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OK, here's my year-end wrap-up.
I started the year having resolved to average only one ebook purchase per week during the year. I really struggled with this the first few weeks, as I had to break my habit of seeing a book I wanted and then looking out the cheapest way to get it. But after eight weeks, IIRC, I had bought only two books and I was feeling good. Then a 90% off Kobo sale happened and that was the end of that. I have a long-term goal of reading all of Wodehouse and I took the opportunity to buy everything I could that I didn't already own. That essentially destroyed reaching my goal on the year.
Oddly enough, I still count the year as a great success, because, in fact, I conquered my habit of "see, want, buy." If I have a terrific Kobo coupon, I treat myself to a book off my wishlist and I use no-rush shipping credits to indulge on occasion, but I've reset my ebook gluttony to the point where I add books to a wishlist and move on. Moreover, I've gotten much better at internalizing the reality that I have many years' worth of reading and that I'll never be able to read everything I'd like.
This was a lengthy way of saying that I'm not going to bother with an ebook-buying goal for 2016. I think one reason it was so totally out of hand was that there was no physical component. Now that I've ebooks under control, my 2016 focus is going to be on not buying pbooks, which do have that physical element. I've continued to buy pbooks since some books I want to read aren't available as ebooks and there's that aspect where since I can't get a book on demand, I want to have it on hand when the mood strikes. But the reality is that once purchased, my pbooks languish; I just prefer reading ebooks. So, my 2016 resolution is not to buy any pbooks for the first six months of the year (I'm afraid to make it a year-long goal.) I'll reassess in July. I hope Paul won't mind if I use this thread on occasion as a goad.
Thank you, Paul, for a great thread. It's helped me enormously.
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