Author Topic: Read Your Bookshelves  (Read 21718 times)

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #50 on: August 07, 2015, 08:49:49 AM »
I just finished another "new" read and am donating and on to the next. I'm only left wiith a few "new" ones now, but I think I'll just donate most of them as they've lost their appeal.
Then on to rereads!

PizzaHawk

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #51 on: August 08, 2015, 08:16:12 AM »
I moved recently, and finally had all my books in one place again, including stuff from my mom's house (pre college), stuff from college that got stored after graduation, and stuff from the last few years, plus all my SO's books. Had enough to fill 4-5 times the amount of shelf space I have. That was a fun weekend of sorting...

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #52 on: August 09, 2015, 11:05:41 AM »
Another three books out - 2 I hav read and 1 I don't feel like I'll ever want to read. Loving this challenge - hav only  ONE "new" book left to read! This is unheard of, really.. Hav always  had a stack of "to reads" ( usually the same for months or really mostly YEARS ) . and about half I decided to donate without even reading. Food for thought. Getting easier to resist library borrow.. I usually devour a stack and orders on the way... But I am committed to this challenge, so... I hav 14 rereads to do after the remaining newies. Exciting.

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #53 on: August 11, 2015, 12:13:47 AM »
One more read and out. I have one more "new" read and am avoiding it, but that's telling isn't it? For some reason, I'm wanting to hold onto it.. Hmm.

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #54 on: August 11, 2015, 10:34:57 PM »
One more read and out. I have one more "new" read and am avoiding it, but that's telling isn't it? For some reason, I'm wanting to hold onto it.. Hmm.


Well, it turns out there were 2 more newbies, both of which I donated finally because ive had them forever and discovered in the first few pages , I wasn't interested. :)
Now ive begun rereading, first I chose is a graphic novel ive read two times called Today is the Last day of the Rest of your life by Ulli Lust.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2015, 09:46:06 PM by riverffashion »

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #55 on: August 14, 2015, 10:02:27 PM »
Another three books out - 2 I hav read and 1 I don't feel like I'll ever want to read. Loving this challenge - hav only  ONE "new" book left to read! This is unheard of, really.. Hav always  had a stack of "to reads" ( usually the same for months or really mostly YEARS ) . and about half I decided to donate without even reading. Food for thought. Getting easier to resist library borrow.. I usually devour a stack and orders on the way... But I am committed to this challenge, so... I hav 14 rereads to do after the remaining newies. Exciting.

I'm flying thru the oldies now because the thought of reading these books really feels like a chore. So amazing (surprising). I did not see this coming. So anyway, I hav only kept 3 of the 20+ books I hav gone thru . and of the 20+ several I didn't bother to read. .
I am so looking forward to library books! This is big motivation I suspect . ha-ha. .
I noticed I'm mostly the only one posting lately. Am I boring everyone with my constant posts? I'm just so excited hahaha

1967mama

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #56 on: August 15, 2015, 03:15:49 AM »
I'm here -- I'm enjoying reading this thread even though I've not been participating. Makes me think that there are a lot of books on my shelves that I don't even want to reread, so when I get to it, out they go! Thanks for posting, river fashion, you're very motivating to me!

Anje

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #57 on: August 21, 2015, 05:00:57 AM »
I too read this tread and find it inspiring.
But I'm resently back to reading after my longest ever hiatus (3+ years!) so rules now is: read anything at all you fancy. Library, not bookshelf, is my sourse. Also, I'm unsure if I want to toss out books I have - most of them are hard to come by where I live (I have now waited 5 weeks for a book I ordered online) as my reading, it seems, is not what others here read.. will think it over.

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #58 on: August 22, 2015, 12:30:39 PM »
Interestingly, one of my "favorites" has turned out to be incredibly depressing    . I had read it maybe six times as a teenager , but don't ever want to read it again ( who knows really, but not in the foreseeable future.) Only forty pages to go, so I will finish & donate .

AllieVaulter

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #59 on: August 22, 2015, 07:11:31 PM »
Oh man...  this is a hard one!  But it's definitely one I need to do.  I'm in.  Hopefully I can convince DH to help.  Otherwise I'll only be going through my half of the books. 

We actually had a shelf in one of our bookshelves collapse.  If that's not a sign that we have too many books, I don't know what is!

