I’ve always tended to follow the poet and critic Randall Jarrell’s advice – “Read at whim! Read at whim!” I draw in books from local new and used bookstores, little free libraries, Amazon, Libby, Hoopla, and one of the few browser extensions I pay for (doesn’t work in Safari, sadly) Library Extension.
But I was caught by a reading project of Booktuber Michael K. Vaughan who challenged himself to read 500 books he already owns before buying any new ones. He tracks his progress via weekly reading reports and, after 2 years, I think, is now up to the 320s range.
No, I don’t have 500 books, but I do live in an apartment with limited space and one bookshelf.* When we moved, I kept only books that had been signed to me by author-friends, that had sentimental value, or that I knew I could not purchase easily via Amazon.
[* I actually do have a second bookshelf devoted to my graphic novel collection, but it’s out in the corridor of our floor.]
But more books have accrued over time, he wrote, passively, and I have been dragging my feet on getting through them. So while Vaughan’s project is not about reading at whim, per se, it did appeal to my whimsy. So I will instead read at whim among only the books I own, keep the ones I really like, and discard the rest.
A few ground rules for myself:
- I’m going to do this challenge from January through March. If I like the results, I’ll keep it going for Q2.
- While I’m doing the challenge, I cannot buy any new or used books. I cannot bring home books from little free libraries.
- The challenge includes physical books, ebooks (my Kindle is littered with them), and Audible audiobooks.
- Vaughan counts omnibus editions of comics towards his total* but I think that’s cheating a bit. I will count graphic novels meant to be read as single and complete works, like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Kate Beaton’s Ducks. (I can still read cartoon or comic collections, they just don’t count towards this challenge.)
- I will track what I’m reading using Micro.blog’s Epilogue app and post short reviews or appraisals to the blog.
- Some books have an expiration date: I was interested in them at the time but I’m not so interested now. So they will be discarded without being read.
- If it’s a book I only read once and I don’t remember much about it – read it again!
- When it’s time to discard a book, I will donate it to one of the many little free libraries in our neighborhood.
- I can always read library books if I want to, but my own books are preferred.
[* Vaughan reads mostly SF, fantasy, old pulp novels, and comics, though he does read the occasional classic now and then.]
How many books are we talking here? I have no idea; that’s why I’m bounding the project via the calendar rather than with any hard numbers. I won’t get through all my unread books by the end of March, but if I’m chafing to read things outside of my little pile, then I can call however many I did a Win. I can always take up the challenge again later.
When will I do all this reading? With my morning coffee in my rocking chair. And in the evening before bedtime.
Am I a fast reader? When I’m plowing through a book, like the New Bern history book I read recently, I try to read 50 pages a day, more or less. I have the time to do that now, and that number of pages means I can get through most books in a week. Fifty pages a day also keeps details, characters, events, etc. fresh in my short-term memory, and that makes the experience more pleasant for me.
Is this my idea of fun? Oh, yes!
