Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[DrNefario]

I think you need a bit of organisation when the numbers get big, or you just don't know what you've got.

My TBR is a spreadsheet on Google Docs (which I guess I should grudgingly call Drive now), which contains everything I own that I haven't read - freebies, paper books, shorter works, entire Baen CDs, etc - and is currently at 1176 rows. I still haven't managed to filter it down to things I would actually like to read, but even if I halve it that's still quite a lot of reading.

And it's still heading in the wrong direction.

[pdurrant]

My TBR is in calibre. I have a 'read' column, which is Yes, No or undefined. Freebies and discarded purchases get undefined. Ones I've read get marked Yes, ones I intend to read (purchased and freebies) get marked No.

Currently showing 764 TBR.

[CRussel]

My Calibre column is a bit more complicated. I've got Read, NotRead, ReRead, TBR, NotInterested, and Abandoned. NotRead being books that I acquire but don't actually have any _immediate_ interest in reading (extra books in a Baen Bundle, for example, or freebies that seem mildly interesting.) NotInterested are books that don't even manage to get to the NotRead level. TBR is books I'm actively interested in reading in the near term. The other categories are pretty self-evident.

Right now I have only 29 in my TBR, but then I have a bunch that haven't been categorized yet. My TBR collection actually contains ~100 books. Some of which have been there long enough that I guess I'm not all that interested.

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

My TBR is in calibre. I have a 'read' column, which is Yes, No or undefined. Freebies and discarded purchases get undefined. Ones I've read get marked Yes, ones I intend to read (purchased and freebies) get marked No.

Currently showing 764 TBR.

Each time you describe your methods, Paul, I experience a second of incredulity that my methods are identical. Then I remember that I've been copying your methods for two years.

Currently showing 1019 TBR. I need to step up my mimicry efforts.

[Tarana]

Everyone sounds so much more organized than me.

No, I'm not organized at all. Just one of my challenges THIS YEAR was to list everything that I bought and the price I paid. Mine includes not only ebooks but audiobooks and those whispersync $1.99 books are killing me (hard to resist since I don't see well).

My TBR is probably less than Paul's, but maybe not that much less. I need about 4 hours of uninterrupted time on the desktop computer and that just never happens. This is because I want to seperate the freebees from the purchases and that requires a fair amount of clicking. On the other hand, sorting all that stuff does take away from actual reading. hmmm...

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

My TBR is in calibre. I have a 'read' column, which is Yes, No or undefined. Freebies and discarded purchases get undefined. Ones I've read get marked Yes, ones I intend to read (purchased and freebies) get marked No.

Currently showing 764 TBR.

I move books I read to a separate library. Exception is Kindle books which due to how Kindle for PC operates must be in a separate library. But I like the yes/no column for Kindle books.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So those 900 are bought ebooks you haven't yet read? That is a very hefty TBR. My TBR is a mere 764 as of today.

A 'mere' 764 books.

Most normal people don't read 764 books in their entire life, and it would take me 15 years.

I can never read what I bought already, let alone all the public domain stuff I have.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

A 'mere' 764 books.

'Mere' compared to 900+.

And now back up to 767, after reading two but buying five more. (Stephen Baxter SF books on special offer at £0.98 each)

I admit that I have around 4 years of books on hand. But some of them I don't expect to get to for longer than four years (the last ones in some author collections - Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer).

I'm hoping to get down to about six months to a year's worth of books in my TBR eventually - say 100 to 200 books. I'm not sure I'll make it this decade though...

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

'Mere' compared to 900+.

And now back up to 767, after reading two but buying five more. (Stephen Baxter SF books on special offer at £0.98 each)

I admit that I have around 4 years of books on hand. But some of them I don't expect to get to for longer than four years (the last ones in some author collections - Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer).

I'm hoping to get down to about six months to a year's worth of books in my TBR eventually - say 100 to 200 books. I'm not sure I'll make it this decade though...

Even if you manage to read 150 books per year, it would still take 7 or 8 years to read them all! That's a lot of books.

As for me, I bought another ebook yesterday Well, I used a coupon so it was cheap. And it's a series I'm collecting/reading, so I'd say it's okay.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm hoping to get down to about six months to a year's worth of books in my TBR eventually - say 100 to 200 books. I'm not sure I'll make it this decade though...

