Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[wandalynn]

Ending the year with 179 owned but unread ebooks and paperbooks. I began with 184, deleted 1 that was gosh-awful, and acquired 15 newbies. Of these owned books I read 19. That’s 15 new books and 19 read.

Overall, I read 87 books of which 39 were borrowed, 19 were owned, 12 were audiobooks either borrowed or owned, and 17 were advance reading copies.

My goal for the next year is to only buy books I plan to read right away. Even if they’re not on sale. I think I’ll spend less that way than by buying bargains that I just end up hoarding. Also, I’m setting a LibraryThing ROOT (Read Our Own Tomes) goal of 18 books including audio.

01/07 - 179 found 1 ebook
01/31 - 179
02/28 - 178
03/22 - 177 deleted 1 ebook
03/31 - 176
04/30 - 177
05/31 - 180
06/30 - 179
07/31 - 181
08/31 - 181
09/30 - 181
10/31 - 181
11/30 - 182
12/31 - 183

[CAFlanny]

Technically, the month is not over, but I'm not going to get any further in my reading goals. I read 10 books this month, with 8 books from TBR and 2 from KU. I bought 2 books, so I start the year with a TBR of 232.

My plan for 2022 is to really focus on getting through those paid for books that I've let pile up. Before August of this year, I was reading a lot from Kindle Unlimited and got stuck in a rut of always reading the same type of book. I've started using the pick a random book feature of calibre, which helps change things up.

[issybird]

For the coming year, I’m going to try to restrict myself to purchasing wishlist books only; i.e., no purchases where the price creates the want. I won’t be petty about it; if I run across a book for cheap that’s exactly my thing I’ll go for it, but I’ll try to be like a horse with blinders on, so to speak. If I don’t see it, I can’t buy it.

[pdurrant]

I have bought one book already! But it is the monthly Dick Francis. In the UK the publisher seems to be offering one random Dick Francis novel at £0.99 each month. I suppoe I could have waited until nearer the end of the month to make my figures look better, but I don't want to miss it.

I'm certainly not going out and looking for bargains. But if uk.ereaderiq.com tells me that one of the books on my wishlist has reached the desired price (mostly £1.00), I'll probably get it.

[bookaho!ic]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I have bought one book already! But it is the monthly Dick Francis. In the UK the publisher seems to be offering one random Dick Francis novel at £0.99 each month. I suppoe I could have waited until nearer the end of the month to make my figures look better, but I don't want to miss it.

I'm certainly not going out and looking for bargains. But if uk.ereaderiq.com tells me that one of the books on my wishlist has reached the desired price (mostly £1.00), I'll probably get it.

bought 4 this morning went through my wishlist and bought the 4 that had been reduced to 0.99p each. no hope for me lol

[DrNefario]

I'm very happy with my 2021. I bought just 27 books, and have started 22 of them (finished 19). Only 2 were in paper, both non-fiction hardbacks, and one was also bundled with a PDF, which is what I'm actually reading (also both in the started-but-not-finished group - one is a very long listicle type coffee-table book that I'll be inching through for ages, and the other I just haven't wanted to read so much because it is in paper).

I read 72 books, well over twice as much.

Including freebies and loans, my unread count is still slightly up (79 total books in), but not by much, and I've decided I don't care about freebies. They aren't doing any harm. If I want to read them, I can; if I don't, I won't.

I guess I'm saying I think I might be cured.

Or, to put it another way, I have accumulated so many unread books already that it's increasingly ridiculous to buy more, especially if I'm not going to read them immediately.

[DNSB]

Just checking and for December, 2021, I purchased 73 books. 11 of them were purchased with Kobo gift cards that I received for Christmas so I'm ended the year with 6 unread books. One of the series that I bought was definitely worth the price, one of them was not bad and the third was good until near the end of the last book where the author pulled a deux ex machina to get out the corner she'd painted the main characters into.

Oh, ghod, for however long I have a TBR pile.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DNSB

One of the series that I bought was definitely worth the price, one of them was not bad and the third was good until near the end of the last book where the author pulled a deux ex machina to get out the corner she'd painted the main characters into.

One of the cozy mysteries I read -- it's probably not a good sign when the protagonist is so awful that you start cheering when the murderer tries to kill them near the end of the book...

