Project Scope: One day I recognized that the staple of books in and on my nightstand was – let’s say: huge. ENORMOUS. After realizing this I decided to stop buying more books. And I decided to stop wishing me books for birthday or christmas. And I gave myself a private project: read all books and graphic novels from my nightstand, before buying or wishing me one single new book. This was hard, because I love looking for new books. But only buying and build an own book warehouse on my nightstand wasn’t the real thing books where made for. Books are obviously made for reading or working with them.
Time: There is no time limit for this project or scheduled delivery date. Spare time will limit my reading sessions. Best reading time is before work starts and in the grey hours between dinner and bedtime. Conclusion: The more time I will spend on reading instead of watching TV or spending time online, the faster the project will come to its end.
Budget: No budget at all, because all books are already bought while starting the project with a house internal kick-off. Perhaps I must keep in mind, that there is a certain need of food, or better sweets and chocolate while reading sessions.
Quality: What does quality mean in relation to a reading project? To understand what you read. To follow the stories, to comprehend the authors thoughts, to have an eye on drawn details and moods in the graphic novels. Not to eat page for page in high speed to come fast to an end, because the hidden goal is to buy new books.
Project Method: Hybrid. What else?!
Classic Aspects: There is a given list of books, which has to be worked off. This list will not grow or change until the project ends. The book titles, covers and cover texts are known information.
Agile Aspects: The sequence in which I will read one book after the other is agil. There are several variations:
a) Read books from smallest to biggest one. Or vice versa.
b) Start with the oldest one. Oldest = publishing date.
c) Begin with the book, which was bought or given first.
d) Read all written books first, then all graphic novels, then all non-fiction books.
e) Take books from the top to the bottom of the staple on my night stand.
f) Ask my wife which book should be the next.
g) Sequence sorted like this: Novel, Graphic Novel, Non-fiction, Novel, Graphic Novel, Non-fiction, …
And there is a combination of these sequences allowed – because it’s agile.
Staple before starting project:
Staple after 2 – 2,5 months:
As you can see, the project is still running and will last a while before the very last page in the bottom line book is turned over 😉
projektkladde - ein illustriertes magazin von sven 
Great idea! I should definitely start this project too. Unfortunately, my staple is much higher. Actually, there are 3-4 staples. I would have some other sequence suggestions:
– start with the book you like the cover most
– start with the book you like the jacket text most
– start with the book you are in the mood for
Finally, do you have some tips for more drive or rewards?
Thanks,
Achim
Thanks for your additional sequence suggestions! … hmmm, tips for rewards: glass of redwine while finishing a Charter or (dark) choclate or combination of both. You also can increase your Momox-Income with finished books!
Momox – do you really use that. The purchase prices seem to me very low. I prefer booklooker, amazon or ebay but to sell books is very difficult and you need a long breath.
What I can strongly recommend on the other hand is the following search engine for new and used books: http://www.buchhai.de/
It is the way you write: Momox offers low buying rates but paies immediately – on the other plattforms you’ll have to wait much longer for a buyer, but the earnings will be higher. Thanks for the buchhai hint, i’ll try this!
Hi Sven, how is your staple of books on your nightstand going? Still there or replaced by an ebook-reader with tons of ebooks?
Best regards, Achim
Hi Achim, no eBook Reader so far – i like the feeling & weight of a huge or small Book in my hands – and to know with one grip if i‘m on Page 10 or on Page 100. meanwhile the staple shrinked down to 5 books but in these days it has it‘s „normal“ height of about 10-12 Books 😉