Last year I sorta lost steam with Book Fridays towards the end. I was reading faster than I was writing blog posts and I just felt like writing about the books I was reading had become a chore. So I took a break from doing that so that I could read in peace and regroup. I don’t consider myself a book reviewer but I suppose that any discussion of a book can be called a review of sorts. I am not sure what my approach will be this year but one thing I am definitely doing is participating in the #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks challenge. The point of this challenge is pretty straight forward: read books you already own rather than buying more books to add to your TBR pile. I really like this idea, especially after shopping my own shelves last year and realizing I had a bad habit of buying books and not reading them. I don’t have a lot of books compared to some but I do have a nice little pile of them that I am going to get through this year.
Currently, I have 11 books on my nightstand and 1 book on my Kindle. I also have a few more on my bookshelf downstairs. There are no set rules in this challenge, you decide how you want to tackle your pile of books. Some people want to knock a certain number of books out before allowing themselves any new purchases. Others, like me, are going cold turkey: NO NEW BOOKS UNTIL…these books are read. It’s OK not to finish a book (life is too short to read books we aren’t into). I am not purchasing or borrowing books from the library until I’ve gotten through at least most of the books I have at home. I’m planning to be strict on zero purchases but a library book or two might happen.
These are the books I’ve already read/ plan to read in 2016.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling read
- Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older read
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls currently reading
- Negro: Este Color Que Me Queda Bonito by Benito Massó Jr.
- Perfume by Patrick Süskind
- Ishmael by Daniel Quinn*
- The New Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
- The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
- Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce*
- Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke
- Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
- The Zenith by Duon Thu Huong
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
- The Queen by Tiffany Reisz
*denotes a re-read
I don’t plan to read these in any particular order. Once I finish a book I usually look at my TBR list and decide what I’m in the mood for. Most of the time I borrow books from the library but last year I discovered that Dollar Tree sells books and they’re not the kind of books I assumed they were (trash) so I loaded up on quite a few. I plan on writing about these Dollar Tree books soon.
How about you? Do you have a lot of books laying around? Consider reading your own damn books!
Writing Through It 