I’ve been trying to get my massive book collection under some kind of control because I’ve run out of places to put books. For the books I’ve read, I’ve purged down to the ones I know I’ll want to reread. I pulled the books I haven’t read out of the keeper shelf because them being there meant I forgot I had them, which is why I never got around to reading them.

Now I’ve got to deal with the epic to be read stash, which currently takes up part of the small bookcase in my bedroom, plus several boxes. I’ve already done a pretty massive purge, letting go of a lot of the romance novels I got when I was attending romance writing conferences. I had to admit that with all the books there are to read, I was probably never going to read those.

I’m left with a few romance novels by friends that I got when I went to their booksignings, but I may slice the autograph pages out and pass the books on because I’m not actually in touch with most of those friends anymore and they aren’t books I’d have chosen if I hadn’t known the authors. Then I have a small stash of the older traditional Regency romances that aren’t being published anymore. These are the ones that are essentially Georgette Heyer imitations. These work as comfort reads and can be a lot of fun, though I’ve already put one on the donation bag because it was just too sexist for me to tolerate. Most of the stash right now is science fiction and fantasy books from conference goody bags. I really try to sort through those at the conference so I’m only taking books I know I’ll want to read, and that means I’ve got a lot of books I want to read and don’t want to get rid of. I’m hoping that by organizing these books and putting them in the bedroom bookcase where they’re really obvious, I’ll be more likely to pick them up and actually read them.

My main problem with the to-be-read pile is that they keep publishing other things I want to read. My efforts to keep up with what’s currently being published make it harder to dig into the backlog. I’m going to try to get to the books that are handed out this year so they don’t get added to the backlog and so that I’m reading current things. Win-win!

I usually end up reading a book or two during the conference so I don’t have to take those home with me. That may be what I do in the mornings when I wake up well before the conference starts.