Too many books

I have too many books.

I have a full bookshelf that also has two or three extra piles of books beyond the ones that are arranged on the shelf "properly," standing up. Some I'm hoping to read soon. Some I've already read and I just don't have room to place them with the "already finished" books.

I have a wire shelf full of books most of which I've never read. I've tried several of those books and didn't like them enough to continue but didn't hate them enough to decide on the spot to get rid of them. Some are holdovers from classes I've long since finished. They're stacked two piles deep.

I plan to go through them the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to expel at least a third of them so that they'll fit on two wide shelves without layering books. As it is I think I have too many books to do that—I might need a third wide shelf.

I wonder what I'd want from an organization system. I think it would be nice to separate (1) reference books from (2) rereadable art/entertainment from (3) things I haven't read at all yet. That's three sections. Ideally, these would all be similarly accessible, but I'm not sure I can do that in my current space unless I expel more like two thirds of what I have.

It'll be interesting to see how little is left by the end of it and how much space I need. Probably at least a third of the books are things that sounded like a good idea when I bought them, but I lost interest in them after obtaining them. Others I'd definitely read if I had infinite time and probably won't because I don't. I suspect I'll be able to get rid of quite a bit if I'm honest with myself about what I want to read given finite time—and given that additional interesting books are coming to my attention and gettung published all the time.