Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Attachment 213360

Accurate.

[DNSB]

For January, I added 86 books. 20 of them were from Kobo Plus and 4 were library loans so the calibre entry is a placeholder. So far in February, I haven't picked up any but the day is still young.

[pdurrant]

Alas, I bought 12 this January. More than any of the previous five years.They were all good buys - £0.99 wishlist items that I do want to read.

[DrNefario]

I had quite a big January, too. Not so much in quantity, but in price. I bought two full-price ebooks from the US, via kobo travelling. They’d been on my wishlist for years, and never been on sale, and I decided I’d finally grab them. And I bought a non-fiction book that slightly dipped in price a few weeks ago, then went back up. I grabbed it when it dipped again, even though it was still not really a bargain. I have already started that one, at least, although it is a big book and will take a while.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

£0.99 wishlist items that I do want to read.

Mandatory purchases. A major reason I've been coasting lately is that my wishlist books never go on sale anymore.

[Tarana]

Bought 5 books and 1 audiobook in January, all heavily discounted. 1 was on my wishlist. Didn't get much reading done though - distracted with family stuff.

[DNSB]

I don't maintain a wishlist anymore since the few books left on it after a few years were in the 'never go on sale' category. It still strikes me as odd that some books go on sale as regularly as the seasons while others never go on sale. Perhaps based on how long their tail is?

[Cactus Chef]

I only added five books this January. Well short of my usual Christmas/post-X-mas shopping sprees.

But then, that might have been influenced by the gift note my wife attached when she emailed me the Rakuten/Kobo gift card: "Maybe you can buy a book published this century". So in keeping with the spirit of the gift, I bought a handful of recent books on my wishlist at full price.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

"Maybe you can buy a book published this century". So in keeping with the spirit of the gift, I bought a handful of recent books on my wishlist at full price.

Great message, great gift, great response.

Price matters. I look at my wishlist and I'll probably not buy any of them, as they'll never be cheap enough. Not a problem; I have plenty I want to read.

And yet. There's a point at which the pricier books are cheaper than the cheap ones in terms of satisfaction. Every now and then, I do blow myself to a must-read, price no object, and I long ago got over (well, almost entirely) making price-driven purchases. The fact is that most of my wishlist just isn't appealing enough. Still, this is a reminder to keep reading satisfaction at the forefront. As I said upthread, I'm in danger of making not-buying a fetish and that's not the answer.

You obviously have a lovely wife who knows you!

[issybird]

As of this evening, I have now spent one dollar more on ebooks YTD than I spent all of last year.

What can I say? They were all wishlist and all but one on sale. That one was for a reading challenge and bought with Google promotional credit so I count the purchase price as zero.

No real regrets, but I was getting very comfortable (and, I admit it, a little smug) with not buying at all.

[Tarana]

I spent a bit over my annual ebook budget for 2025, but that Feb 26 cutoff drove that. I typically just wait for things to be on sale, but needed to complete some series exclusive to Amazon. I feel good that I have plenty to read so don't plan to buy more books for the rest of the year. With that in mind, I unsubscribed from BookBub as I don't need influence to buy. Will just use ereaderiq.com selectively.

I have to admit that I was really stoked that all of the Discworld books just happened to be discounted to $1.99US when this Feb 26 thing was announced. Completed my Discworld library finally. No real regrets on the purchases - just a little regret that I couldn't wait for discounts.

[pdurrant]

I went for the BookBale Kickstarter, which meant I bought a lot of books at a very good price. (£0.30 each for almost all of Christopher Stasheff's books).

I'll be the rest fo the year catching up, I expect.

Switching to purchasing from Kobo hasn't really made much difference either way. Except that I think that with price match my average purchase price is likely to be lower than before!

[pdurrant]

Hmm... I realise that perhaps this isn't the right thread for this conversation.

I AM also trying not to buy anything that isn't on a really good offer and already on my wishlist. It's just that my wishlist is long.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Hmm... I realise that perhaps this isn't the right thread for this conversation.

Yes, I was wondering about that, too, but I thought that as you're the OP and participating, it was OK. But perhaps it would be more useful if the relevant posts were moved to the Kobo discount thread?

[pdurrant]

Kobo-specific posts have been moved to the Kobo discounts thread.