About two months ago I saw this amazing idea by Sophie from Sophiesticated Books on Youtube. In this video she revisits some of her hauls from a while ago and then looks to see how much of them she has read. Recently Destiny from Howling Libraries also did this. You can read her post here.
I love this idea because let us be honest, I haul a lot. Looking back on whether or not I actually read some of these would be very confronting. So here I am.
However I first want to start with a few reasons as to why I might not have read some of these yet.
Hype and High Expectations
Sometimes the books I buy are highly recommonded. The Name of the Wind, The Cruel Prince, The Way of Kings to name a few. These books have a lot of hype surrounding them. Hype creates high expectations. This sometimes makes me put of reading a book even though I was super excited when I bought it.
Cheap Buy, Low Priority
I am not immune to a good sale. If I see a book that is cheap and that is on my to read list, even if it is rather low on the priority, I will buy it. Why not? The chance of me finding the book again for a price that cheap is slim. I just can’t pass that up.
The Confronting
I’ve decided to pick out a few months from different years where I will see what I have read. I will also share if I unhauled any of those books before reading, and what the percentage read is. I swear I won’t cheat, haha. And lets start with the first page of the booklet where I keep track of what I buy/get. I made these graphics at the mids of July so I might have read a book since. Or none. A very real possibility.
January 2015
The Books: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore / The Final Empire / Fairest / Snow Likes Ashes
That is decent. Well done, past me. It was also a very tiny haul for big hauler me. And yet I STILL HAVEN’T READ THE FINAL EMPIRE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.
October 2015
The Books: The Kingdom / Six of Crows / Clockwork Prince / The Deathly Hallows / Buffy, volume 3 / The Way of Kings / The Sword of Summer / It’s a Wonderful Death / The Philosopher’s Stone / Ice Like Fire / The Ruins of Gorlan / Matilda / Thief of Time / Empire of Ivory / The Darkest Part of the Forest / The Chronicles of Chrestomanci volume 1 / The Chronicles of Chrestomanci volume 2 / The Lord of the Rings / Tolkien, A Dictionary / The Hobbit / Red Rising / The Promise Part 3 / The Search Part 1 / Artemis Fowl / The Arctic Incident / De Brief Voor de Koning
March 2016
The Books: A Gathering of Shadows / Philippa Fisher’s Fairy God Sister / Naked in Death / On the Edge of Gone / Wyrd Sisters / Blue Lily, Lily Blue / The Dragonet Prophecy / The Lost Heir / The Hidden Kingdom / The Dark Secret / The Brightest Night
August 2016
The Books: De Ijsdraak / Invocatie / Half Wild / Onder de Maan / Op de Grens / Valley of Embers / Nevernight / Ziezo / Vermoord uit Wraak / Hex / A World Without You
April 2017
The Books: Stalking Jack the Ripper / Heartsnare / Veiled Intentions / Norse Mythology / Defy the Stars / The Upside of Unrequited / Shadowcaster
November 2017
The Books: The Ship Beyond Time / Spiegelgeest / Kristallen Hart / First Keeper / Where the Stars Rise / I, Robot / The Chamber of Secrets / The Prisoner of Azkaban / The Death of Dulgath / The Silver Tide / Halayda / Drakentovenaar / Fantastic Beasts Illustrated / The Carver / The Unseen / Furyborn
January 2018
The Books: Deadly Sweet / The Crystal Key / Regal Academy vol 1 / Chainbreaker / The Obelisk Gate / The Stone Sky / Murder on the Orient Express / Goblin Market / The Awakening / Reaping Havoc / Failure to Communicate / Reign of the Fallen / Wires and Nerve volume 2
June 2018
The Books: Shadowshaper / The Shadow of What Was Lost / The Ninth Rain / The Diviners / The Poppy War / The Amulet of Samarkand / Bright Ruin / The Demon Race / A Finding of Kin / Schimmenlied
So there you have it. I think I did pretty okay. I mean I knew I wasn’t going to be reaching a 100% on any of these. I mean look I read over 3 quarters of my January book haul of this year. How good is that? I’m never going to be the person that buys a book and will read it straight away. I like collecting haha.
