This week's Booking Through Thursday question is: Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them?I totally need to go on a book diet. My current GoodReads.com stats are:
- Books Physically on my TBR Shelf: 79
- Books on my Mental TBR Shelf (aka, The Wish List): 59
It could be worse: they could be drugs.
Roughly two years ago I wrote a blog post (on my very old MySpace.com blog), which contained the following "random/weird" facts about me:
"I have an addiction to shopping so I have developed a system to manage the contents of my closet. Whenever I purchase a new pair of jeans, casual/weekend shirt, pair of shoes or purse, I have to purge an old item. This ensures that A) My closet will remain up-to-date without growing too large, and B) Creates a system of checks while shopping because I know I'm going to have to get rid of something--I really have to want that new thing."Should I require myself to adopt this inventory management system with my books? Weigh in on the comments (remembering that they're just books, not drugs).
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13 comments:
I've heard of that kind of "one in/one out" thing before and I think it just depends on your living space. If you have a set number of shelves then it's probably a good idea to do some occasional "weeding." But if you have the room, then why worry? Better than drugs for the brain, for sure.
Well, yes, that sounds like a great system to use for books, too. Of course, I myself could never manage to stick to the book purge diet. It would be too painful!
I practice that philosophy with clothes but I don't know about books. It would be like giving dear friends away! Thanks for visiting me and Happy BTT!
I believe every book has its moment with an individual reader, and that is why I have to keep buying them in case I have a whim for that particular book.
Proud to be a glutton, but I try not to buy. I grab the ones that I'm most desperate to read and leave the rest on a list.
Oooh, not sure about the one in-one out philosophy for books. I don't think I'd be able to do that. That said, there are some books I regret buying/reading, and I fully intend to sell them off soon.
Don't think I could ever part with a book I've thoroughly enjoyed though... of course, you could say the same thing about your favorite pair of jeans.....
I think buy one/get rid of one is easier done with clothes than books. Maybe you could read one tbr before buying another?
BTW, I took some advice from your BTT graphic novel post and wrote about that experience today -thanks!
It's easy to part with a pair jeans, especially if they're outdated. Shoes too. But my books? Never. I don't think I can weed my books.
I like your shopping system of one in/one out. Have to think about that because I definitely have a shirt fetish. :)
I should probably do that with books, too, but I subscribe to the belief that there are never too many books.
It seems like you're doing great now! I thought about taking up the "one in/one out" system but to no avail. I'm often giving away books so I feel okay. Books are the best drug! =)
I keep adding books but I do giveaway too, to orphanages, old age homes and local libraries.
Book gluttons, are we?
this is very true, it's not drugs so no one should complain! You should only purge books if you know you'll never look at it or read it ever again.
I've got you beat, my goodreads.com TBR list is currently at 299.
I don't think I could do one for one, but I do periodically weed out books that I doubt I will ever read. I then fill up the space with books that I hope I will read!
I'm with mattviews.
I had this same problem. And then I went and calculated how much I was spending on books every year. I decided I would rather have a new computer with that money. And I realized, duh, I could get them all from the library when I was *really* ready to read them.
So I took all my unread books off the shelf, wrote down their titles in a TBR spreadsheet, put back the ones that I thought I might keep after (like nonfiction for reference), and took the rest to Half-Price Books.
Now I only allow myself to buy a book if I want to keep it for reference or if I want to re-read it one day.
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