Quote:
Originally Posted by BKWRM
I've put off buying an eReader because I could always find the books I wanted used for cheaper than the price of an eBook, however now it's just not practical to have so many physical books in my possession. However I want to keep my overall reading costs down.
Any suggestions appreciated.
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I'm going to give my advise. This is based on successfully de-cluttering my apartment in the past 1-2 years and not regretting a bit of it. And I don't mean it to be at all condescending. So please don't feel like I'm lecturing.
It sounds to me like you're in a bad place. You need to sort that out first. You're out of room whether you buy an ereader or not, and you will have to donate or sale a significant number of books. Here is something that works for me: take the book off of the shelf, open it, read a bit. Answer the question honestly: "will I be reading this again?"
Ideally you want your collection to be books that you love or need. Not huge piles to be read, nor books that you've read once and never come back to. And a good rule of thumb for to be read piles, if you picked it up two years ago or more, and you haven't opened it, then it's unlikely (but not impossible) that you're actually going to read it. I would just get rid of those.
After that, what premium are you willing to pay to keep from accumulating clutter? You can almost always find it cheaper used third hand in print. But if it's just a dollar less than the electronic version, would you prefer to go digital and save space? What about two dollars? Five dollars?
It's not an all or nothing proposition. Buying books digitally doesn't have to stop you from buying physical books. If I were you I would buy digitally when it doesn't cost too much more (as decided by you) than physical. Otherwise buy physical, but be open to selling or donating books that you will not reread nor reference again. And don't impulse buy. That leads to large to be read piles.
My last advice is to declutter all at once and immediately change your purchasing habits. Anything that is piecemeal will not work.