Quote:
Originally Posted by BelleZora
Several years ago I bought literally hundreds of books on sale, most I haven't yet read. I loved to see them in Calibre. I was a regular on this thread. I budgeted $70 a month for books and had trouble staying within the budget. A few years ago I came to my senses and have since purchased books at full price when I plan to immediately read them. I seldom spend more than $20 or $30 monthly. I read about twelve books a month, most of which come from the library or my hoard. Still, it is unlikely that I can read 900 books from my TBR in my remaining life. I don't want to read a book just because I own it. My tastes and goals change year to year.
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I could just about have written this. My biggest regret is not having gone to a "just in time" buying system years ago. As with you, and I wince to say it, there are hundreds of books in my Calibre library that I'll never get around to reading, because there will always be something I want to read more. And a waste of time to justify a waste of money is insanity.
My books from the Kobo extravaganza days are not a dead loss; there are still many (many, many) that I'd like to read and it's handy to have a library rather than having to go shopping every time I'm ready for something new. But ultimately seven $2 books that are a good deal have a lot less value than one $15 book I really want, and the most precious resource of all is time. What price enjoyment, intellectual stimulation, satisfaction?
Still, I do spend a whole lot less now than I did then and my TBR is edging down, albeit slowly. Taking stock for the year so far, I've spent $9 on two books, both wishlist books whose prices were set but where I was able to use expiring promotional money to get them at a significantly reduced cost. I also see myself reading both in the near term. This is much better than a year ago, when I had a major fall in January (and February) which rather took the heart out of me for the year.
Having written this, I should probably make it a goal to read everything I buy this year, which strikes me as a very useful discipline indeed.