FLA

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #60 on: August 22, 2015, 08:30:50 PM »
my entire adult life, I read 2-3 books a week (fast reader, little tv), I couldn't buy books at that pace and there are only a handful of books I would ever re-read, I hate re-reading.  My library is fantastic, the interlibrary loan is fast, you can get new DVDs pretty quick, CDs, museum passes, magazines, an unbelievable amount of large print books in books I'd actually read.  The only slow thing is the quality and waiting lists for e-books.  My eldest is 18 and I stopped buying books and CDs way before him.  I download books on CD and CDs to my iPod, illegal, oh well, if that's my worst crime, because I drove around all day for work and got paid to "read" while doing it.  I bought children's books, kept the ones I want for my grandkids someday, joyfully gave the rest away.  I occasionally buy a reference book on finance or how to use my Iphone. I buy a book almost every time for an Apple device and then get overwhelmed that it can do 600 pages worth of stuff so I never do learn what I really should know.  The only time I buy e-books is if I'm traveling so I don't have to lug books. 

A year ago, I started to get sick, and out of the blue totally stopped reading, no more emails that 14 interlibrary loan items are ready.  I am not who I really am without reading. That right there should've made me go to the doctor but for what?  To say, "I totally stopped reading."  There's a medical condition for that?  Turns out there is, lol.  Anyway, a year later I said screw this, "I'm reading."  When I first went back to my library, a bunch of librarians came around and hugged me (I'd been going there since kindergarten), one of them was so shocked that I just never came back, she thought I had died, lol! So I read again, the same parts over and over because I totally forget from day to day.  And when it's done, do not ask me what it was about, just be happy that I read it, who cares if I've completely forgotten it? well, I care, but trying not to.  Reading is the best thing you can do for free that isn't NC-17.  Trust me, I never would've thought it, but I love a house with no old books that will never be re-read on shelves.  I love a giant tote bag filled with library books. There is not one adult book I got rid of that I wish I had back, not a single one.  I even gave my confirmation Bible to a patient who really needed one. I don't even regret that, lol!

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #61 on: August 23, 2015, 02:31:26 PM »
my entire adult life, I read 2-3 books a week (fast reader, little tv), I couldn't buy books at that pace and there are only a handful of books I would ever re-read, I hate re-reading.  My library is fantastic, the interlibrary loan is fast, you can get new DVDs pretty quick, CDs, museum passes, magazines, an unbelievable amount of large print books in books I'd actually read.  The only slow thing is the quality and waiting lists for e-books.  My eldest is 18 and I stopped buying books and CDs way before him.  I download books on CD and CDs to my iPod, illegal, oh well, if that's my worst crime, because I drove around all day for work and got paid to "read" while doing it.  I bought children's books, kept the ones I want for my grandkids someday, joyfully gave the rest away.  I occasionally buy a reference book on finance or how to use my Iphone. I buy a book almost every time for an Apple device and then get overwhelmed that it can do 600 pages worth of stuff so I never do learn what I really should know.  The only time I buy e-books is if I'm traveling so I don't have to lug books. 

A year ago, I started to get sick, and out of the blue totally stopped reading, no more emails that 14 interlibrary loan items are ready.  I am not who I really am without reading. That right there should've made me go to the doctor but for what?  To say, "I totally stopped reading."  There's a medical condition for that?  Turns out there is, lol.  Anyway, a year later I said screw this, "I'm reading."  When I first went back to my library, a bunch of librarians came around and hugged me (I'd been going there since kindergarten), one of them was so shocked that I just never came back, she thought I had died, lol! So I read again, the same parts over and over because I totally forget from day to day.  And when it's done, do not ask me what it was about, just be happy that I read it, who cares if I've completely forgotten it? well, I care, but trying not to.  Reading is the best thing you can do for free that isn't NC-17.  Trust me, I never would've thought it, but I love a house with no old books that will never be re-read on shelves.  I love a giant tote bag filled with library books. There is not one adult book I got rid of that I wish I had back, not a single one.  I even gave my confirmation Bible to a patient who really needed one. I don't even regret that, lol!

