This Year I'm Going to #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks | My Challenge Log

Being a gastronome and a bibliophile can be dangerous to one's living space. Stacks of books piled precariously on tables and floors, shelves sagging under the weight of "too many" books, plastic storage tubs so heavy that it takes all your might just to scoot them a few inches either way...yeah, it's like that. And while many of these books are beloved favorites that I'd never be able to part with, I'm guessing that at least 1/3 of them are ones that I haven't gotten around to reading yet.

I tend to save certain books to read later because they're mine. "Oh, I'll just read this review book or this library book or this new release in a favorite series first. That's mine, so I can get to it any time." Only I rarely do. So I've decided that I need to crack those perfect spines and get to reading. This way, I can start clearing out our already small living space. If I read it and love it, I will keep it. If not, I will pass it on to somebody who I think will love it, I'll donate it, or I'll add it to my paperback swap shelf.

This is easier said than done when it's just me, but joining a group of other people doing the same thing helps me hold myself a little more accountable, so I'm joining Andie at Estella's Revenge (and what's already at about 100 other bloggers) this year in the Read My Own Damn Books Challenge! And while I do love a challenge, what I love even more about this particular one is that Andi made it a "you do you" rule set...knowing that sometimes it's easier to stay committed that way.

So I decided to start with just one bookshelf. I know that if I tried to purge the whole house at once I would just overwhelm myself and wind up getting nothing done. So, I set my sites on one of the two living room bookshelves. I pulled all of the unread books from it, and these are them:

This is the bookshelf after I removed those books (yeah, I tend to stack and cram):

You can imagine how many unread books I have in the whole house then if these are only the ones from one of seven bookshelves (plus stacks and tubs), right? I need this challenge badly. So, since the rules for this one are up to me, I've made them simple. I will need to do this every year (probably for the rest of my life), so I didn't want to scare myself off right away.

My #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks 2016 Goals:

• Read at least 4 of my own books every month (at least). Cookbooks count, but at least one of those books must a book other than a cookbook.
• After reading the book, decide if I love it. If not, get it out of the house.
• Books that I own, have borrowed, or checked out from the library count here.

That's it. It might sound simple, but it's really not. I receive new books in the mail at least a few times a month—and scour the library once a week. I'm not ready to give either of those up yet. (Baby steps, remember?) Fortunately it's okay to combine this with other challenges, so I think this will go a long way towards getting some of that piles wiped out when combined with the Foodies Read challenge this year.

My 2016 "Read My Own Damn Books" Log (updated monthly):

January:
1. The Restaurant Critic's Wife
2. The Big Bucket List Book: 133 Experiences of a Lifetime
3. Life & Death: Twilight Reimagined
4. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (library book)

February:
1. Last in a Long Line of Rebels
2. Remembrance
3. My Sweet Vidalia
4. Be Frank With Me
5. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

March:
1. North of Here
2. I Am Legend
3. Spellcasting in Silk (hoopla digital audiobook)
4. The New Bohemians

April:
1. Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge
2. Vampire$
3. Apartment Therapy

May:
1. Night Shift (library book)
2. Treme: Stories and Recipes from the Heart of New Orleans
3. Power Greens
4. June
5. Jane Slayre

June:
1. Pies and Prejudice (library book)
2. He Will Be My Ruin
3. Interview with the Vampire
4. The 420 Gourmet

July:
1. 101 Chilies to Try Before You Die
2. Seagan Eating
3. Unearthed

August:
1. The Ninja's Daughter
2. Vanishing Time
3. The Branson Beauty
4. Redwall
5. Let the Right One In
6. A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice

September:
1. The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo
2. The Girls in the Garden
3. The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook
4. Soup Swap