🤫 I UNHAULED 500+ BOOKS... DO I REGRET IT 6 MONTHS LATER? | TOTAL UNREAD BOOKS | Literary Diversions 

🍏 I always say that I am a book reader, not a book collector. About 80% of the books that I read come from the library and my entire physical TBR consists of two shelves. I usually unhaul books as I read them. If I keep a book, it has to be an all time favorite that I know I'm going to re-read at some point. Also, I love your stat videos!! Keep them coming ♥

I started the Read What You Own challenge late last year and have read 62 books off my shelves, so I'm now under 200 unread, but like you I don't want 0 unread books. It isn't feasible and doesn't make sense. I'm very good about removing 3 stars or below, but my wishlist is growing with each RU-vid video I watch. So I really have to resist buying back all of my good progress. I've also been mindful of what kind of content I watch. No hauls or anticipated releases, and more wrap ups to see if they are genuinely good books and not just pretty covers. Freaking covers always get me. 😂

I made a commitment this year to not purchase books unless 1) it's the latest book in an ongoing series that I am actively reading (meaning-if I am buying book four, I better have already read book three) or 2) I check it out from the library and read it and like it so much I decide I want to own it. So far, I have only read ONE book that I am considering buying. I didn't hate the others, just realized that I didn't LOVE them and will therefore never re-read them and don't need to own them.

I definitely developed a book buying problem in 2021 - 2022. I slowed down in 2023, and am really slowing down now in 2024. But it made my collection balloon significantly so my read percentage is only about 20%. Buuuut I try to be kind to myself. It's a learning process and I keep improving every day. I've made a lot of progress so I have to be happy with that. And it's not at a point anymore where it's hindering my financial goals.

🍏 I love keeping track of things like this. I used to have a thing about owning a lot of books, like the higher the number, the better, but I’m really trying to organize and unhaul now. The clutter is bothering me way too much now!

Glad to hear the unhaul has worked in your favorite. I don't have my exact numbers, but at my last count in November I had around 140 unread books. Not sure if it has gone up or down since then, since I only count them once a year. I'm also being much more selective on the books I'm buying, not just to keep my TBR on the smaller side but to be kinder to my wallet this year. But a few years ago I unhauled over 600 books and it felt so good and I haven't regretted getting rid of any of them.

One of my main goals this year is to read down my physical TBR. 🍎🍎🍎

🍎 You've done a great job so far! I actually keep my unread books on a separate bookshelf so I know exactly where to go when it's time to pick up a book. I also decided that this year when I count my unread TBR I'll be counting whole series as 1 book instead of however many there are. Since I can't actually read books 2-15 until I've read book 1, only book 1 counts. It's working for me so far, we'll see how it goes!

I’m a hardcover girlie as well. Everyone can just let us be us. They’re just so pretty. 😊 Also, if you’re ever worried you have too many books in your collection. Just know I’m out here with 2,215 and counting. 😅

I recently purchased a book tracker from Etsy with all the things-- books read, TBR, Series, and transactions. While I am still working on it (especially the series tracker) the most illuminating for me was the transactions. Just who many books (and how much money) I had spent on books so far in 2024. I use my kindle quite a bit (due to disability-- I can have thousands of books potentially at my fingertips and I never have to carry anything heavier than my Kindle), but many of the books in my physical library are books associated with my work (library science and ancient history) or books that I can't get digitally yet. Doing in-depth stats and tracking is scary; that is what I have figured out. Not necessarily good or bad, but scary--sometimes on multiple levels and ways all at once. I do enjoy your tracker and stats videos, and while our tastes don't overlap much, I always jump in excitement to see your videos hit your channel. I love how you talk about books (contents and such) and relationship to books (library, unhaul, etc.). Your excitement is infectious.🍏🍎

My cat spotted yours on the tv and just watched your cat the whole time 😂 I try to check my books and unhaul things frequently and it feels so good to only have books I loved or that I'm really excited to read

🍎I decided that 2024 would be the year of the library and that I would read everything on my TBR cart, as well as borrow books from my local library. I was on a book buying ban, which lasted less than 2 months. But I am back on track and reading a ton, so I am happy about that. Congrats on your progress. Those little lightbulb moments are lovely, aren't they?

This is so great! So many lovely books still on the shelves and so much filler and guilt out of the house. Sounds like your on a great path for your library :)

I am trying to work my way through my TBR, it's nowhere near as big as yours and is a pretty even split between cosy mystery and fantasy. I would like to branch out a bit more, but I find that I always return to what is comfortable. I love your videos on unhauls, and adjusting to more healthy reading and buying habits.

You've done a great job making your system, and book stats work for you. I love seeing you so happy about the results!!

