I've been going through my books and I have a small stack of books I know I will probably never read. I'll just donate those. That will give me more room on my shelves for books I definitely want to read. I recently started reading more fantasy so I need room for those.
I used google sheets to make a few charts to help me keep track of things. The last 3 years, I think, I was following this blog called theunreadshelf. She just closed it down but I learned some helpful things from her. She always said to count your books and that it helps to go through them every year. I didn't think it really mattered but when I actually did it I realized she was right. It helped me to look at each one again and remember why I bought it. Sometimes I just forgot all about a book I was dying to read when I bought it. Going through them again and rereading the summaries helped to wake up that desire to read those books again. It also helps you to find books that you really aren't into anymore. Sometimes there are books that were gifts or books from people that didn't know what to do with them and so they gave them to me because I read books. Like it doesn't matter what type of books. They are not usually books in a genre I like. I usually put them in with my books thinking I'll take a look at them later and then forget all about them. The problem is, I have limited shelf space and I currently have more books than space.
When I was looking at my books I decided the best way to organize them was by book type. I have a shelf for mass market paperbacks (MMPB) with a section just for those new ones (MMPBN) that are taller and don't stack well with others. I have separate shelves for hardcovers and trade paperbacks. I have all of my books (and my husband's and my oldest son's) entered into my goodreads account. I have tags set up to show who's library a book is in (which tells me which room the book is in) and then what type of book it is. If it is my book, I see what type of book it is and know exactly where to look on the shelves. They are, of course, in alphabetical order.
I made a google sheets file to keep track of how many books I have for each type and then I will be able to compare those numbers in the following years. During the last 3 years I have been counting my books, I have read and moved out a bunch of them but every year I kept finding books that didn't get counted. Now I think I have them all and I'm determined to read as many as I can each year. I'm not sure how this works exactly but I guess I can share the link to the file I made so it can be used as a template for anyone interested in doing the same. This is a copy. I also made a file to keep track of the books in and out for the year. At the end of the year I want to have less books than I started with so I enter books out as a negative number and then books in as positive numbers. Here is a copy of that google sheets file. Those files are set up to do the totals for you.
I'm almost finished going through my books for this year and I'm already happy with the way my shelves are looking with the space I freed up last year. Last year I focused on reading hardcover books because they take up the most room and after taking out the books I decided I'll never read my shelves look much better.
I hope everyone has a fantastic reading year.
Donna
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