#Shelflove: Why It Matters and Why You Should Do It, Too!

 

No Book Buying Challenge 2015 Kickoff!

Earlier this week we announced the Show Your Shelves Some Love a No Book Buying Challenge. Now we are sharing our own goals with you. You can also review the details of the post on the “No Book Buying Challenge” page from the menu above. We’re looking forward to you joining us for this challenge. If you join, don’t forget to link up your “I’m participating” post and join the mailing list.

 

 Rose’s Challenge: 

I have bought so many books in the last couple of years and I have not read many of them. I believe this is how hoarding begins. My bookshelves are so sad and unloved. There sit many books, some with their covers never once opened.  It is so sad. So for 2015, I am going to finally do it! I am going to read the books I already own and save a ton of money in the process. I have followed Julie’s example and created a bookshelf on my Goodreads account to keep track of the books I am reading for this year’s #Shelflove challenge. My goal for this challenge is: 

Green Belt  —->21-30 books: give your shelves a warm friendly hug

I plan on following these rules:

1. I will buy no books. EEEK! So for books club reads I must beg, borrow or steal. So I really will not steal, but I will beg and borrow. Maybe that should be beg, borrow or barter?

2. Audible credits do not count. I get one per month. However, I cannot buy additional credits.

3.Gift cards are allowed provided someone else purchased them for me. So if I get an amazon gift card for christmas (or my birthday which is just around the corner!!!HINT HINT Boyfriend!!!!) I can use that to buy books 100% guilt free.

4.Any book that is free is acceptable. (Hey you gotta have a loop hole somewhere!)

I will follow this book buying budget to reward myself at the end of 2015:

Book Budget

Walking Maddox $0.10

Riding Kissy $0.25

Writing a blog post $0.05

Writing a book review $0.50

Reading a book I already own $0.75  

Writing 500 words count $0.15

Julie’s Challenge: 

So if you’ve seen my home library or my Amazon account, you’ll kind of shake your head at me. You’d shake it even more if you asked how many unread books I have. Well, if you look at my Goodreads shelves, you’ll see how bad my addiction is. In fact, I have a shelf for “to read soon” books. This doesn’t even include all the freebies I grabbed, and isn’t a complete list of all the unread books from my physical shelves either. It is just a list of books I bought recently and started shelving as priority. It is that bad. If you click the shelf name and visit it, you can see it has over 200 books on it!!!! Ok, really, it is closer to 300 books than 200 books. Sad is the state of my TBR.

Julie’s bookshelf: soon-to-read-list

I started a new shelf to keep track of the books I read for this challenge, and I’ll add books to it as we go along. Now, I know my reading has sucked lately since I had this baby, but I am optimistic that it will improve. So my goal is:

Green Belt  —->21-30 books: give your shelves a warm friendly hug

I am setting some rules and exceptions for this challenge, as outlined below.

Exceptions:

• Book club books are an exception – I have to be able to buy new books to keep up with my book clubs, or the organizers (i.e. Rose) may disown me.
• Audible monthly subscription credits and audiobooks.com monthly grandfathered unlimited membership are an exception.

Earning a book budget:

I got this awesome idea from Readers in Wonderland, and want to do something similar to earn those purchases.

• For every 5 books from my shelves that I read: buy one normally priced book.
• Go for a walk with the baby in the stroller: buy a Kindle daily deal.
• Use the elliptical machine: buy a normally priced book.

 Lynn’s Challenge:

When we first began discussing this challenge, all I could think was that there is NO WAY I could make it a month, let alone a year, without buying any new books. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I probably don’t buy as many books as I used to. I’ve cut back significantly on buying the $1.99 ebooks. I don’t buy physical copies of books unless I’m going to a signing. My downfall is the shiny new release. I pre-order books written by my favorite authors with the click of a button. And then the book sits around on my reader for a month or more before I even have the time to read them.

I was motivated a few weeks ago and set up a Goodreads shelf for all the books I actually own. I added all of my ebooks, audible books, and physical books to this shelf. I don’t even remember buying some of the books. My list isn’t nearly as large as Julie’s or Rose’s.

 My goal:

Green Belt  —->21-30 books: give your shelves a warm friendly hug

This is close to half of the books that I own, and half of my reading goal for next year.

My rules:

• Book Club books are exempt. I generally borrow these books from the library when I can, but occasionally, that’s not an option.
• Audible Monthly  Credit is exempt. No buying extra credits.

Book Budget:

• One new release per 4 owned books read.
• My mantra will be “I CAN WAIT for that new book to become available at the library.” Even if I’m the 63rd person on the waiting list.

 

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