Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Suggestion added to the first post!

I went back and read the first post and I hope you don’t mind, but I did laugh at your massive TBR of 440 books!

If only.... and I’m talking about me!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

I went back and read the first post and I hope you don’t mind, but I did laugh at your massive TBR of 440 books!

If only.... and I’m talking about me!

That was before I used calibre to track my books. When I started using calibre in 2013/14, I found my TBR wasn't (as I thought at that time) 378, but was in fact 800. At the end of 2014 I though I was down to 750.

But then in 2016/17, I added more forgotten purchases to calibre, and my TBR reached 1166.

Since then, I'm glad to say, I've been on a mostly downwards track, and my TBR is currently 981.

I'm surprised to find that we're coming up on the 9th anniversary of this thread!

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I bought two physical books yesterday to help keep my local independent going. I bought a paperback copy of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace so that I would have a copy I can write in. I am participating in the Tolstoy Together online read, and I have always meant to buy a second copy. I have one of the original print run hardcovers, but that is too valuable to write in. I cannot use an e-copy as there are so many footnotes and endnotes - just doesn't work well on my reader and I don't want to read it at my computer.

I bought my wife Catheryne Valente's Space Opera because she loves Valente and doesn't have that one yet.

P&V is such a great translation. I love the footnoted historical and cultural references. I could do w/o the extended conversations in French, particularly in the opening scene of Anna Pavlovna's drawing room. The French declines as the book continues, Tolstoy supposedly making a point of the declining French influence in Russian Society. I've read this translation twice.

I've also read the Signet Classics version translated by Dunnigan once. I liked it as well. You get a French phrase at the start of a conversation noting it was spoken if French, but you don't have to look up the translation.

The extensive footnotes of the P&V translation are a bit of a pain for a Kindle, but aren't much problem on an iPad. My Kindle Fire handled them ok as well. The Kindle Voyage was just ok. A good responsive touch screen is a must for this one. A small diameter capacitance stylus makes things a bit easier as well. On the Voyage I had trouble getting my finger to exactly touch the footnote and take me there.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

That was before I used calibre to track my books. When I started using calibre in 2013/14, I found my TBR wasn't (as I thought at that time) 378, but was in fact 800. At the end of 2014 I though I was down to 750.

But then in 2016/17, I added more forgotten purchases to calibre, and my TBR reached 1166.

Since then, I'm glad to say, I've been on a mostly downwards track, and my TBR is currently 981.

I'm surprised to find that we're coming up on the 9th anniversary of this thread!

Funny how that was. When I finally created a spreadsheet to track all my unfinished purchases (your inspiration), ebook and audiobook separately, I kept finding things. Amazing how many books I had squirreled away from TOR, Humble bundle. Didn't even remember the Storybook ones. I'm still hopeful to reach 3 digits this year for each format.

[issybird]

I’m officially one-third of the way through May and haven’t bought any ebooks this month. A relief, after a mini-spree in April!

[pdurrant]

Congratulations!

I'm just waiting for the VAT situation in the UK to stabilise....

... but even then I plan to buy very, very few books.

[HLS]

Originally Posted by issybird

I went back and read the first post and I hope you don’t mind, but I did laugh at your massive TBR of 440 books!

If only.... and I’m talking about me!

Between KOBO, Kindle and Nook I must have 900 ebooks or more

[HLS]

Originally Posted by issybird

I’m officially one-third of the way through May and haven’t bought any ebooks this month. A relief, after a mini-spree in April!

I have not purchased too much. Less than normal at least

[leebase]

I keep telling myself "when you read all the books you have already bought...there will be new deals offered then". To keep me from buying a book "because it's a good deal". I have so many already purchased.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by leebase

I keep telling myself "when you read all the books you have already bought...there will be new deals offered then". To keep me from buying a book "because it's a good deal". I have so many already purchased.

Exactly, And once a book's been on special offer, it's far more likely to be on special offer again.

More than once I've seen a book I snapped up at £1.99 come on special offer at £0.99 before I've got around to reading it!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by leebase

I keep telling myself "when you read all the books you have already bought...there will be new deals offered then". To keep me from buying a book "because it's a good deal". I have so many already purchased.

Not to overlook that tastes change and some of those shiny new books will never seem sufficiently enticing to be your next read. It’s a secondary advantage to having a wishlist; many books that are added in that initial rush of enthusiasm are painless to purge before converting to purchase.

[Tarana]

Didn't do well this month. Try again next month. Ebooks and audiobooks seem to be my form of retail therapy. Used to be fabric. Did I just change addictions?

[issybird]

May was fine in that I bought only two books; the outlay was on the high side, however, and I’ve fallen further behind in my mandate to read all my new purchases. I’m caught up through March except for War and Peace and the online read of that will finish in a couple of weeks, but I’ve only read one of my five (!) April purchases and neither of my May. I’m not giving up, but I note that two of the unread are non-fiction of the doorstopper type and only one is fiction, so I’ll be awhile at it. And I have to stop digging the hole as I try to fill it.

[pdurrant]

I've bought five books in May, and read three of them. The other two are parts of a long running series where I don't have all the earlier volumes yet, but were on special offer at £0.99 each.

I'm doing much better this year than other years. So far, at least.

[pdurrant]

Because of Amazon's monthly deals, my buying is often weighted towards the start of the month. Two purchases so far this month already, counting as four books as one was an omnibus.