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There were various factors in my building up an ample ebook library. One is that I carried forward my pbook buying habits. And then there was that stretch when Kobo was practically giving books away and I took full advantage. Now, I have a short wishlist and occasionally buy ahead if something goes on a good sale, but that almost never happens anymore. So I shop my library, so to speak.
But I want to differentiate between buying ahead and backing up, two very different things. I stopped backing up when I was still in full acquisition mode when I had a lightbulb moment. I realized that the volatile ebook market had settled into essentially two purveyors, Kobo and Kindle, and that neither was going anywhere. The books I bought were going to be there to download to a tied device when I got around to them. That was the end of backing up, for me.
And y'know? If something happened and Kobo did disappear overnight, or Amazon said I needed a pricey new doohickey to access my books, that would be ok. I don't have a sense of book insecurity any more; my library would repopulate. In my whole life, I haven't yet run out of books to read and I have a really hard time imagining it's going to happen. As long as my eyes hold out, it'll be fine.
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