I made a good faith effort. I did! I didn’t get but 30 minutes to read Tuesday because I was under the weather among other things. I know, excuses, excuses. I plan to still do my review of my regency romance but it just won’t be today (ducking for cover).
Where does the time go? We only have two months left for this year’s challenge! For those who are wondering if I shall continue this challenge next year — the answer is yes, I will. There just won’t be any monetary incentive because I be broke. The rest of this post dissolves into a long rant about my buying habits so I am letting you know before you hit the ‘more’ link that the rest of this post is a rant that may or may not make any sense at all.
It begs the question though as to why we buy so many damn books. And then we don’t read them. It seems crazy when you think about it. I wish I had the discipline to read all my new books when I first get them and not set them aside. What I need to do is not buy anymore books until I finish reading the new books that I already own. Yeah, right. That’ll never happen. Good idea though.
Another thing that I need to do is not buy so many new books if I am not ready to read them. Otherwise, they get put on the bookshelf, nightstand, up in my closet, etc and so forth. What I need to try really hard to do is stick to my lists of favorites and there aren’t very many on it so scratch that idea. It would also be helpful if I stop visiting reader blogs-just kidding-as you all have saved me money and unfortunately, you’re also helping me spend my money too. I need to get that er under control, for real.
I need to utilize my local library more because most books I buy are impulsive buys and more than a few were utter disappointments (and no, don’t ask me which ones).
Have you ever thought of how much your TBR mountain is worth? Have you kept the receipts? I don’t want to know because the number would be astronomical (I’ve always wanted to use that word in a sentence — astronomical). I’d probably faint because not only do I have a TBR pile of dead tree books but I also have a virtual library. At Fictionwise, I have over 300 ebooks and no I haven’t read them all.
Anyway, this impulsively turned into a long rant about my book buying habits. On a more serious note, I will be curbing my spending on ebooks and dead tree books. While my TBR pile provides me with comfort for that rainy day in the future, I also need the space that they occupy.
Overall, I plan to seriously trim down my TBR books and hey, we can do it together, or not. We bought these books and hell, they weren’t cheap. My goal for 2009 is to stick to my lists, try out new authors from the library and decrease my time on the Internet (hee). Just let me enjoy the fantasy, ok?
/end rant
Please visit the other TBR participants and enjoy. I would like to thank each one of you for posting your reviews on monthly basis. With that said, be good, be bad and be safe as Maili use to say.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL @ Christine’s comments — so true!
I started off the year by saying for every new book I buy, I’d read one off my TBR pile… think that I managed one month of doing that.
I failed to do my TBR review. Again. I’m terrible at this, but will work at being better at it next year.
I’m right there with you about trying not to buy more books and whittling down that TBR
pilemountain, but I don’t know if I have the self control. It’s just that there’s quite a few series that I read and every six months or so a new one comes out and I just have to have it. Or some of my favorite authors start a new series and I just have to have that, too. Or I read these really great reviews about a debut author’s new book or something like that and I just have to have that one, too! There’s no use fighting it. I’m too weak.So who wants to meet me at the bookstore tomorrow? Coffee’s on me!
Reading the book early this month saved me, too.
I know what you mean about the book piles … I’m working on getting my books consolidated (they are everywhere right now), and it amazes me how many I have. Yikes. I don’t even want to think about receipts.
I just got home from work after sitting in traffic from hell. Good to hear that I won’t be alone in my TBR challenge for next year.
I’ve heard about Paperback Swap and will give it a look. I really need to curb my spending on books, srsly. I have a ton of books that could probably last me a good 5 years if I were to read each one on a daily basis. I tried to take a tally of my library a year ago and stopped midway when it hit 790. I don’t know how many books I own but I know it’s too many.
I like reading new books too but I don’t need to read everybody. I think I’ll just stick to my list of favorites and utilize my library a lot more for authors I’m unsure of. The problem with using the library is the waiting and waiting. My library is pretty good though because for every new release I will usually get the book if I’m in the first spot, two to three weeks after the book’s initial release which isn’t bad.
Appreciate the comments ladies. I’m off to go read some reviews.
I gave away about 20 boxes of books to Goodwill before we moved. Of the books I did bring with me (most of the tbr) I’ve only read maybe 3 out of them in the last year. Meanwhile all the new purchase have been building up again. I literally have bags of books on the bedroom floor.
One good thing though, I’m using the library more. It’s right across the street from the grocery store so it makes it easy to visit (and return books before the fines add up) on a weekly basis.
