If you read library books on your ereader, are you buying more or less?

[Sydney's Mom]

I read library books on my kindle. That practice is controvertial, and I don't want to start another thread discussing the morality/legality of reading library books on my kindle. But what I just learned, from looking at my Amazon kindle purchases, is that they have increased since I started borrowing books from the library. That is because ecollections at the library are still limited. I just finished Odd Thomas, which I borrowed from the library (and read in 3 days!), and wanted to read the second book. But both libraries at which I have borrowing privileges only had the second book in audiobook form. So I immediately went to Amazon and got the book.

I wonder if you do the same thing? Have your purchases increased since you\because you can read library books on your ereader?

Thanks, desertgrandma, for the great directions on creating a poll!

[ATDrake]

More, because I buy a different subset of books than what I normally read in e-book form at the library. (They have lots of general non-fiction and literary romance thrillers. I like sf/fantasy, historical/mystery, and particular specific non-fiction subjects).

Plus, the e-books I buy are generally available at reasonably low prices at pretty decent terms (yay for liking backlist sf/fantasy, often MultiFormat and DRM-free and cheap like not-too-pricey specialty potting soil, if not actual dirt).

I think I actually buy more books overall because of both print and e-catalogue library usage, both of which are fairly well stocked in my area.

Not having to pay to read books that only moderately interest me to begin with allows me to allocate my money to buying books I actually want, based on now having previously read them.

That's how I've gotten almost all my e-books: the title or author are something I'm familiar with and have enjoyed in the past (or came on very high recommendation from a trusted source and were available at a very low price, so I was willing to take a chance and splurge on one to try out.)

Long story short (too late!): using the library makes me buy more books, not fewer, both print and e-. They're just different books than what I overall get from the library (except for the ones that I decided were "keepers" that I wanted my own copy of).

[aagstn]

I buy far less than a year or two ago, but that has as much to do with the death of Fictionwise and the high ebook prices as it has to do with the library.

[unboggling]

I've only had my eBook reader a month or so and digital library registration a week. So far the borrowing experience has pointed me to other authors and genre's I didn't used to look at, because of the poor selection of what I'm used to. And I realize this maybe isn't a bad thing, this expansion of "suitable to read" due to poor availability and being so riskless, because I found out I liked some of those new authors and genres. Which impels me to buy more books to fill in the series or explore more of that type of material.

[hgwlackey]

I don't think my borrowing has affected my purchasing. I bought a lot of books pre-library-ebook-borrowing, and I still buy a lot of books now, even though I'm downloading four or five library books a month. I probably, although I don't really think about it, have an amount of money earmarked in my brain that I'm willing to spend on books, and I'll go ahead and spend it, damn it. (I just won't pay more than $9.99 before tax. But that's a different discussion. )

[SensualPoet]

I use my Kobo to borrow library books but buy ebooks for the Kindle (or the Kobo if they are cheaper). Obtaining an ereader reignited my interest in reading long-form fiction; I have probably read more of this category in the past year than the previous 30 years.

[GraceKrispy]

I didn't answer because my purchases haven't increased because of my library usage. If I want a library book and it's not in digital copy, I'll just get the paper version instead.

*However,* my book purchases have increased because I have an ereader. I have bought more fiction on my ereader than I ever did paper versions.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by aagstn

I buy far less than a year or two ago, but that has as much to do with the death of Fictionwise and the high ebook prices as it has to do with the library.

This.

There have been at least four occasions where I wish-listed a book instead of buying it because I was waiting for the price to come down, and it became available at the library before the price came down enough to make me buy

[treadlightly]

I said "same" because the books I want to read generally haven't been available at the library, but if a series were available at the library save for say, one or two books, then I would purchase the missing book(s) to complete the series.

[MrsJoseph]

I feel my book purchases have gone up due to using my public library and owning an ereader. But my library's ebook selection isn't the best...

[KarenH]

I said my purchasing is the same, but that's more a guess than anything else. I actually bought a lot fewer books in 2010 than in 2009, but that was because I went nuts in 2009 when I got my first reader, then again the end of the year when Fictionwise had their amazing sale - not because of library usage. The best I can do is compare to when I was still reading paper books, and my new book purchases are probably about the same. I didn't use the library then, but I did borrow books from a friend, and I also bought a lot used so the library usage is replacing other methods of acquisition that also didn't put money into the author/publisher's pocket.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by aagstn

I buy far less than a year or two ago, but that has as much to do with the death of Fictionwise and the high ebook prices as it has to do with the library.

Hear! Hear! I still mourn the devastation - if not quite total death - of Fictionwise. My e-book purchases have dropped way way way off since their troubles started with the purchase by BN and the agency stuff. I still try to buy from Fictionwise when I can - e.g. Random House, smaller publishers - in some probably vain hope that there will someday be a light at the end of the tunnel for them.

If I eliminate the Fictionwise issues, however, I'm in the camp of "buy a little bit more". As several others have noted, the libraries I have e-access to tend to have a different selection than I would normally choose - or pay for - myself. So I've branched out, and had some nice surprises! And, having had a nice surprise, I'll often go buy at least one more book by the same author.

Of course, I've also checked out a few where I've gone "" and returned within minutes...

[Xanthe]

I finally renewed my library card just so that I could try out borrowing library books on my Sony and my Aluratek. Out of 5 I borrowed, I only read one of them before they expired, just because I was busy reading other books I already had on my ereader. However the two books on the Aluratek are still readable, so I might get around to them one of these days.

I can't say, though, that accessibility to library books has changed my book purchasing pattern in any way. The books I want to read, as always, are usually not available in my library system, whether as a paper book or an ebook. My reading focus is much more genre-oriented than it used to be, much of which is only available in paperback, and my library just doesn't budget for those books.

I know that the availability of ebooks and my ebook readers have resulted in my purchasing less paper books, but part of the reason for that is that I have so many paper books already in my TBR shelves. A lot of them a series books, and I've been getting the earlier books in the various series in ebook format (rather than digging them out of my boxes of books in storage) and re-reading them to remember what was going on in the stories. So I haven't been keeping up with the new paper books and buying them. I actually have some gift certificates to B&N and Borders that I've been hanging onto for months - most unusual for me.

Given the fact that any book is out there for the taking on the Dark Net, I've surprised myself by buying more ebooks than I thought that I would. I have taken advantage of the ease of buying books on my PDN with the B&N and Kindle Android apps.

[khalleron]

My purchases have gone down since I can borrow from the library, but not for that reason.

The reason is that I have such a large backlog from my initial buy frenzy when I first got my reader that I wouldn't have to buy anything new for several years if I didn't want to.

[LaurieGator]

I purchase approximately the same number of books as before I started using the library for e-books.

Most of my purchases were books that I wanted to keep around for a while. I also download a lot of freebies from Amazon. I still purchase books but I use the library to find books I would not necessarily purchase and try out new authors.