Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Is it an issue if you download PD titles faster than you read them, and free offers on Amazon / Kobo / Smashwords? Technically you didn't spend money.

Even eclutter is clutter. The more books, the more time you have to spend curating your library so it's accessible. I'd rather see/know that the books I have are books I'd like to read, even though I'm imperfect. Years and years ago I purged my Amazon account of freebies I'd never read. Whew! At least now I can scroll through my books with pleasure, aware of possibilities. My besetting sin is not getting rid of mistakes I paid for. I'd be happier if they were gone, but even though I'm well aware of the sunk cost fallacy, they have to rise to a higher level of stinkiness than freebies. As I said, imperfect.

As for PD, might as well wait on the reading. Yeah, I know, they might be pulled for various reasons including formatting, but the overwhelming majority will still be there.

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Whether I should count them as TBR when they're only vaguely potentially TBR is another question. They're not really any more TBR than the contents of project gutenberg or my local library.

The major purges are behind me and so rather than spend even more unproductive time clearing out my TBR at the margins, I treat my TBR as a relative value, i.e., books bought less (paid-for) books read. I don't have an absolute value to ascribe to my TBR. "Many", "lots", "more than I'll read in my lifetime" -- they're all good enough.

I bought only one book in November and I'm finally off the Amazon treadmill, where I kept rolling over bonus credit into more credit, so that should help keep acquisitions in check.

[ekbell]

I enjoy curating books and find satisfaction browsing through my library of public domain and freebies.

That said I do not go out of my way to find freebies unless I have an urge to curate some new books, and even then I only pick up books if there is some chance that I'll read them.

My TBR list is only for books that I've spent money on and mostly exists as a reminder to think thrice before spending money on more books.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Is it an issue if you download PD titles faster than you read them, and free offers on Amazon / Kobo / Smashwords? Technically you didn't spend money.

I suspect that many of us have been there and done that. After a while, most of the people I've chatted with seem to conclude that they should apply the same standards to a freebie that they apply to a purchase. While you are not spending money, your time has to be worth something.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I suspect that many of us have been there and done that. After a while, most of the people I've chatted with seem to conclude that they should apply the same standards to a freebie that they apply to a purchase. While you are not spending money, your time has to be worth something.

I'm with you on this. I finally took a whole WHACK of freebies and archived it off of my Calibre into a separate library. If I'm ever desperate for a book to read, I can always go look there. But the clutter is all in its very own "room" and I don't have to see it. (And there's still WAY too much crap in my main Calibre database, but that's going to take a more considered and thoughtful approach to cleaning out. But at least all the stuff there now I actually thought I might read some day. If I lived to ~125 and never bought another new book.)

[astrangerhere]

I have, at my current reading pace, about 10 years worth of books. I am replacing classics with nice editions from Standard Ebooks, and will occasionally grab extras there, if I see something I like.

There isn't anything on my shelves or in my Calibre library at this point that I don't want to read (except some paperbooks my wife buys). I am trying to curate for retirement

[Tarana]

November was good and bad. Only bought 5 ebooks and those with credits (credit card rewards+Kindle rewards). All series currently reading. The bad was the member sale at Audible. I'd say close to a year of listening at my current rate. About a half and half blend of novellas and full length books.

[Cactus Chef]

I managed to only buy five ebooks in November! Unfortunately, it was offset by the dozen or so digital comics I purchased during D.C's Black Friday sale...

[ownedbycats]

I only bought one book in November.

Mostly been catching up on the pile of shame and keeping up with my fanfic updates.

My last survey payment I put towards a Kobo gift card that I will get on December 24th.

[CWatkinsNash]

I managed to get through the post-Christmas "stuff your ereader" sales with only 5 books, three of which were free, and I'm already reading one of the freebies.

I'm just going to pretend the whole rest of the month doesn't matter.

[DNSB]

I made it through two stuff your ereader sales with only two ebooks both of which were picked up for my wife. It would have been quite a few more but calibre kept saying you already have this book. There is a fantasy/SF one coming up which may be a lot more tempting to me but that's not till January.

OTOH, to this point in December, I have added 103 ebooks to my collection.

[ownedbycats]

I bought 3 books for Christmas and read all three in the span of a few hours. Maybe I should've gotten longer books, lol.

[issybird]

I bought a total of 38 books in 2023 for my best year since 2018 (32). I anticipate doing better still in 2024, as exactly half of my purchases were from Amazon, occasioned in part by Kindle Rewards bonus points and I'm done with the program. It'll be difficult to beat my best year, 2017, when I bought only 22 books, but that's my goal -- although I'll consider it a moral victory if I hold it to two books per month.

[pdurrant]

I've bought 132 this year (so far!). Well above my total last year of 84.

I was rather undone by August, which saw 43 purchases.

OTOH, there are very few purchases this year that I regret buying. Is this a good thing or a bad one? Perhaps there won't be such splendid offers in 2024 as in 2023, and I can keep my purchases under 100 again.

[ownedbycats]

If I don't count freebies, I bought 30 books this year, last year I bought 44.

My income is somewhat limited though, which curbs the entire impulse purchase thing - I only browse when I have the money to spend. Most my acquisitions are freebies, library loans, and fanfics.

[Uncle Robin]

My Kobo purchase history shows 71 books purchased in 2023, so with Amazon and Smashwords, I'd be close to 80, I think. It might be time for an intervention after all.