[issybird]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I am beginning to wonder if Wishlists are part of the problem, for me, rather than part of the solution. Kind of like a nicotine patch. It might make me think I'm getting on top of the problem, but isn't actually breaking the addiction.

Adding things to a wishlist is better than just buying it there and then, but the problems arise when things go on sale. If they're on the list I sort of feel I should buy them when they're cheap, even if I have no immediate plan to read them. This means I'm just buying for the library and the indefinite future, which I think is unhelpful and unnecessary.

I bumped up against this exact problem a week or so ago. A book in my wishlist had gone down to $1.99, which ordinarily would be an automatic buy. But I stopped to think and decided it wasn't all that compelling a read and passed; I then took draconian cuts in my wishlist. What's left is probably never going to get all that cheap (mostly pricey agency non-fiction), so I think I'm safe.

I think the problem for me was similar to what you describe; I'd see an interesting book and automatically put it in my wishlist. Fine, since I wasn't buying it. But as you say, once a book was on my wishlist there was the momentum to convert it into a purchase if it got cheap. The problem was that putting it in the wishlist had been a reflex action and not the result of serious thought.

I think I'm going to try to adopt issybird's suggestion, and read everything I buy this year, rather than just weighing the quantity of purchases against the quantity of reads. So far this year I'm 0 for 4.

Knock wood, but I'm having some success. I bought two books in January and I've finished one and started the second. The "I must read it in the near future" stricture has stayed my buying finger a few times already.