Howdy y'all! How has 2020 been treating you so far? I know it's been a bit since I last did a post that wasn't a review, but that's because I am lazy. And since I am lazy I have been watching too much BookTube. Whenever I get to watching people talk about books on YouTube I start thinking to myself I could do that, it wouldn't be that hard, right? But that never goes well as you might know if you have seen the cringey Oh My Bookishness YouTube channel. I don't have any filming equipment apart from my phone, I don't have any editing programs, I don't know how to function as a human being when I'm on screen trying to be myself, and the whole ordeal is dead and we're probably never trying that again. That being said, I really do love watching BookTube. Especially the challenges and tags. And the unhaul videos. And two years ago BooksandLala posted a Book Unhaul Challenge (original video here) which I enjoyed watching. So, since I've been meaning to get rid of some books to make room for a whole treasure trove of new books that I got for Christmas, and I've also been meaning to post more fun stuff on this blog, I thought it would be fun to give it a go. But again, I can't make videos so we're just going to do it in written format. Mostly because I can pretend that I'm fun and sarcastically charming when I'm writing and there is no pressure for me to actually be either of those things. Without further ado, let's get to the actual challenge, shall we? The challenge poses 10 prompts for "unhauling" or getting rid of 10 books that you don't need/want anymore. As for where they will go when I unhaul them, well, I'm not entirely sure exactly where they'll go. Some of them I'll probably donate to the library, some of them I'll put in Little Free Libraries, and some of them I'll just ask around to see if anyone wants them. If you are a person I know apart from the internet and we see each other somewhat regularly and you want something I'm removing from my collection, you are welcome to it! Hit me up in the comments or any other way you usually talk to me. Now, actually on to the challenge!
2. A book you changed your mind about. For this I went with an author that I changed my mind about, rather than a book. As a result of changing my mind about said author, I decided to part ways with the one book of hers that I have left. And that book is Zel by Donna Jo Napoli. This book is a retelling of Rapunzel and I don't know much about it apart from that. I got it at my library's book sale a few years ago and it's been in my TBR pile ever since. I changed my mind about Donna Jo Napoli after reading three of her books. I read one and enjoyed it, mostly because it was a historical fiction set in Venice, and then I read two more of her books and decided that she isn't really an author for me. I especially did not like her book Crazy Jack, a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk and I was afraid that Zel would be similar. More about this book here. 3. A series you won't be completing. I actually thought the first book in The Anybodies series by N.E. Bode (Julianna Baggot) was really cute and fun. Do I remember what happened in it? Nosireebob. And even though I got both of them at the library book sale, I never got around to reading the second one and I probably never will because I'd have to reread the first one to remember what happened. Unfortunately, I can't see myself doing that with all of the other books I want to read. So they are both going to a new home where, hopefully, someone else will love them more than I did. More on this series here. 4. A book you DNF'd (did not finish). There were a few I could have gone with for this, but I'm not quite ready to give up on them all. So, the one I went with is *takes deep breath* The Faceless Fiend: Being the Tale of a Criminal Mastermind, His Masked Minions, and a Princess with a Butter Knife, Involving Explosives and a Certain Amount of Pushing and Shoving by Howard Whitehouse. I mean, from the title alone you can probably see why I picked up this book. Another book sale find, I started this one while sitting in the dentist's waiting room and thought the first few pages were interesting enough, but not something that I really cared to continue. I haven't picked it up in quite a while so I don't think I'm ever going to finish this one. I'm sure someone else will be drawn in by the title and enjoy it more than I did. More about this book here. 5. A book you have multiple copies of. This was a tricky one for me because it is very rare that I have two copies of a book. I just don't have the room to buy more than one copy of something, much as I want to when I see a pretty cover for a book I love at a thrift store or on Book Outlet. The only books I have duplicates of are Inkdeath (because of reasons), Ruin and Rising (because I accidentally bought the wrong edition with the weird looking new cover and I wanted the old cover and I'll eventually be getting rid of the one with the new cover), and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Sorta. I have a copy of A Tale of Two Cities, which is one of my favorite classic books, and I have the book I am unhauling, which contains A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations. The reason I am getting rid of the 3-in-1 is because I don't really have any interest in reading the other two stories and I usually don't like having more than one book in a book, you know? It's just a weird bookish preference I have. 6. A book you'll never actually get to. This is probably true of many, many of my books, but that's too pessimistic to think about so I just chose one series: The Circle Opens series