Mid-Autumn Book Unhaul

Hi, my name is Carolyn and I have a hard time letting shit go.

Every time I say I’m going to unhaul I end up not getting rid of anything, because I always think I’m going to eventually read what’s on my shelves despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This unhaul was a little different, however, because I stopped having a choice when my bookcase started looking like this.

These were all the books that needed to fit onto the bookcase.

And also I kept finding extra books stashed all over my room because I’m ridiculous.

Look, the main point is that I was eventually successful.

I’ll admit it: I had two double-stacked shelves’ worth of mangas that I never read but still carted around from apartment to apartment for gods know what reason. After careful soul-searching, however, I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to read the 50 million Gin Tamas or Samurai Deeper Kyos I’ve been collecting over the years. Neither am I going to get back into Inu Yasha, and I have the beginnings of a Discworld collection that needed a home, so the mangas finally got booted. I also unhauled Your Lie in April, which I read a few years ago and am unlikely to read again, and the first four volumes of Carciphona, a self-published manga I was super into until I wasn’t. I still like Carciphona‘s art, but I’ve lost interest in the series over time and am now extremely invested in Amongst Us, a Carciphona AU by the same artist, whose kickstarter I supported literally so I could get my hands on an Amongst Us book. (And, now that I have room on my shelves, Amongst Us has moved from my deskside table to a proper home with all the mangas I’m keeping, of which there are still a considerable number.)

It was hard getting rid of Gin Tama, but I don’t have the patience to start another long-winded manga series, and my collection was far less complete than I thought it was. As far as I know it’s still going, and I’d honestly rather watch the anime because Gin Tama really drags in some places. Samurai Deeper Kyo was easier to clean out; in retrospect it’s a lot smuttier than I’d like and I didn’t have the complete collection (even though I thought I did), and if I wanted to reread the whole series I’d have to buy the first seven books and then the final, which I am unwilling to do. Now that I’ve unloaded about half of my manga collection, here’s what I’m keeping, in alphabetical order:

Azumanga Daioh
Kiyohiko Azuma
You will never separate me from my Azumanga Daiohs. I’ve had these since college, they’re adorable, and now I want to rewatch the anime, which I’m also never getting rid of.

Black Butler
Yana Toboso
The series hasn’t ended and it’s got a hot demon butler so these aren’t going anywhere, EVER.

Chobits
CLAMP
I don’t know why I still love Chobits, which is problematic in a couple of ways that characterize mangas in general, but maybe it’s the art? I mean, if we started talking about problematic mangas we’d never read any manga ever again. In any case I’m not in a hurry to get rid of these.

Death Note
Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Okay, I’ll admit that Death Note drives me crazy, particularly in the second half of the series after L dies. I can’t get behind all that “if he knows that I know that he knows that I know that he knows that I know x infinity” crap, which is literally the entire plot of Death Note. All the same, I can’t get rid of this one because I for some reason still like it. I needa rewatch the anime for this too.

Gin Tama
Hideaki Sorachi
I still have a few Japanese volumes I’m keeping.

Inu Yasha
Rumiko Takahashi
I know I said I was getting rid of these but PSYCH I’m keeping the original ones I bought in middle or high school (not sure which anymore) before all mangas shrank and became cheaper to mass-produce because #NOSTALGIA and also Sesshōmaru is hot af. Anyone else know which ones I’m talking about?

Princess Jellyfish
Akiko Higashimura
This series is SO. FUCKING. CUTE. It got weird at the end but it’s one of my favorite mangas because it’s about an introverted illustrator and her pet jellyfish. Just @ me, why don’t you? My only gripe is that I really hate Mayaya because she is literally the most pointless fucking character, but I can always skip over Mayaya.

Ranma 1/2
Rumiko Takahashi
This was a high school favorite despite being extremely problematic. As an adult I have a lot of issues with it, but it still makes me laugh.

Sherlock
Jay.
Yes, this is a manga. It’s in Japanese, but I’ve memorized the episodes anyway so it doesn’t really matter.

Soul Eater
Atsushi Ohkubo
I read the entire series earlier this year, and, while some parts of it were better than others, I still love the art and the characters.

Spy x Family
Tatsuya Endo
THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE MANGA. My brother got me into this one and it’s only on volume 2 so far in English, so obviously I’m not getting rid of it. This one is about a spy and an assassin who unwittingly adopt a telepathic child, who knows both their secrets and now thinks she has the coolest parents in the world. It’s so cute and so well done. READ IT.

Yu-Gi-Oh!
Kazuki Takahashi
I almost got rid of these, but then I realized I’d need a shelf for the Soul Eaters and I still had some space on that shelf, so Yu-Gi-Oh! got to stay. This one’s another nostalgia trip. I have a couple from the Battle City arc, and almost the entire Millennium World arc. Maybe I should reread these at some point.

Once I got into it, it actually wasn’t too hard sorting through my mangas. It was far more difficult going through my fiction, non-fiction, and children’s/YA shelves, because there are so many books that I’ve bought over the years that I’ve been meaning to read but just never have. Ultimately, though, I had to realize that I’ve lost interest in a lot of these books. Most of them do not meet my diversity criteria and a couple of them have terrible reviews that I was not previously aware of, and in the end I had to let them go because (1) they’ve been taking up space on my shelves for years and have never been touched; (2) if I haven’t read them by now, I’m probably not going to; and (3) it’s long past time to make room for all the new books I’ve been buying, which generally do meet my diversity criteria. I don’t have time to read everything in the world, and I’d rather not waste time on books I don’t care about anymore. I also unhauled several books that I’ve read but don’t see myself reading again (*cough* The Priory of the Orange Tree *cough*) and some chonky classics I can get at the library. I might regret getting rid of some of these later, but for now it’s time to move on.

I currently have about a quarter of a shelf dedicated to books I might unhaul later because I’m not sure how I feel about them right now, but on the whole my bookcases have gotten a deep clean and it feels so good. I don’t need to double-stack anymore, and I even have room for a few more books, which is probably about as good as it’s going to get. I also have more floorspace now that the boxes are gone, because my brother helped me haul them to the secondhand bookstore yesterday and I exchanged them for $14 store credit, which is more than I’ve ever gotten from that store before. Of course, having done that, I then went back to the store today and spent $11.59 of that $14 SOMEBODY STOP ME

This is why you should always check the book cover before you buy the book. I have explained at some length my hatred for movie covers, but it unfortunately did not occur to me to look at the cover while I was in the store and I didn’t realize I’d bought the movie edition until I got back to the car and was on the point of putting the book in my bag. Fortunately I actually really like this cover and at $4.59 I really can’t complain but I’m still somewhat annoyed with myself for not checking especially when I’m so fussy about covers omg who does that?

P.S. If you’re nosy like me, here’s my unhaul list. This isn’t a complete list because I didn’t have everything shelved on goodreads, but it’s fairly comprehensive. What can I say, I like making lists. It does make me somewhat sad that I kicked out Beedle the Bard, but, like I said, I’m probably never going to read it again.