new year bookshelf KonMari // book unhaul

When it comes to letting go of books, I am... not good. Case in point, I've been considering unhauling most of these books for at least two years now and just... haven't.

BUT I recently watched Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and honestly, it was inspiring! After KonMari'ing my clothes and feeling much better for it, I decided it was also time to part with the books that no longer sparked joy for me. So here they are! 

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I received the boxset of the first four books in The Princess Diaries series as a birthday or Christmas gift when I was about ten-years-old but I never enjoyed them quite as much as the movies. I've been holding on to them ever since but I have absolutely no interest in rereading or continuing with the series so it's time to say goodbye. 

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I remember absolutely LOVING The Starthorn Tree in primary school but I never continued with the series and all these years later, I've lost interest.

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Conversely, I didn't really enjoy Igraine the Brave – I think it was intended for slightly younger audiences – and although I hold great affection for some of Cornelia Funke's other works, I feel no need to hang on to this one.

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I read a good chunk of the Tunnels series – four out of six books ain't bad! I've been holding onto these books for years in anticipation of eventually finishing the series but it's been almost ten years and I just... haven't. To be honest, I have zero interest in it now (and I don't think I cared for it much to begin with).

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I have no recollection of Endymion Spring, which I think is reason enough to let it go.

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Girl Online was a slightly more recent purchase – I was in the UK when it was released and as a fan of Zoe's, I decided to pick it up and see what it was like. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best and then there was that scandal about the ghostwriting and, well, I just don't need it taking up precious room on my shelves. 

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The Dragon's Eye and The Dragon Diary stem from a time when I was completely obsessed with dragons. I was about eleven-years-old and made it my mission to collect all the Dragonology books. I'm going to keep all the others, but these novels were just... not great. 

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These last three books were all sent to me by the author or publisher as part of the (now defunct, at least here in Australia) Goodreads Giveaway system. Whilst I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to read and review them, unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy them as much as I would have liked to. The Pastor's Kid and Songlines had interesting premises but just weren't for me, and It Ends With You was intriguing but I didn't agree with some of the narrative choices and overall it just made me mad, which I don't think was the author's intention. You can read more of my thoughts on it in my review.

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At this stage, these are all the books that I will be donating to charity, although there a few more that I may also get rid of before the end of the year.

Let's chat! Have you read any of these books? If so, did you enjoy them? How do you decide which books to unhaul?

Niamh, xo.