Read What You Own Challenge

[ÚlldemoShúl]

I’m going to start a Read What You Own Challenge on the 1st of July to try and reduce down my ridiculously huge TBR both physical and kindle.
My rules for me are-

• No buying any new books after midday on July 1st
• Unsubscribe from the kindle daily deals email
• I am allowed to break it for the Booker Prize longlist when it’s announced, but must check my library for the books first.
• Keep going until August 21st as my first goal. (Maybe until 2026 in total)

These rules are specific to me and anyone who wants to join me is free to make their own set of rules for their challenge. I’m going to log each book I read here to keep me accountable. Anyone else up for it? I know some 50 Bookers are considering it…

You can set your kindle to filter books by read or unread. This exercise tells you how many unread you have (though it isn't always accurate if you didn't read to the last page because eg there was an extract from the next book).

The management takes no responsibility for any feelings of horror that follow such an exercise :->

Thanks to you good folks i picked up a Christmas novel in a garden centre today, put it down again and went home and read 30% of The Road To Grantchester instead 😀

WELL DONE :->

Congrats @WinterFrogs
I’m building up to a RWYO own year next year (with the exception of the Prize lists) but my TBR is bigger than I will ever admit (especially kindle and Audible deals)

Great news, thanks. I need to tackle my huge TBR pile and was going to ask if the RWYO was continuing into next year. Also just got many boxes of books out of storage so no room for any more! 3 x library books to get through then I’ll start I think. Trying not to buy more books except for book club purchases, most of which I’ve got rid of after the meetings anyway. The idea is to finish the year with less books than I started with!

Thank you @ÚlldemoShúl 😊

It's mad how we gather books isn't it @RomanMum?

Do any of you admit defeat and get rid of books or are you all relentlessly ploughing throgh everything you've got?

I think I'm going to give everything a go but if it doesn't grab me in the first couple of chapters I'll pass it on to a charity shop or the local phone box library.

@WinterFrogs I spent some time last night moving some older unread books thaf I don’t really fancy reading to a DNF folder on kindle. Then another time I will go back into that folder and delete some if I still don’t fancy them. Our time is worth something and it’s fine to decide against books that Past You acquired!

Close My Eyes - Sophie McKenzie - bought this in 2013 (!) a thriller about Gen, whose child Beth was stillborn nearly 8 years ago... or was she? Implausible and pacey.

On kindle I've made up folders for DNF books, read, unread and Christmas ones. Love how organised it makes everything. First DNF to go into the folder is Frankenstein - I made it to about a third of the way in then gave up.
I've started my first ever Miss Marple book, 4.50 from Paddington. Having only read the majority of the Poirots and a few standalone ones, I'm looking forward to seeing what Miss Marple is all about.

I also have a Read folder on Kindle :>

Do any of you admit defeat and get rid of books or are you all relentlessly ploughing through everything you've got?

I've had a ruthless pruning.
Books I have had for years but every time I look at them I feel dreadful. Gone.
Books recommended that I've tried once and failed < looks at Cazalets > Gone.
Books by a favourite writer that I didn't get into but felt like I should try again. Gone. Books in a genre I used to love but now don't. Gone.
They are all in a DNF folder on kindle or charity shop if paper.

I have a few read books to list - It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara and Redhead By The Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. Have just started The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey. All on my kindle.

Then I ended up buying three more yesterday- I blame my sister. And my weak willpower.

And I’m at Dublin Airport flying back home and bought another book - Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor. It’s about Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz before the whole Oz thing. Sounded intriguing!

I too spend too much time doom scrolling @WinterFrogs. It’s so easy.

And I also have folders on my Kindle - read, Christmas, random, diet. I like the idea of a DNF folder too. Might also need one for books I bought years ago and will never realistically read. There seems to be quite a few of those.

Might also need one for books I bought years ago and will never realistically read. There seems to be quite a few of those.

I drop these into DNF as a holding area, then delete them if I'm not inspired after reading the 'about this book' bits

I am still buying new books, though...

I'm not allowing myself to do that now.

Can I just ask though?Has anyone had any experience of japanese?Novels. I've bought a couple of books, and whilst they say they're meant to be a motive and heartwarming stories, I find them very sterile. I'm wondering is it a translation issue. Possibly the translation is too literal was not enough of the emotion conveyed across.

That’s probably what I’ll do.

@TheLivelyRose I’ve read a few and I know what you mean.

@TheLivelyRose- I’ve read a few Japanese books & quite enjoyed some of them (What you want is in the library & Days at the Morisaki bookshop). They are not particularly exciting, but I enjoyed the insight into a different culture. (I had a bit of a phase a year or 2 ago when I had been reading about the importance of diversity in children’s books, so I tried to diversify my own reading to see if it made a difference).

@TheLivelyRose I also struggle with the flatness of prose in Japanese translations. I do love Japanese dystopias though- loved Under the Eye of the Big Bird this year from the international Booker list.

I’ve finished another two
Emylia Hall - The Shell House Detectives
Julie Caplin - The Little Cafe in Copenhagen

@OurMavisI love your ruthless declutter, especially the first category. I’ve got an archived folder on my kindle, and need to delete some of the books in it. What stops me is pondering that even though I’ve hated one of the books by an author, would I enjoy a different one.

The State We're In - Adele Parks
Bought in 2015! My tastes have shifted away from Adele Parks, but this was perfectly serviceable of its genre.

I've been sitting here wondering what DNF means. Did Not Finish? 💡
I think I'll do something like that too.
Before I joined in here, I would have bought Catcher In The Rye as someone mentioned it on another thread I'm on, and I'd have probably started looking at Japanese books too.

I'm getting better at focusing on books instead of scrolling. A novel was taking a month and now I'm looking at days.

Intend to increase reading time.

Can I please join? I’m such a bookworm. I need to change my habit of having three books on the go at once, usually a detective genre, currently half way through a Peter Robinson DCI Banks, a Stephen King and a Hilary Mantel. All great in their different ways, but I’d follow the plots much better if I didn’t switch them constantly. So my first goal is to finish them individually.

I’m not buying any books until I’ve read all the 47 sitting on my bookshelves. Our local co op has a charity book shelf near the exit, and I always find it irresistible. So that needs to stop too. And I have the complete Game of Thrones collection that was a present years ago, untouched. So I’m going to read those too. Then there’s the 4 on Audible, so will listen to those before I add to my library there. Wish me luck😀

Welcome @Middlemarch123. I keep saying I’m not buying any more. And then I do!

@WinterFrogs - yes DNF is Did Not Finish. I’d have looked at Catcher in The Rye too…. Not sure I’ve ever read it. One year our English teacher at school gave us a list of classic books to read over the summer and I read them all. I’m sure that was one. I was the only one in the class who read them all and she was so surprised at me as I was terrible at getting homework done so she wasn’t expecting it - classic procrastination always! But give me a book and I was happy!

I have deleted around 20 books from Kindle, which is good. I feel like I have read enough books about New Labour and whatnot now!

I'm trying to take the view that, if I wouldn't be interested enough to buy it now, even if it was 99p, then I should delete it. But I have a LOT of TBR so no one should feel obliged to follow me if theirs is more sparse :>