Monday, August 19, 2019

Ramblings from the Stacks - Book Buying Habits

Lately I've been thinking about my book buying habits.  Unlike a lot of readers I've never really spent THAT much on books.  I relied heavily on libraries and when I was a bit older used bookstores.  From there I graduated to paperbackswap and then started blogging and got caught up in review books and started visiting my library again.  I've very rarely bought new books though.  For the most part it was necessity.  I just couldn't afford it - especially when I was a bit younger and was reading up to 200 books a year. 

But now I'm not reading quite so fast and my budget has a little more breathing room and I'm reevaluating my book acquiring habits. So I've made the very difficult decision - I'm going to buy more books new and I'm going to pre-order new books from my favorite authors whenever possible.  It was a tough decision but somehow I made my peace with it!  I figure that's the best way to tell my favorite authors (especially when they're writing my favorite series) to keep doing what they're doing. 

I'm still going to do my best to keep my local library and my local used bookstore in business and I'm sure I'll keep ending up with way too many review books but I'm going to add in buying new books as well.

Do you buy books?  Where do most of your books come from? As long as we're reading I don't think there's a wrong answer (unless you're pirating - that's not okay).

13 comments:

  1. I buy all my books. I don't have much choice in the matter as the books I read never appear in libraries and charity shops. If I want my Indie authors or apocalypse and creature feature, I have to use Amazon. To order a book in our library, you have to pay up to £2 just to get it brought to the library and it makes more sense to buy it at that price on Kindle so I can read it at leisure and reread it when I want. I get pretty much everything from Amazon, other than the odd browse in a charity or second hand bookshop.

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  2. I do buy about 2 new Amazon e-books a month for my kindles. Then I supplement with library and thrift shop, and NG reviews. I try to look for new books I want that are reasonably priced, and that might have me choosing a book near the top of my wishlist but not the first choice. It's a balancing act, to be sure. If you have extra money budgeted for entertainment, then go for it. We don't go to the movie theater anymore, or out to nice restaurants, so we have a certain amount of money for our hobbies.

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  3. I don't buy many books either.. Most of my books also come from paperbackswap or goodreads giveaways.. the kids mostly use the library for their reading though I will occasionally let them buy books from both book stores as well as used book fairs.

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  4. I use Audible and Kindle Unlimited for audiobooks. I use Amazon (a little) and physical stores for most of my hardcovers, and I also use the library and library sales a lot.

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  5. I think when we have accessible money then book buying does increase. However libraries are still good and I try to get them from there too. But... top fave authors I buy and pre-order for sure. As I read a lot of USA authors that means buying them from the Book Depository in the UK which has just about every book (almost) and free shipping. I see it as a way of supporting authors. Then I do buy Kindle books especially when they are not so easily accessible in paperback. I am just so grateful for the reading opportunities available these days. In our shops its NZ and Australian and UK books mainly with some USA books. Depends on world rights I think. I could order but can get them quicker myself from the Book Dep. Sometimes I get paperbacks from Amazon but postage usually prohibits unless I can't get it anywhere else. And of course Audible! Was a very early customer there.

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  6. We mostly buy the books we want to read, or use Kindle Unlimited - both mostly from Amazon. I also get a steady stream of Netgalley arcs to help out our reading habit, which I feel is fine because I always read and review those arcs, unless I occasionally DNF them. I do try to use the library, but these days I really prefer using audio or ebooks instead of print - much kinder on the eyes!

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  7. I used to buy a lot of books. I have a ton of purchased books that are unread in my personal library and I love to visit my local library. I had to stop buying books this year though. After my husband lost his job in the spring, our budget just wouldn't allow any extra purchases. He is working again but not for the same rate of pay so I am still not buying anything except the occasional book for $1 or so.

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  8. I tend to rely on all the amazing libraries around me---I belong to three of them, and I can find almost everything there. But now and then I have to buy a book or two....

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  9. I mostly buy new, but I try to go with Kindle a lot of times to save a few bucks (although with Kindle lately some new releases are barely cheaper than a hardcover)! I still love a used bookstore though, even as many of them around here sort of dry up.

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  10. I try not to buy too many new books, especially the super expensive ones, but I can't seem to resist! I do use coupons and deals as much as I can to lessen the cost. I also trade in books at my local indie to get store credit, so I can get new books for less. I've got book stacks absolutely everywhere in my house, though, so I've obviously acquired way more than I can ever read in a lifetime. It's not hoarding if it's books, right??

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  11. Before knitting and crafting, yeah, I'd buy books all the time. I used to join that 8-9 books for a penny and then buying a book each month deal. After knitting and crafting, I only buy books, and usually the Kindle versions, if I really, really like the series and know I'll read it over and over through time.

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    1. Oh and I have bought books if they're 99 cents on Amazon.

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  12. I am a book buyer that really doesn't have the budget for it and so have had to cut way back. Pre-child days I would shop for books every other week. Now I watch for sales and don't buy as many. I really should rely more on the library, but I've found they don't carry a lot of the books I like to read (or even have them available on interlibrary loan). So, I end up buying them. I have a huge TBR mountain though, so it's not like I really need more books . . .

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