Why I'm not going to "buy" another book for the rest of 2018

Yea, you read that right... but it's also a bit misleading. I've been doing some soul searching lately now that I'm getting closer to closing out my 20s and there have been some major changes in my life. 

1. I bought my first home, and all the challenges that comes with it, about a year ago.
2. I got a big eye opener career-wise when my company was sold and for 6 months I wasn't sure if I'd have a job the next day. (Don't worry, I'm safe for now)
3. I quit my second, part time job after all but one of my student loans was paid off. (Yay, me!)
4. I've been looking for ways to simplify my life, get outside more and learn how to live with less waste. 

My reading buddy 

It's number 4 that leads me to my decision on books. In the past, I have literally spent hours looking for my next book to read. Going through my different shelves on Goodreads, seeing what Amazon recommends to me, looking at what other bloggers are reading. Time wasted when I could have been reading.

It finally occurred to me that I have hundreds of books lying around my house, and sitting on my Kindle, waiting to be read. Even after cleaning up my Goodreads shelves I still have 65 books on my TBR list and another 40 books that I'm "currently reading," which doesn't even mean that I've actually started them. They're books that I currently own either in print or digital. Some of those have been on my list for six years! Then, there's the books I bought on impulse because they were on sale or in an email blast, and another 30 or so I've saved on my Amazon Kindle Unlimited list. That's just so many damn books. 


So here's what I decided to do in 2018 to be less wasteful in my reading habits:

1. All my books will be chosen from either a book on my "currently reading" list or a book from my TBR list that can be borrowed through my library. 
2. No more books will be added to my Goodreads TBR shelf. *Gasp* I know. Right now I only have one book that hasn't been released yet, when I used to have dozens. 
3. I will review as many of those books as I can so that authors will still get as much support as I can give them. 

Here's one thing I've found already: Decluttering those enormous lists has been a great stress reliever for me. It's keeping me more organized and my mind less fractured by trying to keep track of so many things. I have a calendar on my phone that tells me where I have to be every night of the week; it's hard to concentrate on all my life has to offer at the moment. I like to read when I don't have anywhere to be and reducing the number of books for me to sort through has been very cleansing.

Your thoughts: Let me know in the comments if you have the same problem of too many books to sort through and how you handle it.