Just One Reader's Opinion!

On Buying Books

I have a problem.

I’m sure it’s not a unique problem, especially to my fellow bloggers: I have a book problem. Specifically, a book buying problem. I can’t help it – when I see a book that I want, I just have to have it right away. Even when I have other books to read first, I can’t help myself. I see a book, I want it, I (usually) buy it.

I’ve tried to cut back, by using the library and borrowing books (I’m very grateful to my blogging friends who so generously lend their books out), but somehow it isn’t the same. Sometimes I borrow a book and end up purchasing my own copy anyway. Sometimes a book comes in from the library but I’m not ready to read it yet. That’s when my book buying impulse is at its worst: I figure I may as well buy the book so that I can read it when I’m ready, rather than waiting on the library some other time.

But why don’t I read my library books when they come in? I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but sometimes the time just doesn’t feel right to read a book. Unless it’s an ARC with an upcoming release date, a book I’ve borrowed from a friend, or a read-along book, I tend to read according to my feelings rather than a schedule: does a book practically jump off the shelf at me, demanding to be read? Is it a new release I’ve been waiting on for months? Is it a book that’s been highly recommended by a friend? Choosing what to read next that way makes it difficult at times to take something out from the library because I may not be ready to read it.

For example, I’ve been wanting to read Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds for ages. I’ve been toying with the idea of just buying a copy but instead put a hold on it at the library. I picked it up two weeks ago and it’s still sitting on my shelf, untouched. I want to read it, but I’m in the middle of two books at the moment and I don’t like having too many books on the go. I tend to only read one or two at a time. And with the sequel, Never Fade, coming out next month, part of me thinks I should just wait and buy both, so that they can sit together on my bookshelf (or the floor near the bookshelf – my shelves are jam-packed already) and I can pick them up when the time is right. Sigh.

And I’ve tried to cull my book collection. I’ve donated three boxes of books already in the past month, and I’m sure if I was really honest with myself about what I’m going to reread, I could find more to give away. But I love the idea of building up a library over time, because my library says a lot about me. And even if I don’t reread a book, there’s a comfort in knowing that I could, that it’s right there on the bookshelf and I can return to it any time I want. Looking at my bookshelf is soothing. And what if I want to lend a book to someone? I can’t do that with a library book or one that I borrowed from a friend. And if I own the first book in a series, I have to buy the other books so that I have the complete series on my shelf.

I fear things will only get worse.

My apartment is tiny. Shoebox size. I have two bookshelves that are already crowded, and my husband tolerates my mountains of books taking up precious apartment space, but I’m not sure how much longer that will last.

Every time I start a new self-imposed ban on purchasing books, I fail, because there’s always that one book that I say I need. I tell myself that it’s okay, I’ll just buy this book and nothing else, but it’s a slippery slope, my friends. One book leads to two, sometimes three, and before I know what’s happened, I’ve ruined my diet.

There are so many books coming out soon that I’m excited about, but this comes at a time when I’m desperately trying to save money for a new laptop and (hopefully) a trip to New York for BEA in 2014. I know I shouldn’t buy all the books, but I lose all self-control in a bookstore. Even in the vicinity of a bookstore. I’ve started taking an alternate route home from work so that I avoid a certain bookstore that I can’t seem to walk by without going in ‘just to browse’.

What’s a girl to do? Are there any solutions? Or should I just accept it, quit feeling so bad about it, and carry on? How do my fellow readers and bloggers handle the urge to have all the books?

4 Responses

  1. I buy all the books. It’s ridiculous, the number of unread books I have. But it’s comforting, too. In a Rear Window-type situation, I would have enough to read for months, easily. (Okay, years.)

    You have to come to BEA!

  2. Hi Kim,

    What can I say? What advice can I (of all people) give? If an alcoholic granddaughter looks for help she is not liable to get anything really worthwhile from her boozy grandfather.
    I have had this exact problem since I was about nine years old- that’s a long time. I hope things work out for you and Kevin the way mine did. Earn enough money to buy a house, then get in to a bigger one and maybe another one as time passes by. The bigger the place should mean a bigger space for that “problem”- that nice problem- you have that I hope never goes away.

    Love,

    Grandpa

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