Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
I've actually reduced my TBR by 20 so far this year.
Admittedly, that is mainly because I've discarded lots of (50!) old purchases that no longer interested me. That's £61.55 wasted... but better not to waste my time on them as well!
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Indeed!
We're none of us going to run out of books any time soon and time is a precious commodity; using it up on unappealing books just adds to their cost. This one is harder than getting rid of freebies, though, and I admit I'm not nearly good enough at it. It's where the no-physical-clutter aspect kicks in for me.
It's ironic in a way; I've been cleaning out my closets and have been donating scads of barely worn and even entirely unworn clothing and shoes to the Salvation Army. But in addition to gaining physical space, I also have the incentive of getting the stuff out where it'll do some good. There's no such side benefit to getting rid of ebooks for which I paid good money. So there they sit. I need to profit by your example, since I'm a firm believer that electronic feng shui is good for the soul.
That kind of cleaning out is also a salutary lesson in where I've gone wrong. Generally speaking, the mistakes fall into three categories. The first, the books I bought because they were a good deal, I'm essentially over. The other two are tougher. One is where my tastes have changed; it took me a while to realize that I no longer read mysteries, for example. The lesson there is in regard to the dangers of buying ahead and of course I still do that. I've got much better, but I need to improve and apply yet more stringent standards.
My third downfall is the toughest of all; it's the buying of old favorites. There's a side advantage to that, in that it often lets me get rid of a physical book. But it's the same bugaboo; will I actually reread it? As with the mysteries, rereading is something I rarely do anymore.
It's a process and I'm still processing, clearly!