Oh and just wanted to add, I will be continuing the TBR posting along with you next year. And I really should look at my own book buying habits as well. Maybe for every new book I want to buy, I should (try and) read five books off my TBR pile?
Done it! Thank goodness I was organized this month and read the book early.
LOL — I think this is the first time I’ve posted two reviews on a single day.
Oh crap!! I wrote out this real great comment and it’s gone!
First off I said that my review will be up shortly.
Second I said that in my case, I know I have an addictive/obsessive type personality. It would be SO easy for me to get caught up in other more dangerous kinds of things as an outlet — gambling for example. That’s why I don’t buy lottery tickets and I’ve only been to a casino once in my life time — and then it kind of scared me. But book buying is safe. No one will be hurt. My family doesn’t need to stage an intervention (although at times I almost think they think of it *g*)
When I do a total on my spreadsheet — it’s pretty scary so I Very Rarely do it.
But
At the end of the day, I have something to show for this addiction instead of constant hangovers with huge blocks of missing time where I could have done who knows what — or someone named Bruno after me to break my legs.
OMG — I thought it was next Wednesday. Okay have my review ready to go luckily I read the book better get typing.
My TBR is in the hundreds, literally. It is starting to stress me out and I am getting rid of some. I can’t stand not having the new stuff, because what if I miss something great? I can’t stand to be reading books a year or more behind everyone else. I just gave away The Thirteenth Tale, and only 8 or 9 people even wanted it!
Have you looked into Paperbackswap.com? You still have to pay postage (usually 2.28) but it’s cheaper than buying new. Sometimes you do have to wait a while for new releases.
I managed to get my book finished yesterday (it helped tremendously that Monday was a holiday for me, but not my children! A WHOLE DAY FOR MOM! WHOOO!) but just wrote my review and posted it from work. (Shhhh.)
My tbr pile (counting only romance-y novels) started to get out of hand this year. Before, I never had more than a few romance novels tbr. I don’t understand what happened, but I know that now I have trouble to decide what to read. At the moment, I have (only) 4o books tbr to initmidate me. Nevertheless, I keep adding instead of reading. Really, I need to get a grip on myself and the tbr pile and go back to around five books (like Tee) because the way it is now doesn’t make sense.
I’m glad to hear you’ll continue with the TBR challenge. As it looks now, I’m sure I’ll (need to) participate.
I know exactly how much my book buying habit has been over the past three years, at least. I save every receipt. Lucky for me, that’s because I can write most of them off on taxes.
But like you, I’m bad about buying books I might want to read and then not reading them, it’s actually what’s stopped me from taking advantage of the Fictionwise sale recently. I have a metric ton of books that I’ve bought because people have recommended them, but my reading just does not keep up with my buying habits.
Heh! I know how you feel. I put myself on a budget. That helps. I’m trying really hard to be a little more discriminating before I buy. And if I hear of something I think I’ll like, but not like well enough to keep, I’ll make a point of getting that from the library. I have an awesome public library where I live with a great romance collection. What does end up happening though is that I feel obligated to get those library books read and returned before they’re overdue, thus causing me to ignore what I spent money on. I really need to re-think what I’m doing, LOL!
Keishon, I fell asleep before finishing my book OR writing my review. So no TBR review for me today either.
Since summer I’ve been doing my book buying from a list. If it’s not on the list I can’t buy it. It’s helped alot with impulse buys.
I’m happy to hear you’re doing the tbr challenge next year. The incentive for me is to find the gems I have hidden in those tbr tubs of mine.
I’m unfamiliar with the TBR Contest that you’re talking about (new to your website); but in reading your column, I got a fair idea of it, Keishon. One of the most freeing things for me within the last five years or so has been to keep a small TBR pile. It’s come to the point now where having more than five books to read at a time throws me into mental craziness (obviously I’m over-dramatizing here, but not far-off!). It was easier for me to do, I’m sure, because I use the public library system 99 percent of the time (another great tool that you mentioned).
Good luck to you in paring down. Not only will you save some money, but you’ll waste less money on the books that don’t pan out in the end. You can always try them, especially the hardcovers, from the library. If you decide you absolutely have to have them as keepers, then you can buy them.
I no longer look at mountains of books on my table, getting more hyper by the minute, because I realize that I will never have the time to read them all. Now I read what I truly want and hope that my library-reserved books arrive well spaced and not all at one time.