Like just about every book blogger I know, I have hundreds of unread books on my shelves: 324 at the start of 2021 to be exact. Some have lain unread for about ten years and I thought it was time to decide whether my initial interest in them had waned. All through 2021 I’ve been taking a close look at these books, asking myself which titles I wanted to keep and which I would be happy to let go to another home.
Just to be clear, however, this exercise hasn’t been about getting rid of books as if a large TBR is a problem that has to be fixed. It’s more about making sure I have only the books I do want to read.
The result is a series of posts called Sample Sunday, each one focused on just three titles from the shelves.
Over the course of 21 posts, I’ve put 63 books up for scrutiny, working my way through the alphabet according to the author’s surname.
Of those 63 books, I let 20 go to other homes in charity shops or little free libraries. They were a mix of genres: historical fiction, two short stories and a couple of crime/thrillers.
The 20 Books I Let Go
The Book of Tiblisi : various authors
English Music by Peter Ackroyd
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro
The Good Neighbour by A J Banner
The Winter Crown by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Silver Pigs by Lindsay Davis
Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble
A Visit By The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Last Friends by Jane Gardam
Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Gulp: Adventures On The Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom
Lionheart by Sharon Penman
The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor
The Undecideds
There were five books whose future I found difficult to decide. I’m hoping readers of this blog can help me come to a decision.
Black Prince by iris Murdoch: I’ve had a mixed experience with Murdoch, loving her Booker winner The Sea, The Sea but failing to make any headway with The Philosopher’s Pupil.
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides: his debut novel focuses on five sisters each of whom kills herself. A bit too grim a topic?
The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald : When I considered this book back in May, I’d read only one book by Fitzgerald (Offshore) and hadn’t enjoyed it but I’ve since read The Bookshop which was significantly more to my taste. So I’m going to keep The Gate of Angels after all.
The Lonely by Andrew Michael Hurley. Is this a horror novel or more of a gothic tale? If the former, then it’s definitely being released.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver: There’s a connection within the novel to surrealist movement but I wasn’t a great fan of Kingsolver’s most respected novel, The Poisonwood Bible, so she may not be an author to my taste.
How Does Sample Sunday Work?
Credit for this idea goes to Kate @booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com though her Sample Saturday posts focus exclusively on the Kindle samples she has downloaded. I use primarily physical books (they take up more space), picking three at random from the shelves. I sample about 10 pages from each book (not always the first pages), trying to get an idea of the writing style. I also do a quick search of reviews on Goodreads to get a feeling of other readers’ reactions before making my decision.
It’s been a good way of discovering books I had completely forgotten about because they are buried at the back of the bookshelf. But for this exercise I don’t think I would have got around to reading A River in Darkness, the disturbing memoir of life in North Korea or The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri. So I’m going to keep going with Sample Sunday in 2022, this time working through the bookshelves in alphabetical order of book title.
What do you think of the choices I made? Are there any titles from my 20 Books I Let Go, that you would have chosen to “save”? Any thoughts about my “undecideds?”