How Far Are You Behind?

Recently, since I picked up a second part time job and have school and whatnot, I have almost no time to read comics and now I'm behind like three weeks worth of pull lists. They're just laying there on top of my comic boxes in a pile waiting to be read. Yet, every week I'll go back to the comic shop on Wednesday to buy the newest issues knowing full well I have no idea what happened in previous issues of the titles I'm picking up. Does anyone else have this problem, or is just me? Do you still buy new books knowing you still have a ton to read? How backed up are you?

Another thing I find sometimes, I look at the books in my "To-Read" pile and some just don't make me excited to read anymore to the point of me asking myself, "Why do I still even pick up this series?" Like, they were fine to read when I had free time, but now it's like am I wasting money just to keep all the numbers in my collection? I mean, I keep telling myself I'll find time to read it later but with new releases, trades, and older back issues I still have to read in my collection, it just seems like I'll never have time for it all. Just by looking at the size of the pile of new comics, it'll take me at least several hours to read it all in one sitting and I never have several hours of free time all at once. First world problems, I know. But, can anyone else relate? Or any tips on how you never get backed up or behind? Just wondering...

Not always current stuff, but if I'll be reading a collection of something older & get "reader's block". Whether it's because I hit a slower spot in a story & it's hard to build momentum (the type of momentum where you spend hours reading), or my mind is just distracted by other things & I don't get around to reading. It comes in waves.

@lightsout said:

Not always current stuff, but if I'll be reading a collection of something older & get "reader's block". Whether it's because I hit a slower spot in a story & it's hard to build momentum (the type of momentum where you spend hours reading), or my mind is just distracted by other things & I don't get around to reading. It comes in waves.

yeah, i think that's what it is for me too, "readers block". these days, comics have less and less time to impress me before i just get bored. sad but true.

@Crash_Recovery said:

I buy my recent comics through dcbs now and sometimes older stuff I enjoy through comixology.

In single issues, I'm...well, at least 2 months behind. I subscribe to about 5 books right now and I'm still not keeping up.

I'm a good 7 months behind in Green Lantern, but only 2 behind in Batman.

wow 7 months behind! do you still buy the newest issues though?

@Timandm said:

well... I stay up way too late and read comics after my wife and kids have gone to sleep.... So, I'm a bad kid.. but...

i wish i had this kind of stamina to just push through and read all night, but after a long day of work and school, panels just get more and more hard to get through...

@RawrImADragon said:

yeah, i think that's what it is for me too, "readers block". these days, comics have less and less time to impress me before i just get bored. sad but true.

I hear ya, my attention-span has gotten depressingly low. I hardly watch any movies/shows I download because I "can't" have just one thing up on my computer (gotta be able to switch from activity to another at a moment's notice I guess, haha).

If I fall a couple of issues behind on a series, I drop it. I take it as a sign that I'm not really as into the series as I think I am when I see the new issue on the racks.

I have a pretty damanding job, studied/passed the four parts of the CPA exam and am married and I manage to keep up with all my titles. It's not like I am trying to read War and Peace or Les Mis. These are pretty light reads that don't consume a lot time to read.

If you can't keep up with yourbooks, why not drop them and buy trades when you have time. They are cheaper and it will reduce stacks of unread books.

I have not read a "new" comic since the start of the New 52.

But I have read backissues in the form of TPBs.

@Cap10nate said:

I have a pretty damanding job, studied/passed the four parts of the CPA exam and am married and I manage to keep up with all my titles. It's not like I am trying to read War and Peace or Les Mis. These are pretty light reads that don't consume a lot time to read.

If you can't keep up with yourbooks, why not drop them and buy trades when you have time. They are cheaper and it will reduce stacks of unread books.

I get that. I know I probably don't have the most hectic life, although it is pretty busy. But just to keep things in perspective, how many titles are you pulling with your schedule? I think my problem is while it doesn't take that long to read, anything late at night (which is really the only time I get to myself), can take a little longer to get through even if it is just comics.

I have been contemplating going exclusively trades for a while now. Only problem is my comic shop doesn't really stay as current with trades as they do single issues and I don't want to abandon that rapport I've established with them and go straight up Amazon for all my reads.

@impossibilly said:

If I fall a couple of issues behind on a series, I drop it. I take it as a sign that I'm not really as into the series as I think I am when I see the new issue on the racks.

This is an interesting method. Do you ever go back to titles you've dropped? Sometimes instead, I'll take a break with a series and if I miss it at all then I'll go back for the issues, if not then I'll drop it. I'm always asking myself how long I should give a title before seeing whether to keep going or not. I think I have a fear of "missing out". I swear sometimes if feels like as soon as I drop a title, then everyone starts raving about it and I feel like I missed out on the big one.

@RawrImADragon:Right now I am reading 17 monthly ongoing titles and will be picking up Age of Ultron, Thanos Rising, and possibly GOTG. However, I do read almost all of my reading through Comixology so I can read my books whenever/wherever so I don't have to be at home which helps.

@RawrImADragon said:

This is an interesting method. Do you ever go back to titles you've dropped?

I'll sometimes go back to titles that I've dropped. Amazing Spider-Man is a good example of this. I was enjoying Brand New Day, but by the time that The Gauntlet rolled around, I was at least 4 issues behind, so I dropped it. I jumped back in on Amazing Spider-Man further down the road, and ended up catching up by reading the trades of most of the stories I missed. But other times, I'll jump back into a series and not bother playing catch-up. Most of the time, I never return to the title.

With single issues costing $3-$4, my time being limited, and because I live in NYC my floor space also being limited, me having stacks of unread new comics around doesn't benefit anyone except for my local comic book retailer.

All I know, is that it takes the same amount of time to read a current ongoing, as it does to go to the toilet...

Workload consolidation...amjussayin....

@Manbehindthewires: What a $h!tty idea! ;)

@impossibilly: well, I won't say what happens when I get an issue I don't like...