Hi everyone, my name is Charlie and today
I am unhauling books. Last week, my
sister decided that she was going to do
a complete clear out of her bedroom
which is something that a lot of people
do at this time of year. Between
Christmas/New Year - they're often
clearing out things. How do I know this?
From working in charity, and when you
work in a charity shop every year
between Christmas and New Year you get a lot of donations. More donations. These
donations are often the times when you
will find more actual rubbish, like once
someone donated me their entire washing
up bowl full of their dirty crockery
but also including water ... which didn't
help at all really.
But, because of this time of year being a
time to clear things out, because a lot
of people are doing retrospectives of
their year and their decade, I really
felt inspired to do a final unhaul of
not just 2019 but over the last ten
years. As I have mentioned a lot I
regularly unhaul books. I recently unhauled
a lot of clothes, but I never show
them. It just sometimes makes you feel as
though you're getting rid of a weight,
you're calming yourself down and it just
feels nice to clear space for things
that you might enjoy in future. And that
is why today I have gone and I have
completely destroyed my shelves. We'll
get into the reasons why I've unhauled
certain books in a minute, but I'll start
with the books that I don't necessarily
mind getting rid of and that I honestly
thought I'd already removed from my
shelves. The first of them is Milkman by
Anna Burns. This should be a book for me.
It's experimental,
it's discussing topics that are a bit
more hard-hitting and it won the Booker
and so many people adore it
yet I'm not one of them. I have tried to
read it a few times now and there is
just something about the tone and the
style that I can't get into. Next, I
have The Sussex Downs Murder by John
Bude. I had a few of these books
originally and I ended up unhauling a
lot of my British crime classics, so
today when I found some of them on my
shelves I was rather surprised. So this
one is going. Then we have Life Thinly
Sliced by Patrick Prinsloo. I know
Patrick. When he published this book
earlier this year he realized that there
were some mistakes and therefore he
gifted everyone who'd bought the
original version a new copy with those
edits in and therefore I'm getting rid
of my older copy. Next is This is Going
to Hurt by Adam Kay. Really enjoy this
book, however I promised it to someone
from work about six months ago and
thought I'd already lent it to them. Next,
we have The Smell of the Continent by
Richard Mullen and James Munson and I
got this for Nonfiction November and
never read it so it is going back to the
shop. Then we have Other Minds by Peter
Godfrey Smith. I read this for Nonfiction
November and never gave my thoughts on
it, but basically, whilst I learned some
new information about octopuses, I didn't
necessarily end up caring for the book.
As a whole, the writer ended up going
over old ground and whilst this was
definitely an interesting topic and I
was really glad to learn these things
I also don't think that it's the
most fantastic non-fiction I've ever
read before. We have The Ice Age by Paul
Farley, The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins,
Mr. Punch and The Wolves in the
Walls by Neil Gaiman. Glad to have read
them now they can disappear.
Dangerous Days in Elizabethan England by
Terry Deary, Big Magic by Elizabeth
Gilbert. This is a book that I never
thought I would be unhauling, but
basically, I read this nearly four years
ago when I was going through the period
of unfathomable sadness which, as I've
said, was probably one of the darkest
times in my life. I think that anyone
else, had they seen a doctor, it might
have been called a depression. I stopped
reading, I stopped writing, and this book
coupled with Furiously Happy by Jenny
Lawson were what persuaded me to take
that break from writing, to see what I
wanted to write about ,and completely
changed my view.
But, when I think about it, I think was that 
just me taking that time to be a
bit more introspective and think more
about my own writing in the way that I
approach things and because of that when
I revisited Big Magic either earlier
this year or last year, I don't think it
had the same impact and I think that I
ended up disagreeing with the writer
more than I had done previously.
