Notes on Books

A community for book lovers

[brainstreams]

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[notesbynessy]

On Digital Decluttering

I had over 4,000 books on my Want to Read list on Goodreads, and that number was giving me anxiety.

Let’s do the absurd math. First, we need an average reading time per book. Let’s say the average book is 300 pages long. Reading speed might be 250–300 words per minute, which lands most people at 6–10 hours per book (and that’s totally hypothetical). Let’s be generous and say I’m a caffeinated speed-reader (fun fact: I always go for decaf coffee, but that’s not the point): average = 8 hours per book.

So, 4,000 books × 8 hours = 32,000 hours. If I read 24 hours a day (assuming I’m a vampire who doesn’t need sleep, food, blinking, or basic maintenance), then: 32,000 ÷ 24 = 1,333 days = ~3.65 years nonstop.

So yeah. I eventually realized that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Besides, when I added all those books to my list, I was a different person. My taste in books has changed a lot lately, and I’m pretty sure many of those titles were never going to be read by 2026-Nessy (or even future me).

I went through the process, which took quite a few days, of reviewing my list and deleting the books I knew didn’t fit my reading taste anymore. I could’ve been more thorough, read every synopsis, and probably reduced the number even more, but let’s be real.

Anyway, I managed to get it down to a still-large total of 2,827 books. Not ideal. But satisfying. I probably won’t read all of them, and I’ll have to make peace with that. Still, I’m proud of this small decluttering session. And now I feel like decluttering my other social media apps, my phone gallery, and anything else I’ve been hoarding digitally, because all of it takes up mental space on top of being unnecessary.

Clearing digital clutter won’t magically fix life, but it does make the mind feel lighter. And lighter minds make better choices.

[notesbynessy]

Back to Writing - Day 1 :|

Hey, you who’s reading this. Nice to see ya here! I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and go back to writing. I have a shameful number of books I started and never finished, and some that I did finish but still need heavy editing. Plus, I really miss writing. The thing is, I have to admit I’m rusty. I genuinely feel like I forgot how to be a writer (yes, after writing and publishing 2 books a couple of years ago).  So, today I set up some writing prompts and picked one just to try. I knew it would suck, but I also knew I had to push through and write it anyway. I kid you not when I say that I stared at the screen for several long minutes just trying to figure out how to start. It was supposed to be a 10-minute writing session with a specific theme, and I couldn’t even start the timer because I felt like I needed a plan before typing a single letter. I realized, my friend, that I was just avoiding the discomfort of failing. I kept fooling myself into thinking I had to come up with something creative, that I had to visualize the whole story before starting, but I completely missed the point of the exercise: just freaking write something! I ended up writing something. I hated it, but it was freeing. Because, well, I DID WRITE SOMETHING! That’s just a snippet of the predicament I put myself in today, but I think you get the picture. If you, like me, want to write a book or finish the ones you’ve already started, try adding “write anything for a few minutes” to your daily schedule. Trust me, we’re walking this path slowly but surely. Let’s be honest and accept that we’re not going to jump back in and write a whole book overnight. But commit with me to taking baby steps toward becoming a writer again, okay?