Basic Planner Advice & My Planner Journey Thus Far...

So Many Planners?!?! Which do I pick?

I don't know about you, but because planners are expensive, my crafty side decided, "I can make that", and when I went to start making my planners, the first thought I had was, "what size do I make it?" Right after that, my thought was "It has to fit cute pre-mades that I might want to use later."

So then I'm searching for dimensions. And frankly, a purse that the planner will fit into. I don't eyeball things that should be standardized, things that need to be consistent. I just can't. Too much wasted product and too many wasted supplies. But there is no be-all-end-all standardization in the planner world any more than there is in the fashion industry. (I'm looking at you, pants pile! Every pair in a different size, different shape, and yet all fit various parts of my lower half.)

CAWPILE: The Biggest Book Rating Life-Saver

The Unsatisfactory EGM

I have had a very difficult time coming up with an objective way to subjectively rate books I have read for many years. I recognize that rating a book, particularly fiction, is unadulteratedly a subjective exercise. A book that I absolutely adore is going to be seen as little better than trash by someone else and vice versa. 

However, I also felt that just using the EGM (Enjoyment or Emotional Gut-based Method) right after reading it resulted in a lot of books getting ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings from me. Books that should have probably received ⭐️⭐️⭐️ or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ were being unfairly lumped in up with the truly greats.

The EGM has now caused problems as my tastes aged and changed, as well as my ever deepening appreciation and understanding of what were actually just good books and what were outstanding books. That gut of mine previously  rated a book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ but that one is no where near as good as this book I just read! They can’t both be 5s!

So for the past 2 days, I have fruitlessly scoured the Internet for guidance on how to create my own rating system. What categories are other readers using to base their ratings on? What criteria do others require for the individual stars they give? 

Everywhere I turned, people explained how they broke down their EGM into the 5-star system. I need a bit more guidance than that. I need a set of categories or checklists so I know I’m being uniform in my assessments.

October TBR & Updating the Goodreads To Read collection... 1,070 books y'all!

Working on the previously mentioned book planner, I also reconfigured my current Franken planner... Again. I found a list of 20 in 20 that I had started prior to the craziness that is this year, and saw a couple things book related on said list.

Book Journal and September Wrap-Up

I’m not a BookTuber (yet...) but as I have been working on my planner collection this year, I found that trying to include my reading habits in my daily planner was just too much. And the collection wasn’t all together in one spot, making a quick glance at the total record for the year near impossible.