This is my current thinking- I will just go ahead and donate the bulk when I get home ( I only hav about 30 books or so I the shelf ) , because I really don't want to reread much of anything . except the 2 graphic novels which I love and hav reread a few times and also within this challenge.
For the past 2 years, since I learned of MMM , I switched from purchases to library, and always have a hefty stack and several orders :) . I really just want to get back to that!

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #62 on: August 23, 2015, 02:51:21 PM »
The only books I keep are ones I enjoy re-reading.  Most of my books have been read between 5 and 50 times!

AllieVaulter

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #63 on: August 28, 2015, 06:12:28 PM »
Well, I've already got rid of one book (that I've had for 5 years).  I read 50 pages and decided it wasn't worth finishing.  And I'm currently about 100 pages into a book that I've had for 10 years and it's pretty good.  I probably won't keep it, but I'm glad that I'm reading it.  I was actually supposed to read this book for a course in college and it never happened (the reading part - apparently I was able to BS my way through the course). 

Score:  2 books to get rid of (1 read, 1 unread)

frugalfanny

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #64 on: August 29, 2015, 02:30:10 PM »
I'm in!

I'm a librarian and when I am working I am bombarded with the "newest, hottest" books. This would seem like a great opportunity but unfortunately I haven't perfected the skill of reading one book at a time. I tend to lean toward starting ten books at a time and never finishing any of them.  Patrons also bring us donations for our booksale and I have had a bad habit in the past of taking too many home.

Earlier this year I brought back to the library three boxes of books that I had a fat chance in hell of ever reading. I'm reading through the ones that seemed more promising.

So far this year from my home collection I've read:

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Frosty: A Raccoon to Remember
Off the Map (a Crimethinc book)
Drumming at the Edge of Magic by Mickey Hart

There is a huge pressure to read all the newest titles, but really I like to read what interests me at the moment, so that's what I'm doing this year.

dtl

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #65 on: August 30, 2015, 11:19:03 AM »
I'm in! 

Just donated 10+ books!

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #66 on: May 12, 2016, 11:34:13 AM »
I was going to start a new thread but then remembered this older one...we Mustachians are supposed to conserve and reuse, right?

I have decided that reading/clearing some of my bookshelves will be my summer project now that we are getting to the point where the weather makes it much less fun to drag around big bags of library books. :) My reward will be that I have a lot of framed photos I would like to have out, that had to be stored when I moved to my new place, and clearing the bookshelves will give me somewhere to display them. I would also like to clear out the Kindle inventory a bit. I used to be very good about acquiring only reference books or books that I intended to reread many times and then I discovered Kindle sales and Amazon's used book prices, which gave me the opportunity to track down some books on my reading list for the first time--the problem being that I shopped faster than I read and suddenly I had a collection!

First two down: "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly, and "Pretty Good Number One" by Matthew Amster-Burton. Both very good!

mountainlife

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #67 on: June 10, 2016, 07:22:23 AM »
I am also going to make this my summer project! I moved into a house with amazing built in bookshelves a few months ago, and justified my enormous book collection with finally having enough shelves to put them all on. But I really should get rid of at least a quarter, if not half of them. I tend to pick up 10-15 books at a time at 25 cent thrift store sales, or library sales, and then never read them! And then I still go to the library to borrow more books to read. I've always loved having shelves of books, and I don't know if I could ever get a Kindle as a replacement...but I'm kinda tired of having to pack up huge boxes of books every time I move (which is frequent since I'm young, single and live in the mountains). My goal this month is to read or get rid of 10 books

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #68 on: June 10, 2016, 02:21:38 PM »
I am reading down my bookshelf again- mind you, this one bookshelf is overflowing. No library books for me until either read or donated all. Two down, many many to go.... I think i will end up donating most without reading. a great many lose their appeal by the time i make an attempt to read. this means in future i must read right away or not bother- these books even being free! (and they're all free or 99%  are free. if not free, you'd better believe it was dirt cheap).
My flaw is accumulation of more books! This must stop until I take care of this shelf.
i reduced and reduced slowly over the years, but held onto many childhood favorites, etc. .some even honestly were kept due to the appealing cover which is amazingly ridiculous. but when i joined this gauntlet a couple years ago, i donated finally 90% (excellent). many of my childhood 'favorites' really ended up being quite drab or even depressing upon a new read. this was truly surprising! but great ammunition to continue being ruthless, and boy, it paid off.

