I may be a wannabe Faery, but I’m a hoarding dragon at heart. Books make up my hoard, and as much as I love my hoard, it’s getting out of hand. I collect autographed books, and I’m never one to ignore a book sale or a bookstore. That means that I have over 700 physical books, and my bookshelves are at capacity. I figure it’s time to get physical and start reading through my bookshelves. That is why I created the “Clearing the Hoard – Bookwyrm Challenge!”
Here’s how this challenge is going to go. I’ve spent the past month creating a catalog of my books, so not only do I have them fully organized on my bookshelf (hahaha, real talk my bookshelves look like a disaster zone at the moment), but I also have a bunch of juicy (to a Ravenclaw) book stats. With the hard part done, I’m challenging myself (and anyone who wants to take part) to read at least one physical book that is on your bookshelf a month.
So, here is what I’m going to do. I’ve made a giant list of all of the books I have that are unread or not remembered. I’ve compiled them into a handy dandy jar, and I’m going to pick out three books a month. I’m going to choose between those three books and read at least one of those that month. If the book is from a series, I’ll read the first unread book in the series! Once I’m done reading it, I’m going to decide if it has earned its place in my hoard or if it’s going to spread its wings and find a new reader.
To hold myself accountable, I’m going to give everyone a little insight into my library of glorious books. *Fun fact, I keep buying books so I’ve had to update my list multiple times
Book Hoard Data!!!
Total books owned: 719
Reference Books*: 62
Readable Books Owned: 657
Books Read: 142 (21.61%)
Books Unread: 504 (76.71%)
Books Read but not remembered: 11 (1.67%)
*I do not count reference books as read or unread, and they will not be part of this challenge.
Genres:
As you can see Fantasy & Romance/Erotica are the most popular genres on my bookshelves.
The top 5 genres on my bookshelves are:
- Fantasy – 149 books
- Romance/Erotica – 126 books
- General Fiction – 79 books
- Sci-Fi – 51 books
- Biography/Memoir – 35 books
Nonfiction vs. Fiction:
As you can see by the following graph, I own a lot more fiction vs. nonfiction.
Autographed vs. Not signed
As I mentioned, I collected autographed books. This was a lot of fun to see quite how many books I have signed. Right now, I have quite a lot of unsigned books but my autographed books are slowly starting to take over. This is because I typically only buy autographed books now.
Rules for the Clearing The Hoard – Bookwyrm Challenge
Do you want in on this? Feel free to adapt my idea! Use this as an excuse to read some of the books on your bookshelf! All you need to do is once a month read a book that you previously owned! Once you’re done reading that book decide if it’s a keeper or if it needs a new home! Make sure to tag me so I can share your posts!
700! That’s quite the hoard! I might get in on this once I have the chance to catalogue what I’ve got (both physical and digital). It won’t be quite as much as you, I don’t think!
I know! It’s absolutely shocking to know that I own that many. This is after I gave away 4 BOXES full of books. It’s crazy!
This is actually really a good idea. I need to catalog my unread books.
It is definitely worth doing!
I’m trying to do this as well. But at the same time most of my unread physical books are series that I’ve just not felt like reading (Girl with a Dragon Tatoo series etc)
I get that! I have a bunch of series on my shelves too.
Wooooooooooow, good luck!
Thanks!
Between my physical and ebooks I have 256 in total. Within those I’ve only read 61. In my defense though, I have a pile of the ones I’ve read but need to donate and I’ve been doing that with the books I don’t love now for a couple months
I ended up giving away 4 boxes of books that I either read and didn’t want to keep or ones that I wasn’t going to read. It feels nice to give books away.
I managed to give 4-5 to my friend but I still have 2 tote bags full of books to donate
I may have left the 4 boxes of books at my aunts house after Thanksgiving! HAHAHAHA
I’m saying. You should start a service for others. A reality show just about books and you would be like Dr. Phil. I’m dead serious.
I would charge them way too much to catalog the books. LOL
I fear for your safety – you just may be a fire hazard 😉
HAHAHA! Seriously! I’m surprised the floor hasn’t caved in yet.
I love your stats. I probably own about 300 books as I gave a load away. The children’s books I receive as arcs I give to either a friend with a little one or schools/hospital etc.
Thanks! Before I did all of this I ended up giving away 4 boxes full of books. It definitely was nice to get rid of all of the books that I didn’t want!
It’s nice to finally see someone add “books read but not remembered” to a list. I feel like I have such a short memory and I’ll look at a book and say “yea, I read it. Can’t for the life of me remember what it’s about!” Good luck with your challenge 🙂
I figured I should be honest about them. I have some that I have incredibly fond memories of but I can’t for the life of me remember anything about it.
Great post and great idea of cataloging your books. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.
It is shocking how many books I own without even realizing it!
This is such an amazing challenge, I might have to get in on this! I have so many books on my shelves that I need to read, but maybe not quite as many as 700 though, haha!
I am definitely looking forward to doing it! It will be fun to actually read my books!
Hello!
I love this idea!! This is exactly what I need in 2020 haha. Instead of reading the books that I own (which are probably 50% unread) I keep going out and getting new books 🙂 Thank you for this idea!
So glad I could inspire you! I’m so awful at reading the books I already own so I needed to do something! I hope you enjoy!
I am definitely going to try this challenge. I have so many books on my shelves that are sitting unread.
Yay! It is definitely making me more mindful of the books I own.