Therefore, I begin to question whether
the thoughts that I had of this book
during the time when I was feeling
particularly sad were based on that
sadness itself and therefore I can't
keep the book because the book just
seems like this sort of reminder of that
time ... like I'll keep Furiously Happy. I
think that that book was genuinely
helpful to me, and I laugh at that book
and I just find it so not just endearing
but I adore it wholeheartedly. It's
probably up there as one of my favorite
books of all time and I can't say the
same for Big Magic and I think that it's
just too out there for me to properly
enjoy. Next, we have The Incredible Crime
by Louis Austen Legh. This was the first
British crimd classic that I ever got
and I've never read it and I just don't
think I'm gonna get on with these crime
novels anymore. A few books that I have
decided to gift to my cousin's children:
The Nowhere Emporium by Ross
McKenzie, The Boy Who Went Magic by A.P. Winter, Mirror Magic by Claire Fayers and
The Garden of Lost Secrets by AM Howell.
I'd like to say in terms of the
children's books there's nothing wrong
with them I think that they're all
stand-up middle grade fiction and would
recommend them to any child. However, for
what I look for in middle grade fiction
it wasn't necessarily there. I think that
they are great books. Books are not
inherently bad when I'm unhauling them.
It just means I won't re-read them, or I
know somebody who would get more out of
that book than I can. Next, I'm getting
rid of the entire Raven Cycle by Maggie
Stiefvater. That is The Raven Boys, Dream Thieves, Blue Lily Lily Blue, and The
Raven King. I read all of those books
earlier this year and I just don't like
them. They never ... they always miss the mark for me. I don't know what was going on
with the story. It felt like there was a
very good plot there, but we never
actually got towards that plot we were
focusing on examining relationships and
there's a lot of flowery, descriptive
language to hide the fact that there's
not a lot of story going on. Next I'm
getting rid of Silent Nights, Mystery in
White and Crimson Snow. All of these were
Christmas books that I meant to return
to the shop so that we could sell them
and I did not do so and so rather than
keep them on my shelves for another year
I'm going to take them back and they can
sit on the shops shelves for a year. Next,
I have The House of Silk by Anthony
Horowitz, The Portable Veblen by
Elizabeth Mackenzie, Eleanor Oliphant is
Completely fine by Gail Honeyman. I
enjoyed this book, for the most part, when
I read it. I just don't see myself
revisiting it at any point in future. I
do very much feel like it was a one and
done type book. The Nix by Nathan Hill.
Does anybody else remember this book?
Does anybody remember how this was going
to be the big book of 2016/17? 2016, in
America, published here in 2017, and I
remember being extremely excited for this
book. There was a lot of hype surrounding
it. The author had worked on this book
for ten years and sadly, I believe
that was to his detriment in the long
run. You could see a lot of places where
the storyline no longer matched up to
what he'd set out to do originally. Some
people said that this was a Dickensian
in scope. It reminded others of The
Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
However, I got none of those things. I got
some very simple prose that went on for
over 600 pages. There was a story that I
don't necessarily felt needed telling,
and it was one books I kept from this
year and a lot of them were examining
the relationships between mothers and
sons after the breakdown of their
relationship, in some way, with the mother
abandoning their son. I kept the book. I
don't have a problem with the book, but I
also don't really have that want to
revisit it and I feel like I only kept
it on my shelves in the hopes that one
day I could go: oh that book was successful, there's
this film about it, and you know maybe ... I
think there may be still a film coming
out and I thought about examining the
two together, but I don't think that's
ever going to happen, so we're finally saying goodbye
to The Nix. Then there is The
Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder, and
this book was going to be a satire of
some sorts and it's a lot about these
middle-aged white men.
I remember thinking it was boring and
then as the year went on ... I included it
in my favorites of that year because I
felt as though this book had actually
done something the tiniest bit different
by everything being subversive and there
was a lot in the suggestion within this
book but looking back then, when I was
going through all these books - I was
reading portions to see how I felt - and
this time around I didn't see that, I
just felt like boredom had set in. It
talks about American Football a lot. I
don't do sports, so this one's going. Then
we have Unsheltered by Barbara
Kingsolver. I have only enjoyed one book
by Barbara Kingsolver and that was The
Lacuna. I tried Flight Behavior.
