Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I am a mere grasshopper compared to you, O Master!

The sad part is that at this point in time, calibre says that only 3 of the books in my library are unfinished. Welcome to the Red Queen's racetrack...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The sad part is that at this point in time, calibre says that only 3 of the books in my library are unfinished. Welcome to the Red Queen's racetrack...

You really are eating them, aren't you?

I've only bought 35 books this year so far!

[DrNefario]

I just bought a huge hardback coffee-table book costing about the same as all the other books I've bought this year added together. Ah well. At least the actual cost was never the problem.

I've only bought 16 books in total in the first half of the year, so not so bad. (And the other paper book is my second most expensive purchase by some margin, even if it was cheaper than the kindle version.)

I have just recently hit my target of starting 80% of my purchases, too, for thie first time since the beginning of the year.

[HLS]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You really are eating them, aren't you?

I've only bought 35 books this year so far!

I am rather positive I bought around 120. Most are cheap sale items but yikes. Now that i am aware i should be able to slow it down.

[bookaho!ic]

i have bought approx 180 books this year so far (really need to stop) each book was 99p and read 70 (none of the new ones though) gotta stop looking at my wishlist every day and buying the 99p books helpe

[ownedbycats]

I discovered the existence of a book and then ended up buying it 30 minutes later. Oops. To be fair, there was a very big discount making it only 2 dollars.

[LDB]

I've bought 20 books for $32.10 so roughly 3 books a month. I've read roughly 2 books a month, some from those 20 and some from prior purchases.

[pdurrant]

As has been mentioned before, I think that a lot of use had our buying habits formed when finding new books (or new-to-us old books) was hard. It was a constant struggle to find enough to read, with hours spent in bookshops for both new and second-hand books.

And now that's no longer the case. We no longer need to pounce on every book that looks interesting.

But it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. But it can be done! Resist the urge to buy!

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

As has been mentioned before, I think that a lot of use had our buying habits formed when finding new books (or new-to-us old books) was hard. It was a constant struggle to find enough to read, with hours spent in bookshops for both new and second-hand books.

And now that's no longer the case. We no longer need to pounce on every book that looks interesting.

But it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. But it can be done! Resist the urge to buy!

God, I remember those days and nights. Driving around looking for a new book to read.
Apache

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

As has been mentioned before, I think that a lot of use had our buying habits formed when finding new books (or new-to-us old books) was hard. It was a constant struggle to find enough to read, with hours spent in bookshops for both new and second-hand books.

And now that's no longer the case. We no longer need to pounce on every book that looks interesting.

But it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. But it can be done! Resist the urge to buy!

For me, I never had opportunity to buy books before I was in my twenties, and have never lived in a house large enough to accommodate many bookshelves. Almost all my reading was library books. So getting into ebooks in my middle age has been liberating, and worth the expense.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

As has been mentioned before, I think that a lot of use had our buying habits formed when finding new books (or new-to-us old books) was hard. It was a constant struggle to find enough to read, with hours spent in bookshops for both new and second-hand books.

And now that's no longer the case. We no longer need to pounce on every book that looks interesting.

But it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. But it can be done! Resist the urge to buy!

I think it really helps to have grown up as a library rat. Buying books was not an option for me until I went to college. I never even set foot in a proper book store until I was 17 or 18.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I think it really helps to have grown up as a library rat.

I suspect some of us were both; library rats and avid acquirers. I certainly was! Every option to make sure there was always a selection of unread books on hand, and that’s in addition to the sheer pleasure of scrutinizing shelves in the endlessly interesting process of discovery. I still miss it, in a way; I’m virtually all digital now*, but scrolling web listings doesn’t provide the same visceral satisfaction as real book shelves did.

*I’m reading a real book now as I balked at paying the ebook price, but it’s a struggle. And there are some books where real is still the only option.

[issybird]

OK, my half-year roundup, which includes a belated confession in regard to May, where I didn’t want to face the grim truth, akin to not stepping on the scale on Monday morning after an indulgent weekend.

I had bought six books through April, but in May alone bought eight! and spent $22, exactly doubling my year-to-date expenditure. My only excuse is that it was at least in part due to expiring offers of various kinds and I’m not exactly sorry, but at some point spending money to save money is a mug’s game. Fortunately, I was able to pull myself together in June and bought only two books for $5. So on a semi-annual basis, 16 books for a total of $49, or less than two bucks per week, doesn’t seem all that terrible; however, I’m barely treading water in regard to my TBR and I’m doing extremely badly in terms of reading the books I buy right away.

And then there’s this, from yesterday:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I discovered the existence of a book and then ended up buying it 30 minutes later. Oops. To be fair, there was a very big discount making it only 2 dollars.

Comrade! I did exactly the same myself; my book was $4, but that’s immaterial. Sigh. However, it doesn’t count toward my semi-annual totals.

To be continued, unfortunately….

[Apache]

Originally Posted by issybird

I suspect some of us were both; library rats and avid acquirers. I certainly was! Every option to make sure there was always a selection of unread books on hand, and that’s in addition to the sheer pleasure of scrutinizing shelves in the endlessly interesting process of discovery. I still miss it, in a way; I’m virtually all digital now*, but scrolling web listings doesn’t provide the same visceral satisfaction as real book shelves did.

*I’m reading a real book now as I balked at paying the ebook price, but it’s a struggle. And there are some books where real is still the only option.

I live in a small town whose library has never had a large selection of books I liked to read. Sci-Fi, and Historical Fiction to name two. We also only had one retail book store by the college. They also did not have a large selection of fiction. I frequented used book stores and any place that had a rack of books. I even drove up to two hours away to check out book stores.
Apache

[pdurrant]

I have always lived in or near medium to large cities. So there were plenty of bookstores around. Including lots of second-hand ones. But finding a book I wanted to read but hadn't read before was always a struggle, with hours spent looking though bookshop shelves.

And then ebooks started to appear, and I found Baen Books' webscriptions (in 2002) and Fictionwise (in 2003). But it wasn't rally until DRM was broken in 2008 that I went wild, and started buying more than I could read.