Monday, October 05, 2009

Should I feel bad or am I just like you? Book Buying Binge!

I have always bought books - as well as using the library. No news in that. I also like to browse used books at irl-sales and on eBay (among other places). Still no news in that.

Due to various things (economy, room, studying fees, having to buy books for studies etc) over the past years, I haven't bought as many as I used to. I know I don't have to say again that books are rather expensive in Denmark (although it is better now than it was some years back), and that we have special taxes on books here.

Anyway, I am lucky these days that things has changed. I finally have a full time job again after years of studying and only working part time, and I also got some GC's for books recently. So I have been buying books like there was no tomorrow (and books about there being no tomorrow by the way). For a couple of months now.
And I am buying the books faster than I can read them, and I am thinking: Am I just BAD and a sorry slow reader?! What about you? I am aware that most of us have TBR-mountains, so I guess some of you are bad like me. LOL. But seriously. I am starting to actually feel bad about it when yet another package landed today from Amazon. Easy solution, you think, why doesn't she just stop buying those dang books? I don't know. I love to be able to browse and actually be able to buy a few here and there. Its not so much that the TBR is growing, because that is fine. Its more like all those wonderful new books are putting me into a situation where I have so many up-coming reads to choose from, that I really can't decide.
Do you know what I mean? Or do you never have this "problem" as well (which, granted, is a luxury problem compared to world hunger, war, illness and death. Kinda up the same alley as "I have nothing to wear").

Have a look at some of the books I have gotten the past week or so:

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
One Day by David Nicholls
A Quiet Belief in Angelse by R.J. Ellory (recommended by Cathy at Kittling: Books)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (recommended by Vivienne at Serendipity, but have seen it around other blogs as well after I began noticing)
The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan (recommended by Beth F at Beth Fish Reads)
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (recommended by Beth F at Beth Fish Reads)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
The Life of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Pfeffer
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Right now I am reading one of my recently bought Inspector Banks-series books, and I like it. Having just made this list is making me think of what should be up next, although I am still not through another batch of books I bought earlier with highlights such as that Guernsey Potato-book, an Anne Rivers Siddons novel, Property by Valerie Martin, Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie, The Road by Cormac McCarthy etc etc. Well, I certainly have enough newly purchased books to last me a few months!

14 comments:

Megan said...

Hah! I'm just like you. Now that I have a job where I actually make a little money, I can't seem to keep myself from acquiring books at an alarming rate despite the fact that I know I've already got wayyyy too many to choose from and no place else to put them! Sometimes I wonder if I like getting books more than I like *reading* them!

Oh well, might as well enjoy it! There are much worse problems and addictions to have, right?

caite said...

there is something attractive about having a book, possessing it. I admit it, I have Book Lust.
Which is why I have a couple of hundred unread books in my TBR pile.

But I love having them there, waiting for me to pick them, like savings in a bank.

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

You are perfectly normal...LOL don't give it a second thought

Diane, the Enabler

Søren said...

I have to agree: You are perfectly normal :-)

I buy more than 200 books a year (mostly secondhand, due to danish bookprices), but I don't read more than 100 books a year.

serendipity_viv said...

I feel bad that I may have helped you spend your money.

I am always buying books. I think I am addicted. I probably won't ever get around to reading them all, as I will always buy more. I tend to buy second hand books more than new ones, but sometimes the new ones get the better of me.

Beth F said...

I'm in the same boat. I just can't stop myself. If I never bought another book, I'd have enough to keep me going for a year or so, but that doesn't seem to matter.

I always tell myself that at least I don't take drugs and I don't gamble: my addiction is actually good for me!

Dorte H said...

I buy all the books I feel I can afford every month so ...

And the other day Post Denmark cheated me of a parcel (they sent it back to England, claiming I had not collected it, but they never gave me a chance). My ´revenge´? I bought three books more LOL

Rebecca Reid said...

I don't have any spare money these days so I am unfortunately not able to indulge in all the books I want to own. The more I read blogs where people are buying books, the more I want to just mess up the budget by splurging. But alas, I really don't have any leeway. Sigh. Some day!!

Louise said...

Whew. Seems like I am normal after all. At least considering book buying!

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

I read One Day! Loved it!

Also, I so try to go on a book buying ban, and it rarely works!

Anonymous said...

Yep, welcome to the club. It's when you have to buy more bookshelves that you might reconsider it being a problem.

Louise said...

I'm contemplating that :-) But I'm living with an almost none-reading man, and he already thinks books has taken over his life, LOL!

Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness) said...

I totally understand, it is definitely not just you. I have a problem with used or cheap books. Because they're cheap I figure I can buy as many as I want, but then the end up costing as much as a new book would have. And then my TBR pile just get bigger and bigger which causes more guilt.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

There's nothing that says optimist quite like a towering pile of TBR books. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.