Alright, team. It's June (even though you'd never know it, thanks to the major gloom period in which Washington State currently finds itself sufficiently sunk). But despite the dismal weather, the conclusion of the Finals Weeks of my younger siblings mark that Summer is officially here! And of course, with it comes Summer Reading Challenges from all corners (but that's for another blogpost!).
This June, I wanted to do something a little different, to make sure I'm not just checking out a million library books again this summer. I'm trying my absolute best to read down my shelves, and Reading Challenges are a great opportunity to make sure that the book I'm pulling are ones I already own. At the same time, I recognize it's almost impossible to plan for how to tackle these various challenges, when my shelves are overflowing with so many available reads!
The worst thing about it all is that there are definitely books on here that have been camped out for... a while.
There are, of course, a couple of reasons for all of this. For starters, the reality is, my book-buying habits have changed in the last six years or so since I graduated college. Back in those days, and high school as well, I kept a pretty tight roster of books that I had been given or bought myself, typically restricted to a designated shelf on the tall bookshelf I kept for myself in my room.
Nowadays, I run wild. I'm a compulsive library-book-grabber. I place holds on ten or so books at a time, and then am invariably overwhelmed when all of them come crashing into my local branch at once. But I'm also someone who buys ebook deals on whims, my Kindle loaded up with random romance novels I bought because those sorts of books to go on sale for $1 to $2 a piece on a daily basis. I trawl multiple "ebook discount deals" Instagram accounts on the weekly, and race through entire rows of books until I find one I can justify spending money on, thanks to the tiny serotonin drop in the empty, rattling bucket of my thirsty brain that comes once I see a new title appear on the screen of my ereader.
And more than anything, I'm now at a place in my life where I have feasibly purchased too many books I am not entirely interested in reading. That's from a lot of different factors: picking up discounts at Goodwill because "maybe I'll want to read this someday," meticulously putting together a plan before visits to Powell's in Portland and then inevitably having the whole mess fall apart once I see what titles aren't there, having my annual Bloggoversary celebration purchasing 5 books every July turn into overly-precious sentimentality of books I want to postpone reading "until I can really enjoy them"... the problems are unique, for sure.
I buy books because I want to become the kind of person who reads the Classics I loved back in my English program; books because I want to be the kind of person who reads lengthy, critically-hyped Fantasy tomes; books because I want to gain back some kind of street cred I boasted of in high school about being one of the "smart kids" by reading stacks of Nonfiction at a time. The problem is, while I like Classics, heavy Fantasy, and Nonfiction, I don't always reach for those books first. And then they gather together on my shelves, and they gather dust.
Of course, I have no idea how many are there. On account of the last estimation - when I did a similar sort of reorganization project last January - the total count broke down something like this:
TBR Shelves - 264 physical copies
Kindle - 171 ebooks
Total: 435 books unread
And like I said before, I do a LOT of library time on a regular basis - typically for cookbooks, but also through the Libby ebooks system, because it's so damn convenient - and on audiobooks facilitated through the same platform on my iPhone.
And again... that count was last January. There's been a year and a half of book buying since then, a year and a half of Book Outlet, Goodwill, and more. I can't imagine how high that number is now, but honestly, I'm also deeply unwilling to do that much counting.
Not when I can just count the books I've managed to clean off of my shelves, instead. Because it's absolutely time for a bit of an unhaul process.
the Process
So, here's how I ended up swinging this: I took a look at each individual shelf on my TBR bookcase, and went line item by item about which titles I thought were worth keeping. The ones I already knew I was interested in just went back onto the main shelves, but those that I was unsure about went into their own stack. The ones I was sure I didn't want, had their own designated area of my room, too. By the end of it all, I was hoping I would have three distinct outcome areas: clean and organized shelves, the "goodbye" stacks, and a couple of piles to take my time sorting through over the next couple of days.
All told, that's exactly how it ended up shaking out... but it really did highlight how many books I had, too. Because it took me four days total to get through them all without burning myself out on decision fatigue.
Between the four main genre sections I organize on my own shelves- Classics, Contemporary, Sci Fi / Fantasy, and Nonfiction - I had a lot of thoughts about the whole process.
Classics
For starters, I own a lot of Classics for someone who hasn't really picked up a ton since her English Literature major in college. I still have a love and appreciation for the genre, of course, it's just more difficult to prompt myself into tackling "stretch" material on my stony lonesome, rather than making memes about it in a group message with other like-minded undergrads.
