Oops! It’s January 9th, and I just realized that I never did an update post for the beginning of the month and the year!
In early September, I wrote a post called Counting Up the Books, talking about two things I love: BOOKS and NUMBERS. That was the beginning of a monthly feature for me, in which I tally up just how many unread books there are in my house and on my Kindle. I’ll omit my September numbers here, for two reasons:
- I originally included non-fiction books, but have since dropped them from my totals, since I’m so much less likely to actually read any of the non-fiction books I own. (Hey, they’re there if I need them!)
- Right after my September count, I did a major culling of my shelves and dropped off bags and bags of books for donation, which accounts for a big drop from September to October in the number of physical books in my house.
Okay, moving on. Here are my book totals from the past three months, adding in new books and subtracting books read or given away:
October: 539
November: 548
December: 554
Hmm. We seem to be going in the wrong direction!
How am I doing at the start of 2016? Let’s see:
So… by this reckoning, I’ve gotten myself back to where I was two months ago. Yay, progress? I guess.
How are your shelves doing this month?
Don’t forget to join me for Shelf Control on Wednesdays, where we highlight books from our shelves that we really want to read!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
This is such a cool post and idea 😀
Thanks!
This is a really good idea! You’re doing well – even if you aren’t going down by much, you’re still going down!
Thank you! Keeping an eye on the numbers is helping me, but I’m still so tempted by library books and new releases!
Oh I need to start doing this. Maybe I should institute some sort of policy – read 2, buy 1? Pretty sure like you I am failing to empty my shelves at the moment, I always buy lots of books after Christmas…
I have a couple more books arriving this week, thanks to an Amazon gift card! The holidays can definitely be tricky. I tried doing a 2 to 1 policy a couple of years ago, and failed miserably. I seem to break my own rules as soon as I make them!
Don’t we all?!
I love this post idea! I’m kind of afraid to find out my numbers because I don’t think the numbers will ever decrease.
It’s hard, and a little bit daunting. I actually wonder whether I should keep my starting point static and just work on decreasing the books I already own, but not add in the books I buy during the year. I’m always going to pick up new books too, but I think what matters for me is slowly but surely chipping away at my backlog. Hmm. Something to think about!
I started tallying my books up and then stopped, I should start that again (it’s just so daunting, all those unread books – makes me feel guilty! I must have the equivalent of a small sized forest on my shelves 😦 )
It must be satisfying to watch those numbers drop (even if they do go up sometimes, but that’s understandable – new books are an investment…or something).
I really started this just to kind of push myself to visit my bookshelves more often! I still pick up new books and take books home from the library — but I’m spending more time with older books too, so that’s a plus!
Two steps forward, one step back! Hey, I think it’s still progress 🙂
I just did a little bit of OCD organizing on GR and tweaked my own TBR. Just like with your non-fiction books, I decided that the chances of me ever sitting down to read the entire “Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales” etc. just isn’t going to happen! If it’s the kind of book I might dip in and out of, but never read cover to cover, off the list it goes! I’m still headed in the wrong direction from when I started my count, but I’ll take small steps of progress 🙂
Small steps rock! As I was doing my monthly tally, I found a few titles where I had duplication — for example, a couple of books on my physical bookshelves were books that I ended up reading on Kindle or via audiobook, so off the list they came! I should really clean my GR TBR shelf. I think there are over 700 books on there, and clearly, there are some I’m just never actually going to bother with.
I love the name Shelf Control – plus it works on both levels! I buy bargain Kindle books as in my mind they don’t count as they’re out of sight and Mr C can’t see them – thankfully! I can always tell he’s in a bad mood as he goes on about “all these f***ing books”. But I let him watch football and ghost hunter shows all the time, so it’s a case of quid pro quo!
Oh my, I think our “Mr.”s must be twins separated at birth. When my husband is feeling like pushing my buttons, he makes snide comments about my “library” and gets sarcastic about not having enough books in the house. I keep buying bargain Kindle books too, but then they just sit there and make me feel like I need more time to read! I don’t count ARCs toward my “count” because that would just be ridiculous and would make me feel like I’ll never, ever catch up (which I probably won’t anyway). 🙂