Good luck!
« Last Edit: June 11, 2016, 03:34:51 PM by riverffashion »

gggggg

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #69 on: June 10, 2016, 03:45:47 PM »
I've recently gone semi minimalist, and have gotten rid of most of my books. I took them to my local used bookstore, and was given a check for $250-ish. The ones they didn't want got donated. I'm down to maybe 50 on my bookshelf, and some of those are gonna go too soon. I also stopped buying kindle books (a weakness), and am trying to borrow all I can.

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #70 on: June 11, 2016, 09:02:10 AM »
It's going slowly, although that's mostly  because I've been doing some projects in the evening rather than reading. Finished one big reading project (The Odyssey) and a teen ghost story (The Time Windows by Kathryn Reiss) with some very weird 1990s gender politics. I've decided the trick is to have a fun book, a serious book, and a "pick up for just a couple minutes" book going (I tend to be a multiple book-reader anyway.) When I've tried to clear out my shelves before, I've tried to just focus on one book, which meant when I hit a wall I was very tempted to start browsing again and I never got back to the first book.

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #71 on: June 17, 2016, 12:17:31 PM »
I am reading down my bookshelf again- mind you, this one bookshelf is overflowing. No library books for me until either read or donated all. Two down, many many to go.... I think i will end up donating most without reading. a great many lose their appeal by the time i make an attempt to read. this means in future i must read right away or not bother- these books even being free! (and they're all free or 99%  are free. if not free, you'd better believe it was dirt cheap).
My flaw is accumulation of more books! This must stop until I take care of this shelf.
i reduced and reduced slowly over the years, but held onto many childhood favorites, etc. .some even honestly were kept due to the appealing cover which is amazingly ridiculous. but when i joined this gauntlet a couple years ago, i donated finally 90% (excellent). many of my childhood 'favorites' really ended up being quite drab or even depressing upon a new read. this was truly surprising! but great ammunition to continue being ruthless, and boy, it paid off.

Good luck!
Ok, so I see now I hav 15 more in my book shelf after this current bookshelf read. I donated approx. 1 dozen outright. Progress. We'll see how this continues to progress.

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #72 on: June 22, 2016, 07:25:44 AM »
Three more down: The Uncyclopedia (odd and interesting trivia--fun and good to pick up in free moments); Ares and Aphrodite (a sweet romantic comedy graphic novel--if that's your kind of thing, it's very well done); The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham. I was so disappointed in this one--it's the first in the Albert Campion mystery series from the Golden Age of British mystery fiction. I read a few of the books out of order many years ago but the library I was using at the time didn't have most of them and it was before online catalogues made borrowing across whole systems or ILL really easy (and before Amazon did used books). I've always wanted to go back and read the series properly but in this first one there's barely a mystery (it's mostly a hostage situation), the resolution depends almost totally on coincidences because everyone except the villain is an idiot, and Albert Campion is seriously annoying. Will try one more before I decide to give up on the series...

katesilvergirl

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #73 on: June 22, 2016, 11:48:47 AM »
It's going slowly, although that's mostly  because I've been doing some projects in the evening rather than reading. Finished one big reading project (The Odyssey) and a teen ghost story (The Time Windows by Kathryn Reiss) with some very weird 1990s gender politics. I've decided the trick is to have a fun book, a serious book, and a "pick up for just a couple minutes" book going (I tend to be a multiple book-reader anyway.) When I've tried to clear out my shelves before, I've tried to just focus on one book, which meant when I hit a wall I was very tempted to start browsing again and I never got back to the first book.

Yeah! I do the same thing! I always think that my life will be calmer and more deliberate if I could just read through one book at a time. BUT I CAN'T. So I try to have a few books going at once (serious one and fun one with a couple magazines for my "just a couple minutes" reading). I typically read them at different times of day. I try to save the fun one for pre-bedtime and the serious one for earlier in the day.

libertarian4321

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #74 on: June 22, 2016, 12:37:48 PM »
We use to read a lot of books, then put them on the shelves to collect dust.

I realized that my entire house was lined with book shelves of books we'd read years ago, and would never read again.

So we just started donating them, a few at a time, whenever any charity we support was running a flea market type sale.

Then we donated some of the book shelves (I kept some, because they come in handy in my workshop area).

