Off The Shelf

The “Library”

It Starts with a Question

What if I actually read the unread books gathering dust on my bookshelf? 

The other day my friend and neighbor, J, and I were talking about what we might read and found ourselves once again embarrassedly wondering how many books we own that we have never read. Just how big is our unplumbed pile of literary riches? We’ve had conversations like these before, but this time I was spurred into action.

Like wearing the old clothes in the back of the closest or eating the (hopefully not too old) weird snacks in the cupboard, this feels like the type of ordinary heroic behavior I might be good at. Here also is my chance to find a new favorite or, conversely, guilt-free get rid of excess stuff. Like most long-time readers, I have shelves of a mix of books I have and haven’t read.

The Books

Right away, I set out to identify and understand more about all of the unread books on my bookshelf. These books showed up over the years in a variety of ways: 

For a variety of reasons which I will go into later, I never read these books. Many of these I had no intention to ever read, and I just put them on my shelf for their looks and then to be completely forgotten.

Set Up

A couple days later my niece, E (not to be confused with my other niece, E) and I rearranged my bookshelf to consolidate, highlight, and be constantly confronted by my collection of unread books. So many more books than I thought it was going to be!

Get Real

I am not going to read every unread book from my shelf. I’m definitely not reading all of “the husband’s” books. I’m also giving myself permission to cull some of the chaff, but then I’m getting rid of those and not keeping that dead weight any longer.

History

I read a lot and always have. When I was little, I thought the local librarian was one of my best friends. Both of my parents were readers and also complicated people, so reading was one of my favorite escapes.

Reader Cred

I usually have a couple of books going at a time. At the very least, I’m reading our book group book (going strong for a decade now), as well as my side piece of the moment (working my way through the NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (up to 29) and whatever romcoms and cozy mysteries that look fun.) Often I am reading one book with my eyeballs on Kindle and am listening to another using the Libby or Audible app.

Most of these I check out from the library, or get access to using subscription perks. I very rarely buy physical books any more, so most of the books on my shelf are from my childhood up to my early-middle adulthood (you can imagine that age as whatever you wish).

Plenty of Time

Not only do I finally/sadly/proudly/possibly temporarily have both an empty nest, so fewer distractions, and a very old dog keeping me close to home most days, I also have a lot of injury rehab and non-thinking tasks to do everyday (hence the audio books). I need a lot of reading material to get me though these times!

Not a Writer!

I am a reader but Not a writer. Also, I want to be spending the majority of my reading-time actually reading books and not writing about reading books. I’m not going to write long insightful reviews or smart-sounding critiques. At this point I’m thinking I will mostly be writing in bullet points and rating scales. Maybe more if I get inspired, but I don’t want the writing aspect to interfere with the chronicling. 

The Big Three

I subscribe to the Barbara Kingsolver recipe for what makes a great read: “exquisite prose, compelling characters, great plot, rocks my world; is this so much to ask?” I’m no Barbara Kingsolver but will generally be looking out for these elements in how I judge a book.

Why Bother?

Great question! I don’t know just yet. At the moment, this seems like a fun little side project that I’ll do until I get bored with it. Might also be a little bit good for my brain and I’ll take all of that I can get.

Full Disclosure

I’m going to read across every medium available to me. Obviously I will read from the actual book on my shelf, but I will also at times read an eBook and listen to an audiobook version if they are available. Don’t judge me too harshly. Or do, that’s okay too.

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

Joseph Brodsky