Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[ReadingManiac]

I've managed to slow down but my 2019 goal is to at least start to read all the books in the backlog. The competition to keep my attention is going to be fierce! Time for a clear out.

[HLS]

I am glad to say I stopped downloading crap free ebooks. I now only get the classics or something of substance and search for sales. In 2019 I am going to try and just buy from my top authors and try to read my backlog of books also try renting more from library

[issybird]

I'm starting to look at my year-end figures. My TBR for the year is down an anemic 16 books. I bought 32 books this year, a vast improvement over the binge years but still more than I ought and significantly more than last year.

My resolution for 2019 is to make wishlist purchases only and only if it's an excellent sale or I'm going to read it immediately. My goal is fewer books bought and less money spent than this year.

[Primus_Pilus]

I am a terrible addict on books. 2900+ loaded on Calibre and 1000+ loaded from Amazon alone.

I'm not sure if I'm proud or hanging my head in shame on it.

[Fbone]

My numbers for 2018:

Books purchased 19 costing $54.92 (avg $2.89).

Books read 43 of which 17 where purchased, 20 were library loans and 6 freebies.

One purchase I DNF.

So strictly speaking, I added one book to my TBR list.

[issybird]

I weakened this past month and bought two more books where the sale created the want, which changes my stats for the year to approximately 20% of books bought and 40% of outlay, which is dreadful. It's worse in that I've read none of the books. Had I resisted temptation entirely in this category, I'd have bought 25 books and spent less than $50 and I'd be comfortable with that, fewer than one book every two weeks and less than a buck a week.

[Tarana]

Well, the end of the year quantifies as followed:

Books read/listened: 119

Books acquired (still unread): 131 <-- includes magazines
Audiobooks Acquired (still unread): 133 <-- includes free

Quite a few of these are short stories, novellas, and whispersync titles (so double count). Still, failed completely on controlling my spending. I am cancelling my Audible membership until November as well as (painfully), my Asimov subscription so that I can spend more time catching up on what I already own. I'd say I have AT LEAST 5 years of reading/listening and I'm not even counting free books.

I have 4 magazines left from 2010 to read, so that was an accomplishment. Not much from 2011 left either. So progress on those older ones.

[wandalynn]

Ending the year with 165 owned but unread ebooks and paperbooks. I began with 153, bought an additional 25 and read 13 of that total.

Overall, I read 89 books of which about 60 were borrowed from the library/amazon prime, 13 were books I owned, and the balance were advance reading copies.

Nothing to brag about but it's an improvement over past years.

1/31 - 165
2/28 - 166
3/31 - 164
4/7 - deleted 2 Kindle freebies
4/30 - 163
6/7 - 162
7/1 - 162
7/5 - deleted two duplicate titles
8/1 - 158
8/31 - 157
9/29 - 155
10/31 - 157
11/30 - 158
12/31 - 161

[DNSB]

Hmmm... total books read for 2018 were 614. Purchases including freebies were about 75% of that total with the rest coming from the library and other sources. At this point, I have 1 book in my TBR list as I spent the Christmas break re-reading the previous books in the series and I doubt I'm going to finish it before midnight. What is it with authors adding new books to series that have not been added to in 5 years or more?

[HLS]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... total books read for 2018 were 614. Purchases including freebies were about 75% of that total with the rest coming from the library and other sources. At this point, I have 1 book in my TBR list as I spent the Christmas break re-reading the previous books in the series and I doubt I'm going to finish it before midnight. What is it with authors adding new books to series that have not been added to in 5 years or more?

How are you able to read so many books? That number is mind boggling to me

[bookaho!ic]

total read 138, total bought nearly as many, ARC copies still to read 39
total on ereader over 1800

but on a positive have not bought any in 2019 yet!!!

[PurpleStar]

Already bought a book this year. For some reason I wanted the new Terry Goodkind book. LOL Though I spent a gift card I got for Christmas so there is that at least.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

How are you able to read so many books? That number is mind boggling to me

Reading at slightly over 1000WPM and reading when I can during work breaks, at home, basically anytime I'm not busy. Even while making dinner, there is often 30-45 minutes while everything is cooking and reading helps pass the time.

I don't watch much TV other than sports and cooking shows. While watching hockey, you can read a surprising amount during commercial and period breaks. Football has only one major break but it's even worse for commercial breaks. Rugby cuts into reading time since they don't seem to have learned the value of taking 2.5 hours to play a 80 hour game and that a 10 minute half time is way too short. Add in the video replays/coach's challenges -- does it really take 10 minutes to decide if a player was offside as in one recent hockey game.

And then we have the weekends when I get in 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings while the rest of the family is sleeping.

I do get a laugh out of the times shown on my ereader. Hmmm... 27 minutes to read 38% of the book so it will take you 3 hours and 26 minutes to read the rest of the book while my head says 45 minutes. 50 minutes tops.

Edit: The other thing to remember is that much of what I read is fiction which, for me at least, is faster to read than my non-fiction/technical books. OTOH, I often read the technical stuff at work so that adds quite a few hours of reading time per year.

[HLS]

Right when I thought I would wise up and not download free books I turn my fire tablet on and the screensaver was " cick here to get this book for free" and I was suckered in

[HLS]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Reading at slightly over 1000WPM and reading when I can during work breaks, at home, basically anytime I'm not busy. Even while making dinner, there is often 30-45 minutes while everything is cooking and reading helps pass the time.

I don't watch much TV other than sports and cooking shows. While watching hockey, you can read a surprising amount during commercial and period breaks. Football has only one major break but it's even worse for commercial breaks. Rugby cuts into reading time since they don't seem to have learned the value of taking 2.5 hours to play a 80 hour game and that a 10 minute half time is way too short. Add in the video replays/coach's challenges -- does it really take 10 minutes to decide if a player was offside as in one recent hockey game.

And then we have the weekends when I get in 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings while the rest of the family is sleeping.

I do get a laugh out of the times shown on my ereader. Hmmm... 27 minutes to read 38% of the book so it will take you 3 hours and 26 minutes to read the rest of the book while my head says 45 minutes. 50 minutes tops.

Edit: The other thing to remember is that much of what I read is fiction which, for me at least, is faster to read than my non-fiction/technical books. OTOH, I often read the technical stuff at work so that adds quite a few hours of reading time per year.

I read for about half my lunch break if not a little more and I do a little before bed. On my days off I read more but I have to stop every 30 minutes and walk away or I will fall asleep lol I purchased a lot of audio books so I can listen if I have to stop reading to do a specific chore. I read about 200-250 wpm. If I am on a tablet wordrunner helps me get to 300 to 350 wpm