I also blame the English Department for how I went through a period of just picking up as many vintage Mass Market Paperbacks as possible, which was a definite mistake. In a social circle where everyone was constantly bragging about the amount of Dickens they've read, or whether they'd finished Jane Austen's entire catalogue (one girl, I remember, would always laugh at these convos and remark on how she'd done that back in high school), it felt like reading Classics was almost a numbers game. But the problems with that system were myriad: half of these are books I'm never going to read (Don Quixote, The Old Curiosity Shop), and as for the ones I actually will, I'm certainly not reading in MMP format. Into the "give away" piles with ye...
Damn, remember when I was super into Virginia Woolf? Thanks, "Intro to Modernism" class, one of about five or so English classes I reminisce on with some degree of fondness. There were twelve people who made up the roster, including the teacher, so I could never skip without being missed, and it took over twenty minutes of walking two days a week to get there. My good feelings towards the strange cast of characters assembled in a random building on the offshoots of West Campus - the girl who also tended bar at one of the places on The Ave and would say hello when I ordered drinks, the solo engineering major who answered the question of favorite author with "Tom Clancy" to resounding silence - have absolutely rubbed off on the fact that we read Mrs Dalloway, and now I can't read Woolf without thinking of them. The problem is, I haven't really read Woolf since I graduated. I'm still hanging onto these titles, though.
It's nice to know that no matter how much Shakespeare I've read across my life this far, there's still always something left to read. I knew I was a fan of the Bard back in high school, and I've been taking my sweet time languidly drifting through his extended canon ever since, so I don't run out of new things to read too fast along the way. Plus there's a ton of extra materials on my shelves about him, from critical commentary to biographical context, and that's worth saving, in my mind, too. Of course, there are also a few up here I have read already, but enough time has passed that I've totally forgotten about it. Keep to all, as well...
Phew, I sure have a lot of D. H. Lawrence for someone who's never read D. H. Lawrence, though. As someone who's always had a healthy fascination with Banned Books, it's no surprise that I'm intrigued, though my copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover is yet another MMP from the '70s. Clearly, the effects of the aforementioned Modernism class continue on throughout the shelf. Not willing to get rid of these until I've given him a little bit of a chance...
It's nice to know it's not ALL the English Department's fault, though. I absolutely can get rid of some of these on the sheer basis of "The Movie Is Actually Better"... and even in cases within those, there's no reason to keep hanging on: I've never liked Phantom of the Opera - musical, movie, soundtrack, in any case - and the Joan Fontaine / Laurence Olivier version of Rebecca is the only reason I picked up the book in the first place. Toss to both.
Contemporary
Okay, some of these are definitely from my Mom. And my Aunt. I have a bad habit of just collecting books lent by other people on the principle that if someone else I know has already read them, then regardless, I will have someone to talk about them with once I've finished. However, if I'm never going to actually end up reaching for them at all, then what purpose does any of this serve? That being said, I'm going to take my time searching through them for topics that are more my style. Sorting, sorting...
So many of these are just because of that dumb scratch-off poster. A couple of Christmases or Birthdays ago - can't remember which - I had asked one of my siblings for a scratch-off poster of the Classics (again, my brain is rotten), but bemoaned the fact that all of the titles amplified by their inclusion in it were written by men, or published more than a century ago. She gamely pivoted to buy me a "Modern Classics" posted instead, which highlights titles from the first decade and a half of the Twenty-First Century... and unfortunately, while the list is more diverse and dynamic in terms of identity, they also frequently repeat author names, and include too many titles I know I'm not going to read. I'm sick of pretending I'm going to read Jonathan Franzen or Wolf Hall... if I really want to read them in the future, the library, I'm sure, will have them. Now the only thing left to consider is whether I should do away with the poster, as well.
So many of these are just because I heard someone, somewhere, mention they liked it. Curse you, Goodreads and Bookstagram! I'm so terrible about seeking out new Contemporary releases in hardcover because someone else wrote a pretty review about its pretty cover and I thought it would look oh so pretty if I read it, too. Alas! It's never my cup of tea, and that makes it more than worth dumping out after one too many failed attempts. I've spent way too long being mocked by the copy of Fates and Furies I know I dislike too much to finish. Away!
Oh man, I love Jennifer Egan. Talk about a favorite author from college: I read her for the first time in my Freshman year (required) Intro to English (non-major-specific) class. It was one of two books I read specifically for that first-ever Quarter on UW's campus, and it set me up for reading quite a lot more of her other work over the years. I didn't know I had all of these! Sure, I'll get rid of the one I didn't really like - I feel like I'm the only person in the world who thought Manhattan Beach was her LEAST interesting novel - but the rest of these are sticking with me.
