Glad to know I am not alone. I sometimes find I'm ordering several books at once, knowing that I will have to prioritize which to read first (and wondering if I will make it through all of them). I have an extremely long book that I have been picking away at, that I read between other books. Is that abnormal? I like the book, but it is dense, so I need to digest it in pieces.
I do the very same thing! It's important to have several books going at once, because you never know what mood you'll be in when the reading opportunity strikes. And no matter what, it's always at least one nonfiction and one fiction, concurrently.
Anyone who doesn’t have 2 or 3 books on the go at once is weird. I mean, you wouldn’t have the same thing for dinner every day, so why make yourself read the same thing every day. Variety, my darlings, is the slice of life…
Interesting article, nicely written & some good points, But perhaps unintentionally ironic. It's quite long, making it hard to read. So readers may be tempted to put it in a save for later pile.
This was great. I read ALL of it, and while some parts felt redundant, the structural logic, the exploration of motivations, and the promise of management strategies drove me on. It took me a couple decades to arrive at much of the same thinking, conclusions, and ultimate strategies myself. You don't address "hard copy saving" or tsundoku, which I have also reached a couple times, but moving homes can halve if not eliminate the problem... of course, that too is after carefully reconsidering each save and recognizing the person I am now is not the person I was. It works though.
Excellent point. When I moved from the East Coast to the West Coast, I couldn't bring my 1000+ library with me. I remember being surrounded by piles and piles of books and feeling so sad about having to make these tough decisions. Ultimately, I had to think about the person I was going to be out here, and not the identity I was outgrowing - that person (and her books) just couldn't come with me!
This was so helpful. I often feel like I'm drowning in To Be Read piles - on and offline. I appreciated that you called out the distinction between an archive and a queue. I am definitely guilty of conflating the two and recognizing the difference made so much sense. The field guide is fantastic in breaking those queue saves down further and the detail in the "what helps" sections is gold. I feel like I might be able to have a process that makes sense and facilitates me actually going back and reading. Thank you!
I was going to save your newsletter for later but as soon as I start reading and decided that I do have the time and the focus to read it all. Gracias.
Very insightful essay! I do weed out the old unwanted saves every few months. Reading this helped me realize I’m an information hoarder. There’s a kind of psychological safety in knowing you have the information you need saved somewhere. The problem for me is that when I do need it, my hoard has been so large and spread through so many apps and website bookmarks that it takes me less time to Google for the article than hunt for the save!
I’ve recently started organizing the things I really want to find later in organized Notes folders which has been a game changer. Next to address- my tsundoku problem.
Rowena, YES! Information hoarding as psychological safety. There's something very interesting here to explore. Especially since I believe so many of us (myself included!) do this.
the timing of this post is so apt for me. I have been spending a lot of this year going through my saved info in email, Drive, YouTube, etc this year. Like you said, a fair amount of the items in all of the places is for a previous me, which makes the cleaning out of these places easier. And I feel better that I learned the thing in that file even though I didnt use it. Saving it somehow got that idea in my head. Our brains are amazing, arent they?
Oh my word. You described me to a T. I save in so many places that I couldn't find them all if I tried. But I think the most important thing you said applies to Politics of Today: Opinions start resting on arguments we secured and never absorbed."
Great advice, and so relevant to our era of information overload. In my case, I struggle with the constant urge to archive the latest political news articles, social media feeds, and videos in case they disappear due to "link rot". The past 1.5 years have been relentless, if you get my drift. I don't see an easy solution to this because it's by design -- a strategy called "flooding the zone". Curious as to how you'd recommend dealing with this.
What a great question, and you just handed me an article idea! You're right that there's no easy fix, because the overwhelm IS the point. Flooding the zone works by outpacing anyone's ability to keep up, so the urge to archive everything before it disappears makes complete sense as a response.
The first thing that came to mind when I read your comment: in an actual flood, nobody tries to catch the water. We put up sandbags in order to keep the flood out. I think there's an information version of that barrier, and there's more there than a comment reply can carry, so I'm writing it up as a full piece. Thank you for your comment, and keep an eye out for the article soon!
I like the distinction “is this here for looking up someday, or did I mean to read it as soon as possible?” I just ordered some moving boxes to put my ‘real’ old archive in after purging. It will be accessible, but not prominently in my bookcase anymore. And I will hopefully save less in the future.
This is my life! Thank you for this post. I read the whole article. All 3,791 words. And then I saved it for future reference.
Glad to know I am not alone. I sometimes find I'm ordering several books at once, knowing that I will have to prioritize which to read first (and wondering if I will make it through all of them). I have an extremely long book that I have been picking away at, that I read between other books. Is that abnormal? I like the book, but it is dense, so I need to digest it in pieces.