I quit making lists and making TBR's. I don't really care anymore, as long as I can get some very big Kobo codes now and again. If I can buy books at a rate of under €1 (sometimes as low as €0.35), I just buy everything that strikes my fancy. "Hey, 10 Malazan books in a €89 omnibus, now for €8.90. Hm. Very good reviews. GET OVER HERE!"

Compared to the paperbacks I bought in the past it's all negligible, both the financial outlay and the space required. I can now get 10+ books for the price I paid for one crappily printed and glued paperback back then, and it doesn't cost any space to store them.

So, if codes are available, I buy what I want in a gigantic spree, organize the books in calibre, make backups of my disk, and forget about them. When I want to read something, I use calibre as my personal library. (Obviously, it's a library restricted to genres and books I would actually read.)

Sometimes I have calibre pick a random book for me, and then I read that; if it's in the middle of a series which I didn't read yet, I'll start with the first book of that series.

[gabby98]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

.....

I'm hoping to get down to about six months to a year's worth of books in my TBR eventually - say 100 to 200 books. I'm not sure I'll make it this decade though...

If that's what you read in a six month period, I wanna be like you when I grow up I'm just aiming to read 52 this year but I am getting better at reading more that before

Originally Posted by Katsunami

......

Sometimes I have calibre pick a random book for me, and then I read that; if it's in the middle of a series which I didn't read yet, I'll start with the first book of that series.

I only tend to buy when kobo makes it hard to resist or when I can't wait for them when I REALLY want to read something...freebies on the otherhand I'll take a what I can get cause I may find something I like or something to keep a fam member quiet lol. So at least my buying has improved a bit, even if my tbr is ridiculous.

The random thing helps me a lot. I rotate through series I'm already reading then I let calibre choose a random non-series book for me to read then start the rotation again. When I need a new series to start, I use the random again. Takes all the tough decision making out if it.

[Melon Soda]

To think I was worried if my 100+ ebooks (with around 80 of them free) would be considered too crazy! I'm not even sure if I can finish all of them.... I've been on a buying frenzy since discovering the Kobo discount thread, so now it's a case of "too many books, too little time" for me rofl!

With a helpful tip from another forum member here, I've discovered and downloaded Calibre to manage all my ebooks, which makes things so much easier, neater and more organized for me! At least now I won't get "lost" in my e-library when it keeps expanding, though I doubt it'd hit 700+ ebooks!

[BuyMore]

Originally Posted by Melon Soda

To think I was worried if my 100+ ebooks (with around 80 of them free) would be considered too crazy! I'm not even sure if I can finish all of them.... I've been on a buying frenzy since discovering the Kobo discount thread, so now it's a case of "too many books, too little time" for me rofl!

With a helpful tip from another forum member here, I've discovered and downloaded Calibre to manage all my ebooks, which makes things so much easier, neater and more organized for me! At least now I won't get "lost" in my e-library when it keeps expanding, though I doubt it'd hit 700+ ebooks!

I've had more than 650 ebooks in my library in just a little over a year. Looking at your buying rate (especially with the coupons), I think you can easily hit 700+ ebooks in a couple of years' time.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Melon Soda

To think I was worried if my 100+ ebooks (with around 80 of them free) would be considered too crazy! I'm not even sure if I can finish all of them.... I've been on a buying frenzy since discovering the Kobo discount thread, so now it's a case of "too many books, too little time" for me rofl!

The nice thing about ebooks is that they don't take up physical space and they don't decay and they're easy to transport. You can buy them when they're on special offer and read them at your leisure. 20 paid-for ebooks is perfectly sensible as a start on a reasonable TBR pile, so that you have something good to read while waiting for the next sale or special offer. You only have to watch out when your TBR pile grows to more than a years worth of reading, IMO.

Of course, that's just my opinion. Some people consider their ebook spend to be such a small part of their overall budget that they don't worry about the size of their TBR.

I've bought 205 ebooks this year so far, and spent only £190 on them - less than £1 per ebook! £7.50 per week is well within my disposable income, even if it's a little more than I'm intending to average this year (around £6 per week).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

Even if you manage to read 150 books per year, it would still take 7 or 8 years to read them all! That's a lot of books.

202 last year, 187 in 2012, 208 in 2011 and 160 in 2010. That's 757 books in four years.

I do read rather a lot. And it seems likely I'll exceed my 2011 total this year - I now have a daily commute on a train and a bus, so I read then as well. 119 so far this year.