As 2014 closes, I’m contemplating grounding myself for the next year (or as long as I can hold out) to reading only the books I own that are present in my house. Everything else that I want to read but don’t own will go in a holding list, so to speak, in Goodreads.
I’d like to do this to:
Reduce the number of unread books I’ve collected;
Force myself to read more classics (books I apparently love to buy but then get distracted from reading);
See how disciplined I can be in my reading.
Anyone else ever done this? Why did you do it? Were you successful? Or did you cave and throw off the strictures and if so, how quickly? If you stuck with it, did you do a Great Book Purge of items you’d newly read but knew you wouldn’t pick up again?
I’m hoping I can stick with it long enough to get rid of a fair few books at the end, though I’ll keep my favorites as always.
Thoughts? And no, I won’t be running out before Christmas to buy a whole bunch of books just to have them in the house January 1.
I have enough unread books that I could probably go for a decade just on the ones I have - and then there are books my wife has I wouldn’t mind reading also. Most of my reading is from my unread list, though when I go to the library I usually can’t resist one or two - and I can never resist a bookstore.
So it mostly boils down to trying to resist getting new books in.
I don’t have a year’s worth of unread books…and even if I did, no way! There’s too much wonderful stuff out there!
I only this year discovered A.E.W. Mason and William Clark Russell. (The latter was recommended in an aside by John H. Watson, M.D.) I only this year discovered Dudley Pope’s “Nicholas Ramage” books.
Who knows what the next wonderful discovery will be? Why would I cut off all forward progress? This seems terribly self-limiting.
Sure, yes, absolutely, address that backlog, and try to get through some of the books in your shelves that have been tempting you for years. But, my goodness, you can do both!
Yeah, no…every single book in my house (and I do have lots) I’ve read at least once. Even the musty old classics. I buy books I want to read, so of course I read them.
I feel bad for unread books, actually. The ones I have that I know I’m not going to read again, get donated or traded at the second hand book store. Just did that this afternoon, actually.
I did, when I was pregnant. Got through quite a few on my “to be read” shelf. Mostly because we redid our floors and I had to move the shelf and it was… very dusty. And all of those things were on there for a reason, right? A LOT of them since grad school.
Pretty much everything I got through I really liked, by the way. I won’t keep everything - I kind of feel now that now that I’ve read some Wodehouse I’ve read plenty of Wodehouse, and don’t think I’ll read it again. But Kokoro was fantastic, as was The Wild Geese, both of which I’ve had on that shelf since I took a Japanese literature class in grad school.
There are still, I dunno, maybe twenty books on the Haven’t Read shelf. If I hadn’t had an emergency C-section 5 weeks early I might have gotten through a lot more of them! Now things are so crazy that I’ve been on the same book for a month, which is not a thing I usually do. Anyway, I do think it was a good idea, I did enjoy it, and I’d like to do it again.
It wasn’t any kind of “forced march” - everything on that shelf was there for a reason, it’s just that other books keep poking their heads up.
I can’t imagine “grounding myself” like this. I’ll read anything that’s on hand and I don’t buy more until I’m done reading it. Even things I only partly like will fill up the need to read.
For example, I once got a large collection of books from a friend. For about five years, that was all I read. Even things like Terry Pratchett. I know that many of you love Discworld, but I like my fantasy dark and depressing. Nevertheless, I waded through all 30 Discworld books in that collection. But, again, it’s not so much that I made myself read anything, it’s just that as long as I had things to read, I wasn’t looking for things to buy.
I totally hear you. I have hundreds of books I haven’t read or want to read again. I am totally OK with keeping a book for 15 or more years before reading it. I gfet distracted. I, too, want to be more disciplined in my reading. I had a self-imposed no genre novels ban this summer. It was great. Didn’t last too long tho as I am a crime novel junkie.
So I say go for it. One possible difference between me and you is that I am an inverterate rereader. So simply reading a book isn’t gonna help me get rid of it. Good luck, keep us posted.
What if after you finished you got snowed in or, the modern equivalent, bunkered in due to zombie attacks? You would be stuck in a house full of books you’ve already read. This will hasten going crazy.
interesting idea. I have contemplated making this a theme year for books*… Non fiction, Best sellers, Prize Winners, Canadian Authors, Biographies, Female Authors, some sort of genre fiction, but I couldn’t decide which category. “Books I already own” is a great category, and from a glance at one of my 4 Billy bookcases I can see I have at least 2 or 3 of each category; unread. spine uncracked, unknown to me.
If I get through all of the books then I will allow myself to trade the books I won’t be keeping for other books I want, and read those, or finish any series I may have started. (I think in a pile is some series my Dad is begging me to read.
The only exception will be the books I read for my chick-lit book club, but we usually pass those around to share, so I will get most of those from the library or another member. Sometimes the selections are already on my shelves.
Keep in touch Grrrlbrarian If you feel like caving in and getting new stock, I will try to talk you down. IUnless its a really great book you just have to read!
I’ll keep in touch. Mona Lisa Simpson, do update if you decide to pick a year. I did that with a summer once - I re-read children’s books I’d enjoyed from my childhood. Never tried a whole year before, though.
Aquadementia, your zombie apocalypse comment made me laugh… although I only read about 114 books per year, and I’ve got at least that many stacked up waiting for me in the bookshelves. Hence the contemplated grounding. I’m a crime novel fiend, too (and also fantasy), so this will be a real test of my discipline. All the stuff stacked up is something that I really do want to read, or did at one time.
More than anything else, I need to pare down my bookshelves in anticipation of another move in the future. I’m running out of friends who are willing to help move me: too many heavy book boxes!
If you have a bunch of classics head on over to our SDMB book club thread and hang out for a bit. You might just have our next month’s selection right there on your shelf!
A few years ago, I spent a couple of months reading/re-reading a bunch of books I already owned, to prep for a move - it was somewhat successful in helping me winnow out my bookshelves, but I’m due for another round.
I plan to ground myself from the library next month - Mount ToBeRead is dangerously high (analog & virtual) and I imagine I’ll get more books over the holidays … plus I keep thinking of all these books I want to re-read!
I will frequently avoid bookstores and amazon’s books section because I have a small backlog (more than 2 but less than 20) of stuff. A week or three later, I’ll find myself all caught up tho.
This is what I was going to say. How could you bear living in place you might find yourself stuck in with nothing new to read? What if you die, and are stuck as a ghost, but can’t leave for whatever reason and have to amuse yourself with just the books on hand? Why on Earth would anyone risk that?
I like re-reading too! I have a big stack of books I never get tired of.
I make a pilgrimage through Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” series (both old and new series) every few years. Same for Jack Vance’s “Demon Prince” series.
I re-read “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” once a year, as a kind of religious ritual. I adore those books, and will never regret the hours I’ve spent on them.
So, yes, if I were trapped in my apartment, I have enough books to keep me going for – three months, maybe? Six? Just possibly a year?
I’m a really big believer in a balance of reading strategies. Some new reading, some re-reading. Some “crap” and some classics. Some stuff written recently, and some old stuff from Project Gutenberg. Some fiction and some non-fiction.
Life is so damn short, and there are so many great books! (And even crap books that are, nevertheless, fun!)
