On Making a Personal Library

In the recent weeks I have had a revelation when it comes to my own personal library, i.e., all of the books I own and all of the books I'm planning to purchase.
I have many times looked over my books and thought, "why do I collect these books? Why do I continue collecting them?", and not very often do I manage to come up with an answer other than: "Well, these books are nice and I like nice books!" But should there be a limit to what I collect? How do I want my library to grow? Should I just pick up books on impulse? Books that I never have read before? Asking these questions I realised that I have for the last two years bought books that have no personal meaning to me. I have purchased books in the dark, ignoring the content. This would of course be okay if I purchased cheap paperbacks, but when I buy books that are "premium priced" that one could technically get for free (library or Gutenberg), why do I continue buying books that I don't know if I will end up liking?

Sitting on my shelf are books by Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, James Joyce, etc., authors that I barely or never have read. Will I enjoy reading them? I don't know. Why did I buy the books? In hope that I would enjoy reading them. Maybe.
And when it comes to it, I also wonder how much exactly my YouTube channel has dictated over my book buying habits. Would I have bought the new Lovecraft edition from the Folio Society? The Exorcist? I really doubt that, to be completely honest.
I have stated before that I absolutely do not want my book buying habits to be influenced by my channel but it is impossible to say that it is not so.
And I have therefor come to the conclusion that I have built a psuedo-personal library. A library built on expectation, want and ignorance.

What will I do about it? Replan and rebuild. From here on, I will not purchase a single book that I either, (1) Have not read and loved/highly enjoyed, or (2) Have not read other books from that same author before and liked the work. Very simple and effective. I don't need to read a £100 book from an author that I have never read before. I could read the book for free, £5 or maybe £10 instead and see beforehand what I think about it.
This to most people make sense, I assume. This is probably how most people collect and build their libraries. It saves time and money.

But did I not mention "rebuild" earlier? Yes. I will sell a part of my collection. A healthy part that is. And it has already begun. A few days ago I sold my Folio Society edition of American Gods. I'm planning to sell my comics (Saga and Y: The Last Man) and other books, from various publishers, until I feel I have a good base to start on.

How will this effect my channel? Well, in the short term, not at all. I will make videos of all the books I have in my collection like you are used to and for those books I'm planning to sell, I will of course make a video about that edition as well before I ship it away.
In the long term then? It is hard to say but I do imagine that you will not see too many new releases from the Folio Society, or other publishers, unless they publish books I already have read. And I know that I will take a bigger step (not that I have taken one before) towards comic books. There will absolutely be a decrease in size of my collection. At least at first.
So all in all, I think that my channel will become more personalized, since that is what I wanted in the beginning. My channel is called Pontus Presents after all, and I wanted to present the things that I had in my life that I enjoyed so I could help you know the product better before you make any purchases.

Changes are always bound to happen sometime or another. I have broken the spell that my books has had on me and it's time to purge. And let me tell you this: not a single book on my bookshelf is safe from this purge. So in the spirit of Halloween, let's break some spines! Mohahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa...

I joined the TASCHEN affiliate program!

How I make money through my videos:

I have for the past year tried to find solutions on how I can make my YouTube channel more profitable. Recording and editing my videos take hours each week, and if I wanted to be able to afford to take that time of my free time, I had to find good ways to bring in some extra profit.
Placing ads on my videos was my first solution, and I have now had ads on my videos for over a year.

But relative low numbers of viewers results in low ad revenue (who would have thought!), and therefor I created a Patreon page.
I did not expect people to support me on Patreon, but to my delight, the warm hearts of a few book lovers wanted support my channel, and I have at this moment three Patrons raising $27 per month! Quite the blessing in my eyes since that prove me that people care about the content I make, and it drives me to do my absolute finest job in presenting both the books I show, but also sharing my knowledge of books (which is steadily growing). 

A few days ago the Online Sales Director of TASCHEN contacted me. She had watched my video (Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo), and wondered if I wanted to be part of their new affiliate program. I, of course, answered yes!

How the TASCHEN affiliate program works:

It is very simple. You can probably see the TASCHEN banner on the top right on this page (as long as you don't use any adblocker). If you click on that banner, you will get transfered to the TASCHEN website. So if you ever want to buy books from TASCHEN (which I warm heartedly can recommend) and also want to support my channel, simply just click on any of my TASCHEN links and make a purchase afterwards, and in that way I get a small % of the deal, while you don't pay any extra!

I will have links on my blog (through that lovely looking banner) and in my description on YouTube!

Affiliate programs is a great way for both viewers and creators, and I will most likely have deals and discounts in the future!

Thank you all for showing your support in all various ways. Every single like, share and comment is amazing. A big thanks to my Patrons too.

Here is the link to TASCHEN: https://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=vIxud*czJT0&offerid=525115.8&subid=0&type=4