If I Could Only Own 30 Books…

Hi everyone!

So a while ago (like over a year, I think), I saw Hailey from Hailey in Bookland on YouTube make a video that was called “If I Could Only Own 30 Books,” where she… well, she talked about what books she would keep if she could only own 30. Pretty self-explanatory, I guess, but anyway, it was inspired by the Marie Kondo craze that was going around.

I am obviously very late to be catching onto that craze, but back when I watched that video, I thought it sounded like a great idea… so here I am, posting it.

Obviously, I have no intention of actually getting rid of all but 30 of my books (especially not now—we’re in the middle of a quarantine, so I can’t go to the library or anything; I need that backlog), but I think little games like this are fun to ponder.

Anyway, what 30 books would I keep if that was all I could own?

These are in no particular order:

The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I haven’t read this book, but I do want to read it eventually (hopefully), and it’s probably the most beautiful book I own (it’s a Barnes and Noble classics edition, and just… wow. I love it). That’s honestly the biggest reason why I would want to keep this book. I did also love the movie when I was a child (and I still do love it—I haven’t seen it in a while, though), so that’s another big reason

Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan (all of them except for Blood of Olympus= 9 books)

If you’ve been around on this blog for a while, you probably know that I absolutely love these series. I like the Kane Chronicles, too, but PJO and HoO will always be my mainstays, so of course I had to pick these.

I wouldn’t keep The Blood of Olympus, though, because, honestly… I didn’t like it. And if I’m going to be honest, I didn’t like House of Hades that much either, but I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to get rid of it.

Maybe this is an unfair judgment because I did only read The Blood of Olympus once, right when it first came out, but I was pretty massively disappointed with it for a lot of spoilery reasons that I’m not going to get into here. So… I’ll keep the other nine books, but not that one.

Reign the Earth by A.C. Gaughen

In the interest of not flooding this list with only all of my favorite authors, I made an effort to include some books that I haven’t read, but that I’m really interested in. This is one of those books. I’ve heard the magic system in it compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was really all I needed to hear. I love me some elemental magic.

Otherwise, I don’t have any idea what this book is about, and I’ve owned it for a while… but I’m still excited to read it someday.

Savvy by Ingrid Law

I haven’t read this book in a very long time, but it was one of my absolute favorites when I was a kid, and it still holds a very special place in my heart. I couldn’t bear to part with it.

The Legend trilogy by Marie Lu

This is another one of my favorite series. I say trilogy specifically, though, because I only want to keep the original three books, and not the companion/sequel that Marie Lu released last year. You’ll notice that I chose to keep this series over the Hunger Games, which might be a controversial choice, but in my opinion, this series was strong all the way through, while everyone can agree that the Hunger Games kind of fell flat there at the end.

The Girl King by Mimi Yu

This is another unread book on this list. I don’t have much to say about it because, well… I haven’t read it. But it’s something that, when I was looking at my shelves, trying to decide which 30 books I would want to keep… this one was one of the ones that stood out to me for some reason. I don’t really remember what the synopsis is.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Another childhood favorite. I haven’t read it in years, and I don’t have any intention of ever reading it again, but I would have to keep this book just for nostalgia’s sake. It was one of the books that got me into reading, and I was kind of obsessed with it. I constantly checked out this book from my elementary school’s library, and I would read it over and over and over again. It took me a very long time to get around to reading the second book in the series, because I would literally just read this first book on repeat (I did stuff like that a lot when I was little—like The Lightning Thief, for example. I read it about a million times before I ever moved on to the second book; there was one time in my life when I could practically quote every page in the book from memory). I did eventually read the second book, though unlike with PJO, I never ended up finishing the series.

Anyway, this first book is special to me for a lot of reasons.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

This is pretty much the quintessential fantasy book, and I haven’t read it—so of course I would need to keep it. Like I said, for this list, I was trying to have a mix of books I’ve read and books I haven’t but I want to. I do plan on eventually reading this series.

Also… I know that there’s a lot of debate about whether this is a trilogy or just one book, but the copy I have is the one-volume version, so I’m counting it as one.

Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

These two were favorites from my childhood. And honestly, it might’ve been these books that helped give me my love for fantasy. Similar to Little House in the Big Woods, I don’t have any plans to reread this series, but they hold a special place in my heart, so I can’t get rid of them.

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

This is another of my childhood favorites. It’s a story about a group of kids who meet in the middle of nowhere, at this campsite full of people who are waiting for the next solar eclipse. I remember this story being beautiful and moving, and although I haven’t read it since I was a kid, I have so much nostalgia surrounding this book.

The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

If you know me, you might be surprised that this is the only time I’ve mentioned Brandon Sanderson on this list, since he is one of my all-time favorite authors. I decided I needed to be strict with myself, though, because otherwise this entire list would just be his and Rick Riordan’s books and nothing else.

 So I ended up choosing Mistborn.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I keep meaning to reread this series because I loved it a lot when I was younger (though not as young as with some of these other books. I think I actually started reading this series pretty late, maybe in high school). This first book especially was just fantastic. So… I would keep it for the memories (even though the copy I have isn’t the one I read since I originally read the series through the library…).

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

This is another book I haven’t read, but I’ve heard so many amazing things about it, and it’s won awards… I just have a feeling I might love it. If any of my unread books are going to turn out to be five stars, I think it will be this one.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

I’m gonna be honest with you: a lot of the reason why I decided to include this book (and the next one, The Cruel Prince) on this list was because those are the two books I acquired the most recently, and my excitement level for reading them is still high. You know what it’s like. You buy a book, and you’re very excited to read it, and then it sits on your shelf forever and your excitement slowly fades away. Right now, this book is still riding the new-book high.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

This is one of those books I was putting off purchasing for a long time. For some reason, whenever a book is really hyped, it makes me want to read it less, not more. Hence why I didn’t end up getting this book until now. But now that I have it, I definitely don’t want to just give it away.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I don’t have very good reasoning for why I would want to keep this one. It’s a beautiful book, and I don’t really have any idea what it’s about, but every time I look at it, I just think, “You’re gonna love it.” Dunno why I haven’t read it yet. (Story of my life.)

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

I haven’t read this one either, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about it on book Twitter, which is honestly a huge part of the reason why I want to put it on this list.


And that’s it! Those are the 30 books I would want to keep if I could only keep 30. I hope this wasn’t too boring or repetitive, because my reasoning for keeping some of these books were basically the same.

Let me know down in the comments—what books would you keep if you could only have 30? I’m super curious!

Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ll see you next time!

-Ariel

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