I'm really trying to stay out of games for a while. I can't seem to join just 1 or 2 and stay with that. And I always feel compelled to offer more than one choice-which makes me put off reading one until I know which one I have to send.  Then I end up with 5 or 6 books I have to read in like a week-which of course makes me not want to read them  (it's a mental rebellion thing I know).  \

But of course I am now trolling the games forum looking for something to join. 

I think I could make a good dent in my TBR and gets some books out of the house if stay out of the games. 

Help me resist! 

ETA to fix my Not to Now which is what I meant to type.

I am with you Mary.  I am trying to stay out of so many games right now because I want to get some of my TBR pile down.  I usually end up in too many games and then all I read are game books which takes some of the enjoyment out of reading.

I always make sure when I sign up for a game I know which book or books I will be using.  If I haven't already read them, I start reading them as soon as I'm done with my current book.  I find signing up for a game a good way to encourage me to read something off of my TBR pile.  I do have to be fairly certain I'm not gonna want to keep the book.

If you follow the DOS chat thread over on the games forum, a lot of the erotica games hosts post their swap ideas early too so you can see what's coming up.  Some a couple of weeks before they actually open the swap.

Having said that, the Erotica Virtual Box is usually the one that catches me unaware.  I have 5 credits in there so I can take out 5 books at a time.  The last few rounds, I haven't taken out that many because I didn't have the books read to replace them.  Now that I am caught up with it, I'm next to last in this round!

I usually know what books I will be using when I join a game.  I do try to read all the books as soon as I know that I am going to be offering.  My biggest problem is that when I read a book that I know I may be sending out to someone as soon as a game ends tends to lessen my enjoyment of the book.  In the back of my mind I keep thinking I need to finish this book in time so that I can send it out as soon as the game ends.  I am a bit quircky about getting my book out as soon as the game ends.  I know hostesses give 1-2 weeks after the game has ended to read the book and then mail it but I can't do that.  As soon as the game is over I have to get the book mailed in a day or two and if there is a delay then I get all stressed out.  I know that is a bit irrational but its just the way I feel.  Also I am not a very fast reader.  So if I sign up for a lot of games all I am reading are game books not books that I just randomly choose.  I have a lot of WL books in my TBR but I also have some non-WL books.  I never seem to have time to read those books because I am contestly needing to read books that are wishlisted.

 I know how you ladies feel. I was just telling someone on my buddy list , I was going to be taking a break from games( as soon as I send out the book from the last game i signed up for)  because I need to make a dent in my TRB list as well.

I dont know what I'm going to use for games either. I always try to look at someones W.L. to see if i have anything to offer them first. and then another choice or two. Which , i probably havent read yet either...lol...so then its hurry ..hurry and read them.  and its no fun when you feel like YOU HAVE TO READ.

im still farely new to the game scene. but got burnt out VERY quickly. i was in 8-9 w/in 4 wks. so during the bk challenge i took an oath 2 myself n my lil kids that i would chill out a bit bc i am obbsessive w/this site n reading. so im now in 3 'Playing' swaps. 1 of each offered bk is read already n then i hv the other already picked out. i, like Arica, hv 2 mail ASAP, so i was reading the bks as soon as i knew what i was offering. but in the meantime im making a HUGE dent in my TBR in btwn the 2-3 swap bks i might hv offered. i hv chilled out A LOT on this site and reading 'forced' bks. so much nicer. n im also lookin forward 2 the swap bks that i occassionally 'have to' read bc im pickin bks that r high on WL n im lookin forward 2 as well. im even sneaking in my Automatic Keepers & bks ive offered 2 friends just cuz. and 1 of my swaps right now is a bk offered from my TBR WL pile. so i dont even hv 2 read til AFTER the swap ends. 

as u can c, i am reading a swap bk now, next is another n then im done til TBR game ends. so im all good w/that for sure. and all JUST started, w/many players.

thats how i changed my game playing life, LOL. n i will NOT b joining paranormal or reading challenges 4 awhile now. burnt out 4 sure.

hope u can hang in there girls...  

I keep hoping that DG will put up her Series Challenge  soon.  The WL challenge kept me from joining any new swaps during that time because I wanted to read my low WL books (the lower the WL line the more pts it was worth).  I ended up getting 20 books with just 1 or 2 wishers posted and out of the house because surprisingly only 1 wasn't ordered and went to my shelf-that one was just ordered yesterday. 

Maybe I'll look into the VBs again.  I was going a couple of those before and dropped out because I never had time to read books for them with all the games I was doing.  So maybe a couple VBS will satisfy my "gaming" urge but also keep it under control because I can jsut pass if there isn't anything that interests me in teh box or I have nothing read to put in it. 

i try to keep a game stash of maybe 10 books that i can use in games.  when the shelf overflows, i start posting in the WL thread to get rid of some.  i do *not* like to use a book in a game if i don't know yet if i might want to keep it - and i probably won't know until i read it, at least for new authors or new series.  (if i'm going to read book 7 and i didn't keep books 1-6 i know i won't keep it so i can offer it.)

i can mostly keep up in the paranormal games with things i already have read, or things that are already in my mini-TBR for that month.  i might end up mailing towards the tail end of a mailing deadline more often than i'd like, but i only go to the post office once a week anyway.  now erotica games i have to try not to join too many of those at once because i usually only have a vague idea of what i might offer, and rarely read them until i know for sure what i'm mailing out.  fortunately they're usually shorter than 'regular' novels.  my TBR of those is much smaller, so i'll try to look for something on the person's WL or at least something with lots of wishers.