A Dance With Books 
Oooooh yay! I loved seeing your stats for this! And I LOVE how you formatted it with the titles and striking out the ones you’ve read – I’m definitely gonna have to steal that when I re-do my list at the end of the year! 😀
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Yes steal it. 😀 I find it so interesting to see what people leave to read, haha.
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I used to be HORRIBLE at hauling books and never reading them… For all the reasons that you’ve mentioned. Curse the free books section of Amazon. 😂 But it’s getting better… I’m a lot more picky. With little time to read though, I think I’ve given up and just use the books I get for props instead.
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Haha free books sections are horrible things. 😉
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This is really interesting! I would love to do this myself – sometimes the older the book becomes, the less I feel inclined to read it. & I have also not read The Final Empire yet, so you’re not alone 😅
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Do it! And yes, I have that too sometimes where I am more inclined to pick a newer book over an older one.
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I hear you on hype. That sometimes puts me off too… and it was fun looking at your lists. I saw several books that I’ve been wanting to read, so it reminded me to get cracking on some of them. 🙂
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Sometimes we need someone to crack that whip.
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You’re doing better than me 🙂
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I’m doing decent though I’m sure there are hauls that are worse than the ones featured haha.
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Interesting post! I really hear you though: it’s easy to cave to the hype and get loads of books… and then be put off by how many I have!
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Yes it is such a struggle.
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This was honestly so cool, it’s always a lot of fun to see how book hauls turn out!
Mistborn is so so good, you should definitely pick it up. The audio is amazing too btw!
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It is!
I do really need to pick that one up.
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Most of the books that I haven’t read yet are the ones I got on sale that were on my TBR. I still hope to read them. Then there are ones I get for free (not ARCs that I request, I read those) and maybe I’ll read those… someday. I also have several that I got for sale at our library for really cheap at their semi-annual sale. Haven’t read a lot of those either.
You read a lot though!
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Oh yes I got books like that too. I got books at the library sale that are kind of kept in mind for my son when he is older but I kind of want to read too at some point and yeah, it stacks up…
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I can’t imagine doing this, because I’m pretty sure I’d be really really shit at it, because I definitely go on tangents and don’t always read the books I receive/buy in a timely manner. But this was such a cool post and really neat to read!
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Same. I’ve gotten better at it. Or I try to be. But sometimes. Like I bought 13 books at the Deventer book market early this month. #oops I should probably make a goal to read them before the next market next year. I can do that, right? Never mind that they are all quite chunky
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I usually don’t get to buy books very often, but I recently started getting on ARC lists, so now I’m getting new books all the time, which is such a new feeling for me! What I really need to do is just get caught up so I can stay ahead! Maybe one day, we’ll both manage it. 😛
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Hey, those stats are pretty impressive! You do really well with your book hauls! Meanwhile, I still haven’t read that book that I just had to have two years ago …
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Thanks! Hey I have books from before I started living with my husband that I haven’t even read and we’ve been living together for 7 years now. So don’t feel too bad. 😉
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Ha, thanks, that makes me feel better. xD I mean, except for the poor books, but hey, they’ll get their chance to shine still, I’m sure.
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I like the idea of this post, but I also know I probably am not doing so well over the span of more than one month. I try to get to everything I purchase, however, those dang mood swings make it really hard for me to stay consistent. Plus, my biggest weakness is readathons. If I don’t have a template of things to look for in my TBR, I tend to get overwhelmed.
