Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[pdurrant]

I wouldn't have gone for it if I hadn't already spent £5 on ebooks that happened to be inside the time period.

Note that the credit doesn't need to be spent all in one go. Since mine will be valid until 26th December, I expect that I'll buy three £0.99 daily deals. But if nothing comes up in the time, there are lots of £2.99 books on my wish list that are unlikely to be discounted any time soon.

[CWatkinsNash]

I bought one 0.99 deal that was already on my wishlist. No other purchases since my return to the support group.

I had cancelled KU, but got an offer for a two-month "come back!" trial. I took it then immediately cancelled so that it will not auto-renew when the time is up. There are a couple of in-progress series that I want to get back to on there so I'm going to use the time for that. And if I don't, well, it didn't cost me anything so I'm good.

Which brings me to my next thing - I've decided to use my library only for other in-progress series for the time being. Part of my reading goals next year is to finally knock out some of those series.

And the other part of my reading goals for next year is to read books I already have, which I've already started doing.

I won't pat myself on the back just yet. It's early days. Very early.

[Camellia]

I'm feeling proud of myself! The only book I bought this month was Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, which I had already pre-ordered and immediately began reading, to boot!

We do not speak of last month.

[issybird]

Well, if we’re patting ourselves on the back....

I’ve bought one book this month; I had a $5 Kindle coupon which I put toward a wishlist book which was on sale at $7. I resisted the targeted $5 Kindle coupon for a specific wishlist book as it would still have cost me $10, and I’m continuing to resist the current spend $XX, get $YY promotion.

November, knock wood, will be my best month this year. Less than four days to go.

[pdurrant]

Best of luck!

I'm rather pleased with myself this year. After an admittedly dreadful January (only eight books, but £25.79!), I really restrained myself, and I've only added 70 books to my TBR pile this year so far (61 bought, nine freebies)

I'll be buying some books in December, as I have a £3 credit to spend. But I'll be waiting for things on my wishlist to go on offer. I expect that at least three will go to £0.99 during December.

[Tarana]

Was doing well early in the month, then crashed again. Taking advantage of sale prices to complete or substantially complete several series. They do mount up though both in total cost and TBR. On the plus side, these aren't random purchases but specific for series already started.

I've been doing well on audiobooks though. 3 new ones in November not yet heard. Should be able to get at least one of them listened before end of month.

[DrNefario]

Well, a StoryBundle of 98 books has blown my good intentions out of the water. I might count it as one purchase.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Well, a StoryBundle of 98 books has blown my good intentions out of the water. I might count it as one purchase.

I admit I laughed. And so close to the end of the year, too. Better get cracking! The downside of counting it as one purchase is that it’s one heck of a long read before you can cross it off.

As for the accounting, you do what you have to do. In my own case, I postponed a purchase until December 1 in order to log only one purchase in November, my only one-book month this year.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Well, a StoryBundle of 98 books has blown my good intentions out of the water. I might count it as one purchase.

Listing it as a bundle for now is fine if it helps! I haven't split off omnibus' volumes yet. I don't think I can handle that revised total especially since I keep finding books not included in original total.

[ekbell]

Personally when buying a bundle I count the books that convinced me to buy at that price. (ie I'd have spent that money just to get x, y, and z so they count towards my purchases; I'd not have spent money just to get a-w so they don't count)

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by ekbell

Personally when buying a bundle I count the books that convinced me to buy at that price. (ie I'd have spent that money just to get x, y, and z so they count towards my purchases; I'd not have spent money just to get a-w so they don't count)

I've always done that with game purchases. Bundles inflate my Steam library fast. But when I buy a bundle of 10 games that costs less than what I would have paid to get the one game I actually wanted out of that bundle, I don't feel at all bad about maybe never playing the other 9.

[issybird]

The blunt and embarrassing truth is that I managed to reduce my TBR by only 20 books.

I’d started the year well, with a goal of reading everything I bought and was gangbusters into April, when I lost the impetus. And of course part of the point was not just to read the books, but also to put a brake on purchases if I didn’t see myself reading them this year. Fail.

In addition, after an excellent November when I bought only one book and skated through most of December with only two purchases, one cheap and one free, I was seduced by coupons in the last few days and bought three more books, not cheap.

So, time to muster my wits and regroup for the new year. I want both to buy fewer books and spend less, but my goal has no specific numbers attached to it. I will try again for the goal of reading everything I buy, yet knowing that I’m bound to fail as I’ll let myself buy a colossal bargain from my wishlist. I’m hoping that this coming year I’ll be able to dust myself off after a slip and recommit.

[pdurrant]

I've had my best year ever, from a TBR point of view.

This has been helped by giving up my magazine subscriptions. They were expensive (compared to what I usually buy), but more importantly, I find I prefer longer stories to short stories. But if I hadn't accidentally missed one issue, I probably would still be buying them. It's strangely hard to stop subscribing when you've been reading the magazine for more than a decade.

But with 2021 only hours away, I think I can give some totals:

ebooks bought: 68. This is far lower than 2019 (166), 2018 (194) and, indeed, any previous year back to when I started keeping track in 2010 or so.

Books read: 158.

There are also some freebies acquired, and some books discarded.

The upshot is that I expect my TBR to be by reduced by 117 books this year!

I will start 2021 with 901 books on my TBR pile.

I have almost entirely kept to buying ebooks on my wish list. I'm happy with the vast majority of my purchases. And I've read most of them, too. I have only acquired (bought or freebies) 30 books this year that remain unread at the end of the year. And most of them are parts of series that I haven't got to yet.

I hope to do just as well or better in 2021.

Happy New Year!

[DrNefario]

After my big bundle purchase at the start of December put my target out of reach, I kind of went off the rails a bit and ended the year quite badly. This was partly because I got an Amazon voucher from work in lieu of a Christmas party, partly because of another "spend £10 get £3" offer, and partly to cheat and get ahead of next year's target.

I might just about have ended up reading more than I bought if I use the new bundle accounting system I came up with (count it as 1 purchase per £1, with the rest as freebies, so my 96 book storybundle would count as 24 purchases (I think) and 72 freebies - I think that roughly approximates my thinking when making the decision to buy). I'm not sure. It's probably quite close.

My overall TBR is way up because I picked up a lot of freebies this year.

I'm not unhappy with my purchases, though. I don't feel they were out of control. Even the big bundle was an area where my library was weak.

[issybird]

Happy New Year!

I can’t resist a compare/contrast with Paul, especially since we read virtually an identical number of books. I bought 39 books and read 17 of them and 59 owned books in total. The discrepancy is because slightly over a third of my read books come from my TBR; about a third are audiobooks which I don’t count as TBR and a third are pd/library.

The 39 books I bought represent my third lowest year, after 2017 and 2018. It’s more than 25% fewer than last year, so that at least was a significant improvement.