Do you read as you download or do you stockpile?

[PsyDocJoanne]

What in interesting poll! I hadn't really thought much about having a ebook reader has changed my reading/buying habits, but it has.

Prior to having a reader, I would buy one or two books at a time, read them, and then make another mecca to the bookstore. I never stockpiled...although I do hoard, since I can never seem to bear to part with books.

Since I've gotten my reader, I've found that I've begun amassing a ton of books that are all sort of in an amporhous "queue" to be read...at this rate, my queue will be neverending.

And to think that before I got the reader, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find enough content....boy was I a dolt!

[wayrad]

I'm not sure whether I'm a hoarder or not. Like many of the people who responded, I download free books from Baen, Tor, etc. when they are offered, if they look at all interesting. But if I've purchased them, I try to avoid letting more than two or three unread ones accumulate, otherwise they seem to go stale as the initial excitement dissipates.

Books I've scanned for myself, on the other hand, need to mature until I've lost the feeling of familiarity acquired during spell-checking.

[tsgreer]

I'm an e-book hoarder. I download most new free books, telling myself that I really am going to read them someday.

But I'm so bad--just last week I decided that I had way too many books on my ebook reader. So I went in, deleted most of them, telling myself that I only wanted to have about five or ten books at the most. So now, one week later, I am back up to 90 books on my reader. Every time I see a good one, I think to myself "Hey, this looks good, I may be in the mood to read that in the next couple of days...."

I just want to blame all the MR book posters--Dr. Drib, HarryT, Patricia, etc...

When they post books, they put so much work into them that I know that they are going to be good and look good. I'm sure I'll get around to reading them soon. Right? It's their fault by making a product so good. I can't be blamed for hoarding their great product! Right?!

Yes, I need professional help, but what fun would that be?

[kacir]

I have never been hoarder of *books*. I only buy ones that are very, very special. Like books by JRR Tolkien or Terry Pratchett, or ... . From my early reading years I understood that I would never be able to buy and *store* all the books to satisfy my appetite. I was content with borrowing books from 5 or more libraries (at the same time!). During my high school years I was able to bring in and read through a foot high pile of library books every week.

I do hoard e-books. Not that I spend hours and hours hunting books, but when there is opportunity to download something free, I do not hesitate.

I also hoard computers, notebooks, e-book readers, general hardware, power tools, hand tools, carving chisels, grinders, wood for carving (it takes years and years for a block of wood to dry properly ;- ) )
At the moment I have about 9 working computers at home, and several more at work that my wife does know about ... yet. Including absolutely wonderful microwax 3300 in working condition. Now I just need that DIGITAL VT400 terminal our technicians promised me

[Redcard]

I hoard. I hoard like they're going out of style. In the Fantasy/Sci-Fi world.. there are many , many 'series' that get made. So each 'series' I'm interested in, I usually grab the first book to see if I like it.

(The only exception has been Turtledove's stuff. I tend to buy those by "arcs" instead of the individual novels.)

[Azayzel]

I'm a packrat by nature, so I'm always continuously stockpiling for that long, cold winter! So many books, so little time!

[DMcCunney]

I long ago came the the conclusion that acquiring books and reading them were two separate and distinct pleasures, so I needn't feel guilty about getting six books and having time to read two.

Yes, it's a sophistry, but it works for me.

I have about 3,500 ebooks on my PDA, and likely as many paper books, though I haven't counted heads lately (and some of the pbooks are in off site storage and not easily countable.)

There are an assortment of ebook sites I trawl daily, including Munseys, ManyBooks, and PG, looking for things of interest. The Ebooks folder on one of my secondary drives is currently about 11GB, with 49,000+ files. (That does not mean 49,000 book - many are HTML with more than one file per book.)

The nice thing about ebooks is that you don't have to call the paramedics if my unread ebook stack topples over on me.
______
Dennis

[=X=]

Well I voted hoarder because I've came to the realization that I've downloaded more than I ever will read. I've slowly been deleting what I know I will not read however.


One rule is that I only convert and upload books I've read, am reading, on the next queue.

One side benefit of being a hoarder is I've read books I would have never read if I had a minimalist approach.

[astra]

When you say download, do you mean uploading books to the reader or downloading books on my computer?
Then answer is: No for the reader
Yes for the computer.

I think ahead what I am going to read in the near future and prepare books for it.

Other. I pick up a lot of books but not just to get them.

I do end up getting quite a few books that aren't in the reading que right now but that doesn't mean they got downloaded just to be downloaded. Almost every one of them was chosen because I wanted to read it either right now or sometime in the future. When I can I try to pick up full series after reading the first book if I can.

Why not wait until I'm ready to read them? Like others posted earlier, in this bizzarro commercial world you need to get things when you see them or run the risk of them being "temporarily unavailable" in perpetuity later on when you finally get around to them. Especially when dealing with things that won't change given time (books as opposed to the readers that they go on).

[izmi]

Other: I sort of do both. I tend to buy two or three novels at the same time, because with the conversion rate from American to New Zealand dollars, it's easier to buy several at once. But I read them first, before I buy a couple more.

[Amalthia]

What can I say? I couldn't stop myself from collecting paper books, I can assure you now that I found ebooks the instinct has not gone away. I just passed my obession onto ebooks which to be fair takes up far less space. I just like having a large collection of books to choose from when I want to read. I also have multiple copies of the same titles.

[desertgrandma]

other. I download lots more than I can read, BUT I've learned that just because its 'free' or available, doesn't mean I have to have it. Took me a while to learn that one. Now I'm downloading only books that I would buy in paper format anyway, or that really pique my interest.

[DixieGal]

I download a dozen or so that I really want to read, read them, and then remove them from my reader. Everything is backed up on a flash drive, so no need to worry about losing anything.

Otherwise, I will download EVERYTHING and go nuts trying to manage the mess it creates.

[Boston]

I'm a hoarder by nature and the growing boxes of unread books was how I helped justify my eReader purchase..the ability to download when i want to read would curb impulse buying.

So far, so good. The big question is if I can discipline myself to whittle down the unread pre-Kindle book pile.

With the Kindle, instead of buying, I just download a sample. Look through my samples when I'm ready to start something new and if I like the beginning, I buy. I also now find myself reading a lot of books that would've otherwise been constantly put aside (due to length or font size) for something easier to read.

Now, someone just needs to invent an e-version of SHOES