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…

Welcome @HundredAcreOwl - 6 so far is good going!

Making some headway.

Bought this month's Christie challenge book on 1 July and have read it so now read:

Death in the Clouds - Agatha Christie - bought July 2025!
Island in the Sun - Katie Fforde - had since November 2024

Reviews on main thread.

Another complete from July Deals. Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin

I stopped buying books after lockdown and joined a library instead. Now I have lots of books to read but no clutter, I own about 20 books my favourites that I have read again and again.

A second finished for me: Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. Good fun. Full review on 50 Bookers thread.
And a third- What they Knew- Marion Todd (audio)
also a DNF- Sleeper’s Castle by Barbara Erskine- loved these when I was younger but kept drifting off to sleep listening to this so off it goes.

Several steps backwards as have discovered some books hadn't downloaded to my Kindle so I am now up to 116 unread. Taking into account book club reads and the read-along, I will be pleased to get down to under 100 by the end of the year.

Joining the challenge, I currently have 76 unread books in the house. Pre-1st July i read 10 of my own books which is really good going for me (although I did obtain 16 new books in that same time period!).

Since 1st July I've read three Michael Connelly novellas from my kindle:

Angle of Investigation
Suicide Run
Mulholland Dive

But I'm just counting them as a single book as they all come to about 180 pages in total.

I changed my reading pattern this year to try and split the books a bit more evenly into things from the library and my own books, so I have at least another 10 of my own books to read before the end of the year (using my random number generator to choose these so i have a little list of books already picked out and im just reading what i fancy from the list at that time)

Thanks to @ÚlldemoShúl for starting the challenge and good luck to everyone else!

Very proud of self. Finished a book I’m told by Amazon I bought in 2016!! The Bastard Of Istanbul by Elif Shafak!

i have found my people!

Our book group has movies over to library supplying our monthly read so no more wasting money on dodgy books. I am going to try a month at a time, my downfall is the supermarket book section.

Congrats @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and welcome @FiveGoMadInDorset and @InTheCludgie
I have finished number 4- Summerwater by Sarah Moss. I’m not going furthest back, just picking from what I have.

Just finished Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult which apparently I bought in October 2018.

Reading pace now going to slow down as back from holiday and back to work tomorrow.

Have started on Silverview - John Le Carré - i thought I had owned this for years but apparently I bought it in 2024! Still, I own it and I’m reading it 😀

I read The Fatal Shore some years ago, fascinating book

Finished it! (It was short) - review on 50B thread

Next, I must finish The Essex Serpent, which have in paper and am stuck around halfway

Read another but it was only bought last month : Evenings And Weekends by Oisin McKenna

I’ve just finished Elly Griffiths - The Zig Zag Girl that I bought in 2015.

im making an effort to get through my oldest TBRs.

I could join in as I have started doing this
I don’t need to buy another book for months!

just finished “Tenement Kid” by Bobby Gillespie
now reading “The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan

I'll join. I have a massive pile of books and too many on my kindle. Need to get through some!

May I join please. I’ve been working on shrinking my trb pile down for too many years and I think I’m down finally to about 20 physical and 65 kindle books but…
I’m a librarian and it’s so easy when I’m shelving to pick up a book which is rather slowing me down!

Welcome to all the newbies.
I’ve finished book number 5- The Broken River by Chris Hammer- Aussie crime, just okay.

Another one bites the dust Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier (Dec 2024)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit you are flying along!

I haven't started yet. I need to read my library books first!

@ÚlldemoShúl I have some time on my hands. It won’t last !

I’m in the same boat- off work and DH is working so I’ve loads of free time. The ‘Spring’ clean is suffering from the desire to read!