“My shelves are empty. The half-dozen Billy Bookcases I bought from Ikea are now little more than scrap. I have burned my books. A bonfire of ideas and ideals.” Terence Eden

I’ve entertained the zero-shelf fantasy since I first read e-books and sync’d news on the trusty Handera 330. I stil have it:

At the time, the content wasn’t around and the screen was a bit small to be practical anyway. When the iRex came around, I thought this might be the time. But of course, content remained an issue. But now the time is here. iPad is fantastic for reading and Kindle has all the content. And just last night, Amazon popped up with an announcement that Kindle Touch is here in the UK. I’ve resisted Kindles up till now. For all their benefits, they look like a bad 1960s sci-fi imagining what life will be like in the year 1979. The keyboard in particular seems completely out-of-place for a device that is primarily about reading. And it’s impossible at this point to hold a screen which you can’t touch. So the Kindle Touch changes a lot of that and with its battery benefits and (especially after a week of glorious March weather here) working in the sun is a killer app tablets won’t beat for some years.

So it’s time to make it happen. This week, I’ll scan all my books with Delicious Monster or Bookshelved to keep a perpetual record of what I once owned. I’ll allow myself to keep 10 books of sentimental or long-lasting value and another 10 which I haven’t (fully) read. These lucky 20 will be marked with post-it notes. The rest can stay on the shelf for three months and if I feel the need to keep one of them, I will swap those post-it notes around. And on July 1, 2012, those without post-it notes will be shown no mercy! Well, some mercy … they can go to a suitable charity.