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For me this was just fun to look at. But it is certainly not a requirement to read the books within a set amount of time. Whatever works for you. ❤
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Wow, your stats are way better than mine would be for how many I’ve read in a haul. I think this is something I want to start doing more regularly as I know I’m guilty of buying when there’s a good deal especially when it’s a book I kind of want to read. If I took more time I probably wouldn’t end up buying it. It’s weird, isn’t it? I think we all put off hyped books, even if we are excited about them. Hype can make or break a book and I’d rather wait until I know I’m in the mood to read something.
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Agreed. I prefer to wait sometimes until the hype settles a bit.
And yea sometimes we need to take a step back and let someone take our wallet away. I think a lot of us are mood/impulse buyers.
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Okay first of all, holy organization! i am seriously impressed. I could not tell you when or how I obtain most things. I can safely say that my reading versus haul rate is definitely not as good as yours- despite not having bought ANY books in a long time hahah. But I used to go a little crazy. And so… now even if I read more than I obtain, well, it’s a big deficit to make up!
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Haha thanks. I have kept a book haul notebook since 2015 to make myself accountable. Not that it is making me buy less or anything…
I am sure I have months I dind’t show where I didn’t do quite as wel either thought. But yeah it takes a while to catch up. But you’ll get there!
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Ohmygosh, I could NEVER do this. Especially for last year, when I was buying a lot more books than I do now. Even so, I get at least one-two books a month and I know I don’t read them because it’s so easy to know whether you read that one book you got in the month, haha. I think I would feel so much pressure on myself to read all the unread books I own after I did something like this! Though I am trying to do that, anyway. I think it’s why I haven’t bought as many books this year. I actually unhauled quite a few, as well! Not unread ones, but ones I read and didn’t enjoy or knew I would never read again and thus didn’t need to keep. I hope that my 2019 self continues to do the same thing!
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Sounds like you are on the right path. 😉 It is quite a bit in your face but I know I’m terrible with book buying anyway and I’ll just read what I want regardless haha. The stricter I become with myself the more I end up buying somehow. Weird huh?
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You DID do really well! 🙌🙌🙌
I haven’t read any of the books you didn’t get to (except Nevernight, which I ditched), so I can’t suggest anything for you to move up on your tbr. 😇
If I did this it would have to be ebooks because as you know I only buy physical books of titles I have already read, or books to complete series I have started. I wouldn’t want to do ebooks, though, unless it was $1.99 and above because my free and 99¢ pile is a rabid beast. 😂
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Yeay me.
You should totally do your free and 99c pile haha. 😉
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Great post I think you did an amazing and very impressive job reading your books that you haul I so wish that I can do that as well. I really need to read my books that I have haul because there are tons that I have not read, thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.
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I didn’t think I would have done as well as I did so that surprised me. You might surprise your self. 🙂
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Een tijdje terug zag ik bij Anneke van Een letter meer graag een blogpost waarin ze haar Boekenfestijn-aanwinsten van de afgelopen jaren liet zien en aantoonde dat ze de meeste van die boeken bij nader inzien niet (meer) wilde lezen maar ze had gekocht omwille van hun mooie prijs. Bij het Boekenfestijn heb ik dat in het verleden ook een paar keer voorgehad. Jouw methode spreekt me meer aan. Dus het zou wel eens kunnen dat ik de confrontatie ook aan ga. Je hebt me immers nieuwsgierig gemaakt.
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Oh ik ben erg beniewd naar de gehele post. 😉
En ja dat met boekenfestijn is inderdaad ook wel een ding. Daar ben ik zelf ook wel ingetuind. Ik zou ook eens voor mijzelf moeten kijken welke boeken ik daar nu nog van heb en wat is weggegaan enzo wat ik heb sowieso net alle morganville boeken meegegeven met de kringloop en die kwamen allemaal daar vandaan.
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Ik heb mijn drie Morganville Vampires boeken die ik daar kocht die jaar ook weggedaan.
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This is such a great idea! At the end of this year I think I might actually see how many books I read in 2018 that I also bought in 2018. (Also you’re not alone – I’ve owned The Final Empire for years and still haven’t read it!)
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