Whenever I watch elaborate stats videos I just want to dive into my shelves and then I am already tired as so many of my books have shifted to digital :D Stopping ordering or buying everything and instead using wish lists has helped me keeping unread books in check. Most of the time at least :D

Ohhhhh this is so cool. I love a good unhaul but it can be challenging to pull the trigger. You've done great!

🍏 I love looking at the stats and you have inspired me to check my read/unread percent. I don’t have space for physical books so everything I own is on my e-reader but it’s still good to see what is coming in and to make sure I’m reading those things.

I feel exactly the same way about decluttering. I think people really struggle to view books as just an item that they no longer want to maintain in their home. ♥️♥️♥️

🍏 My library has gotten out of hand. Half of it are books from my parents’ home that I inherited (only child - so I got ALL the crap), but I will never read them. Thank you for sharing your criteria. It will make my unhaul easier. I have a massive TBR because I buy but then mood read. Kindle Unlimited has changed my reading habits, so I’m reading a massive amount of books without purchasing. I did go ham last year buying physical books but thought to contain them in a cart to curb my spending. It helped. So this year will be the restructuring of my home library to a much lighter state. Thank you!

I have had several international moves which has always kept my number of owned books relatively low - hanging on to favourites only (though sometimes sadly letting go of them too). When I returned to NZ in 2018, knowing I wasn’t planning any more big moves, I let myself start collecting. Especially books that seem to disappear quickly and I knew I wanted to read without having to resort to ebooks when they were no longer available in print. But about 2 years ago, I started increasing my visits to used bookshops and from late 2022 to late 2023, I was striking at the right time with my visits and finding huge amounts of out of print treasure. From that, my owned collection drastically increased and my unread TBR was sitting around 750 books at the beginning of this year. I have no regrets. I love that I can now read these books. But I also will let go of them once I have read them if I found them just ok or know I won’t read them again, or they were DNFs. The point for me is being able to read them, not collecting (except where I have collected special editions of favourites). Thanks for reflecting on your regret for letting go of your original copies of Farseer. I’ve held on to mine mostly because I know I’ll read them in bed instead of my 20th anniversary hardcovers, but I replaced my set of books 1-8 paperbacks of Wars of Light and Shadow with the covers that matched my hardback books 9 and 10. But I have been slow to send my originals all on to a friend as promised as I have been wanting to hang on to my original books 1-3. I’ve been having that internal fight of wanting to keep my originals, with their original artwork, that made me fall in love with the series, but also telling myself I don’t need multiple copies. I think I should follow my gut and pick up used copies of 1-3 that I will send with the rest to my friend, and keep those originals.

I love when you do these kinds of videos because they help me look at this topic and book buying/reading with a sense of what system is best for me so that reading remains a pleasure, not a burden or a money sucking monster. I have it down to 5 books per buying stack, and I read most or all before I buy the next stack. I'm trying to build up my library but not get overwhelmed by unread books. For me too many unread books stress me out.🍎🍎🍎

🍎 Fair play I went a little wild book buying last year and am trying to get a handle on it now 🙈 Definitely more in the unread than read, but the cull is ongoing. I think a lot of it was that I wasn't willing to admit that my reading tastes have changed as much as they have, so I was still grabbing everything that would have sounded perfect for the me of a few years ago, until I was in danger of death by teetering bookstacks

🍎🍏apples for our favourite teacher who did maths and stats like a pro 👌 fine fine I'll recount mine, I guess it's been over a year since I've done it 😅 I very rarely buy brand new full price books (I tend to reserve that joy for bookshop trips in new places). I have a plethora of charity shops about 2 minutes walk from my house with a great turnover of books and if I don't find what I want there I tend to get them 2nd hand online. I also only pre-order maybe 1 or 2 books a year because I just very rarely feel the need to buy them that far in advance when they'll just be in the shops anyway later on. I keep all my unreads on my book trolley and that'll fit around 100-110 with a little bit of piling up on the top shelf so my tbr can never really go above that! My priority is definitely getting that way down this year, especially those books that have been on there for years(non-fiction I'm looking at you)! My default is also to get rid of books when I finish reading them so that I can keep our charity shop stock going! 😂 it takes a very special book to stay out of the donate pile! I think I might have only bought 2 books so far this year, both from charity shops but I'll be buying that liveship traders trilogy soon!! 🥳🥳

As an ADHD adult that also hadn’t saved at all until this year, I feel you! 💛

Decision fatigue really got to me over the past few months. I really wasn't reading anything because of my mental health but I was still buying books and it just wasn''t healthy. I had eight shelves full of (mostly unread) books, and I recently overhauled everything and got it down to five and a half. I honestly feel a lot better about it and don't feel the massive choice fatigue whenever I go to pick something up to start. I still get new books, but nowhere near the volume I was before this. I didn't really set any rules for myself, I'm just trying to be more mindful of my purchases. I spend a lot of time asking myself "are you actually going to read this or not? Do you really need the next book in the series if you didn't start the first one yet?"

