The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: somecobwebs on March 11, 2015, 11:15:11 PM
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For those of us with cluttered bookshelves, especially full of books we haven't "yet" read.
I am going to go through and start to read/reread every book I own, and then do one of the following:
- If I can't bear to make myself start reading it after one week, I am never going to read it. Donate.
- If I start reading and can't make myself finish it, donate.
- If I read it and feel less than considerable enjoyment, donate.
- If I read it and really enjoy it, or find it a good reference, keep it.
I live in a city with an excellent library and I am constantly being given books as gifts, so rather than buy a new bookshelf, I'm going to start streamlining the books I have. I imagine that even only keeping the books I love, I will maintain a sizable collection :)
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Bravo! We have been actively trying to pare down our number of books recently, with some minor successes. I think it is a tough thing for any book lover to "get rid" of books. I just have to keep reminding myself that mine isn't the only copy, I can always get it again if I need to read it that badly.
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This is an excellent idea! I just unpacked box after box of books from my move and I realized I haven't read a fairly sizable portion of them.
For some reason I rarely think to pick up a new book from my own bookshelf! That is going to change, starting today.
Thanks for the motivation.
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I just did this over the course of the last few months. It was so satisfying! Good luck on your gauntlet!
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Am in!! We just cleaned up boxes of books and I have a sizable chunk of books to read. Looking forward to months of reading!
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Just last week we donated two big boxes of books. It would have been much more but my mother in law couldn't bear to get rid of some. I.E. "We can't possibly get rid of that series. That could be an heirloom." That was her talking about the Harry Potter series!
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I'm in! I have way too many unread books from a library book sale last year. My only exception is I'm allowed to buy book club books from the credit I have at the used bookstore. Good luck, everyone!
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Hooray, glad to see that I'm not alone!
I have one library book to read first - my hold just came in - so I hope to begin this weekend. I'll post here when decisions are made, one way or the other!
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For those of us with cluttered bookshelves, especially full of books we haven't "yet" read.
I am going to go through and start to read/reread every book I own, and then do one of the following:
- If I can't bear to make myself start reading it after one week, I am never going to read it. Donate.
- If I start reading and can't make myself finish it, donate.
- If I read it and feel less than considerable enjoyment, donate.
I know the feeling, and I've been doing this same thing for years. I don't limit it to a week, but if the book is even in question, it hits one of my online selling sites like Amazon or half.com. If I don't read it by the time it sells, oh well. If it doesn't sell in a year, then I donate it. While not a large profit, and maybe not an immediate space-saving de-cluttering process, I've probably grossed $1000 from passive book sales in the past five years.
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Love this post. Don't know why, but I keep books I've never read and don't intend to. Some of them belonged to other people and I keep them in memory of them, but the majority just stay there b/c I can't help but think that I'm giving up something valuable when I donate a book. Even though I'm not making any real use of teh value.
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Sounds good - I'm in!
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Great idea, I will partake . :) I have decluttered my bookcase quite a bit, however I have been meaning to read some I have yet to read. Also love the idea of rereading to see if anything still is of interest. I was able to thin out the shelves by about half recently because many of my "favorites" did not even appeal to me anymore.
I have seven library books to read first, then I will get started.
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For those of us with cluttered bookshelves, especially full of books we haven't "yet" read...I live in a city with an excellent library and I am constantly being given books as gifts, so rather than buy a new bookshelf, I'm going to start streamlining the books I have.
Does your library hold a book sale? Ours does and they warmly welcome book donations.
You are in good company:
- Howard's End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home - Susan Hill
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I would love to join this challenge. Perhaps after this semester ends, I will!
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I'm in! Although, I'm not sure what order to go in. I have so much Asimov! Maybe that's a sign that I need to donate most of it. What are other people doing to pick out their book of the week?
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I random pick a book - if I feel like reading it, I do! If not I ask myself if I see myself reading or in a month. If not, it goes to donate pile.
I should say my donate pile is growing faster than my read in a month pile.
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Man, can I sign my wife up for this? :P
Though I do need to go through my old academic stuff. A lot of it (philosophy) is stuff I can use when homeschooling after the kids get old enough, but some of it is more technical than I'll ever try to read with them, so I should purge it.
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I love this idea. Great job, and thanks to somecobwebs.
I'm all in.
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First book finished. It was great, I'm so glad that I read it. Second book started. It's The Lays of Beleriand. Unfinished epic poems about Middle Earth by Tolkein. It is occasionally interesting, but in all honesty, I'm enjoying it even less than I usually enjoy poetry. I am getting rid of it (it has to be true because I said it online).
