Discussion: ARC Overload

So I currently find myself in a position I've not been in before. One that I'm sure is familiar to many of you. Let's call it... ARC OVERLOAD. Do I see you nodding your head already?

It's not like this is some new phenomenon. It happens all the time. I know this because I see some of you post about it. But - it's new to ME.

Here's the thing: I'm not one to request a lot of ARC's. Typically it has to be a book by one of the handful of my favorite authors or one with a synopsis so amazing that I just have to have it. This doesn't happen often. Sometimes a couple months can pass without me requesting a single title. And when I do request a book and get denied... well, it happens. I never view it as a personal slight, to me or my blog (I've never understood that particular reaction), and all it means is that I'll get the book on its release date along with most everyone else.

But (there's always a but), there seems to have been a perfect storm of circumstances that now have me experiencing ARC OVERLOAD.

1) I was in a blissed-out book haze one recent afternoon and had a field day at Edelweiss. And requested eight books. Yes, eight. And, so far, have been approved for at least half of those.

2) Those emails direct from the publishers who tell me that since I previously requested Book X I'll probably enjoy Book Z and I can download it now from NetGalley. Yeah, the emails must have been sprinkled with book crack because I was all over those.

3) A direct request from an author for a book that sounded so right up my alley and, despite all the other ARC's already pending, I couldn't help myself.

4) Blog tours that I had previously signed up for are coming up soon and, because I typically choose to do review posts... yeah, the ARC's for those are coming in as well.

Now for the real irony? And the real reason I rarely request ARC's? Because my reading philosophy has long been: I read what I want to read - when I want to read it. I try not to get my head turned by all the shiny new releases, the latest book that everyone is reading/talking about, or (you guessed it) ARC's. I love the freedom of reading whatever my heart desires at any given moment. A book that's been on my shelf for 3 years, a series that I want to binge, a book I picked up at the library. I'm a total mood reader and I never know what I'm going to pick up one book to the next.

And yet here I am, currently buried under a pile of ARC's, knowing I'm on a timeline, and ignoring all the books that I really, really want to be reading. You see the irony, right? That I did this to myself? Yeah, me too.

So. My current plan? Get through these ARC's (without requesting more!) and consider this a lesson learned. And then I can get back to my bookish happy zone: reading exactly what I want to read. Again.

Do you ever experience ARC OVERLOAD? Is that your usual

state of being or do you prefer to keep a handle on it?

Let's discuss!