NetGalley and Me

It was a bit of a shocker when I looked to see how long I had been a member of NetGalley, six years. Wow, it hasn’t seemed that long. In that time I have read and reviewed 329 ARC’s and have enjoyed reading most of them. But I have made the decision recently to pull back on my ARC requests for several reasons.

Lately I have been feeling like the ARC’s that I receive from NetGalley are controlling my reading life. I feel compelled to read and review them before their publication date, which sometimes means putting other books that I really want to read aside, which sometimes I really don’t want to do.

Then there is the quality. It might be me, but lately I seem to be picking books that just aren’t doing it for me. They sound good in their summaries, but just don’t match that when I read them. So I am trying to be more selective and look to see if they have any reviews yet, before I request.

Then I have been feeling lately that I spend way too much time reading. I know many of you are gasping at that thought, but hear me out. I can’t for the life of me remember more than one or two books that I read this year with any clarity, and sometimes I can’t remember that I read them at all. So that tells me that I am not savoring those books. I’m not taking my time with them and loving them like I should. So I am going to try to read a little less.

And then finally my physical TBR pile is about to fall over and kill me. I have been buying books again, because I really want to read them, but can never find the time because of my ARC commitments. Some of this is also related to my library holds and books I have checked out, but that is a different post discussion.

With all of that in mind, I’m going to be cutting back on the number of books I request from NetGalley. This is going to be hard I know, but I am strong and can resist. The last few months I have been trying to limit myself to four ARC’s a month, or about 1 per week, and that has helped a bit with the pressure. But I think after November I will start to try to only request two or less a month.

That said on to the fun part of this post!

My November ARC’s

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I am about half way through this as I write this post, and my god is this book brilliant! It is quite the experience and not at all like anything else I have ever read. You will all fall in love with this book I am sure of it. And it was well worth the wait.

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Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

I’m still sort of kicking myself for not snagging the ARC for The Wicked Deep when I had the chance. I saw so many rave reviews for it. Plus I still haven’t read that one. So to make up for that, I have her second book on my list and will be reading it soon. Plus it sounds like a good creepy October read.

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Refraction by Naomi Hughes

Another one that sounds totally creepy. Monsters coming out of mirrors? Gives me the shivers just thinking about it. And a foggy abandoned city as the backdrop is the icing on the scary cake. A must read for this time of year. I hope it lives up to my expectations.

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Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

I can never resist a book about the perils of social media and online communities. Plus how can you resist a book about posting cat pictures? I just love those! Then of course you add in a sentient AI and I am there.

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The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer

I know I am breaking my four book a month rule, but come on can you blame me? I had no idea this book was coming out until a few days ago and was shocked but pleasantly surprised to find it on NetGalley. So yeah, I got it and I am going to enjoy it. I can not wait to revisit this world and I hope Artemis makes an appearance as well as Butler.

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I hope the start of this post wasn’t too boring. Do you find yourself having the same issues with ARC’s? How do you manage them and still read other books you want to read? Let me know in the comments.