Our house seems so much bigger now...

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #75 on: June 30, 2016, 05:35:18 PM »
I am reading down my bookshelf again- mind you, this one bookshelf is overflowing. No library books for me until either read or donated all. Two down, many many to go.... I think i will end up donating most without reading. a great many lose their appeal by the time i make an attempt to read. this means in future i must read right away or not bother- these books even being free! (and they're all free or 99%  are free. if not free, you'd better believe it was dirt cheap).
My flaw is accumulation of more books! This must stop until I take care of this shelf.
i reduced and reduced slowly over the years, but held onto many childhood favorites, etc. .some even honestly were kept due to the appealing cover which is amazingly ridiculous. but when i joined this gauntlet a couple years ago, i donated finally 90% (excellent). many of my childhood 'favorites' really ended up being quite drab or even depressing upon a new read. this was truly surprising! but great ammunition to continue being ruthless, and boy, it paid off.

Good luck!
Ok, so I see now I hav 15 more in my book shelf after this current bookshelf read. I donated approx. 1 dozen outright. Progress. We'll see how this continues to progress.
Ayayay ppl. I acquired 6 more books (shame shame).
However, decided to donate 9 outright without bothering to read them. & also donated 1 that I've read many times but moved on.
Now I hav twelve left to read, one of which I will begin now.

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #76 on: July 04, 2016, 08:15:16 PM »
well, as i was looking for another book today from the bookshelf, since i was packing up for the beach, i discovered i didnt want to read just about anything, so.. i donated another 4 outright. when i return tomorrow i imagine i should take another look, because if i am putting off reading something, i'll probably never want to read it again. progress.

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #77 on: July 10, 2016, 01:56:14 PM »
The reading has slowed down a bit since we have had family events and this is also summer theater season. I did finish another last night though--"Fleur de Leigh's Life of Crime." It's a first novel and you can tell, but apparently the author based it on her experiences growing up in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s--the story is structured around the series of really weird nannies Fleur's B-list parents hire for her. Not bad and a quick read.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #78 on: July 29, 2016, 05:57:05 PM »
I'm doing this challenge now.  Now that I have easy access to a good library, I am finding that I don't need to hold on to books that I might want to reread, because I can get them from the library.  Especially popular mystery/adventure fiction.  I have donated whole series, I take them to the community second-hand bookstore that is in the same community center as my library branch.  Get library books, ditch my old books, win-win.  I am tending to hold on to my old SF because it is almost impossible to find. 

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #79 on: August 01, 2016, 07:01:50 PM »
A couple more down--Reflections from a Bookshop Window--humor from an English bookseller. It was written pre-Internet so seems very dated now (I think it's from the 1990s) but was a quick, fun read.

Also read The Brick Bible: Old Testament--the bible done in Legos. It's actually a selection of Bible stories--I liked the first part but for some reason after the end of the Moses stories the author/builder spends all his time on a lot of battles and smiting instead of, say, Ruth or Esther (maybe those are more fun to build with Legos?) so it got kind of repetitive toward the end.

The library just got new volumes from several of my favorite graphic novel series so it may be awhile until I get back to this :)

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #80 on: September 12, 2016, 08:10:52 PM »
Yep, it did take awhile. I was on vacation for about ten days (just take my iPad on trips) and then picked up a lingering cold so I wasn't feeling much like tackling challenging reading. Back at it, however...I finished another book in Margery Allingham's detective series and also a book of magazine columns from one of the "Two Fat Ladies" who had an English cooking show back in the 1990s. I had owned the Allingham so long the cover was crumbling.  Definitely glad to send it on its way!

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #81 on: December 30, 2016, 04:16:53 PM »
Since the last report, I have finished eleven more books and sent them on to the library booksale; I also read one that I decided was a keeper. There is a twelfth that I will finish up in a few more days--it's a book of readings for the Advent/Christmas season so I'll be reading that until Epiphany. I've been reading library books and a few Kindle books throughout so this is good progress! The fun book/serious book/pick up and put down book system seems to be working really well to make forward progress, although I need to change out the "serious" book. I've been on the same one for weeks and haven't made any progress.

On the digital front, I keep a very long list of books that I would like to read at some point. I've started going through the list and narrowing it down to what I will actually read. I'm in my forties...I doubt I'll suddenly develop an interest in literary fiction or long-winded biographies now even if my younger self thought I might.

