I’ve always been a book lover. Basically, since I was able to read by myself, I always had a book close by. At a certain point of time, it reached a threshold, where I had a feeling that the next time I would move flats, my friends would no longer offer to help with the move 😉
When life got busy and other things took over priority, the number of books I was able to read every year went down significantly. From reading 100-150 books a year to potentially reading 10-20 is a significent difference. I accumulated a lot of unread books over years, and as beautiful as it was to look at the bookshelves, if nearly 80% is unread, it is a sign for concern. I took it as such and unhauled so many books, that I did not even need a huge shelf anymore. I kept what I intended to read and shifted my spendings to Kindle books (which obviously took a lot less space).
Only in recent years I bought / brought home quite a lot of physical books again. The biggest problem is available space. I have one shelf and currently my books are split over multiple rooms, shelfes and corners. Not ideal for sure. To not end up in a similar situaltion again (as my starting point a few years ago), I want to be a lot more ruthless about it and only keep what I really like. Now that we have this lovely website, I’m going to share my regular unhaul activities with you.
Let’s look at the books that I unhauled in September of this year and why.
Book Unhaul
Brett Contreras & Kellie Davis – Stron Curves
This book I bought a few year ago, when I was mainly looking for fitness content on Instagram. Since becoming a part time Personal Trainer myself, these type of books do not add much of a value anymore. I’m looking for things with a bit more *substance* 🙂
Stacy T. Sims – Roar
This one I enjoyed a lot more content wise (and her take on female education in the fitness space), but I usually look on her webpage for information and feel like the physical book is collecting dust.
Kaliane Bradley – The Ministry of Time
This one was hyped online a lot and the story sounded interesting enough for me to buy the book. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping for. You can find more details in the dedicated Review.
Saara El-Arifi – Faebound + Cursebound
These two books are part of the Faebound series (3rd book not yet released) and I did enjoy them. Two sisters, that are very different are forced to leave everything behind and end up in a cursed fae kingdom trying to get back home and *uncurse* the kingdom. Not a bad plot. The writing wasn’t bad either. As much as I enjoyed it, I had to ask myself the question if I am willing to finish this series compared to other ones. With a huge list of unfinished series I had to make a descision. They’ll find a better home.
Tricia Levenseller – The Shadows Between Us + The Darkness within us
This is a YA fantasy dualogy that I finished very quickly and enjoyed it in the moment, but would never pick up again. In each book one sister is the main character. It is a rather simple enemies to lovers story and there wasn’t too much new overall that was super interesting. Let’s call it a nice snack in between I forgot about shorty after.
V.E. Schwaab – This Savage Song + Our Dark Duet
This Duology was on my list of the authors backlog to go through. Why not start with YA? I did enjoy reading the story of two teenagers from rivaling families coming together to do better than their parants. We do not get our typical happy ending, which I actually enjoyed. I don’t have anything bad to say about the Duology. I woudn’t pick it up again also. So why keep it? I also wrote a more detailed Review about it.
Sasha Peyton Smith – The Rose Bargain
This is the first one in a Duology and considering the shipping and customs I had to pay for the book, it cost me a fortune. It is a gorgeous LitJoy edition but just keeping it for that does not sound like a good enough reason for me. The story is very YA (do we see a pattern emerging?) and the last third of they book was just not that good. I’m not interested in finishing the series nor would I ever pick up the book again.
Final words
In total I let go of 11 books. I was hesitant for a moment but afterwards I felt good about my decision. Seeing all these huge book collections in the online word makes me want to have my own library on one side, but also makes me question why this is.
I don’t want to repeat old patterns and collect books for the sake of collecting books. I want the books I keep as physical copies to add value and enjoy having them. If it means that I accept letting go (and spending the money) I’m absolutely ok with it. For the coming month there will be some more of these heading your way. Long term I’d like to only buy and keep books that I want to own long term and add books temporary from the free library or buy for cheep second hand.
I’m interested in your thought process. Do you unhaul books on a regular basis? Are you keeping books more often than you should keep them?
Interested in more?
- Review: Queen of Sorrows by Eliza Tilton
- Review: Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland
- Book Review: The Barracks of Forgotten Pages by Sophie Dane
- Review: Fractured Fate by C. Shell
- Review: Girl Of Fierce & Fire: Schwelende Schatten by Klara Fuchs
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