Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I feel I shouldn't waste money on books I'm never going to read.

I guess. I suppose I'm still deluding myself that I will read them all eventually. I don't buy a book that I just don't see myself reading.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I guess. I suppose I'm still deluding myself that I will read them all eventually. I don't buy a book that I just don't see myself reading.

I've had more than ten years of deluding myself that I'll read them all. I still have unread books from 2008, although I have managed to read all those I bought from 2002 to 2007!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've had more than ten years of deluding myself that I'll read them all. I still have unread books from 2008, although I have managed to read all those I bought from 2002 to 2007!

I think if I tried organizing myself that much I would enjoy reading less. Though I admire those that do.

[astrangerhere]

Being out of work last year really fixed this problem for me. I have six months of not a single purchase and I read more books last year that I have ever read before. My TBR is already down a net 6 books this year. Even though I am financially able to resume the habit, I seem to be perfectly happy not to do so.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by issybird

So far this year I've only bought the one book which looks as if it'll be the New Leaf Book Club selection so that's accounted for; however, I know I'll be using up some about-to-expire Google Play credit in the next week or so, but I'll try to be strategic about it.

You have to use those Google credits. Being able to take $5 off an Agency priced book is like seeing a unicorn.

Also, I hope their popularity encourages Google to continue offering them and spend resources on their ebookstore and app.

[Jo69]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Welcome!

First bit of advice would be to mark all those you're no longer interested in reading as 'neither read nor unread', i.e. blank in the calibre read column.

Thanks yes I do that
It helps that thanks to these boards I now know how to highlight the books I have read

[Jo69]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've decided that I must read all books I've bought (and buy) this year before I read anything else. Unless it's a series where I have yet to read the earlier books.

Perhaps the prospect of having to read the book urgently will help to restrain me. I've not got off to a good start in 2018.

Good luck with that lol
Let me know how you did it if it works
I find I have got so many cheap psychological thrillers that sound really good, but a lot of them don't live up to the reviews
But my favourite authors it is cheaper to buy the paperback
Linwood Barclay
Michael Connelly
Harlan Coben
Robert Crais
Think will have to order them from the actual book library lol
As our ELibrary never seems to have newer books.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Jo69

But my favourite authors it is cheaper to buy the paperback

Since I have such a large stack of books I want to read, I tend to just wait for special offers on new books I want.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Being out of work last year really fixed this problem for me. I have six months of not a single purchase and I read more books last year that I have ever read before. My TBR is already down a net 6 books this year. Even though I am financially able to resume the habit, I seem to be perfectly happy not to do so.

Yes, it certainly does cut into your eBook purchases, doesn't it? Hard to justify buying an eBook when you already have hundreds in your TBR and there's still food to be bought.

I started out this year with a rather reckless abandon on the buying front, fueled in part by three favourite series that all had new books in the first week and a half of January. And then I started looking for books for the New Leaf Book Club to nominate, and that took me down some places I hadn't been and just had to buy books that I discovered. And I had done so well last year.

[DrNefario]

I think I have backed myself into a corner where I'm going to need to buy an ebook for the regular agency asking price. I'm surprisingly annoyed about it, even though I'm going to read it immediately and I can cover the price with a christmas gift card balance. I really ought to buy it today, but I'm still putting it off.

(I was intending to borrow the paper version from the local library system, but neither of the two copies near me have been available lately.)

[Jo69]

What exactly is the TBR list?
Is it a wish list you've created on amazon or somewhere?
Or a column of the books in your Calibre Library that yes you will read one day?
As opposed to many that you won't?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Jo69

What exactly is the TBR list?
Is it a wish list you've created on amazon or somewhere?
Or a column of the books in your Calibre Library that yes you will read one day?
As opposed to many that you won't?

In my case, it's my "To Be Read" list, and it's all the books I have in calibre that are marked unread. Most of the rest of the books are marked read, but there are some which I've bought but decided not to read. These have the "Read" column left blank.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Since I have such a large stack of books I want to read, I tend to just wait for special offers on new books I want.

Sales are always my problem. I am very tempted by sales, but not half as much as $1.99 Audible whispersync companion titles. Fortunately, they raised the price on those, so I'm less likely to get them.

I took Paul's idea last year and listed books by date of purchase (spreadsheets are great for this) as well as where I have the audio/book (so I can find it!). Took about a week to do that list because I kept remembering "oh, I have some books at that site; Oh, I bought some audios at Downpour". Read/listened to everything before 2010, so yay! Since I joined The Ebook Addicts Support thread, I've been buying about 20 books fewer per year than I can read, so it's going to take some time to get caught up, but there is hope. BTW, yes, I have downloaded everything and archived it, but sometimes there are updates that I didn't know about, so I download again.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

In my case, it's my "To Be Read" list, and it's all the books I have in calibre that are marked unread. Most of the rest of the books are marked read, but there are some which I've bought but decided not to read. These have the "Read" column left blank.

I have a 5-way Read column, myself: TBR, Read, Not Read (meaning I might get to it eventually, such as later books in a series I binge bought), Not Interested (likely books in a Baen bundle that I have no intention of reading), and Abandoned (What it says -- books I gave the old college try to, but eventually gave up on in disgust.) This tends to keep my TBR down to manageable size, since even when I buy several books in a series, only the next, or next two, go on the TBR. Once I read the one that's on the TBR, then next in line goes on, so my TBR doesn't necessarily go down when I read a book. (For example, I have started reading PD James' Dalgliesh series, and have read 6 of them. But have them ALL in Calibre. Only #7, A Taste of Death, is in my TBR.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Jo69

What exactly is the TBR list?
Is it a wish list you've created on amazon or somewhere?
Or a column of the books in your Calibre Library that yes you will read one day?
As opposed to many that you won't?

For me, it's the set of all books I have purchased (or acquired for free) which I have not yet read but want/intend to read. Due to its size, I more often refer to it as the Tsundoku Massif.

I organize that set in two loose ways. In Goodreads, I maintain a "limbo-unread" list for ebooks that I need/want to go through and at least check the formatting on before loading them on a device. (Most of the indie fiction I buy has rather glaring problems in that area, such as excessive line spacing or using hardcoded spaces to indent paragraphs instead of just defining those paragraphs as being indented.) Once I process a book and load it onto my reader, it gets moved onto one of three lists to indicate urgency. "Want to Read" is the lowest, typically indicating that it's a sequel with other volumes ahead of it. "Shortlist" is for most books that have no such prerequisite - something I could read at any time. "Now-list" is the top, maybe 25 books which have attracted my attention. When I finish one book, I typically select my next one from "now-list" - unless I'm reading a series, in which case I go to "Want to read" to find the next book.

The other loose way amounts to prioritizing which limbo books to process first, and that's an even more complicated, tangled mess. Some of the levels in that system include "need to download" (usually for Smashwords, where downloading and adding the ISBN, description, and the full-size cover are four different manual tasks), "need to add/fix metadata," and at least four levels of urgency apply.

Like I said, it's a big collection, and I deal with that by using priorities to chop it into (more) manageable pieces.