My Love for Books Does Not Need Validation.

When I started blogging, I was swept under by the 'glamour' of having ALL the books and began buying and buying and buying faster than I could read. Which is something I think every  bookish person is a bit guilty of, right? But then I realised that a lot of these books that I was buying weren't books that I necessarily wanted to read because they interested me... I wanted to read them because EVERYONE was reading them and I didn't want to feel left out, which then lead me to my current situation: I have so many books and series on my shelves that I just don't want to read. I've got series that are loved by many that I bought, read the first one or two and gave up, but continued to buy, thinking I would finish reading the series one day. But I haven't and I don't think I ever will...

The allure of having lots of books and huge bookshelves is a big one for me. I used to think that no one would take me seriously if I didn't have a wall of books, because that's what everyone in real life knows me as: the book girl, the one with lots of books, the book hoarder, etc. But I've come to the realisation that if I'm just buying books to have them on my shelves, what's the point? I'd love to have a lot of books, but if they're not books that I truly love and enjoy, I shouldn't fill my shelves with them.

So, I've decided to do a big purge of my bookshelves. All of those unread series that I know I won't read? GONE. All of those books that I bought because I felt obligated to as a book blogger and then didn't enjoy? GONE. And all of those books that I'm just not going to pick up ever again? GOOOONE. It's going to be kind of nice to be able to see my bookshelves just slightly less heavy, maybe relieve some of that bend in the middle of the shelves, you know? There are going to be a few that are going to be hard to get rid of, but I have to remind myself that my bookshelves shouldn't be trying to impress anyone. I've always had a bit of a hard time with that, thinking that all of these books will validate my bookishness somehow, but that's not true. My love for books does not need validation by anything. Not the amount of books I have, the number of followers this blog has, how many books I read in a year... All that counts is that I love literature and that I try to keep that passion alive.

Have any of you struggled with the idea that you need to have a TON of books to be taken seriously in the bookish community? Let me know, because I'm kind of struggling with my confidence in this whole thing.

Happy reading :)
~Kristy