TGIF (#3): Choose Your Next Read

TGIF is hosted by GReads, and is a fun meme where we get to answer a bookish question an recap on the past week's events on the blog. Hopefully we learn more about each other this way!

This is the last TGIF for a little while, since Ginger is taking a small break from the meme while she gets strict with time management regarding school and life. I think this week's question is kind of a fun one! Watch me get really OCD with this answer. :P

My stack of review books is massive. If any of you remember my book haul post after ALA, you already know this. On top of that, I've got quite a few books from Netgalley as well as some review copies other authors and pubs have sent me. We're talking about a lot of books here. For this reason, I implemented a pretty strict schedule. 

• ARCs are listed chronologically by release date in a Word document on my computer. These get top priority, because it's my job to get the word out on new and amazing upcoming books! Plus, when I receive an ARC I see it as a contract that I will read it in a timely manner and post a review
• I have another document that lists out the blog tours I committed to being a part of. These are also high priority, since the pub/author is depending on having me post on a specific day.
• I have a third document that lists the already released books that I've accepted in the order I received them. These are next in line, and I read them as I have room in my schedule, and in the order I accepted them.
• Then... I have a fourth one that lists the unsolicited books I am sent. I get to these when/if I can. 
• And then... there's my huge TBR list on Goodreads and the unread books I purchased eons ago. I get to these if I am really lucky and am ahead of schedule on everything else. 

Pretty sad, huh? I honestly never thought I'd end up doing this, and I wish I had been more selective with some of the books I chose to review. As many of you know, I just got a new job that's really stressful for me. Reading has taken on a new meaning for me as a result. Like it was in college, it's now become an escape for me once again and I see my strict schedule bending and flexing as I decide to pick a happy book further down my list over the heavy, sad one that's next in line. Now that I finally have a job, book blogging is beginning to feel more and more like a second job. I can't let it get to that point. So, I'm getting flexible. Just today I grabbed a book I REALLY wanted to read over the next book on my schedule. It was liberating! I think I'm going to do this more often. :)