Also, I have a friend who DNF'd a book and when he went to look up the ending it turned out that in a military sci-fi book, Dracula suddenly shows up and kills all the aliens.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also, I have a friend who DNF'd a book and when he went to look up the ending it turned out that in a military sci-fi book, Dracula suddenly shows up and kills all the aliens.

That would suck! #tooeasy #sorrynotsorry

[leebase]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

.

Also, I have a friend who DNF'd a book and when he went to look up the ending it turned out that in a military sci-fi book, Dracula suddenly shows up and kills all the aliens.

Yes! That totally p#ssed me off. I love David Weber and his military sci fi. And it was a typically good book until the ending. Vampires…WTF

I tried to figure out how to contact him to chastise him

[Apache]

Originally Posted by leebase

Yes! That totally p#ssed me off. I love David Weber and his military sci fi. And it was a typically good book until the ending. Vampires…WTF

I tried to figure out how to contact him to chastise him

Worst book of his I ever read. And he wrote a sequel, which I did not buy.
Apache

[issybird]

Kind of a bad news, good news status update.

On Sunday, only the second day of the year! I fell prey to a good value on a book of some interest. And then today, I caught myself investigating a couple of intriguing prices and finally said, STOP. So not only did I back off, I contacted Kobo CS and returned my Sunday purchase. (Pity I didn’t buy it at Amazon, which is where I saw it anyway.)

So the slate has been wiped clean and I hope I’ve both learned a lesson (again!) and that success will breed success. Because I really don’t need more ebooks.

(On a related but OT note: I also went through my holds at OverDrive and canceled most of them - the ones of less than extremely high interest. If it’s a book I really want to read, lowering my TBR rather than reading a borrowed book becomes a foolish goal. However, the problem with library books and one I’ve had my entire life is that the nature of due dates pushes the books I want to read most down the reading queue behind marginal books that need to be returned.)

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Kind of a bad news, good news status update.

On Sunday, only the second day of the year! I fell prey to a good value on a book of some interest. And then today, I caught myself investigating a couple of intriguing prices and finally said, STOP. So not only did I back off, I contacted Kobo CS and returned my Sunday purchase. (Pity I didn’t buy it at Amazon, which is where I saw it anyway.)

So the slate has been wiped clean and I hope I’ve both learned a lesson (again!) and that success will breed success. Because I really don’t need more ebooks.

(On a related but OT note: I also went through my holds at OverDrive and canceled most of them - the ones of less than extremely high interest. If it’s a book I really want to read, lowering my TBR rather than reading a borrowed book becomes a foolish goal. However, the problem with library books and one I’ve had my entire life is that the nature of due dates pushes the books I want to read most down the reading queue behind marginal books that need to be returned.)

Cheers to you for that!

For the New Year, I made sure that my court bag included my Kobo Mini. I usually work at a public library if court ends early due to travel logistics. Being IN the library usually led to getting library books that I didn't really need.

Having my mini with me led me to start actually reading a book I own yesterday rather than checking one out. It means I have different books going on different readers, but its not really an different than having a book going on the reader and a library book on the beside table.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Cheers to you for that!

For the New Year, I made sure that my court bag included my Kobo Mini. I usually work at a public library if court ends early due to travel logistics. Being IN the library usually led to getting library books that I didn't really need.

Having my mini with me led me to start actually reading a book I own yesterday rather than checking one out. It means I have different books going on different readers, but its not really an different than having a book going on the reader and a library book on the beside table.

I’m a firm believer in having a reader that lives in my out-and-about-bag; that way it can’t be forgotten. Overall, I tend to keep lighter reads on it, things that won’t suffer from distractions and short reading stints. And on the Mini, my battery is still going gangbusters which is really quite gratifying when you consider how old they are. It certainly minimizes the, “Dang, I left it on the charger” issue.

ETA: Yes, the library issue is that it’s a hidden cost. The books appeal because they’re free, leading to lower criteria - except that reading time is not free.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by leebase

Yes! That totally p#ssed me off. I love David Weber and his military sci fi. And it was a typically good book until the ending. Vampires…WTF

I tried to figure out how to contact him to chastise him

I remember that book. I'm a big Weber fan, too. I HATED that ending. I'm not sure if I've ever been more disappointed in an ending than that one. If it would have been a paperback I would have thrown it across the room and then set it on fire, probably.