OOPS! I FAILED MY READ WHAT YOU OWN CHALLENGE | A book haul that broke me & where I go from here...

[@ITCamefromthePage]

To be fair, I failed mine like three weeks in hahaha. So you did pretty good. Fun haul and examination of habits!

[@alex_unabridged]

Lol, cheers! I was itching to buy stuff within the first couple of weeks to be honest, and had I not allowed myself the caveat of Christmas and birthday hauls I'd have failed ages ago!

[@RaynorReadsStuff]

I so agree with your new book buying perspective. The read what you own challenge has really made me more discerning about my book buying. Many congratulations for holding out for six months, that is a huge achievement 😊 great video

[@alex_unabridged]

Thanks, Debs! ☺Yeah, the challenge is really good for getting a handle on understanding how and why I buy books, and has hugely useful for sorting out what I need to do about it going forwards. Really glad you got a lot out of it as well, I know you're onto another stint of the challenge - all the best with round 2! 👍😀

[@ReadBecca]

Its never a fail if you got something out of it. My own RWYO was relatively short, just a couple months, but it really rebalanced my interest toward my own books and away from always wanting to go for the library, so unexpected as an outcome but I'm happy with it! Flowers for Algernon is so powerful, you are in for an experience there!

[@alex_unabridged]

You're absolutely right, definitely not a fail really! It was well worth doing the challenge, I've got plenty out of it. Glad you had a good experience with your challenge too! Really looking forward to Flowers for Algernon, I'm yet to find anyone who has read it who didn't like it. I think it'll be one for the end of summer when I've got a bit of room in my schedule and I can devote the appropriate amount of thinking-time to it! ☺

[@fiberartsyreads]

You did great! I feel the same about the challenge. Just good to step back and look at spending from time to time. I just finished book 41 out of 100 so I’m making slow but steady progress.

[@alex_unabridged]

Cheers! 😀 And nice work on your own challenge progress! Slow and steady wins the race 😉 Is a really good chance to re-evaluate spending and reading habits, I definitely got loads out of it 👍

[@WandaWonderer]

You had a Great reason for failing..I failed when I saw a brand new copy of It by S.King for 1 dollar. Still I have read 33/50 which is good for my slow reading..

[@alex_unabridged]

A new copy of IT for $1?! I'd have failed for that too! 33/50 is excellent, nice work! Thanks for watching, and happy reading (and book-buying 😉)

[@patricia_ps]

I loved The Pram by Joe Hill. It's a short story and it's on ku. Great Scottish haul 💯

[@alex_unabridged]

Cheers! I’ve had Pram on my TBR for a while now, good to get a positive report of it! Am trying to read a short story a day at the moment so will try and get to it soon! 😀

[@tyghe_bright]

I set myself a time limit rather than a number of books because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold out for that long. (I went through the end of March.)

[@alex_unabridged]

That's a great way to approach it! In fact, if I do it again in the future I'm gonna steal that idea and make my own challenge a time limit instead of number of books, that feels much more manageable. Nice work! 👍

[@MichaelRomeoTalksBooks]

I fell off the wagon, too. You got closer to your goal than I did. I loved Flowers For Algernon. What a beautiful book. If you're reading Michael Crichton but sure to try The Andromeda Strain. It is riveting.

[@alex_unabridged]

Lol, yeah we're not the only ones to have fallen off the wagon either, I'm sure! I'm very much looking forward to reading Flowers for Algernon - everyone I know who has read it really loves it! The two Michael Crichton books I had earmarked for my authors project were Micro and Sphere, but I'm having a rethink at the moment and am considering swapping one out for either Dragon Teeth or The Andromeda Strain (another couple of folks have recommended that to me recently as well as your good self!). To be honest most of Crichton's books sound interesting to me, the premises are always pretty intriguing! Thanks for watching, Michael 😀

[@michellesmelancholia]

You were soooo close, it definitely still counts as a success, and your haul was really good! I really like those editions of the Southern Reach trilogy. I am weak for the 99p kindle deals but I do read them and I get really excited about finding books I want for that prize! Other than that I have only been buying physical books on special occasions, although the definition of 'special occasion' tends to be very flexible hahaha

[@alex_unabridged]

Lol, yeah, I have a similar issue with the definition of 'special occasion'! Anything from birthdays and Christmas etc to "oh, I got that particularly horrible chore done in the house - Go me! Let's celebrate by buying books!"... I have very little self-control sometimes 😂 I was really flippin' close so I'm kicking myself a little bit, but not that much - you're right, it definitely counts as a success just in terms of what it's shown me about my buying habits and given me a good plan for going forwards. And I did enjoy the challenge in the most part. Very happy with my haul though, am really happy to have all the Southern Reach books in matching designs now ☺ The Kindle 99p deals are so good that they're hard to resist, but I just need to be more discerning about which I take advantage of! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any deals on books that I've got on my project schedules, or by authors that I know for sure that I'll read, but I'll just have to be careful not to get carried away again like I did last year!

[@bookssongsandothermagic]

Flowers for Algernon!! That’s in my Top 3 of all time - sharing first place with the other two hahaha - love it! I have read Heart Shaped Box and really enjoyed it. I’d love to see more about your short story writing. That’s the version of Annihilation that I’ve got. Excellent haul!

[@alex_unabridged]

Cheers Gareth! Yeah, I remember seeing you talk about Flower for Algernon in a past video, I really like the sound of it so whether or not I'll be able to resist reading it until next year remains to be seen. It may pop up in a TBR sooner than that, now its on my shelf winking at me with that bright yellow cover! My short story writing - I'll be chatting about it more on the channel soon, as I work my way through writing the stories, but if you'll get a taste of my stuff in Garbology soon, and if you want to read anything else I dropped a final draft of a recent one on my Discord server, so feel free to check that out 😉

[@bookssongsandothermagic]

@@alex_unabridged yeah you'll love it. Looking forward to hearing about your writing - and the Garbology anthology of course!

[@troytradup]

Great minds fail alike! 🤣 Lovely haul from Scotland, although you should probably hear it from a friend: the Southern Reach trilogy ... is now a quadrilogy. 🤬

[@alex_unabridged]

Oh FFS. They’d better release an edition with the same design otherwise my bookshelf will not be happy. 4th book not out until later in the year here, is it already out in the US? Great mind fail alike indeed! 😂 Totally worth it for a great stack of books tho!😀👍

[@troytradup]

@@alex_unabridged I think it's an October release here as well, although Amazon is pushing it in my face pretty aggressively so I see it every day.