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First book finished. It was great, I'm so glad that I read it. Second book started. It's The Lays of Beleriand. Unfinished epic poems about Middle Earth by Tolkein. It is occasionally interesting, but in all honesty, I'm enjoying it even less than I usually enjoy poetry. I am getting rid of it (it has to be true because I said it online).
I don't get rid of anything that's Tolkien. I have a cat named Arwen if that helps explain why. Other books, fair game.
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This is a great idea. I moved house a few months ago, and donated the bookshelves I had, knowing I was downsizing. Most of my books are still in half a dozen boxes in the garage. I have yet to buy a new (to me) bookcase until I see how many books I have to make room for, and this will be a great way to trim down.
I don't keep much fiction, but my downfalls are recipe books - I like buying solid classics that have some background story or food science in them, but some of them I have yet to make even one recipe from; and sewing and craft books.
I've also been meaning to chose one cookery book and making one new recipe a week from it to decide if it is a keeper.
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This is a great idea. I moved house a few months ago, and donated the bookshelves I had, knowing I was downsizing. Most of my books are still in half a dozen boxes in the garage. I have yet to buy a new (to me) bookcase until I see how many books I have to make room for, and this will be a great way to trim down.
I don't keep much fiction, but my downfalls are recipe books - I like buying solid classics that have some background story or food science in them, but some of them I have yet to make even one recipe from; and sewing and craft books.
I've also been meaning to chose one cookery book and making one new recipe a week from it to decide if it is a keeper.
With cookbooks, I've taken to flipping through them and taking a digital picture of pages that interest me. If I make the recipe from that picture and I like it, then I'll spend the time to transcribe it into my Evernote recipe book. All of my in-use recipes are digital (or memorized). An iPad is way easier to keep around the kitchen than a print cookbook.
I do own some cookbooks still myself but I'm trying to keep to the library only from now on.
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Update!!
Will be donating: all my old garfield comics (may they make some kid as happy as they made me!) and a book I reviewed for work and didn't enjoy.
In the middle of El Cuaderno de Maya, which I will be donating when I am done with it - but I need to finish :)
Taking a break from that to read Reaper Man by Terry Prattchet :) I'm already suspecting that I will be keeping it, but we'll see how I feel at the end!
I think in general I am going to alternate between rereading something and reading something new, to keep my motivation up.
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Read and donated a box full of books! My bookshelf is lighter and clearer.
I'm wondering if I should cull out more stuff from my shelf.
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This was already a 2015 goal of mine, so I am in on this challenge. I tend to move around a lot - I love a good change of scenery - and I find myself packing up books and carting them here and there only to put them back on a shelf without having read a single word. To prep for my next big move - which I am planning for 2016 - I am wanting to streamline all of my belongings. Getting read of most of my books is a must.
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Oh goodness, I need this challenge. I mock women who have six closets and "nothing to wear," but I'm just like that with books. Working on it!
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Book count since beginning this challenge:
Donating: 7
Keeping: 1
My new place will have less bookshelf availability, so I'm glad I'm working on this! I want a full bookshelf where I love every book, not three full bookshelves that I barely look at. Plus, it's nice to discover books that you love.
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What a great idea! I'm in!
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Ever since I started this challenge (a nice break coincided too), I've gone through 25 books and donated all but two. Down to the last ten in that pile. Now my bookshelf can hold all my books. No need to put them in boxes! Excited!
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Ive doing a massive declutter and donated my bookshelf, so............:)
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Had a big stack of library books to read when I discovered this gauntlet. I'm finally on the last one & VERY excited to begin reading , rereading, and donating my books!
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Thank you for this challenge. I now have 20+ books on my bedside table and that's not even all of them. I am determined not to buy/borrow any new books for myself until I have disposed of the stack.
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Thank you for this challenge. I now have 20+ books on my bedside table and that's not even all of them. I am determined not to buy/borrow any new books for myself until I have disposed of the stack.
Yeah, I'm the same way. Trying to bribe myself with library books. "When I finish THESE 10 books, I can check a book out from the library!"
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I'm doing something like this. When my daughter moved out she left probably over 100 books. I got rid of the ones I had no interest in reading, but there's still about 50 I might read. So I'm working my way through them. At about a book a week, I won't need a new book for about a year! Oh, and then there's my own bookcase I also need to do this with. Hoping to be able to consolidate into just one bookcase.
Oh, and don't get me started on cookbooks! My SO has a cookbook problem. He likes to buy old cookbooks at estate sales. He has more books (all cookbooks) than my daughter and I combined!
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Progress Report:
Keeping: 3
Donating: 17
How's everyone else doing?
