
Ask HN: How do you plan and track the books you want to read? - notkid
Hey,<p>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.<p>I constantly find new things that I want to learn about. I have multiple lists on Goodreads with titles of &quot;Urgent reads&quot; and &quot;The most urgent reads&quot;. Things get reprioritized so often that I don&#x27;t actually end up reading or learning much.<p>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.<p>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.<p>I am curious about how others approach this. What is your framework? How do you self-discipline? Are there any good tools?
======
jjgreen
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/](https://fs.blog/2013/06/the-
antilibrary/)

------
jborichevskiy
Some interesting thoughts here:

Rational Reading: Thoughts On Prioritizing Books

[https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Kmch6T2YscMyLFJD9/rational-r...](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Kmch6T2YscMyLFJD9/rational-
reading-thoughts-on-prioritizing-books)

------
mkbkn
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.

------
jgstyle
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

------
verdverm
by shelf and nightstand

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