Dave1442397

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #82 on: December 30, 2016, 07:08:03 PM »
As a kid/teen, I read a book a day on average, and, not having the money to keep up with that habit, I did a lot of re-reading. Our local library was small, and one visit every month or so was enough to keep up with their new books. I tended to hang on to all my books, just in case.

When we moved to our current home back in 2001, I had 84 boxes of books. Since then, I don't even know how many more I bought over the years. For the past few years, I've been trying to purchase mostly ebooks, and the physical books I buy now are mostly collectibles.

I have to do some sorting and see what can be donated or sold.

This is my ebook folder at the moment:


SquashingDebt

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #83 on: December 31, 2016, 07:03:03 AM »
I'm in!  This matches one of my 2017 goals.  I have a lot of favorite books I'm never getting rid of (I re-read books a lot), but I probably haven't read at least 40% of the books I own, and there's not room for everything on my bookshelves.  The goal this year is to stay away from library books and instead read the books I already own and haven't read (and donate most of them, I'm guessing).

The primary key to doing this is to curb my fairly recent bad habit of reading endless amounts of stuff online instead of reading books.

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #84 on: January 12, 2017, 11:27:15 AM »
Took a tote bag full for a library book sale donation!  Most were books I finished last year but there were a couple more completed over the Christmas break. I also took a look at the bookshelf and located a few books that I am not ever going to read to add to the pile. I actually had to get out a pair of bookends now the shelves are not crammed full!

kaleidoscopicalkris

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #85 on: January 12, 2017, 12:18:32 PM »
I'm doing this in conjunction with the decluttering gauntlet and the 50 books in 2017 challenge. I already finished one (Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin), but it was such a good book that it gets to stay on my bookshelves.

riverffashion

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #86 on: January 12, 2017, 01:36:46 PM »
Took a tote bag full for a library book sale donation!  Most were books I finished last year but there were a couple more completed over the Christmas break. I also took a look at the bookshelf and located a few books that I am not ever going to read to add to the pile. I actually had to get out a pair of bookends now the shelves are not crammed full!
Bookends! Well done

wintertell

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #87 on: March 10, 2017, 09:55:56 AM »
I'm joining this challenge! Thanks to those who bumped it!

We've moved at least 6 times in the last 5 years. Every single time I tote around boxes and boxes of books, which sit on the shelf once unpacked. This time when I was packing in January I even pulled out some books to read that had never been opened, but they ended up getting packed and I don't know where there are.

Right now we are still in short-term housing until we figure out where we will land. But I'm committing to working my way through the bookshelves, even it means reading box by box until we move to our more permanent home.

Will keep you updated as I go!

akzidenz

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #88 on: March 15, 2017, 04:52:56 PM »
I'm keeping a few fashion and fashion illustration books as well, for reference.
Otherwise , as I read thru my bookshelf , most are getting donated.

Half of my books are also fashion ones (and a good few fashion magazines I own primarily for their gorgeous editorial shoots and design)! I'll likely keep those, because they're not replaceable with a digital version, and I do actually flip through them regularly, even the ones I've read.

But the great bulk of my unread books are art history and design theory books. I started with one of them last night—Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self Portraits, which is an art-historical look at women artists and their self-portraits in the Western world. This thread is good motivation to stop buying books all the time, and actually enjoy the ones I have in my life!

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #89 on: March 17, 2017, 10:18:53 PM »
This was a good time for this challenge to pop back up again. Sunday is the last day of our busy season at work, which also more-or-less coincides with the end of good weather and also several television series...ie, lots more time for reading. I did manage to read and delete several books from my Kindle over the last few months, which is also a worthwhile decluttering pursuit!

Noodle

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Re: Read Your Bookshelves
« Reply #90 on: January 01, 2018, 10:39:06 AM »
I did not post in the topic, but I did make some progress...my bookshelves and Kindle are a tiny bit less crowded! My next challenge is to find a new donation location. It turns out the place I had been taking my books was accepting them out of courtesy, but really did not have much use for them. I think the local library accepts donations for their booksales...

I think I have been making progress partly because I have expanded my use of Interlibrary loan, which means that whether I read the book or not, it goes back after 3 weeks!