by Tamora Pierce. This series has four books in it. I got books 2, 3, and 4 for free, but I never got around to buying the first one. And then I found out that this is a spin off series anyway and that it's best to read the first series in order to understand things. So the odds of me ever reading these books are slim. Time for them to move on to a new life. More about this series here. 7. A book you bought because of the hype. This was another hard one for me because I don't usually buy books just because they've been hyped up a lot. The book I picked hasn't really been hyped in recent years. It's Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. And, as you can probably tell from the "soon to be a major motion picture" badge, my copy probably was printed when there was hype... back in 1993. I bought this yellowing, wrinkly, mass market paperback at a book sale because the newer Jurassic World movies were on their way to theaters and I hadn't realized there was a book at all. So I kinda bought it because of hype. Kinda sorta. And I'm unhauling it because I started it, got bored, and decided that the movies are enough for me. It's still readable and holding together, but it's not really in the best of shape so I'll either put it in a book box or recycle it. More about this book here. 8. A book you bought because of the cover. For this one I went with a big, interactive Narnia book. It has a timeline for the books in it, interactive tabs that you can pull (well, you can try to pull them anyway, some of them are kind of stiff), and a pop up Aslan on the last page. It's pretty neat, actually, but it's also a coffee table book size if that makes sense, so it's a bit too big for me and my limited space. 9. A book you don't know anything about. It's probably bad that I don't know anything about this book, but I went with Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I got a very nice paperback copy of this book from a prize basket that I won one time and I've never picked it up. I think I've read the synopsis before, but I don't remember what it is. I keep thinking that I'll read it eventually, but I know that's not going to happen soon. If I ever decide to read it I'm sure it won't be hard to find a copy at the library. So, away it goes! More about this book here. 10. A book you didn't buy. For this one I went with Ella the Brave by Erin Summerill. My sister won this ARC book as a door prize for the SRP at our library and she gave it to me. I found out that it is actually the second book in its series and I planned to read the first one at some point. I still kind of want to, but it probably won't be soon. Should I ever decide to read it, I know the library has this series. More about this book here. Bonus Round! Here are some other books I'm getting rid of as well, most because I don't have space or I just don't want to hold onto them any longer. The Hieroglyphs Handbook by Philip Ardagh Richard the Lionhear: The Mighty Crusader by David Miller The Book of Totally Useless Information by Donal A. Voorhees These are some random Nonfiction books I'm unhauling. The first I got back when I was in my archaeology phase (don't deny it, we all had one) and I've figured out by now that I don't really want to work in sweaty deserts for the rest of my life so I don't need this anymore. The second I used for a school project that I hated. The third is another wonderful book sale treasure that I don't really need and I think would make a good bathroom book. So it lives in our bathroom now. Is that weird? Do other people have bathroom reading material? Is it just my family? I don't know, but I feel like you're judging me. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Hamlet by Bill Shakespeare These are all just mass market paperbacks of classics that I still intend to read someday. Well, maybe not Hamlet, but the other two for sure. They are all kind of old and yellow and taking up valuable book real estate. I'm pretty sure I can find all of these at the library when the time comes that I get around to reading them so there isn't really a reason to keep them in my house. That being said, if I find really pretty, cheaply priced editions somewhere I may purchase them anyway because I'm shallow like that. The Long Patrol by Brian Jaques Marlfox by Brian Jaques Wonder Woman assorted comics High Hurdles: Olympic Dreams by Lauraine Snelling This is a really random assortment of books I just don't need anymore. I like some of the Redwall books by Brian Jaques still, but I gave up on reading the entire series because it's too long for me and I lost interest halfway through. The Wonder Woman one is just a really fat book full of really old WW comics, some of which are just plain ridiculous and some of which come of as offensive today. And the horse book... I don't really know. I wasn't really much of a horse girl growing up, but I liked the occasional book on them. I thought this one was pretty great back when I read it, which is why I've held onto it for so long, but I doubt I'll ever read it again and I know someone else could get more use out of it than I can leaving it in a Rubbermaid tub in the basement. So, that was my Book Unhaul Challenge post. What'd ya think? Should I try to do more "BookTube-ish" stuff on my blog or just stick to reviews? I had fun and I freed up some space for more books... and quickly filled that space with my Christmas books. Let me know what you think in the comments and let me know if you are someone who I know in real life who is interested in any of these books. I'll see what I can do to get them to you.
Ta-ta for now!
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