On walks in my neighbourhood, with the luxurious real estate a baby stroller provides, I would actively curate my collection. Books that had remained in my home for too long, unread and collecting dust, or that I had simply outgrown, came along in the stroller and went into the little free libraries, which freed up space on my Ikea Kallax. While I was there, I would browse what other people had left.

The nowbrary initially started as a way for me to stop feeling guilty about collecting books. At some point I shifted from collecting physical books to a ballooning 2500+ digital library. Whenever I have a flight or train bound travel, I end up staring at a wall of my books agonizing about what to take before my eyes gravitate towards the ones I’ve already read. Or specifically, the ones that hold the most promise of teaching me something new. 9 out of ten, those books will probably be the ones that find themselves in my bag.

I don’t like what Goodreads has become. In 2013 it described its Reading Challenge like this: “We’ll let you know when you’re falling behind and when you’re out ahead!” ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Mine isn’t a list of my best books, or of books I plan to read. It’s about a longitudinal relationship with a select number of books.

Books move in and out of the shelf like seasons. I like the idea that the shelf in any one season works as a life bookmark. Looking back at it would show me where I was at the time.

The “now” in the name comes from Derek Sivers’ /now page ↗ (opens in a new tab), which he added to his website in 2015 to say what he was focused on. The shelf can go online too, at /nowbrary on your website. The nowbrary is not the /now or the /about page, but a page that hosts the books you’ll always have within reach. For ideas, look through the shelves at nowbrary.com ↗ (opens in a new tab): Montaigne’s, Melville’s and mine (opens in a new tab).

A nowbrary usually fits in one bookcase, like a 2x4 Ikea Kallax. If you’re committing to a number of books, you’re committing to physical copies, a bookcase limits you to what you can see.

So how do you go about building a nowbrary? I’m not about to tell you to dump all your books out Kondo style. I’ll share my considerations so change them to what works for you, and bonus, you can use it as a reason to keep looking at your shelf and swapping books out or maybe even dusting once in a while.

What goes on the shelf

Before a book goes on, I ask myself a few things. Would I pack it for a flight or a long train ride? And have I read it before, and would I read it again?

What comes off the shelf

Books come off when they’ve stayed unread and collecting dust, or when I’ve outgrown them. Little free libraries are a good place to take them. There are more than 200,000 of those boxes in 128 countries ↗ (opens in a new tab), so there may be one near you.

When a new book goes on the shelf, one usually has to come off to make room. A book you take off can go back on later. Maybe you lend it to a friend who you can reliably ask to return it when they’re done.

Sharing it

I wanted to stay away from yet another login, so a nowbrary needs no app and no account. If you want to share yours, a page at /nowbrary on your website does it, the same way people keep a /now page ↗ (opens in a new tab). A photo of the shelf works too. Update it when the shelf changes.