21 in 2021: These Books Will Shelf Destruct (Unhaul Project)

If you read this post, you will know that one of my main goals this year is to help cull my bookcases to be filled with books I truly want to read or ones that I love and want to keep to possibly re-read again. 

The following list of books I have on my bookcases for over three years. These books have languishing, not being picked up since I put them onto it, many being moved halfway across the country since I moved from Michigan almost five years ago. It is so easy to get caught up reading the books that are recently published--especially when I have been on award committees, but I was not last year and this year is not a high demand one. Yet I still have not picked up these books--so I have to think that maybe their time has past and they would be better suited to someone else.  

So I went through picked titles that stuck out to me when I saw them, I pulled them off my shelves, not second guessing myself. Then, I sorted that pile down to these 21. If they are not picked up this year, then I am going to unhaul them in January 2022--no negotiating, no doubts.  I have given myself 4 substitutions as well, but my hope is either not to use them or to put them into mix too. 

Rules:

• The book must be started before 11:59 p.m. December 31, 2021. Started is being defined as at least one chapter into the book for this challenge.
• At any point, I can substitute one of the 4 substitutes in for one of the 21 books. 
• Any DNF book counts as a decision, the point is to make a decision on the book--whether it is read completely, stopped partway through, or even ultimately decided that the book is not for me

21 Books:

   

1. Landline by Rainbow Rowell

2. The Start of You and Me by Emery Lord

3. American Street by Ibi Zoboi

4. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

   

5. First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy

6. Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

7. Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu

8. Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

   

9. A List of Cages by Robin Roe

10. The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

11. There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

12. Chemistry by Weike Wang

   

13. Wildalone by Krassi Zourkova 

14. We Were on a Break by Lindsey Kelk

15. Pulp by Robin Talley

16. Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

  

17. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

18. That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston

19. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

 

20. The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy 

21. When We Collided by Emery Lord

4 Substitutions:

   

1. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

2. Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

3. Love & Gelato by Jenna Welch

4. How to Love by Kate Cotugno

So these are the books I have highlighted as ones I have held on my shelves now for three years or longer. Are there any that you highly recommend I read? Or are the ones that you think I should say goodbye or bump down to the very bottom of my list? Be sure to let me know your thoughts below! Come back on Monday for the second part of my plan: Making Progress on Series: 21 Series in 2021.