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My books have multiplied :( I donated 90% of my books last month and my book shelf was just right. Now with my husband traveling and picking up books, me shopping library sales and being gifted books, my bookshelf is again overflowing. I need to restart the challenge
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Ooh, I'm in on this too! I've been trying, and mostly failing, to read through my unread paper books for years. It's become easier in the last year or so since I moved and haven't signed up for the library in my new state. I probably won't be able to resist forever, though. Plus, I have another move expected, and it would be nice to cut down on the number of books I have to pack up. The collection expanded greatly last month when my absolutely wonderful friends and sisters each brought a book as a gift to my bachelorette party... But I do have a number of books piled up for donation. I'm currently reading a slow-going nonfiction book and when I've finished with it, I may well be donating both it and another book by one of the same authors.
I actually have a Beeminder goal https://www.beeminder.com/claredragonfly/goals/read (https://www.beeminder.com/claredragonfly/goals/read) related to this. It helps keep me from buying more books (especially used paper books and on-sale ebooks), at least some of the time...
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Late-ish to this Gauntlet!
I am in, too.
I hope this will also arrest a bad habit I am developing of reading online content instead of books.
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Also late to the gauntlet, but excited about this!
A few weeks ago we went through all our books and separated out the ones in the "read and then donate" category - usually books of particular interest or gifted books, but probably not re-read or hard to find books. I really wanted to know how many "permanent" books we own so I could figure out how many bookcases to ultimately keep. Now all the "read and then donate" books are stacked in a tidy (5 ft. high) pile next to the bookshelf. When I want something new to read I go to that stack instead of wander around the house wondering what I should read next or getting distracted by my housemate's books.
I am also an avid user of all the little libraries in our neighborhood, but I've put myself on a little library (and public library) hiatus until we've gone through all our own books. But since it will likely be years before we get through that stack, I keep slipping up and checking out and binge reading stacks of murder mysteries. Then I feel guilty and go back to our pile full of interesting (but more serious) books.
The goal is to finish the pile before our next move (1 to 1.5 years from now)!
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3 down, maybe a dozen unread to go . later I'll reread the others as well . most are favorites I've read several times ... But I've also already slimmed those down significantly as well..
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By the way, of the three I read, ,two I donated and the other is being lended out to a couple people as well, then kept ( for a while at least as is nonfiction and a current topic of interest worth studying deeper. )
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Just donated two big bags of books, and have already filled up another box :) Still working at it, slow but steady!
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I hav to admit I keep getting drawn to the lure of library books. But I hav finished them , so back on track . one of shelf read and to donate , one kept as is nonfiction I will refer back for further studies. On to the next today .
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Two down... One to be donated of the two.
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One more book read and donated.
When I return home from my trip I will take note of how many more books I hav to read . first I am reading those I haven't read, then I will reread the others ( or donate if there's no appeal left ) .
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To read: 14
To reread: 14
Reading one new read off shelf now, will donate after.
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One more "new" book read and 3 I decided not to read.so 4 donated :) . am reading another off the shelf.
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Read through half my new books (I bought them at library sales) and decided to keep one. Rest are going back to donate pile. Can't wait to be done with the rest.
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Been sort of half heartedly doing this for the past year - picking up the gauntlet to clear two of my bookcases so I have room for a few new finance books.
One thing I instituted a few years back, that has helped me tremendously is no fiction books - any sci-fi, romance, mystery and other fleeting interest book I will read, but never becomes part of my bookshelf - read and donate. End of story.
My issue is that I tend to have mini libraries on certain subjects that interest me and I do re-read and use those all the time. But over time you add new books and while it isn't easy to let go - if I have better books on the subject or it no longer interests me - I have learned to let go and make room for the best of:)
I'm in - following!
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Been sort of half heartedly doing this for the past year - picking up the gauntlet to clear two of my bookcases so I have room for a few new finance books.
One thing I instituted a few years back, that has helped me tremendously is no fiction books - any sci-fi, romance, mystery and other fleeting interest book I will read, but never becomes part of my bookshelf - read and donate. End of story.
My issue is that I tend to have mini libraries on certain subjects that interest me and I do re-read and use those all the time. But over time you add new books and while it isn't easy to let go - if I have better books on the subject or it no longer interests me - I have learned to let go and make room for the best of:)
I'm in - following!
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.
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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!
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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!
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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.
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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 .
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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!
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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!
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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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The only books I keep are ones I enjoy re-reading. Most of my books have been read between 5 and 50 times!
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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)
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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.
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I'm in!
Just donated 10+ books!
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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!
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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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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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!
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!