Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[DuncanWatson]

My ebook settlement value was over $300. I believe that puts me in the ebook addict club.

[pdurrant]

Wow. Yes, I think that does. Even I only spend around $500/year on ebooks. (Aiming at less than £300/$450 this year.)

To get a $300 refund... wow. Welcome to the thread!

[CRussel]

I'm actually doing fairly well on the purchase front. Total so far this year is ~$200, for some 60 books. But that doesn't Audible credits or monthly fee. Definitely better this year than last.

[Tarana]

Duncan. Yep. That puts you into the addict division.

No buys so far this month. I have 6 Audible credits to use, which means I have to pick SOMETHING in the next 2 weeks.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Duncan. Yep. That puts you into the addict division.

No buys so far this month. I have 6 Audible credits to use, which means I have to pick SOMETHING in the next 2 weeks.

You could put your account on hold instead, and have three months to work off your credits.

[Tarana]

You can only do that once a year and I did that in October. What I really need to do is put membership on hold for a year or two to catch up. But I have to use all the credits first because otherwise you lose them.

[CRussel]

True, you'll lose them. BUT, if you just go in and buy books that you have an interest in, but no time to read right now, you can use up your credits quickly. And even once you stop your membership, you still have access to the books you've bought. Buy a bunch of the Royal Spyness books, you like those. Or, how about a Phryne Fisher book. Start with Cocaine Blues . And you could try the Mary Russel/Sherlock Holmes series, by Laurie King. Start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

Just go ahead and stockpile some books. Then drop the membership, and rejoin when you run out of stuff to read. Or decide you really, really want something that just came out.

[pdurrant]

I've fallen off the wagon this month. Ten books bought in the past ten days. I'm still in budget, but I'd better pull myself together a bit.

[DrNefario]

I turned down those Jack Campbell books yesterday. It would probably be years before I even got to them, and I figure I might as well pay more then, knowing I really want them, rather than spend money I might just be throwing away now.

I think I might be on the road to recovery.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I turned down those Jack Campbell books yesterday. It would probably be years before I even got to them, and I figure I might as well pay more then, knowing I really want them, rather than spend money I might just be throwing away now.

I think I might be on the road to recovery.

Well argued. I probably should have done the same.

[issybird]

I haven't posted here in a bit, but I've checked out of the Betty Ford following the last Shrove Kobo and will be attending meetings regularly again.

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I turned down those Jack Campbell books yesterday. It would probably be years before I even got to them, and I figure I might as well pay more then, knowing I really want them, rather than spend money I might just be throwing away now.

I long ago realized that it would be cheaper in the long run if I bought books on demand. I don't exactly regret my colossal library acquired well below the going price, but I do wish I had been choosier. I have a largeish B-list, tagged B in my Calibre library and the odds of my reading any of them are quite slim.

Similarly, in assessing the fallout from the recent Kobo bender Refer-a-Friend promotion, my purchase of all the Wodehouse I didn't already own was sheer common sense, given that I've got an ongoing challenge to read all of his work. Much more problematic is my purchase of C.P. Snow's 11-novel Strangers and Brothers sequence. Will I really reread them? More doubtful than not, and even at only 40¢ each, they'll end up only adding to the eclutter. At least it means I can toss my hard copies, so it's not a dead loss.

So, my goal for the year of purchasing an average of only one ebook per week is dead in the water. Assessing it post-binge, I see it wasn't an ideal goal, since it meant at best, given that I also read pbooks, library books and public domain, that I'd only be treading water in terms of my TBR pile. However, the very good outcome from the goal is that formulating and following it meant that I had only bought three ebooks until I fell off the wagon, and I've bought none since. I really do feel I've licked the "buy it because it looks interesting and it's on sale and I may get to it eventually" syndrome.

So my ongoing goal is the one mentioned above: buy no ebook unless I'm about to read it. That gives me some flexibility for book club reads and areas of high and immediate interest while eliminating buying for inventory. I know it's not a slam-dunk, but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

[CRussel]

A worthy goal, issybird. I try to stick to it, though I admit I sometimes jump on specials for ones I know I definitely want to read sometime. (I have a whole bunch of Alexander Kent books sitting in Calibre, waiting for the right time. All bought with the first of the 90% coupon series. Most of the early ones are re-reads, but then we hit ones I haven't read, usually because they weren't available in the public library, or the local B&N when I had one.)

Overall, however, I have way too many books in Calibre that I not only haven't read, but am extremely unlikely to ever read. That being said, I have done way better this year over previous years, with only about 5 or 6 more books bought than actually read this year. (It's hard to parse from the way I'm keeping stats, since many books these days I'm getting both eBook and Audible versions of. But both count as purchases in my total tally. )

[pdurrant]

Oh dear. My May spending has been over £25. That's the first month this year that I've spent more than £25. But I'm still well under budget for the year as a whole.

It seems unlikely that I'm going to come in under £25 in June either. Mainly because of my LightSpeed KickStarter, which must surely get counted in my June numbers. (I'm not counting it until I get access to the back issues.)

But on the whole I'm doing OK. And it looks like I'll be able to do even better in the second half of the year than I've done in the first half. Finger crossed.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Calculations: My kickstarter has got me:
1 x Queers Destroy SF: £0.86
1x Queers Destroy Horror: £0.86
1x Queers Destroy Fantasy: £0.86
1x Queer Anthology: £0.85 (sic)
12 x new issues of LightSpeed Magazine: £0.30*12 = £3.60
58x back issues of Fantasy Magazine: £0.30*58 = £17.40

(The first 4 I could have got for a $5 pledge, so count them each as 1/4 of 5/36th of the price. That's 85p each. The remainder covers 70 magazine issues. That's 30p each with 3p left over - let's add that on to each of the special editions (not anthologies) making them £0.86.)

I will count the back issues this month, and the rest as they come in.

My Fantasy Magazine back issues have just come in. Or will have, later today. Just in May! And Queers Destroy SF will be in tomorrow.

Wow. That makes May rather a blow-out month for me. 72 books for £43.80. It's a good job I spent so little in Jan - April: I'm still in budget for the year!

My TBR is now 28 books up on the start of the year instead of 30 down.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, I still have £117.61 of my budget unallocated. I'm going to see how far under budget I can come in. Perhaps next year I'll aim at £20/month instead of £25/month.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, I still have £117.61 of my budget unallocated. I'm going to see how far under budget I can come in. Perhaps next year I'll aim at £20/month instead of £25/month.

You seem to be a gluten for punishment.

I do not budget for books because I could never stick to it. If a book comes out that I really want I will buy it regardless of the cost.
Just the other day I bought Bernard Cornwell's Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles for full price, $17.99. I am about a third of the way through the book and I think it was worth it.
Apache