Personal Reading Challenge

Over the weekend we moved our bookshelves from an unused downstairs bedroom up to our personal bedroom.  This accomplished two things. 1. We transformed an unused bedroom into a family/playroom for us and our daughter. 2. We do most of our reading at bedtime, so by having the bookshelves in our bedroom, we're promoting reading.

Every April and October, our local library distract has a Friends of the Library Book Sale. The books come from the library itself and many donations from the community. I personally donate a large number of books each year. I go to both sales each year, probably two days of the sale each time. On average, I gain about 60-100 new books each year. Once I finish reading them, I donate them back. The books are inexpensive and the profit goes to many great causes, supporting our local library and sending books to our troops.

I also have friends and family members (ahem HEATHER) that constantly give me books to read, usually with permission to donate when I am done with them.

As you can imagine, my ONE bookshelf is double stacked.

Last year my husband bought me a Nook e-reader. I've had it for over a year and have yet to pay for a book for it. Between Barnes and Noble's free selection, Gutenberg.org , and the Overdrive program through our library, my Nook bookshelf resembles the one in my bedroom...packed.

My problem is that I continue to shop the book sale (4 or so trips a year), but since the addition of my Nook, that is so comfy in my hand and easy to read (!), I have stopped reading actual books. Which means that when it comes time for me to make room by selecting books to donate I have a difficult time since I haven't read any of them! Of my haul from April, I have read ONE book. It was a good book, but I'm sure the others are too!

So here is my personal challenge. I am going to read each book on my shelf.

I will start by removing and boxing up my "collector" books, the books that I have already read and though I may never read again I am unwilling to part with, and ship them off to my storage unit for safe keeping. I will then place ALL of my unread books on my shelf. That's right, despite my cleansing ritual, I still have additional books in boxes, canvas bags and plastic tubs. Yes, I do have a problem with books! From there I will begin reading through ALL of my unread books until every last one has been read or discarded because I couldn't get into it. Along the way I will attempt to review each one (I'm bad about that but it is a habit I need to form.)

So there you have it. There is no deadline, no real rules. I would like to increase my reading time. Currently I only read at bedtime, but now that we have this cozy reading corner in the family room, I would like to spend LESS time online and MORE time doing the things I love...like reading!

Follow my progress here and on Goodreads.

P.S Kim, if you're reading this...I'm not proofreading that rambling mess. If you found a typo or bad grammar, you're just going to have to ignore it. *Giggles*