100 things challenge - apply it to books?

I was reading this article in our Canada national news, and got to thinking ...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/10/16/f-100-thing-challenge-consumer-de...

I'm not ready for the full-blown 100 things challenge but ... 100 books ... I'm in control of that. Do I keep buying them to compensate for how slow I am at reading them? Something pscyhological at work here, perhaps. I could draw the line at 100 books and start parting with some, I guess ... but I think I'm going to need more motivation than I'm feeling presently.

After I read a book, it has to "earn" a space on my bookshelves. If it doesn't, I give it away.

Rather than buy books like you're on fire, make a wish list. After you read two, three, or ten, buy one. But try and prevent yourself from buying faster than you can read. That's when piles start to appear--and piles are not good.

Afterwards, only keep the gems you know you'll read again. With the others, give them away to a library or charitable organization. Someone else might really enjoy those books.

I've regretted every book purge I've conducted and vowed never to do it again. However, I am more thoughtful about which books I buy, and I'm more and more willing to purge other collections I have. There are multiple boxes of decorative/knick-knack things waiting for me to unpack them, and they're probably all going in a yard sale.

The only major book purge I once did was to toss out ratty books that were falling apart and the ones I admitted were genuinely bad. I've replaced the former with better copies. I am a little more on top of recognizing and parting with a book I've just read when I know it's not a keeper.

Five years later since my OP above, I haven't done a thing about it. Although I'm close to at least reducing my unread pile to 100 through steady reading and controlled acquisition. If you count hovering at 120-ish as "close".

I reckon I could do the hundred things challenge - as long as books were excused from it!

100 would never work for me, not even 1,000. I have a linear acquisition rate that feels exponential.

I'm at the point now where I need to do a purge because I literally have no more square footage for anything. Books are not the only thing in my house that I can't seem to have fewer than 100 of. But even just digging out the books that I'm willing to part with is a daunting task. I have sometimes 60 or 70 books PER SHELF.

I feel that if I could load the better books into the shelves and the non-keepers off the shelves in one of the 100 piles that would be an improvement because I could more readily access the better ones and improve the outflow of weaker books. I already know staunching the influx of books just isn't practical for me, so helping the books on the way out is the only way.

One day.

I know how you feel, I just went through one of book cases and I still have more books to put up. I just can't seem to get it all done :(

Hmm, I don't see how getting rid of things you already own reduces consumerism. Especially family heirlooms. Wouldn't it be a better plan to purchase no more than 100 non-consumable items in a year? I figure, so long as I have space, and nothing is in piles on the floor, I'm okay.

I do purge now and then, especially in the last few years when we absorbed my mother and her stuff, then this last month when my son moved back in with some of his stuff.

I have a firm rule that books will not be piled on the floor. They have to fit on the shelves. Sometimes I'm very creative about getting them to fit on the shelves, but I also have a "guideline" that they will not be double stacked on the shelves. I like to see all the titles.

I've been trying to reduce the books in my house by reading and getting rid of non-stellar books for five or six years now, but it's rather magic that I read on average 100 books a year, and yet my shelves are still full. Ah well, it may be a quest like Don Quixote's jousting with windmills, but it is mine.