I do the very same thing! It's important to have several books going at once, because you never know what mood you'll be in when the reading opportunity strikes. And no matter what, it's always at least one nonfiction and one fiction, concurrently.
I need to get back to the fiction side. I haven’t read a good sci-fi in a while. Been heavy on history lately.
Anyone who doesn’t have 2 or 3 books on the go at once is weird. I mean, you wouldn’t have the same thing for dinner every day, so why make yourself read the same thing every day. Variety, my darlings, is the slice of life…
Interesting article, nicely written & some good points, But perhaps unintentionally ironic. It's quite long, making it hard to read. So readers may be tempted to put it in a save for later pile.
Valid point! 😂
This was great. I read ALL of it, and while some parts felt redundant, the structural logic, the exploration of motivations, and the promise of management strategies drove me on. It took me a couple decades to arrive at much of the same thinking, conclusions, and ultimate strategies myself. You don't address "hard copy saving" or tsundoku, which I have also reached a couple times, but moving homes can halve if not eliminate the problem... of course, that too is after carefully reconsidering each save and recognizing the person I am now is not the person I was. It works though.
Excellent point. When I moved from the East Coast to the West Coast, I couldn't bring my 1000+ library with me. I remember being surrounded by piles and piles of books and feeling so sad about having to make these tough decisions. Ultimately, I had to think about the person I was going to be out here, and not the identity I was outgrowing - that person (and her books) just couldn't come with me!
This was so helpful. I often feel like I'm drowning in To Be Read piles - on and offline. I appreciated that you called out the distinction between an archive and a queue. I am definitely guilty of conflating the two and recognizing the difference made so much sense. The field guide is fantastic in breaking those queue saves down further and the detail in the "what helps" sections is gold. I feel like I might be able to have a process that makes sense and facilitates me actually going back and reading. Thank you!
Happy to help! And thank you for your thoughtful comment!
I just saved it to be read later. :P Jk.
😂
I was going to save your newsletter for later but as soon as I start reading and decided that I do have the time and the focus to read it all. Gracias.
Very insightful essay! I do weed out the old unwanted saves every few months. Reading this helped me realize I’m an information hoarder. There’s a kind of psychological safety in knowing you have the information you need saved somewhere. The problem for me is that when I do need it, my hoard has been so large and spread through so many apps and website bookmarks that it takes me less time to Google for the article than hunt for the save!
I’ve recently started organizing the things I really want to find later in organized Notes folders which has been a game changer. Next to address- my tsundoku problem.
Rowena, YES! Information hoarding as psychological safety. There's something very interesting here to explore. Especially since I believe so many of us (myself included!) do this.
Thank you for this! I do feel as though trying to keep up with my to-read pile is taking over my life.
The struggle is so real.
the timing of this post is so apt for me. I have been spending a lot of this year going through my saved info in email, Drive, YouTube, etc this year. Like you said, a fair amount of the items in all of the places is for a previous me, which makes the cleaning out of these places easier. And I feel better that I learned the thing in that file even though I didnt use it. Saving it somehow got that idea in my head. Our brains are amazing, arent they?
The most amazing things in the world!
thanks good info
I saved this for later! 🤣 The article you link to is great too, with the etymology of the Japanese word.
Oh my word. You described me to a T. I save in so many places that I couldn't find them all if I tried. But I think the most important thing you said applies to Politics of Today: Opinions start resting on arguments we secured and never absorbed."
So true!
Great advice, and so relevant to our era of information overload. In my case, I struggle with the constant urge to archive the latest political news articles, social media feeds, and videos in case they disappear due to "link rot". The past 1.5 years have been relentless, if you get my drift. I don't see an easy solution to this because it's by design -- a strategy called "flooding the zone". Curious as to how you'd recommend dealing with this.
What a great question, and you just handed me an article idea! You're right that there's no easy fix, because the overwhelm IS the point. Flooding the zone works by outpacing anyone's ability to keep up, so the urge to archive everything before it disappears makes complete sense as a response.
The first thing that came to mind when I read your comment: in an actual flood, nobody tries to catch the water. We put up sandbags in order to keep the flood out. I think there's an information version of that barrier, and there's more there than a comment reply can carry, so I'm writing it up as a full piece. Thank you for your comment, and keep an eye out for the article soon!
(Readers are the best inspiration 🙏)
Thank you so much, I look forward to that! :)
I like the distinction “is this here for looking up someday, or did I mean to read it as soon as possible?” I just ordered some moving boxes to put my ‘real’ old archive in after purging. It will be accessible, but not prominently in my bookcase anymore. And I will hopefully save less in the future.