I'm pretty proud of me because I've only joined 3 new swaps, rather than the 6 I wanted to join; I knew (ahead of time) that I was going to join 2 of them though (the historical romance I couldn't resist, cuz that's what I'm trying to read this month:)  I have several in the mailing stage, a couple in the middle of play stage, and after these end, I'm taking a breather. I've joined several VB, and going to try to only have a couple of active swaps going on simultaneously. I like your idea Ellen! I too, am going to have a small TBR/BIR box, so I can (hopefully) keep better control of me!

Like Jamie I'm fairly new to the games (although I'm not in NEARLY as many) and I do try to have the books I want to offer in mind.  My problem is that I'll re-read a book before sending it out and there have been a couple of times that the book has gone from a 'sender' to a 'Man, I want to keep it!'  It can be a little intimidating too.  Most of the games I'm in are in the erotica genre and since I'm so new to it, trying to find books to offer that I think people will want can be tough.  I will say one thing - those games have made my Wishlist *explode*!

how are you doing Mary? making it?!

I'm holding out so far.  I'm really hoping DG puts up the next Serial Readers Challenge soon.  That'll give me a fix without having to worry about a mail by date.

I have to say that I really enjoyed reading a non-WL/non-game book today just because it fit the genre I was in the mood to read.

you go girl!

eta" I remember back in 2003/2004 I got addicted pretty much to swaps on a couple of quilting forums..I spent so much time buying and making stuff for the swaps that quiting started to feel like a dreaded chore and I was so busy making stuff for swaps that I couldn't really enjoy or finish making my own projects. I still do them from time to time but not like I was doing for a few years. It was hard to stop also!

"a Chore" that's exactly how reading those game books felt to me.  Having to send 2 out unread in one week recently really emphasized my need to stay out of them for awhile.  I can get one of those from teh library so no big deal. But the other one I ended up downloading from Fictionwise.  I got a couple of the Lora Leigh books they had with the full value Micropay rebate and used the rebate to get the one I had to send otu unread.  So really it was "free" but I could have used the rebate to get another book if I hadn't had too many swaps ending at the same time. 

If and when I go back to them, I'm going to start just offering 1 book again.  And only do 2 if I have 1 I've lost interest in reading or one already read to offer.  Then I can start reading them while the game is still going and not feel the mail by date pressure. 
 

I can empathize with you, Mary!  I'm also cutting back on the games I join, for reading and financial purposes (mailing out for multiple games at one time can get expensive!).  I've been tempted to join a few recently simply because I am active in only two swaps at the moment and it feels weird not to be in more, but at the same time, I like not feeling pressured to read a specific book b/c I broke down and offered a book I haven't read yet. 

I try to stick to no more than 3 games at a time.  Even if I have the books already read, it's hard to keep more than that straight and I don't find myself enjoying any of them.

I had so many books to mail out last week, that I forgot to post that I had mailed the book (figured that out when it was posted as received). I'm relieved that I'm only reading for 5 swaps now, rather than 9; although, 2 of the 5 swaps have just started/early play, I've so I'm happy/relieved about that. I've received so many great books from the swaps, and I want to enjoy them; I'm looking forward to reading what I want, when I want, without thinking "I have to mail this".

I hate the must-read pressure! It's bad enough with library books. One of the reasons -- the others being the astonishing quantity of unpostable books I receive and the stress of having to get to the post office -- that I've cut way back on swapping.

Willa, you should join us in the Damaged Virtual Box, and swap out your unpostables. It's a lot of fun. Mary got me into this box, and I'm really enjoying it!

Yes come to the Damaged VB.  We recently started tagging out TBR damaged books so we can alert eachother of ones we're interested and give others ideas of which ones to move up in the TBR.  I knew I had a lot but when I got my tag list up to around 50 I stopped.  I probably have 100 at least.  I trade a lot of them on Bookmooch too but I'd prefer to trade them in the DVB. 

OK I think I figured out what I miss the most about the games-having the threads to check on and post to.  Like now I just did a tour of the message boards and there aren't really any threads I want to comment on and I can't think of any discussions to start. 

Mary, come and post on the DOS chat thread in the games forum.  You can comment on whatever you want to there or just enjoy the yummy pics.

And indeed, there are some most yummy pics to enjoy.  *drool*

I've been trying to stay out of them too. It seems I join one and the next thing I know, I'm in 10. It was getting crazy. 

I am still in three VB's though.  But I am having game withdrawal! lol 

I've been debating about whether to go back to a couple of VB's I used to do. I had a similar problem with them. But it was usually because I was reading so many game books that I didn't have time to read anything for the VBS.  But I was not smart enough to pass. 

I think I'll hold out a little longer.