This is a lot of Celeste Ng and Kristin Hannah for someone who's never read either of those authors. And unlike Egan, I'm pretty much okay with getting rid of most of them. My younger sister loved Little Fires Everywhere, and I had a friend give me Everything I Never Told You, but based on genre, topic, and setting alone, I know I'm not interested, and someone else would be super jazzed to pick up these kinds of titles at Goodwill, instead. Ironically enough, I never bought any of these Kristin Hannah's either, and similarly, I know I won't read them. Well, maybe Four Winds. The rest can be contributed towards my mom's bedside table, instead.
To be honest, out of most of these genres, I'm having a hard time determining which of these I should hang on to... which is wild, because I truly do not read a lot of Contemporary. I think maybe it's an effect of just not knowing enough about the material to make a decision, but then again, it's about letting go of the weight of other people's opinions, too. Goodbye, fancy hardcovers and sticker-emblazoned paperbacks. I barely knew ye... nor did I want to.
Science Fiction / Fantasy
Okay, for a genre that takes up two full sets of shelves, it was somewhat outrageously easy to organize these once I got that hidden stack of Romance novels out of the way (There were only six, but they're bulky!).
And furthermore, just putting my hardcovers together in one concrete, organized combination frees up SO MUCH SPACE. I think that has a lot to do with consistent sizing, too, so special shoutout to the Fantasy and Sci Fi people for resisting the urge to make all of their books weird-shaped. (Ahem, here's looking at you, Contemporary.)
If I just take out books that I've given to my brother to read, that he's passed back on to me, that eliminates a whole lot of books, too. But does this mean I'm bad at giving presents? I think a bit of minor consultation with him is required to see if any of these bad boys deserve a second chance. I'll probably end up keeping more than I give away.
In fact, I'm retaining almost all of these, being that they're a genre I reach for the most often, and I'm not willing to give up my dreams of being a big, bulky Fantasy reader just yet. The one thing I will say, is that there is definitely not as much Sci Fi as Fantasy on these shelves... and that honestly feels like a bit of a bummer! Still, I've got to read down at least a few of these before I start picking up any Science Fiction... can't go around undoing all of my hard work that easily!
Nonfiction
So many of these are books I originally bought for Mom! Again, does this mean something? I mean, everyone's tastes are different, so just because I purchased presents for other people, it doesn't mean I should automatically plan on reading the same. That being said, though, a lot of what I buy her are various Cooking Memoirs, which is one of my favorite subgenres as well... but maybe I can do away with a few of these random ones.
In fact, I think I'm going to have to do some sifting through of all these Food and Gardening Memoirs. Clearly, I have a type, even beyond the stuff I've bought for mom. It helps that I know myself quite well, but what I often think I do is resort to these kinds of titles for things like impulse purchases, because I just kind of figure I'll end up reading them eventually. Sometimes its true, but more often than not, it just leads to a surplus of books sitting on my shelves for a long time. Are there any that I can just speed read a little of, to tell whether they'll really work for me?
I honestly can't believe I've been hanging on to some of these books since my ill-fated flirtation with earning a Poli Sci Minor in college. Seriously, there are titles that I recognize from syllabi of classes long passed, when I thought to myself "We only read three chapters out of this thing this whole semester... clearly I can get my money's worth by finishing them on my own time!" Now, not only do I just not pick these kinds of things up anymore, but all of this information is, at a bare minimum, six years old... and there's a whole lot that's happened in those six years that has passed. These pretty much all need to go.
Lots of Books about Books, and Books about Writing. Again, clearly, I have a type... and I know for a fact that I pick up a lot of these for the same reasons that I pick up the Cooking Memoirs. It's really nice to know I have favorite genres I can return to time and again, but I'd rather actually spend my time reading books, more than buying them... and furthermore, I'd rather be WRITING, than reading about writing! These deserve a little more scrutiny, as well!
Goodbye to you...
I'm not terribly hung up on the number; again, that wasn't really the point of the experiment. The more valuable thing, to me, is the feeling that's left: that everything still on my shelves is here because I really, genuinely want it to be here.
And all of this makes me feel a LOT better about starting to plan out all of my Summer Reading Challenge game plans, too. These oh-so recently rearranged shelves make it super easy to start plotting which ones I'm looking forward to reading most. Hopefully with this kind of help, I'll be able to break out of this Springtime Slump, and get to reading regularly again!
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