Stop Book Hoarding in 2017!

book hoarding at its finest (not my photo)

I've been working on a post about my book club for the past week, but since it's taking longer than expected, I decided to model after one of my favorite book vlogger's, PeruseProject (AKA Regan). She posted a video on her YouTube channel where she laid out all the books she wants to read sometime this year, many of them being genres she felt she'd neglected in 2016. I started to wonder if there were any books in my "To Be Read" pile that don't really deserve to be there - sure enough, there's plenty.

I strongly believe that every reader is a hoarder. We love the feeling of adding to our never-ending collection, even when we know we literally have no more room on our shelves; this I say from experience. So maybe it's about time we bring out the feather duster and crack open one of our old, new books. Here are some of the novels I've personally neglected in favor of, well, anything else.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Anyone that knows me at all is well-aware that I live for Hamilton: An American Musical. It's basically common knowledge in the Hamilton fandom that Lin-Manuel Miranda based his Broadway masterpiece on Chernow's biography of the founding father. I've had this book in my TBR pile for at least four months now, which is just a crime against Lin-Manuel himself. I love biographies, so this is definitely something I need to get on top of.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

To be completely honest, I didn't love To Kill a Mockingbird the first time around. Then, after one of my favorite teachers seriously questioning my judgement, I reread it. I can't imagine now what the heck I was thinking because I fell thoroughly in love with the classic on my second try. When Harper Lee released the sequel, I jumped on the first copy I laid my eyes on, only to let it collect dust for over a year. In my defense, I started reading it at the same time that I was assigned about eight articles to read within a week for my AP English class.

All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner

I really don't know much about the premise of this book, but I have read a bit of Weiner's work in the past - by a bit, I mean I skimmed one of her other novels. I got this book as a Christmas present about two years ago, but kept putting it aside to read something else. From the reviews I've read, I believe it's got potential and I've got my fingers crossed.

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

As I said before, I love biographical novels (this is more a memoir), particularly ones like 12 Years a Slave. I have a soft spot for reading and learning about American history from the perspective of non-white, non-male humans. I find it upsetting how whitewashed our history lesson are. My sophomore US history course didn't even cover the Chicano Movement or zoot suit riots, which was what got me interesting in figuring out what else is downplayed or cut out of history.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

I actually started this book and got through a forth of it, but stopped reading for some reason. I loved what I had read and found the plot to be pretty original, and uniqueness is hard to find in YA novels. The story is pretty much a collection of letters to the protagonist's ex-boyfriend explaining to him why it is that they broke up. It seems like a boring idea, but Handler's way of only giving only enticing little pieces of the puzzle paired with wonderful illustrations by Maira Kalman is kind of incredible.

There are quite a few more novels I would like to get to in 2017, American classics especially, but I couldn't possibly give a complete list in one blog post. I hope this gets someone to start thinking of the books they've left untouched for longer than they deserve. Readers tend to have a nasty habit of buying more books than we can get around to, and as endearing as it is, it's about time we stop the book hoarding.

Sincerely, Kenya