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I read a lot but find I can usually satisfy my habit by borrowing from the library. I probably buy less than five books a year. The last books I bought were bird,plant and bug guides. I'll probably buy George RR Martin's next book when it is published this fall as I've been waiting a long time for the next in his Fire and Ice series.
Not every book I pick up is great. It's a lot easier to discard a choice after a few pages or a chapter if I haven't paid for it.
I love buying used books online....Amazon and Alibris. Since I buy so many books, this is the most cost effective way to build my library. Also shop garage sales, thrift shops, etc. Still, the online is the best if I want a specific book. Online is also great because you can read book review and readers ratings...helps in defining choices.
I often buy 2-3 books at a time, whenever the mood strikes me. Lately, have been using the library more. The funny thing is: now I am de-cluttering and plan to get rid of probably 1/2 of my books + general stuff. Even though I love my books, enough is enough.
Last edited by 'M'; 06-20-2009 at 11:51 AM..
Reason: edit
I love buying used books online....Amazon and Alibris. Since I buy so many books, this is the most cost effective way to build my library. Also shop garage sales, thrift shops, etc.
I'll buy out of print books in used editions, but I prefer to buy new to support the authors who write the books. I've seen too many of the authors I like stop writing series because the sales numbers weren't there.
I usually buy 2 or 3 a month, used from Amazon. This month, however, I bought 10 at once! I don't regret it. I've read studies that said reading helps prevent Alzheimer's so, the way I see it, I'm not spending frivolously. I am just investing in my long term mental health! At least that's how I justify it.
I am addicted to buying books. I looooove books. My mother is a librarian and I grew up with books all around me. Today I saw on a talk show the suggestion that someone had to cover all the books in white wrapping and write the title on the outside spine . This way the bookshelf would look completely uniform. How sad! I think this style "expert" did not appreciate the entire personality of a book. Books are much more than what is written in between their pages. I love the way they look on a shelf together. A family of various personalities, shapes, sizes, colors. Young and old. Perhaps I'm just weird!
I buy a lot of books. I used to sell them on ebay but I'd somehow end up buying the books back in the end . At this time I have converted several closets into libraries and luckily I have a garage for the overflow. I give away tons of books to friends. I am their library! I am 100% exclusive to Amazon for the most part. I belong to their free shipping program and their prices are amazing. I love to read book reviews. I also collect books that are just full of booklists. I'm a book junkie!
Everyone in my life knows that all I ever want for Christmas is a gift certificate for....more books of course!
I am wondering how many books we big time readers buy, and how often we buy our books.
This week as I've been visiting our community independents, I bought two on Wednesday, and another today. I also got gifted with 3-4 free review copy books.
These two purchases are unusual for me these days. Having been on the road, literally, for 1-1/2 years I rarely bought books, used the library or borrowed books from my friends. When I left NM I gave all the books away, some to the library, several bundles to a book dealer-friend and our local community charity. In VT, I was so privileged to have a wonderful library just down the road, and they intra-library loaned dozens of books whilst I lived in the community. No purhases for the entire sojourn.
Wonder what other people's buying habits might be!
I ususally buy new( or atleast new to me) books every 6 months or so. When I go to shop for them I usually pick up around 3-5 books or so. I usually use the library to get my books
I buy too many books! We just moved here and have a GREAT library within walking distance, so this will probably impact my book buying. When we moved I had more than 50 large moving boxes of books to drag along, that was after I gave a lot of books to various charities and friends. Books are so hard for me to part with, they are like friends! If they go to a good home, it's easier.... lol. OTOH, I like to support small bookstores, that's always a good excuse to buy more books.
50 boxes of books....thanks! I don't feel so bad now about all the books I buy. I've got a lot of catching up to do!
LOVE the story about your friend and his books; I'd miss him too! (Thanks for that!)
When I was I child (around the age of ten) I read on one of my mother's phrase-a-day calendars: A house without books is like a house without windows. I thought about it then and I still think about it now, almost half-a-century later.
It doesn't matter if one travels the world, or most of it, in my case, a good story will take one places that no personal odyssey can - and vice versa.
Books are personal to me and some of my best friends are characters in books, and certainly some of my best teachers. (Yes, I have friends in 'meatworld' too, LOL!) I rarely part with the books I love, the ones that resonate in my heart and spirit, and I tend to reread my favorites time and again.
I don't know how many books DH and I buy, but since our youngest left home we like to read together. I'm legally blind (not actually, just legally), so reading isn't as much fun for me as it once was, and DH reads both new books and old 'friends' to me aloud, and we both enjoy it immensely. The fact that we do it snuggling doesn't hurt.
If I kept every book I bought, I'd have way too many. I don't keep many, just some favorites. The rest I share or the wife distributes them via rummage sales (almost like giving them away).
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I don't regret it. I've read studies that said reading helps prevent Alzheimer's so, the way I see it, I'm not spending frivolously. I am just investing in my long term mental health! At least that's how I justify it.
(Thanks for that!)
