My Minimalist Bookshelf

What books do I keep on my bookshelf as someone with a minimalist library? 

Remember when Marie Kondo was blowing up and the reading world was insistent that she wanted everyone to get rid of all of their books? Well, that’s not exactly true. The KonMari method only states that you should keep things that spark joy. But, if you love books, how do you decide that?

Here’s my list of books you can find on my shelf:

1. Books that are still unread. I read a mix of owned, physical, library, ebooks, and audiobooks. The majority of my physical book collection are ones waiting to be read, although, the stack is small and I will joy check them quickly after finishing.

2. Books in a series I haven’t finished. If I’m in the middle of reading a series, I keep them all in case I find myself wanting to refer back to previous books.

3. Heirloom or special gift books. These books are often many decades old with irreplaceable cover art, marginalia, and old book smell goodness.

4. Books with beautiful cover art. If the cover is truly stunning I will keep it. Honestly, it’s rare that I truly LOVE the cover art so this happens less than you’d think.

5. Work related books. An unsexy but honest necessity, however, they do still occasionally get purged if they become outdated.

6. A 6 Star Read. A book that was better than good, more magical than I expected. A truly wonderful book that I’m just not ready to say goodbye to yet!

While my library is constantly fluctuating, at any give time I probably own less than a 100 books. That’s probably barely any to some, but to each their own!