I love books, so I always try to improve my reading system by making it as organic as possible; I intend to get a system that sort of “defends itself” from the aggressions of modern life, hurry and other everyday monsters. I’ll talk another day about the working and behavior of my reading pile, which is still evolving. Here I want to explain the tiny ecosystem of my “now reading” area and how it works.
Defining a “now reading” area in my shelves was itself a very positive step. It is good to include all your active books without exception, so that it allows you to see how many “open fronts” you have at a single glance. If, like me, you have varied tastes and enjoy reading several books at the same time, you’ll know how easy it is to end up having a lot of books scattered around the house, the least fortunate of which will enter an undetermined “yes-but-not” reading state as days go by. If you are going to spread yourself thin, it is better to make sure at least that you know how thin it is going to be.
Next step was ordering the “now reading” books according to the Noguchi filing system. Very summarized: put the last book you’ve used always the first on the far left. The repetition of the habit will make a natural “most popular” group always on the left side, while most unattended books will “sink” into the right side. It provides additional and very relevant information to the system, for then, at a simple glance, you can check which books are becoming a little stagnated.
Having that new information, the next logic step is making a decision on unattended books. Here I used a low-fi trick that really worked for me: I put a tiny object (I use a coin) on top of the book at the far right (the one that’s been more time untouched), so it “falls down” next time I take the book. Then I make that token an object of revision during my weekly review, (which is the “pulse” of my system). If the coin is at that moment laying on my shelves, it means the book on the far right has been taken at least once along the week, and everything is alright: I put the coin back on top of the far right book… and the count starts again.
On the contrary, if the coin is on top of the far left book when weekly review comes, that book is starting to flirt with cobwebs, and it is time to take measures. A varied range of things can happen to that book, according to its content, its owner’s mood, the position of stars… whatever: granting one more week, sending the book to the Someday-Maybe limbo, or officially declaring it a “difficult” book that requires not to be read, but “studied” (and opening the corresponding project).
Any tiny object will do as a pointer
As I already mentioned my interaction with books is a very alive thing, so this setting will surely evolve in the future. By now it works like a charm; with the exhausting pace of days, it is always good to have some system to stick to the things you like; unlike other areas, there is no one else to remind you!
Any system is better than none. Which is yours?
Related posts:
GTD for writers
Reach for the moon, but start with your (two) shoelaces
The GTD First Aid Kit (and 4)
Titles are your friends
Productivity the Spartan way