Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
That's a tough challenge. My advice would be to start with no more than one every two weeks, so that when a really good offer comes along you have some slack.
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I should discipline myself to look at library before I hit buy; that should help quell the urge. As with BelleZora, given how many excellent reads I already own, I should only be purchasing books to read right away. The crux is what constitutes "a really good offer" now that the game has changed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Even with my backlog (750 unread at present), I think it would cost me a lot more if I moved to a 'only buy it just before reading model'. My having (a more than) sufficient cushion to keep me in reading material, I'm able to wait for special offers, coupons and other kinds of good deals on books I want to read.
My mean purchase price for 2014 is just $1.61. My mean read book cost for 2014 is $2.55. So the average cost of books in my TBR pile is going steadily down.
If I was buying 'on-demand' at (say) $4.99 per ebook, my read book cost would have doubled for 2014. And that ratio is going to get worse.
And it's not as if I'm filling my TBR with books that are only 'OK' or just 'look interesting', as I must admit I used to do from Fictionwise. Nearly all my purchases in 2014 are from favourite authors or series, with just a few well-recommended new authors/series when they were on really good offer.
There are advantages to a large TBR. Even though I'd still prefer to have mine down to under 200.
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It boils down to how much of that TBR gets read, eventually. As my TBR keeps increasing, much of the savings from deals are not realized and have to be subtracted from the money I've saved on the books I have read. During the multiple-use 90% code frenzies, for example, I bought so many books and at least some will never be read. At 90% off, it's still a hefty savings on the books I do read even allowing for the "mistakes". But at 40% off, say, one book I never read uses up the savings on anoher I do read, and then some. If I view my library as a total expenditure and in effect charge off the books I read at the current price, how long until I'm in the black? A very, very long time, I'm afraid. And if I keep buying at recent rates, that day will never come.
Our perspectives are different and both valid, I think. You look at it on a per-item basis while I consider the total outlay. You'll be right in the not-too-long-term while I'm right (for me) in the near-term. A significant contributing factor to our differences in perspective, I think, is that my cost per book is higher than yours (I buy a lot of BPH non-fiction.)
I agree that I like to have a TBR. It means I have a selection of highly appealng books at my literal fingertips and at a price that couldn't be duplicated now. I think the best days of the ebook deals are behind us, although I think there will always be some kind of deal; both are reason to cut back on what I buy now. The bottom line is that I've got the TBR and a hefty one it is, too. it's time to realize some of the savings.
(I know you'll realize that I'm exhorting myself! Really, it was a bad moment when I had to acknowledge my folly. I leap on a potential purchase as if I had nothing at all to read and ebooks were about to leave the planet.)