Umberto Eco

https://fs.blog/2013/06/the-antilibrary/

It's FOMO. Delete/un-enroll/unsubscribe from all the current "want'to'be" list. Then just go by your day and pick up things you realise you should learn. Buy a physical book on that topic and read.

Uninstall all reading apps on your phone. Less is sanity.

Make notes. Upload into Anki. Write a blog on what you learned today.

I use the app "Things 3" and set deadlines, works pretty Goode... only downside: Its only available in the Apple ecosystem and its not free.

Btw.: its also my preferred Task manager