Making a Dent in the Stacks: The Thirty Page Plan

According to my Kindle, I have 464 books. Of these, I have read 21 books. Yikes. This doesn’t count books I download from Kindle Unlimited, read, and return.  I also have a kitchen drawer-yep, you read that right- a kitchen drawer full of books. I guess you can see where my priorities are. Cooking vs. Reading. Reading wins every time. Although I love food...just preferably when someone else cooks it. I’m working on that. 

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I have a lot of unread books. In an effort to declutter my home, life, and mental space, one thing I’m looking at is getting rid of lots of books. In the past year, I have donated a ton of books to the local charity shop and local Little Free Libraries. I’m trying to cultivate a “Keeper Shelf” at my home. This shelf contains books that I plan to reread or find useful as a reference. It’s surprisingly easy to decide what to keep when looking at it through that lens.  While I may really enjoy a book, it takes a special book to fall into “I might want to reread this again” category. So, I’m issuing myself a challenge. While I will continue to read books from the library and Kindle Unlimited, as I really enjoy both, I want to start working my way through all these books I own.  Many of the ebooks were free books from various newsletters or Bookbub. I’ve reigned this in a lot lately by only downloading free or discounted books if I think I would be willing to buy it at full price. If I’m not willing to do that, then I’m just hoarding books for the sake of hoarding them. 

My plan involves reading the first thirty pages of a book. If I'm not enjoying it, I get rid of it. Right then. Physical books go into a stack for the Little Free Library. Digital books are deleted permanently off my Kindle. I used to think, well I may want to try to read it another day. But, seriously, if it doesn't hook me in the first thirty pages, what are the odds I will want to read it later? While I can keep unlimited books on my Kindle, I don't want to sort through  a bunch of books I don't enjoy on it, either. So, I'm debating on whether or not to treat the Kindle like a Keeper Shelf, too. Should I delete books on it that I've read but have no intentions of rereading? 

What do you think about my plan? How do you manage your books? Do you have a Keeper Shelf? If so, what books are on it? 

Let’s Discuss: How do you organize/edit your TBR list?

This post is part of the 2019 Discussion Challenge hosted by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight and Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. 

Oh, the To Be Read (TBR) List. To give you an idea about my TBR list, I currently have 716 books on my “Want to Read” list on Goodreads. I have 471 unread titles on my Kindle. I also have a Nook Color, which I don’t use much anymore, but on it (and the Nook app) I have 194 unread titles. On the iBook app, I have 12 unread titles.  I have no clue how many physical books. What I do know is that I have several unread books on my bookshelf, on my nightstand, by my bed, and (shame on me) in a large pull out drawer in my kitchen. It’s exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. Exciting because who knows what great book is waiting for me in all this? Overwhelming because how will I find it? 

If I’m honest, I will admit that I have a book buying problem.  Granted, many of the eBooks I have were received free from various services, like Bookbub or offered through various authors’ newsletters.  I also subscribe to many “discounted” eBook newsletters which provide daily deals on big name eBooks, so I often purchase through those newsletters.  As for physical books, I get many of those free through our local Little Free Libraries or from the Free Table from our local library.  I also get many books at dirt cheap prices from a local thrift store.  

A big problem I notice is that when it comes time to actually pick my next read, I more often than not find myself wandering the aisles at the local library or browsing Hoopla or Kindle Unlimited (which I recently signed up for at a limited time discounted price). So, I’m really not making much of a dent in my TBR pile, unless I am picking a title on my Goodreads TBR list (which I often don’t). The lure of an undiscovered book or a fresh off the presses title often seems to trump the books I already own.  

So what’s a reader to do? 

To try to help the feeling of overwhelm, I decided I was going to delete title of my TBR list on Goodreads. This ended up being much more difficult that I thought. It took me forever to figure out how to do this, and I then realized it would only delete a few titles at a time. Has anyone else had experience with this? 

I’ve also thought about deleting books off of Kindle/Nook/iTunes, starting with Kindle.  The only thing about this is, how do I choose which to delete? I think what I may do is go through and just delete ones that instinctively don’t appeal to me anymore. I know I have several romance novels that were free downloads that just don’t appeal to me anymore. It’s a start anyways. 

What about you? How do you organize your TBR list? Do you delete titles without reading them?