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...