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I have a headache today so instead of posting about a book I\’m just going to share some photos. Of (what else?) books in my house! There\’s too many. My heaps of yet-unread books are getting overwhelming, so I\’ve decided to make a focused effort at reading those first- neglecting for even longer the TBR list I add to daily from all the wonderful book blogs, and resisting the urge to browse shelves at the library when I\’m picking up books for my daughter.
These shelves are my permanent collection. They\’re not all books: the top of the bookcases has some stuff left over from when my husband built our last computer, and the bottom right-hand and middle shelves have games and some oversized picture books. I don\’t have many reader friends, so the most frequent comment I get when people visit our house is: have you actually read all these books? The answer is yes, except for the coffee-table ones (about a dozen) which I treasure for their gorgeous photos but haven\’t gotten around to reading yet.
Okay, just for fun I made a kind of map of the shelves. Hopefully if you click on it you can get a bigger image and read it!
These are the books in my bedroom, waiting to be read. The first pile is on top of my dresser:
The second pile is on the floor near my bed:
And then there\’s two shelves that serve as my bedside table:
Enough books for years! So I\’ve made a goal to seriously diminish these piles, starting with the dresser heap, then the floor ones, and hopefully getting it down to a TBR load that my bedside shelf can contain, before I start picking books from my lists again. Maybe I ought to join a challenge to help me stay motivated with this- are there any going on currently about reading your own books, or tackling your TBR? I don\’t know how far I can get with this before I break down and pick up a book that doesn\’t already have physical presence in my house. Any guesses how long it will take me to work through those piles? (Keep in mind that I probably will taste just twenty pages or so and then set aside quite a few of these).
21 Responses
Wow! That\’s lots \’o stuff! What fun to paw through though! A challenge or two might be good candidates for assisting in making headway. Might I suggest the Read Your Own Books Challenge?http://readingwise.wordpress.com/ryob-2009/Have fun!Lezlie
Love it! haha! I love the diagram showing us how your books are organized.Oh..and I received the bookmark the other day – Thank you! I love it.How about the TBR challenge?http://tbrchallenge.blogspot.com/
Wow! Now I see the source of your cool book title poems!
I love your map, lol. And I should make a similar effort…I have close to 100 unread books.
Love it . Have the same problem here
Love this post, especially the map picture!!!Challenges I\’m in this year that are aimed at TBR:9 for \’09: http://9for09.wordpress.com/The Themed Reading Challenge (don\’t have the link for this one)Or you could find one aimed at a genre you have lots of TBR for (translated, what\’s in a name, etc.).You can see lots of challenges at ttp://novelchallenges.blogspot.com 😀
I\’m glad to see I\’m not the only one with bookstacks all over the house! I keep telling myself not to get any more until I\’ve pared down the TBR piles. I\’ve been on a re-reading kick lately, too, so I\’m not getting into the new stuff.We\’re due for another snow storm this weekend, so I\’ll get some extra reading done!
Man, your stacks make my bookshelf look puny.I was going to suggest the Read Your Own Books Challenge (http://readingwise.wordpress.com/ryob-2009/), but I see Lezlie already beat me to it.There\’s also the 9 for 09 challenge(http://9for09.wordpress.com/), which is fun because you have to figure out a book for 9 different categories.
Lezlie- yes, it\’s fun! But daunting. I\’ll take a look at that challenge.Kris- Thanks! It was fun to make that silly map. I\’m glad you like your bookmark. The TBR challenge looks pretty open…Shelley- Thanks for reminding me of them! I haven\’t done a title-poem in a long time, and they\’re so much fun. I should do some again, soon.Nymeth- I\’m glad someone found it as fun to look at as I did to make it! I know my TBR piles are over eighty, but I\’ve never really counted. A hundred, wow.Dana- I can\’t believe I actually said \”there\’s too many.\” I thought I\’d never say that.Eva- Thanks! I really like the look of the 9 for 09 one- it will be a challenge just to find a book that fits in every category!Becca- I\’ve been telling myself that, too- but I don\’t seem to be able to listen. Snow? we\’re getting sunshine already, though it\’s still bitter cold. My fall bulbs are just starting to poke up…Jacketsncovers- thanks for the suggestions! I\’m really leaning towards the nines. The categories look fun- and nine is my lucky number, too!
Great fun! We reader-holics love checking out other people\’s bookstacks. And the \”map\” picture? Great idea.
Oh Jeane!! That is a lot of books. And I LOVE that you drew a map \”just for fun.\” 🙂 The classics challenge sign up is finally up if you\’re interested and non-fiction five challenge will be coming in May (sign ups probably mid-March/early April). Have fun with the challenges! They are addicting, but they help with Mountain TBR.
I love seeing other people\’s bookshelves!! Yours is much more organized than mine!
Oh & Lauren- The hilarious thing is that my four-year-old wanted to show the map to my husband (she thought it was so cool). And then my husband said \”but where are all my books? (on his closet shelf). He insisted that I move the games to the closet and give him two shelves for his books, so last night I rearranged everything and now it\’s totally different!Trish- I think I\’ll pass on the classics challenge- I haven\’t read classics for a long time (which probably means it would be a good challenge for me). The non-fiction five sounds great, I\’ll keep an eye out for it. Can you tell me who hosts it?
The past two years Joy has hosted, but she\’s not doing any challenges this year so I\’ll be hosting!
Great. I\’ll be watching for it!
Love the \”map\” picture. Good luck!
What fun! I LOVE photos of people\’s bookshelves! You\’re piles in the bedroom are out of control thus making me feel so much better about my out of control piles as well. I shall have to show my husband and tell him that I\’m not the only crazy one. And I loved your \”map.\” Too cute!
At least your hubby reads. I think my bf owns a total of about 5 books lol
Janet- Thanks! Natasha- glad you enjoyed the map picture. I used to look at other bloggers\’ pictures of book piles and think: they\’re out of control! Now I\’m just the same.Lauren- well,my husband doesn\’t read many books, and of those, very few are fiction. So it will be fun to discuss with him what he\’s reading. He usually reads tons of magazine, newspaper and online articles. Just not so many books.
I love looking at other people\’s bookshelves. It makes me feel so much better that I\’m not the only one with piles on night stands and on tables and on the floor by my bed! 🙂 At least you have a nice selection to choose from. I think I have enough to read for years and years…
I am quite pleased to say that idly browsing through my own old blog posts and looking at these pictures, I have read or tried-and-removed from these TBR shelves 56 books since this was posted! Which have been replaced by a hundred more waiting to be read, ha ha!