Since i’m married with 5 children I a) don’t have a budget to buy many books b) have no place for them in my house. So I don’t buy many books. I still have a nice bookshelf and i think there is 4 books i still need to read (recent gifts - 1 will be for October (fairytale by feist) and it will be a reread, one is the 16th Deverry book by Katharine Kerr that i’ll read after finishing rereading the first 15 books, a paulo coehlo that i safe for a special moment /reading prompt and 1 alexandre dumas’ tree musketeers that is also a reread and is being kept of a prompt orso. 1 also have 2 books i started but dnf that i still want to read some day. Most of my books come from the library and sometimes from those little free libraries people install (those go back to such a box). After seeing your beautiful illustrated Robin Hobbs I might collect those one day :) Thank tou for your great videos and also, a bit early: happy birthday

🍍remembering that there should be no shame in reading is a good reminder. thank you!

I have a small space and not a lot of money so I only buy books that I've already read from my library that I know I'll want to reread in the future. I'm Canadian and even paperback are around $25 each so I really have to limit what I get. I have started to collect vintage and antique sewing machines and their desks so I lost some book space, but I love fixing up old machines so I think it's worth it. I currently own 6 books that I haven't read and I think all but one are from series that I love. Besides my library is great and I can go and I can just go and pick whatever books look interesting without stress.

🍏 this was so healthy, I think I'm going to pluck up the courage to count how many unread books there are on my shelf. I have been avoiding direct eye contact....

🍏 (as green apples tend to be sour like Granny Smiths I feel like they go better with salty opinions 😂) I really love those update videos! Well done you for figuring out what works best for you and working on it! I’m a huge reader but also book collector and have to admit that the number of my unread books is getting a bit ridiculous but I’m slightly emotional attached to them 😅 I’m a mood reader and always need a huge tbr, but over 400 unread books is a lot. I’m definitely guilty of treating myself with books if I’m feeling sad or stressed 🙈

Such an interesting conversation Lianne. I also have a scarcity mindset because of similar reasons to yours, and the hoarding is...not healthy. Thanks for the lightbulb moment!

I love this for you!!! That's amazing. I gave myself a goal to read 50% of what I purchase.... but it's not working out for me 😂🍎

My collection got through a cleanse when I moved country but I think it's a bit overwhelming at the moment again. I love this type of videos, make me think about my book buying habits 🍎

🍎 well done on keeping up with your habits and making your collection a happy place 🥰

🍏🍎I'm so happy for you! This is awesome!

I use Goodreads to keep track of how many books I own. Currently, I'm at 133. I don't keep track of how many books I buy but I do know my unread TBR, which is at 13. Typically, I'll end up going book shopping whenever I get low to a used bookstore and get whatever I can find (around 3 at a time) and will read them pretty soon after purchasing. If I don't like the book, I'll unhaul it after I'm finished or DNFed it. Otherwise, it goes on my shelf.

🍎🍏 Two apples for you, since that was a ton of work. Huzzah that this new system is working for you! I have a large library like yours (over 1K books) and it's evolved so much in the last 10 years. During undergrad I traveled a lot and had to rely 99% on my Kindle for reading, and only keep a few diehard favorite physical books with me. In 2017/2018 I started going to book events, signings, and trade shows. I also started getting book boxes. I'm in graduate school now and that's disrupted me getting an updated count of my total collection, and read/unread ratio (though I know it's not going to be where I want it). I started tracking the series I'm actively reading and my book purchases in 2022, and what I've noticed is that 80-90% of my physical collection is devoted to special/exclusive/signed editions, and ARCS. Most of my standard editions are books I read and loved from the library/Everand/KU, first (especially the indie published works), or backlist titles from authors I already know I like. I LOVE my collection, I just hate that grad school interferes with my "fun" reading so much. So no major unhauls for me right now, I need my unread books to motivate me to get through my coursework ASAP. At the end of my semester I'm going to get a fresh update for my spreadsheets, and try and make as much progress in my read/unread ratio goals as I can before my last school year starts. (Yay Class of 2025!) (Edited to fix an error.)

I've only read about 45% of my owned books, but I am definitely taking a page out of your book and I'm trying to be far more intentional about which books I bring into my collection now. In the next few months I'm also hoping to do a major cull of which books I keep, once I have access to my full collection again (have been in a long process of moving and renovating, and 90% of my collection is in storage)

🍏 I oscillate between scarcity complex and being overwhelmed by having too many things. I've moved a lot and having a lot of books scares me but since I usually buy them used "what if they aren't available next time?" It's stressful 😂 I love seeing how other people manage their book collections

I wish i felt able to do this. I'm a bookseller, so ARCs and damages are constantly at my fingertips -- free books that if i feel the slightest inclination toward, i just cant resist. It sounds better than it is because then unhauling feels impossible.

