Uread Shelf Project Update

Unread Shelves, 3/16/22

When I went through my books in 2021 (and gave away a LOT of them) I had 101 books identified as "owned, but not read." On March 15th my Unread Shelf was at 131 books. That means that if I don't obtain any more books and could read one book each month off my own shelves--which history indicates is unlikely--it would take me 11 years to read them all. Almost half of these books are also over 400 pages which doesn't help. My number of unread books is going in the wrong direction! 

I went through my books again and identified 6 titles (by reading the blurbs and the beginning of each one I wasn't sure about) that no longer appeal. Those went in the "donate to the library" box. Unfortunately I also found one that wasn't in my list yet. My current number is 126, eleven of which are digital audiobooks. Unread books on the shelf is like savings set aside for a rainy day, but I think the total has gotten out of hand. I need some strategies to get through more of my owned-but-not-read titles. 

My various reading challenges, including my planned reading for classics club, should lead to at least 12 books from my shelves getting read in 2022. 

I may set aside a month during 2022 in which I will commit to only reading books from my shelves--no library books. I'm thinking that June might be a good time for that.

There will be a Classics Club spin number drawn on Sunday and I am going to piggy-back on that project with an Unread Shelf Spin. Below is a list of twenty books from my shelves and whichever number is drawn for Classics Club I will commit to starting that title before the finish date for the spin. 

1. The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
2. Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
3. What Would Audrey Do? by Pamela Keogh
4. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
5. Lost by Gregory Maguire
6. Michael Tolliver Lives by Amistead Maupin
7. The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
8. Ninety-nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
9. No Hard Feelings by Liz Fosslien and Molly West Duffy
10. So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan
11. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
12. Matrimony, Inc. by Francesca Beauman
13. Eleanor Roosevelt, vol. 3 by Blanche Wiesen Cook
14. For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose
15. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
16. Fluke by Christopher Moore
17. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
18. The Russia House by John Le Carre
19. Come and Get It by Edna Ferber
20. On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

I feel like 50-60 unread books on hand would be a good number to get to and try to maintain at.