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I bought one book at the end of August after three clean months. It was my eighth book on the year, or an average of one book per month, a little over last year's average. I've spent $25 so far which is more than I spent in all of last year, but doesn't seem unreasonable. It includes two books bought with promotional credit which I count as bought, unlike true freebies.
If all this sounds like bragging about nothing much, it's a dramatic change from the excesses of the teen years and even up through a couple of years ago, although it had started to drift down by then. I attribute it in part to external factors such as higher prices overall, wishlist books rarely going on sale any more and the paucity of discounts/coupons, but also to internal ones such as a sense of surfeit with my existing library of unread books and finally assimilating the reality that I'll never be able to read everything I'd like to read anyway. It's as if a switch has gone off; I don't "want" the way I used to. It might be different if I didn't have access to a couple of good libraries; I hope I don't have to find out.
What I'm happiest about this year is that I've already read five of my eight purchases and started two others, leaving only my purchase of a few days ago uncracked. My goal is to finish the year with all purchases read, although I might give myself a dispensation for one lengthy tome which is more of textbook type and hence for dipping into.
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