GoodReads Clean-Up #02

I had a good time with my first clean-up post and to keep my books in order and focus on the ones I really want to read, I’ve decided to do a little housekeeping every three months.

Changes to my books since last update:

  • Keep, high priority to read: In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
  • Keep, high priority to DNF: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (I will make a DNF post in the next couple of months but basically, this book is more history than anthropology and evolution as I thought it was)
  • Kept, medium priority to read: Room by Emma DonoghueReady Player One by Ernest Kline
  • Kept, low priority to read: Bill Hodges trilogy by Stephen King

Check out my reviews of the books I’ve read in my wrap-ups posts (vol. I and vol. II)

A few changes I’m going to make to my sorting:

  • I am going to get rid of my medium priority shelf. If it’s not high priority, it won’t be on my immediate radar
  • I am also going to get rid of my library book shelves (books available at the different libraries I’m a part of) because virtually all of them are

I have also added a lot of classics to my list but as I’ve read a few consecutive ones, I’m taking a little break for February I think. Without further ado, here are some highlights of my most recent GoodRead adds as I sort through them:

Kept (classics): I kept the 10 or so most interesting classics to me on my list, in order of likelihood of getting to them anytime soon

  • Animal Farm by George Orwell: currently reading
  • Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  • All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
  • The Princess Bride by William Goldman: one of my all-time favorite movies
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Kept, high priority

  • All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
  • 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin and Minus 148 Degrees by Art Davidson: Into Thin Air got me hungry for more non-fiction survival/ adventure books
  • I Robot by Isaac Asimov
  • The Firm by John Grisham: I’ve never read his work and I’m a sucker for a legal thriller
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: I bought this book and am really looking forward to it!

Binned

  • Travel memoirs
  • Series I am not crazy about (e.g. His Dark Materials)
  • The surplus domestic thrillers I’ve added because let’s face it, Gone Girl is the best one that has ever been made
  • Non-fiction that isn’t science (e.g. Prisoners of Geography)
  • Anything below 4.0 rating

Other miscellaneous adds

  • Re-read The Art of Racing in the Rain and the Percy Jackson books
  • I went kind of H.A.M. in the historical fiction lists for potential reads
  • Biographies (Michelle Obama, David Attenborough and more)
  • Popular books recommended by multiple book YouTubers and bloggers (Circe, Children of Blood and Bone, Simon vs. the Homo sapien Agenda)

Are there any books I should un-bin? Move up in priority? Forget about? Let me know if you see one of your favorite books!

Photo by Florencia Viadana.

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10 Comments

  1. Aunt Charlene
    February 7, 2019 / 4:56 pm

    So glad to see Gone With the Wind on your list. I believe it was written in the ’30s. It is definitely one of the “all time best” books EVER written. The movie was great too!

    Love,
    AC

  2. February 9, 2019 / 7:09 pm

    Animal Farm is such a good book! I stole it from school as a teenager and, funnily enough, the reason I stole it was so I could avoid reading Pride & Prejudice. The Color Purple is also wonderful but takes a while to get into because of the dialect. Room is very good as well!
    The one I’d suggest you unbin is Prisoners of Geography – it’s a very easy read and has totally shaped how I view and understand geopolitics and the news we see every day.

    • rachelwuest
      Author
      February 11, 2019 / 5:31 pm

      I just finished Animal Farm yesterday and loved it! One of my favorite classics, I think. Interesting, I’ll consider unbinning Prisoners… but I might not get around to it for a while as I strongly prefer biology and biography non-fiction!

  3. Andi Preston
    February 10, 2019 / 7:26 pm

    I highly recommend Leaving Time, Animal Farm, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

    • rachelwuest
      Author
      February 11, 2019 / 5:29 pm

      I’ve already read Leaving Time and Animal Farm. I thought Leaving Time was okay, but I LOVED Animal Farm! I just bought One Flew… a couple of days ago!

  4. February 11, 2019 / 8:40 am

    Gone Girl is definitely one of the best thrillers and I keep looking for ones that give me that same sort of thrill and it is definitely a rarity. What do you do with the binned books? Donate them to libraries or charities? I’m just curious lol

    • rachelwuest
      Author
      February 11, 2019 / 5:27 pm

      These are just books in my GoodReads to-be-read list, I don’t actually own any of them, haha! My “binned” books are just taken off my digital list. But if I have to get rid of my physical books (I don’t own many), I donate them to the library.

    • rachelwuest
      Author
      February 11, 2019 / 5:26 pm

      I’m not too fussy about owning books, I actually prefer not having the clutter! These are just books to read!

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