The first books I reviewed on my blog were books I bought and books I won in contests or from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Then I discovered Shelf Awareness and wonderful people called publicists. I've done my share of cold requesting (with a relatively high success rate), and I've accepted a fair amount of unsolicited books offered to me as well. I've only ever requested and received one book from Bostick Communications as most of their offerings don't interest me in the slightest. The library has been a good source for challenge books, but not for new releases which is what I usually review.
In addition to my review calendar, I have a marked up excel sheet where I track which books I have recieved and what their status is. It is very colorful! Books won in contests are highlighted yellow, books that urgently need to be reviewed are highlighted red, and books I've finished are highlighted green. I also have a couple of shelves where review books are organized by upcoming release date. When the release date has past, they go onto another shelf. I've started to break out in cold sweats everytime I look at my excel sheet or my shelves. Is my TBR pile really that HUGE? EEEK! I keep swearing I won't request or accept anymore books...but then a really great offer comes along and I can't say no...
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Emmy's new favorite hobby is to jump on top of our fridge and pull down a couple of cereal boxes from our lowest cereal shelf using her paws so she can get up there. Then, she'll get behind the rest of the boxes and push them down. We've been hearing a lot of crashing noises from the kitchen lately that's for sure.
i like the sound of crushing cereal boxes
ReplyDeleteHehe, so cute! You guys like cereal don't you!
ReplyDeleteholy cow that's a lot of cereal! And Emmy is too cute!
ReplyDeleteyes, a great deal of cereal...wow.
ReplyDeleteAnd you sound so organized with your Excel sheet and all. But then your cereal is so organized too!
I love the Emmy pic! Adorable.
ReplyDeletelol Emmy sounds sweet if not mischevious.
ReplyDeleteCats are sure great entertainment, aren't they? Some of Emmy's antics just crack me up. I can see we'd really be in trouble if we got her and Abby together!
ReplyDeleteYour excel spreadsheet sounds very colorful. You are way more organized than I am!
I use an excel spreadsheet too, but haven't thought of using colors. Great idea. I think Emmy just wants some cereal.
ReplyDeleteShe fits right in there, doesn't she? :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing LibraryThing. =)
ReplyDeleteAnd your cat is adorable!
Pretty kitty among the many Chex cereal boxes! :)
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine what your Excel sheet looks like! I am not that organized, but then I do not have to be quite yet :)
cecila
I'm impressed with your organizational skills! I'm the same way with accepting new books. I told myself that my TBR pile was so huge that I didn't want to request any more books for review until I read some of the ones I had. That didn't work out so well, and I've just resigned myself to accepting the growth of the pile and enjoying free books.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you organise on excel, but I have an unshakeable belief in colours too. If I colour co-ordinate everything, I will know what I am doing and Be Completely Organised! Unfortunately it doesn't work that great for me, but I try =)
ReplyDeleteWow, you have really healthy cereal...
ReplyDeleteGAH! I want your kitttttyy. lol
ReplyDeleteLauren
Lol, looks like she wants her own shelf!
ReplyDeleteRandom Questions, are any of those Special K boxes, the one with the chocolate pieces? That's my new favorite cereal!
ReplyDeleteEmmy, you are adorable!
ReplyDeleteI love your cat!
ReplyDeletewhat a cute cat :)
ReplyDeleteYour excel sheet sounds like fun and madness all combined into one!! Your cat is pretty darn clever!! and too cute to be mad at for too long!
ReplyDeletelol-how cute. I can just see her waiting for you two to go to sleep and then heading out on her adventures. Give her a big ole hug.
ReplyDeleteawwwwh! I'm totally coming over to catnap Emmy!
ReplyDeleteHaha Emmy looks awesome up there! But, dude that's way too much cereal for one house :P
ReplyDeletespreadsheet, I am so far from that. I have arcs on my floor and slipped in my couch like stray coins. I am trying to get better about posting my reviews too early from release dates. So when its time to read an arc I try to choose from the ones that have the earliest release dates. One of the perks about working at a bookstore is being able to read the books. I've also started using the library more. And Emmy is a cutie
ReplyDeleteAwwww! That's definitely one book that deserves to be loved! :)
ReplyDeleteWow - that's a lot of cereal!
ReplyDeleteThose tempting review offers are definitely hard to resist!
Shana
Literarily
You are much more organized than I am! I've got a couple of shelves, some post it notes, and that's going to have to do, I'm afraid, until someone starts paying me for it.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture of Emmy! I'm on the road this month and missing my Coco something fierce.
I love that picture of Emmy!
ReplyDeleteI use an excel spreadsheet, but only for ARCs. Anything I've won from contests goes to my regular bookshelf, and I get to them whenever I can or want to.
ReplyDeleteI love the picture of your cat! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has a mischevious cat.
What a cute picture of Emmy - She fits just right on that shelf!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to work on an Excel file, maybe an Access database - I'm really struggling with it though! If you ever feel like sharing what you've put together, I'd love to see it!
Thanks for participating in Thingers last week! I've got the post up for this week - What's your favorite genre? ~ Wendi