Monday, October 22, 2007

Massive Head Explosion

That noise you heard around midnight Sunday was my head exploding.

Now, you would think that something big was happening. Maybe Cody ate just one too many books, or Bob knocked yet another wall down, or Heaven forbid, a formal dinner was called for at my parents with no notice.

Nope.

Two words.

The. List.

Long story short, I decided to sit and relax while sorting my list of 30 something titles for my AAR ballot.

Relax would be the word I'm looking for in that last sentence.

I have a killer headache now and I've deleted some of the titles that were originally on there as 'not worthy'. I then start looking at other titles and wonder if they are 'worthy' or 'perfect' and well, none of them are! So then I think I should only pick my favourite title from an author. Then I think, 'what about the first book I read by them? That obviously started the glom!'.

Don't get me started on my memory.

Then I decided that any book I haven't read in 10 years just needs to be at the bottom.

Except for Morning Glory because really, it's close to perfect.

I then need to fight the urge to copy and paste Anne Stuart's entire backlist onto the ballot. I can easily pick my favourite and even my second favourite but then after that each of her books has a scene or feeling that I think needs to be represented.

And then what about the books that are still new? Those ones that haven't really passed the test of time? I know Caressed by Ice and Slave to Sensation will always work for me but what about Kresley Cole's books? Then Ward's books? I loved the earlier books but the series is starting to spin wrong. Is that affecting my decision? What about the authors who moved on or stopped writing? Justine Dare's futuristics OH!! Jayne Castle's futuristics!!

Ow.

My head is starting on the warning shots again but really, if my head already blew up, shouldn't the aching be over!?

6 comments:

Kat said...

I got up to about 30, then I quit. I can't even rank my top 30 let alone remembering a hundred titles! (StS was on the list, but none of the BDB made it.)

Kristie (J) said...

I'm up to about 87 now. The way I've been doing it with older books; since I don't have time to read them all, is if I still, after all these years, vividly remember the book and even certain passages, then it goes on the ballot. More recent books are easier to remember.
I looked on my spreadsheet and a number of books that I gave 5's to at the time are pretty foggy now, so I've left them off.
Don't know if that helps or not *g*

ReneeW said...

I went through my spreadsheet and came up with a list of books that I had graded an A or A+. But then I realized that I had a bunch of books that are in my keepers that had no grade because I only started grading a few years ago. So now I'm up to over 125. *sigh* I think my head is going to explode too. Some of them I can't remember why I graded them an A. Trimming the list to 100 and putting them in order is going to be hell.

Rosie said...

You have all the reasons I'm not doing a list. Although I will be checking to see what the final list is. Cindy I'm counting on you to represent Anne Stuart for all of us.

nath said...

poor you, Cindy. I think you might have tried overthinking it. LOL, as cheesy as it sounds, go with what your heart tells you to put on your list, not your head :D

Bob & Muffintop said...

May I just cheat and send in a list of all the books on my keeper shelves? It's faster and easier and I freely admit to being lazy.