Read What You Own 2026

[ÚlldemoShúl]

This is a brand shiny new thread for those of us who want to continue reading what we own in 2026.
My aims for 2026 are:

• At least half my reading will be from books I already own on 1st January 2026
• I will buy less than a quarter of my reading new including kindle deals😱 and book club books
• I will wait when prize lists are released to see if the books appear in the library within a week. I will not read full longlists unless I love the sound of each and every book on it.
• For the first two months I will only read what I own- focusing on the older books on my kindle while allowing myself to read newer (but already owned) physical books

What are your RWYO aims for 2026?

I used to love Cider with Rosie but when I reread it a year or two ago I was horrified by one section and don’t think I’ll ever be able to read it again.

I also think the maybe delete folder is a good idea.I have approx 1000 books on my kindle! We have moved a few times over the years and during our last move 9 years ago dp( not unreasonably really) said I had too many physical books. So I got rid of around 300. However,I then purchased a fair few of those for kindle over the years😄

Books = 1391 on kindle. Lovely 😀

About 150 of these are in the “children” folder so nothing to do with me and a few are my mum’s (which I should delete as she never uses her kindle) but that’s… a lot.

1004 of these are “Read” (I pushed myself to break the 1000 Read last month) so money well spent!

I put two big boxes of books in the loft a few months ago but tbh I think I need to give them to a charity shop.
Pointless to have them still in the house, really.

I use the Kindle app for iPad and can’t work out how to do Collections

Sadly , yes you are right . We call it the room of doom .

I'm in - I've just counted 16 unread books on my shelf. I'm going to Daunt Books next week and I will treat myself to a book but after that I'm not buying anymore until those are read (and one is PG Normal Women and it's a bloody doorstop of a book!)

The plan to rape the girl with learning disabilities? I hadn't remembered that at all from school but it appalled me when I re-read it recently.

I'd love to join this thread! I got into audiobooks while dog walking and listened to about 30 then deleted my amazon account for a few months and lost them all. However it did remind me that I have a full drawer of books I have been given/buying over the last few years that I haven't got around to. Noughts & Crosses is the first on my list!

Yes! Maybe when I read it I was too young to realise what was going on, but I was utterly horrified when I reread it and will never read it again.

I use that too and the collections are so helpful. I change the categories for my collections every so often but at the moment I have them split into fiction / non-fiction and have a folder for each year (the year I purchased the book). I also have folders for ‘Read’ and ‘DNF / Bad’.

To set up a folder, or collection, go to Library then press the + button in the top right. To add books to collections (and you can add them to more than one) just press down on the book (without clicking into it if you know what I mean) then select add to collection.

@MamaNewtNewt I will give that a try thanks!

I'm pretty ruthless about DNFing a book unless I love it. Life is too short to read a book I don't enjoy and I'm not at school. So on last year's RWYO thread I cleared out a lot without even trying them because I didn't like the first one in the series. I'm resolving not to buy the whole series even if they are only 99p each!

I've just remembered I have a whole folder on my kindle for Robert Parker. I went through a phase of reading him about 20 years ago and then got bored. They are rather dated private detective books which had a bit of a cult status at one time. I will try one and if I don't like it there's a lot I can dump.

A charity worker picking the books up later! 😊

We put a whole box of books in the cellar. We then got flooded and they all had to be chucked. I have resolved not to put any more books in storage - far better to donate or sell.

I’m joining you all to attempt to get my book buying under control.
Step 1 - I’ve spent some time this morning going through my kindle and deleting a lot that I know realistically I’m never going to read. They are mostly free or very cheap books I have picked up.
I get sucked in to stuff your kindle events and download all sorts of things.

Step 2 I have sorted my bookshelves and taken out the ones I really want to read this year. I’ve also found some paperbacks I’ll get rid of. So they are now bagged up to go to the charity shop.

I can’t pretend I’m not going to buy a kindle deal I see on Amazon but I’m going to stick to my wishlist or any in a series I’ve started reading.

I also love a visit to my library and reserve a lot of books from there. I’m going to do my best to read books I own before I reserve any more.

So I have spent half the afternoon going through my kindle and have put 400 books into a maybe delete folder. I’m sure I won’t delete all of them but it takes my kindle TBR down to 828 which just sounds more manageable. Now to get on with actually finishing my first book of the year (but it’s a mammoth - Wolf Hall- so I know it’ll take me another day or two) Thanks to all for the inspiration!

Wolf Hall as your first book is hardcore! And well done on the book movements

I haven't managed to make huge progress in weeding my kindle; however, you have all inspired me to:

1. put all of DH's football and cycling books into their own folder
2. separate out the cookbooks into their own folder (I think I have finally, finally learned that cookbooks on Kindle are a waste, but it's taken me quite a while to get there)
3. deleted various old childrens' books and free crap from years ago

Do any of you use Storygraph? You can cue up a book there to be your next read from your TBR.

I've deleted a few samples and books from my Kindle - I don't have loads on there now.
A lady has just picked up 3 x boxes of books which were in the loft (I did keep half a dozen for sentimental reasons 🫣)
I've got 28 actual books 8n my tbr pile 😬
Including the one I started a couple of months ago...

Started another one from 2020 : The Forgotten Sister by Nicola Cornick.
A timeslip novel set in tudor and present ( well present then ! ) So far I'm enjoying it .
I've read others by her but no idea why this one has just sat there being overlooked .

Just finished my first book of the year - Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.
Bloody bleak start to 2026 and considering Hamnet next before film release on Friday…

Determined to read and offload as many physical copies as possible, rather than accumulating even more!

Thats on my pile of doom...

I loved Hamnet and The Silence of the Girls. I’m still reading The Goldfinch and am enjoying it, but I wish I’d started off with a smaller book!

I've cleared out my kindle of books I know I'll never read and now have 164 unread books.