Good job on the numbers. 🍎 I have a huge tbr and no good way to unhaul, unfortunately. (I really need to cull some stuff.) I've been forcing myself to check my library system first more often this year, but I'm fortunate to have access to a large cooperative library system and a couple of digital systems. I'm still buying books, but they're mostly "I need that now" or "I definitely want to read that, but I'm going to need to be in just the right mood" books.

I guess I should say that I track most (all those that are listed on the site) of my annual reads on Goodreads, and I try to rate each book I read and track re-reads there. I use that Want to Read as my wish list TBR, in which I track books that look interesting that I might want to find again when I am in the mood for that type/genre of book or for books by a certain author. So I extensively tag all of the books on Goodreads with custom tags with the criteria I like. I occasionally remove then when I see/hear enough bad reviews. So I have 2000 books read there, and probably more than that on the Want to Read.

🍎 I am pleased for you, your read to unread number is especially wonderful 👍

🍎 (because Jazz apples are the best). I totally get the scarcity thing. I'm still super poor so I'm very careful now. I often buy used, slightly older books, but will sometimes buy newer. Like the first Emily Wilde book at your rec. Or I'll wait for a great Thalia sale on English books, like how I got a few the other day. Books are my only real thing I purchase for me when I have the time. I spend way more buying kiddo hers (did you know board books are easy to tear apart at 16 months?). It makes my ADHD impulsivity easier to conquer on me, less for her.

🍎 I didn't use to keep track of my read and unread books, but I definitely have lately! I've got 68 unread books on my shelves, out of 195 (so, roughly 35% of my books are unread). That's a pretty daunting number to me, but I'm trying to make progress on it this year! It helps that I hate spending money, so I'm not buying tons of new books. But free books seem to keep appearing and being added to my collection...

Stats makes my bran tingle 🍎 my book collection is kinda tiny but all my unread books fits on one shelf which is good, is the shelf overflowing after christmas yes but that is a very good problem to have

🍎Every season of my life has come with a different approach to tracking my books, lol. I've also moved apartments a lot over the past decade or so, which has made things a bit difficult in terms of consistency. Generally I focus on the money spent and the physical space of the books, rather than the number, because I have a couple of bookish roommates and we're all in the same boat, hahaha. We have a shared library space, but most of our books are in our rooms, plus I have storage bins of all my childhood favorites down in the basement. But at my last count, I have a little over 500 books and about 40% are unread. I had just done an unhaul that affected my numbers, but I don't really feel too bad about the numbers because I like having all the reading possibilities (although about 100 of my books are on a Need To Deal With ASAP list).

I currently have a library of 838 and of that I have 71 unread books. My goals for the year (which contradict each other) are to hit the 1000 book library and to get my TBR down to 50. I read quite a small number of genres and have only just started to branch out and find my feet in fantasy any Sci fi so I can see my TBR getting bigger in the future.

The only reason I have as many read books on my shelves at the moment is because I did a whole lot of “I listened to and loved this in 2023/2024 & now I want a physical copy” 😂. My TBR’s still growing, just at a slightly lesser pace.

🍎I need to start tracking how many books I buy just from an accountability standpoint. My Kindle purchases are out-of-control!!! Thank you for the inspiration! Also, my TBR to Read percentages are the exact opposite (see out-of-control Kindle purchases..sigh) of yours. Goals!

Girl I’m afraid to even crunch those numbers cause I know I haven’t read like 95% of my physical books 😂 sounds like it’s time for a personal challenge tho 🤔 love your videos!

🍎 I feel totally seen and understood in this video

🍏 love green apples with salt.

🍎🍎🍎 I prefer hardbacks too!

I'm a new subscriber so I'm not sure if this is something you went into before, but do you use the library at all? For me, using the library has helped so much with minimising the turnaround on my shelves, which is very good for my wallet to be honest and I end up only buying books that the library doesn't have

I know i need to do this too, i dont have nearly that many books as you, but theres alot of books i wont read.but stupid weather

I favor hardback over paperback too - they are prettier in my opinion. I am ADHD too. Is this an ADHD thing? :D

🍏

🍎 🍏 😻

🍎

🍎🍏🍎🍏

🍎🍏

🍎🍎🍎

🍎💖

🍎 🍏 🍎

🍍lol its a pine-apple!

🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎

🍍

🍏🍎x

You’re doing so well 🥹 I don’t even want to think about my physical tbr 🫠

🍏

🍎

🍎🍏

🍎🍏🍎🍏

🍎🍎🍎

🍏🍏🍎🍎🍎

🍏

🍏

🍏

🍏

🍏

🍎🍏

🍎🍏

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎

🍎