I’m a minimalist. I’m all about Marie Kondo and her message except that 30 book thing. I mean, books are my life. How in the world could I only choose 30 books? Until one day, I needed to clean off my shelves and realized that maybe she’s on to something.
Why not try and come up with a list of just thirty books that I would keep? One caveat: because I teach my kids at home, I would need to choose an additional thirty-odd book to use for homeschooling. I’m working on a list of must-haves for that purpose separately.
So, these are books that I would not go sell over at Half Price Books if I chose to downsize. Keep in mind, this isn’t some ideal library content list, and they are books on my shelf that I enjoy enough to want to haul around in my tiny mobile living space.
No links cause I’m not selling you these books, just sharing.
- The Constitution of the United States– I mean, seems like owning a copy is a good idea.
- The Rules of Magic– the prequel to Practical Magic, I love the descriptive witchy language.
- The Hobbit– The most perfect bedtime story novel length book ever.
- The Swiss Family Robinson– another great read aloud, what animal will they discover and want to kill next?
- Grimm’s Fairy Tales– Classic horror in short story form
- Anderson’s Fairy Tales– not quite as scary as Grimm, but close.
- Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone– The first book was the best.
- The Halloween Tree– a time travel tale I read each October
- The Illustrated Man– I have no tattoos, but I love this story
- The Knights of the Round Table– Another book best read aloud, with voices
- The Hunger Games– Modern classic dystopia
- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankenweiler– Claudia is the defintion of girl power.
- The Bungalow Mystery– 1950’s version. I had to include one of Nancy’s stories. I’d like to spend a year doing only Nancy Drew book reviews. I have a girl crush on Nancy too.
- The Jungle Book– One of my favorite old books that is better than the Disney version.
- The Call of the Wild– our world through a dog’s eyes- what’s not to love?
- The Snow Queen– I re-read this each Winter.
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon– You might be sensing that I enjoy Nordic tales.
- American Gods– Odin is scary and swoonworthy in Gaiman’s rendition.
- Kristin Lavransadatter-Who hasn’t felt like Kristin some time in their life?
- The Lord of the Rings– The book is better.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer– I love the dialects.
- Matilda– Another girl heroine.
- Anne of Green Gables– Anne with an E is my spirit animal.
- Inkheart-Characters escaping books? I’m all in.
- The Singing Tree– Discovered this while newly homeschooling and studying World War 1.
- Alice of Wonderland– I didn’t read this until I was a grown up, can you imagine?
- Mary Poppins– Again, the book is better.
- The Wizard of Oz– So many hidden meanings. Baum was a genius.
- Artemis Fowl– a human boy encounters the world of fairy.
- Nils Holgersson’s Wonderful Journey through Sweden– written to teach geography to kids, it’s one of my favorite re-reads.
After completing this list, the books went back on my shelves, and I couldn’t stop thinking about those few books that didn’t cut. There are books that I own and love, and I didn’t place them in the first thirty. If I kept all the books that I love, where would it end? I had to know, so Saturday morning, I was back pulling books off the shelves again.
The new pile added about twenty books that I like, and since I already own them, they would also stay. So around 50 books? That’s not terrible.
I also chose five of my antique books. I have an 1881 Shakespeare’s Tragedy that is falling apart, but I’m not tossing it. Someday one of my kids will be hauling that monster around.
And yes, I own a Kindle, so I’ll have more books when needed. 🙂
What thirty books would you keep?