Strategy Transferred

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Lately, I've been catching up on some organizing. In the process of sorting and weeding, I've rediscovered books I tucked away to read. Some go immediately to a home on one of the shelves that houses my to-be-read books. There, they will duly wait their turn to capture my attention in 50 pages or less. Harsh, perhaps, but with so many books I want to read, and so many new ones coming out regularly and clamoring for my attention, I have to have some sort of standard for what stays and what goes.

Some of the books I've uncovered are novels, but most are non-fiction and/or the sort of book that I chip away at; most of the books that fit into that final category are collections of essays or devotionals that lend themselves to a few pages of daily reading. The trouble is, the collection has expanded to a size that, at the rate of a few pages a day, will take me decades to finish.

Most of these are not new. Many haven't retained the appeal they had when I purchased them, but some spark a desire to pick them up again. 

The other day, I found one of those books mixed in with some files. I'd set it aside when I sorted a bookshelf, intending to pick it up and read a little bit each day.

That was at least two months ago. And there it sat -- unread -- and part of a pile that was a bit of a mixed bag, to boot.

So, I did what I do with other maybe items. I put it with the books (yes, that's plural) I'm currently working on and put a sticker on it with the date and a note to myself: 

"Donate if unopened within 30 days."

I've used this tactic with other items before, but never with a book. Still, if this is a book I really want to read a little at a time, thirty days of winter vacation gives me plenty of time to make that happen. If I open it, and like what I read, I can cross out the first date and replace it with the date that it was opened. 

Part of Organizing by STYLE -- or any organizing strategy, for that matter -- is finding what works for you and extending it to other spaces and situations. As I write about this new endeavor in my quest to create a TBR pile shorter than I am, I'm not sure if I'm more excited to pull the book out and read it or pull  the book out and donate it.

Either way, I win.