I had 215 books and a serious intention to cull. I told myself I would be kind, realistic, thoughtful, and purposeful. I’m also no stranger to self-delusion.
Here’s how the cull went…
Six books were returned to my husband’s side of the bookshelves.
Over the past few years, my husband has recommended a few books and every time, I’ve responded with something along the lines of, ‘Sure, pop it on that shelf; I’d love to read it.’ Every. Time. Am I the eternal optimist? Too polite? What is with me? Back they went to the husband’s shelves. Pretty sure he didn’t notice. And, yes, we have separate sections on our bookshelves. Even in marriage, some things should be separate, underwear, toiletries, books – I’m sure most married peeps have their categories. We did merge our cookbooks, so that’s something.
Three books were double-ups.
I have no idea how I ended up with physical and electronic versions of the same books, but clearly, I really wanted to read them. I’ve only ever read one book twice and do not intend to make it a habit. Controversial, I know! Would I read the same book twice in different formats? Zero chance because #toomanybooksnotenoughtime. I cut the total by three immediately.
Two books became giveaways.
One was a giveaway from a friend who gave it to me, saying he hated it, but I might enjoy it. Um, OK, sure, thanks? He may have hated it, but in the past year, I haven’t even opened it. Hopefully, someone will find it in my local street library and enjoy it. I’d like to think there’s some love out there for this book. Or even just some mild interest, perhaps?
The other book I bought for research several years ago when I worked in corporate land. I was working with an Executive who wanted to bring themes from it into their staff communication pieces, which I had to draft. I found a bookmark somewhere in chapter five, so at least I tried to read it. From memory, I think I may have skimmed the rest and decided it was so repetitive it probably should’ve been an essay, a common trait in business books. Just picking up this book gave me stomach-churning memories. I flung it into the nearest street library with relief.
I was left with 204 books.
Could you call this a cull? I mean, it wasn’t even 10%. But at least it was fewer books.
So, all I had to do was read 24 of the remaining books. When I first embarked on this project, I intended to choose two books per month from different genres – historical fiction, crime, creative non-fiction etc., to make sure I mixed it up a little. Seriously, no one wants to hang out with me after I’ve been on a historical fiction bender. I’m all, ‘Did you know in 1944 in Paris… blah, blah, blah.’ A right royal PIA.
Five months in, I’ve read eight books, and I have alternated the genres, but I’m a bit off the pace if I want to hit my goal of 24. Last week when shifting around the piles in my TBR collection (a regular task), I found 15 books with bookmarks ranging from a few pages in to halfway through. And now, I have a dilemma.
Should I…
Continue counting the books with bookmarks as TBR? Or are they In-Progress? The achiever in me screams, ‘Delete them from the total!’ because that moves me a few steps forward in my goal. The realist shakes her head, ‘They are technically still "to be read", so they stay.’
The attraction of taking 15 out in one swoop is compelling. It also feels like cheating. Admittedly this is a game where I’ve made up the rules, so what do I do?
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