Welcome back, Happy 2024! Welcome along to Challenge 24 – or #challenge24 if you’re coming from social media. I thought I would write up a little post about what exactly Challenge 24 is all about, and what has led me to this point. January 17th is perhaps a little late to be setting intentions for the year – however, it has taken me a little while to sit with my reading intentions and figure out just exactly what it is I’m trying to achieve.
Why a reading ‘Challenge’?
In short my book buying has not only gotten out of hand, but it has now overtaken my book reading at a rate that I’m not sure I will ever actually reach the end of the books I own but haven’t read. I have always owned a lot of books, and they do bring me so much joy – but having moved last year and finally having space for them, I’ve realised that there is a lot of guilt attached to owning all these things that never get used. I’m a big believer that books are there to be read, they’re not simply decoration, break the spines, fold the pages – it’s all the same to me. A well loved book will show signs of that love, just as a childhood teddy bear does, and yet I seem to be forming some sort of book museum in my home. Not only that, with the sheer number of books I own, despite being in a larger space – they are threatening to overwhelm my rooms. Added to this, with so many on choice at all times, 2023 saw me falling into a rut of reading the same books over and over, as opposed to branching out to the unknowns on those shelves. This year is a chance to focus on reading instead of buying books, I’m intending on a three month complete ban on buying and then I’ll re-evaluate.
What am I hoping for at the end of the year?
I would love to find some new favourites amongst the books I already own, something that is going to be significantly more likely if I actually read what is there! There are a whole raft of duplicates that I would like to thin out, and honestly – I would just like to have fewer books – I would rather have a smaller number, but know that all of them are genuine loves. I would love to have the space to more intentionally bring in books as opposed to cramming and stacking them on overloaded shelves.
One added goal for the year, is I would like to sort through all the books I have kept from my childhood. My parents always encouraged me to read, and understood the difficulty I had in letting go of books, so they very kindly kept them all for me. Now that they’re all back within my ownership I’m starting to see that maybe I don’t need to keep all of them, this comes back to being intentional again. Yes, there were series that I loved – but may I could keep my favourites and not the whole collection – and it would be lovely to have them incorporated into my house somewhere, as opposed to gathering dust in the loft.
So what are the ‘Rules’?
- Focus on physical books
- This does not mean I’m abandoning my kindle by any stretch, but when I’m in the house I would like to focus on reading some of the physical copies that I own.
- It’s okay to DNF
- It is 100% okay to not finish a book, this is something I always struggled with in the past – but life is too short, and we’re all too busy to read books that we’re not gelling with. That being said – give it a proper chance first, no bailing after the first paragraph, it’s going to need at least a couple of chapters to judge.
- It’s also okay not to start – I know, I know, but there are definitely going to be books on those shelves that I’m going to read the back of and think, ‘why on earth did I buy this!?‘. Which leads to:
- Clear some space
- If they’re not a genuine new love, or it’s clear they will never be reread, then donate / sell / give them away. At the crux of this challenge I would like to end up with less.
- Get a library card!
- Sometimes, something ‘new’ feels like the only way to get out of a reading funk, and we have a gorgeous, stacked library close by – so this is a must. New, without the outlay, or space commitment – consider checking out your local library, as they say, use it or lose it!
- Buy second hand
- I already have an ongoing list of books I have come across that I would eventually like to read, so after a few months of restricting myself from buying new books I’m happy to buy again, but I’ll be focusing on second hand books. There are so many great websites with such a great selection – looking at you, WoB!
The final part of my intention this year is to track what I read – write it down, photograph it, share about them here! I love sharing my thoughts on books, and all too often I have found myself buying a book I’ve previously read just because I’ve forgotten about it.
Have you ever considered challenging yourself to read what you already own, or are you better than mean in your book curation – let me know.
Nx
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