I've tried her very first book - I don't
remember what it was called now. Now we
have Unsheltered I didn't ... and I didn't
enjoy this and I kept it on my shelf for
the entire year simply because it was a
gift and because it was this Waterstones
Edition with these really nice pages and
I just can't see the point of keeping a
book simply because of the beauty of the
object. The interior should match that
and it doesn't and it's going, it's finally
disappearing from my shelves and I'm the
tiniest bit sad about it. And we have The
Problem at Pollensa Bay and The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding: both by Agatha
Christie. We are finally saying goodbye
to Cormoran Strike, so that is The
Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm, Career of
Evil and Lethal White. All of them are by
Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling and
honestly I enjoyed The Cuckoo's Calling
when I read it and I remember talking
about how she'd taken tropes from classic
crime fiction and we should have known
that she was able to craft a mystery
because of the way she wrote Harry
Potter and that was true for The Cuckoo's
Calling, then slowly each of these
books devolved into these bloated
stories that were really a focus on the
relationship between Robin and Strike
and I never enjoyed the aspect of these
books. It very much felt like one of
those Mills and Boon thriller stories
from a few years ago and I can't get on
board with that. Lethal White I got because
someone had said this didn't focus on
the relationship as much and I wanted
that and yet still the story doesn't even
start until 300 pages in and I ended up
doing most of my reading of it through
an audio book. Next, we have A Winter's
Promise by Christelle Dabos. I cannot be
bothered reading the sequels for this
book, maybe it's the translation, maybe
it's just me, but I did not like it. Next,
we have Married Love by Tessa Hadley.
Now, we're onto some books where you're
going to have to help me decide whether
I want to get rid of them or not. The first
of these is the Sabriel series by Garth Nix. I've got Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen and
Clariel. I started reading clariel
earlier this year and I don't want to
continue reading it, but I also feel like
I never appreciated these books as much
as other people did and therefore
should I not just get rid of them and I
know I have friends who adore this
series. There are people on booktube who
call this one of my favorite series, and
I just haven't ever felt that. It took me
ages to read all of them because Garth Nix writes in a strange way that I find
slightly impenetrable. I feel like it
always keeps to read an arm's-length
I've always felt like I liked the story
more than I did the writing and the
world is what kept me interested so I'm
honestly considering just getting rid of
them. If you think I should keep them let
me know. Do remember that I often live life
by the adage "when in doubt, throw it out"
so ... And then we have Black Leopard, Red
Wolf by Marlon James. This is probably my
most divisive book of the year for
myself, because I started it and I really
enjoyed the character voice and I really
looked forward to this African epic
fantasy. There's a lot of darkness in
this story, but sometimes I felt was a
bit too gratuitous and I read all the
trigger warnings beforehand and I just
felt like it glossed over things too
much. However, I also question going back
and rereading it, taking notes, and going
slowly through it. There are going to be
three books
in the series and I'm just wondering
whether to put any more trust in the
writer because I didn't get on with A
Brief History of Seven Killings so maybe
it's the case that I don't appreciate the
writer's writing. However, there's still this
thing that I really would prefer to read
more African inspired fantasy. Was this a
good place to start? Are there any other
fantasy series or just stand-alones that
I could read that might change my
opinion of how this book was done? Do let
me know that as well. And them's the books. Those are all the books that are going
to be cleared away from my shelves. And
it feels strange because, for the most
part, these are books I've actually read,
whereas, oftentimes when I'm unhauling
books I'm unhauling books so that my
TBR isn't so large and so that it reduces
some of the stress. However, I don't
actually think I have many books left on
my shelves unread now and most of the
ones I do were purchased this year so
that has lessened my TBR a lot. Maybe,
going into 2020 that will change
and I will unhaul some more books I
haven't read yet. Currently, I am happy
with the state of the books that I have
left to read. When I was looking at some
of the books that I purchased for
certain read-a-thons that I didn't get
to this year I still had that within me
to want to read them. Do let me know
whether you've read any of these books,
whether you disagree with me, whether any
of the books I'm unhauling are your
favorites. Open up the discussion in the
comments. I would appreciate that. Also
let me know whether you think that I
should keep or unhaul Black Leopard, Red
Wolf. Did you get rid of any books? Did
you have a huge cull of items when you
thought we were ending the decade and
this would be a great way to go into
2020 2020 with a refresh, a fresh start
if you will? Let me know. I hope you've
enjoyed this video and until next time,
that is all.
