A New Beginning

I've decided to start book blogging again! I've missed tracking what I read and taking time to reflect on each book instead of rushing on to the next one. I've also missed the book blogging community. I've continued reading many book blogs, but I haven't been commenting or having conversations with people or participating in community events.

Plus, I've decided I have to stop the madness with my TBR piles. I counted the number of books I own and the total came in at a staggering 502!!! That's insane! (In case you're wondering, I own more books that I have read, although I haven't counted and inventoried them.) Why do I continue buying books and checking out massive piles of books at the library each week when I've already spent so much money on books taking up space in my house that I haven't read?

So, my focus is going to be on reading these books. I think blogging about it will help me to stay on track and get through my list, since this process will take several years. I still plan to use the library and read some books that aren't on my list, but primarily I will read from my stacks.

In addition to my gigantic TBR stacks of stuff I own, I also have a ton of books that my mom has let me borrow. We swap books back and forth, and I've held on to too many of her books and have a small bookcase full. So, I'll be reading two books each month from that stack as well.

I'm planning to start a list for my TBR books here. I've got a spreadsheet for tracking, but I'll probably add a list here in case people are curious about what's coming up. There will be some books I'll probably decide I don't want to read and will donate instead, such as some of the business books I got for free in my last job. I also have a lot of books I've gotten at library book sales dating back to high school (which was over 10 years ago!!!) and don't really fit my reading tastes any more, so some of those may go in the donation pile instead as well.

To help motivate myself, I've made a rather counter-productive seeming incentive plan. For every 50 books I read from my TBR stacks (books I don't read and just donate or non-fiction books I just skim or partially read won't count), I get to buy three books from Persephone, Virago or the Morland Dynasty series. Those books aren't readily available from my library system and are items would like to own, but outside of these incentive books, I can't buy any new books. :(  That's what the library is for!

I'm looking forward to jumping back in to the book blogging community, signing up for challenges and lots of reading!