I’m a collector of many things. One of them being books. One can never have too many books. The problem is my bookshelves definitely can have too many books. I’ve more books than shelves. It’s resulted in creative solutions. They’re stacked on ledges, snuggly packed into a DVD rack, shoved in boxes or in baskets, piled onto my bureau.
Instead of reading and purging my books, I just….collect them. In true Book Dragon form.
I add new (or new to me) books to my shelves with every trip to the thrift store or bookstore, take out books from the library, take out digital library loans… all while my physical TBR and unread books on my shelves look on in betrayal. The worst part is that over the last few years I’ve found myself avoiding reading books I’m excited for. Half on accident (“I added way too many books to my digital library loan shelf!”), half on purpose. I often procrastinate on reading books on my shelves – especially ones I’m most excited about! – because once I read them… they’ll be done. That, or the mood reader in me keeps putting them off until I Feel Like The Novel.
So, in an effort to make space the past few years, I’ve started taking action to downsize: donating books, having swaps with friends when the stack grows, trying to keep only the books I’ve read and adored. None of that solves the “I brought more books home despite having 50 unread ones on my shelf” issue or help the mood reading/anticipation procrastination.
And, as I am in pursuit of doing more things that bring a little more joy, I decided that for 2025 I needed to have a little fun with my solution for tackling my physical TBR.
Enter: The Book Advent(ure) box. My 2025 reading challenge for myself. One “surprise” book from my shelf per month for the entire year of 2025. The idea came from a combination of those bookish advent calendars that come out during the holiday season and those Blind Date with a Book that Etsy shops sell. Only this is my DIY version using books 100% from my bookshelf.
(I’d love to say that it will reduce my book buying and as such present a wonderful solution for my Too Little Space, Too Many Books problem… but let’s not go quite that far. 😉 Books finding their way into my home is a tradition at this point. I just need to make reading all of them part of that tradition.)
I removed 12 books from my shelves – mostly ones I’ve been procrastinating reading – while trying to keep them of similar size and shape. They were then wrapped in indiscriminate wrapping paper, shuffled them up, and labeled numbers 1-12. The Advent in this DIY version stands for Adventure. Every month and every book is an adventure. Each month I’m going to open one of the wrapped novels. That book will be my mandatory read for the month. Anything else read is a bonus! 🙂
The Books I Wrapped in the Advent(ure) Box:
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Rush by Lisa Patton
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell
Cursed Cocktails by S.L. Rowland
At least seven of these books were sitting on my shelf for an embarrassingly long amount of time due to Anticipation Procrastination. (Both Any Way The Wind Blows and Return of the Thief may have fallen the worst victim of this. Knowing that they are the last in their respective series…. Ugh! My heart is not ready.)
What books are you most looking forward to reading in 2025?
Lots of love,
