Half Way Book Buying Ban...? YES!

If you stopped by yesterday you may have seen my last "official" book haul of 18 books. Which is the start to the end of buying WAY too many books, and being unable to catch up on my TBR pile.

My TBR pile right now is nearing 200 books, which is absolutely ridiculous, and it should never have gotten to that high of a number. I'm tired of looking at my overcrowded shelf, feeling horrible about all of the books I've purchased but haven't read..

(BEFORE: Day #1)

I want to have a neat book shelf, with my favorite books, and just a handful of books which are unread. I want to decorate it and have books ends that match, but right now, there isn't room for books ends. The way my shelves crowded, there is no point in having cute book ends.

So in a way, I guess I'm saying that I'm going to restrict my book buying, or ban it all together for a little while...kind of. I don't want to say that I'm not buying books until my TBR is completely gone, but I do want to minimize the amount of unread books I have, and the overall number of books on my shelves.

But the issue with doing this is that I have so many books in series, where I don't own the entire series.I still really want to read them, but to do so I will have to buy the installments first...and later get rid of them again. In my last book haul you'll see a few of these installments, because I kept that in mind while shopping.

I also have a TON of stand alone books and completed series, so that's where I'm going to start.

This book buying "ban-ish" thing doesn't mean I'm going to be reading less, or doing any less reviewing or blogging. OF COURSE I'm still going to accept review books, and review the books I own, but I'm just going to minimize my TBR and the amount of books I actually keep. Once I've done that, I will be buying books that I plan to read within the month. When I'm done reading those, I'll keep the ones I LOVE and get rid of all the others. Then do that whole process over again.

Here are the first initial steps I'm going to take to do this:

1. Go through my shelf and get rid of books I KNOW I won't be reading.

2. Get rid of books that I've read, and didn't COMPLETELY LOVE.

3. Start reading standalones and entire series that I own.

After every few weeks, I'll update you on what I've read, gotten rid of, and the number of unread books on my shelf, along with the total number of books.

Right now I'm standing at a total of 359 books and 229 of those are unread. This is a large ratio of unread to read, but that is because I tend to get rid of the books I read and didn't really enjoy.

I am actually a little bit scared, and nervous because I've never done anything like this. I love buying books and its become a hobby to just wander the local book stores. But looking at my shelf, I know this buying ban is long over due. I'm excited to have my bookshelf looking cute and decorated with my favorite books.

Have you guys faced this issue? How many books are on your TBR?