Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[ReadingManiac]

I'm chipping away at my samples and books I've been meaning to read for a long time. I managed to buy only 4 books in November, mostly tbr books that came up on sale for .99 on ereaderiq.

[Tarana]

Bought a few more this month, but really doing much better. Sadly, I haven't been reading/listening much since Mom broke her foot, but improving now. Spending too much time online but my computer is going in for warranty repair, so I'm guessing it will be gone at least 3 weeks leaving me with a good deal more reading time. I can still use tower, but can only use it for about an hour a day, so cut to just the most important.

[iBeth]

I'm having a terrible time resisting new ebooks. I have more than 10,000 titles listed in my Calibre, and 7836 in my kindle library. There's no way I will live long enough to read everything I have already downloaded!

Two things that help:

* A Chrome plugin called "Library Extension" shows up on webpages at bookstore sites (including Amazon) and tells me whether my local public library has the book whose page I'm viewing. This helps me refrain from purchasing a book that I can get from the library for free: https://www.libraryextension.com/

* The website ereaderiq.com has price history for many ebooks, which helps me determine if the current price is the best ever offered and if that low price is likely to be repeated. (The downside is that when I can see that a price is the best ever, I usually buy the book, even when I know I won't be reading it right away!)

I'm trying to persuade myself that it's better to spend full price on an ebook that I will definitely read right away, than to spent the equivalent amount on 10 ebooks that I might not get around to reading.

[pdurrant]

That is a lot of titles, even for people in this thread! (I have 4977 books in my calibre library)

The thing is to stop buying. Except in exceptional circumstances. Certainly stop buying books only because they sound interesting and are on special offer. You have hundreds or thousands of already purchased books that sounded interesting, and you should read those, not buy more.

When your unread pile gets to be more than a few dozen, it's impossible to remember what's in it. I've found the 'pick a random book' feature of calibre very useful in this repectas it means that you read the forgotten gems already purchased.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by iBeth

* A Chrome plugin called "Library Extension" shows up on webpages at bookstore sites (including Amazon) and tells me whether my local public library has the book whose page I'm viewing. This helps me refrain from purchasing a book that I can get from the library for free: https://www.libraryextension.com/

Oh, that will be very useful. Thank you.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

When your unread pile gets to be more than a few dozen, it's impossible to remember what's in it. I've found the 'pick a random book' feature of calibre very useful in this repectas it means that you read the forgotten gems already purchased.

When I finish a book, if I don't have anything specific in mind I go to my 'Unread' saved search and use 'pick random book' to decide what to put on my To Be Read list (which I keep short).

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Oh, that will be very useful. Thank you.

I've been using it for a while and it is a great extension. The developer is very helpful too. Had an issue with a recent release, provided (I hope helpful) feedback and he addressed it in less than 48 hours.

[ownedbycats]

I requested my library and the developer added it within a half-hour.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by iBeth

* A Chrome plugin called "Library Extension" shows up on webpages at bookstore sites (including Amazon) and tells me whether my local public library has the book whose page I'm viewing. https://www.libraryextension.com/

It's also available for Firefox - the inestimable issybird mentioned it here some time ago, adding more cosmic Karma to her account.

[ownedbycats]

I appreciate the irony of someone posting spam for buying eBooks in a thread full of people trying to stop buying eBooks.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I appreciate the irony of someone posting spam for buying eBooks in a thread full of people trying to stop buying eBooks.

Spam now deleted and spammer banned.

[LDB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I appreciate the irony of someone posting spam for buying eBooks in a thread full of people trying to stop buying eBooks.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Spam now deleted and spammer banned.

Well shoot, missed all the fun and didn't get to see what it was.

[Tarana]

I was reading an article on Famous Book Hoarders (https://getpocket.com/explore/item/1...=pocket-newtab) and honestly, my ebook collection would fall right into that. Kindle collection alone is over 2,000 books. Haven't combined my ebook collection into one library yet (it's a process), but probably have about 5,000 with over 1,000 still unread.

Yes, there was a time when this household collectively had over 5,000 paper books at once (4 different collectors and mostly paperbacks and yes, we have tons of bookshelves!), but all except maybe 50 had been read at least once. I'd say we are down to 600 and all of those are cookbooks, needlework and Far Side. I feel good that I seem to have managed some control now with the ebooks. Only a few bought in the last couple months and most of those were replacements for paperbooks I once read and enjoyed.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I was reading an article on Famous Book Hoarders (https://getpocket.com/explore/item/1...=pocket-newtab) and honestly, my ebook collection would fall right into that. Kindle collection alone is over 2,000 books. Haven't combined my ebook collection into one library yet (it's a process), but probably have about 5,000 with over 1,000 still unread.

It’s one of the snares of ebooks; there’s effectively no brake on acquisition. With paper books, eventually one risks going the way of the Collyer brothers. I know when I read of people having tens of thousands of ebooks, much less over 100,000, aside from the obvious inference I wonder, “Why?” So much time spent on curating and even then….

I have the same reaction to Goodreads’ friends with thousands of books on their want-to-read lists. The only persons they’re kidding are themselves. The lists would be so very much more useful if they were held to a reasonable number. I get seeing a book which appeals and it’s easy to click want-to-read and move on, but why not create a dumping ground of intriguing titles and do a reality check at regular intervals? The annoying aspect for me is that it makes their lists so much less useful.

Yes, there was a time when this household collectively had over 5,000 paper books at once (4 different collectors and mostly paperbacks and yes, we have tons of bookshelves!), but all except maybe 50 had been read at least once. I'd say we are down to 600 and all of those are cookbooks, needlework and Far Side.

Pruning my paper collection is very much a WIP for me. I wouldn’t want no books; there’s something about the visual of books, especially favorites and seminal books, which recalls them to me with an immediacy never achieved with an ebook library. But it’s definitely another case of less being far more.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by LDB

Well shoot, missed all the fun and didn't get to see what it was.

It was basically just a spammer going "you can buy cheap ebooks at this decidedly not shady url."

[Tarana]

I think my problem was just buying on sale. When I bought paperbacks, they were never on sale. I just bought a book that looked interesting or was one of my authors and read it right away. I also used the library more. Unlike my sister, I parted with most of my books soon after reading them as we had a lot of resale shops in the area. With ebooks, heck, I can get one ebook for the price of 3-4 of them if I hold out for $1.99-2.99. And even Free! So that set me up. It's good though - I'm working very hard to dry up the acquisitions river as I have about 8 years of books to read.