Breakfast with the Bookie is a irregular feature here at Badass Bookie. Every other Wednesday morning, let's all grab our teas and coffees to gather and discuss and share our opinions! Everyone is welcome to join and make sure you leave a comment to state your opinion. Don't be shy!
This Week's Topic - The Book Buying Addiction
Hi everyone, my name is Lisa and I'm NOT a book buying addict.
In fact I haven't bought a book since September 2011 ( Game of Thrones - if you wanted to know). It's not that I don't want to buy books. Trust me, I spend way too much time on The Book Depository and Fishpond for it to be healthy and it's not really an issue about money either. The reason I don't buy books is simply because - I have too many books I haven't read yet!
This is my TBR pile -
There are 198 books in this pile and I haven't read a single one of them. The majority of these are review copies, others are books I've been gifted, won, traded for and bought. There are books in this pile which haven't been read for three or more years. There are books in this pile that I really want to read but haven't gotten around too. There are books in this pile that I've started but never finished. THERE ARE TOO MANY BOOKS IN THIS PILE.
And because of this, I've developed this thing called self restrain. As much as I want to buy books, I don't allow myself to because it's really not fair on all the books in THIS pile. However I know people who have a book-buying addiction. Some have it worse than others. I want to share with you one of these addicts.
Exhibit A - Holly
Everyone this is Holly. She has a severe case of a Book Buying Addiction. This is a picture of Holly with her latest purchase from The Book Depository. Holly suffers from a rare disorder in which she panics whenever she is nearly finished with a book. This panic is caused by the fear that she will have nothing to read. Holly goes into this semi-conscious state where she orders books from The Book Depository, she goes through the checkout without even batting an eye and then when Holly wakes up in the morning - she has no idea what books she bought the night before.
This is a severe case of a Book Buying Addiction. Holly is so deep into her addiction, she goes into a state of semi-consciousness before her next fix. Everyone please pray for Holly as she gets help for her addiction. Hopefully one day Holly can restrain her need to buy books every 3 days.
This is a TRUE story.
Does anyone have stories about their book buying addictions? Holly needs all the moral support she needs as she overcomes this addiction. Let's all be here for her! Let's discuss!
Badass Bookie xx
Honestly, my TBR pile looks A LOT like yours, so identify with that, but I have to say, I identify with Holly even more! I just can't stop. Like... there's really no excuse, except for the fact that I'm far too weak for my own good when it comes to books. And chocolate. But that's a whoooole other story! ;) heh
ReplyDeleteLoved this post!
SO. MANY. BOOKS.
ReplyDeleteLISA! That is so sad and SCARY. O__O I want to run over to house and swoon over this massive pile of swoony books and make a pile of must-hurry-up-and-read so you can start somewhere and begin to make progress! Just checked my shelf...I have 36 books to-read. Not even close to your unread amount but it still make's me feel bad and sad - hey, that rhymes!
I try not to buy books but if I REALLY want to read something for some reason, I might make an exception, otherwsie I stay strong. I finished Obsidian last month and needed the sequel, STAT, so I hopped online and did a little ordering. Along with that oreder, I also (finally!) put Perks in the cart but it's only small, infrequent purchases like this that happen once in a while. Since then I've aready read Perks and plan to read Onyx after a review book I'm currently reading.
That's the famous, Holly! *waves*
Awesome post, Lisa! ♥
My name is Kate and I am a book buying addict. I'd just go and buy and buy and buy... if I perceived I was getting a bargain then I'd buy it. If I just wanted it because the cover was pretty - I'd buy it.
ReplyDeleteAbout a year ago I realized I was spending more on books each month than I was food or rent... and it's true that my rent is very low but still... there's sort of something wrong with that picture - especially considering that for every book I'd actually read... I was buying 10.
The day that I was putting up new bookshelves and I realized that four entire bookcases were books that I'd never read... that was kind of scary. Especially when I added it up and worked out that I was still waiting on the postman to deliver 40 or so books from BD or FP. I decided that something needed to change with my book buying habits.
I now have my unread bookshelves where the books I haven't gotten to live. It's a physical reminder that THESE ARE ALL THE BOOKS YOU'VE READ AND ARE NEGLECTING. It helps when I see online booksales and feel the need to buy something new.
I also have a very strict budget for bookbuying now and I don't go over it - no matter what. I order a few preorders so that by the time I've gone over budget there's still books that are likely to come in the future when I feel like I need them most :P
In the whole scheme of things, book buying probably isn't such a bad addiction. And even as I write this I see that some of the items in my FP wishlist are on at a very low price... I have to show some kind of restraint :P
A year without buying any new books? Not bad, not bad at all. I went on a book buying ban from January to June 2012 and to my horror (and despite doing lots of reading) my TBR piles didn't exactly shrink during that time *facepalm*. After all I still received books for review or I've won a book or a dozen *cough*. All that saves me is doing a lil' book purge from time to time, getting rid of those which I don't really see myself reading after all (especially if they have already been collecting dust for five years or so).
ReplyDeleteGosh, i would kill for your TBR- pile ^^ (well okay he had to cuddle up with mine, but yeah i think there's worse)... why do you make some of these books a giveaway (please international *winks*) and ask for a guestreview on your blog in return? So the people, who win are happy and you can share there reading-experience with your blog-readers too. Win-win, isn't it? ^^
ReplyDeletegreets Kat
WOW. I felt guilty for having 5 books in my TBR pile. Let alone 100's!! Must admit I am pretty jealous that you have all those amazing books at your fingertips. You will never get bored with all that to read!
ReplyDeleteI haven't had the nerve to have a book buying ban, however I did go into my library and not take out a single book. I would say that is SUCCESS!! haha.
Happy Reading!
Emma
emmaseminentbooks.blogspot.co.uk
Hey, your pile looks like mine! Stacked high and not decreasing very fast. lol. I don't have a book buying disorder, but I have a book winning disorder. I try to win every book out there that I can. Holly sounds cool though. :D But good luck to her.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Laura and I'm a read-a-holic... I buy, borrow (from the library) and enter more or less every competition I come across!
ReplyDeleteI've tried really hard not too buy too many books lately as it was getting pretty bad at one point. Much like Holly I was ordering so many that it was a surprise when they arrived. I don't actually have much more space left for them all to go.
I've currently got 18 books that are brand new that I haven't got around to reading yet. Some are still there from last Christmas. I've also got around 10 on pre-order. Eeek. Plus several waiting for me to pick up from the library.
I LOVE READING <3
Woah, such an amazing pile o.O So many books I want in there! I currently own around two dozen unread ones (5 of them bought second-hand last Monday), but another 4 or so are to arrive and I have 3 preordered ones as well >.< Some time early in the year I didn't buy any books for around 2 months I think (or maybe 1 or 2 but that's not much), but at the moment I'm splurging a bit because there are some I've really been dying to read for months or years and I'm fed up with not having them. But I do need to go on a ban now until I've caught up. Books are expensive here and I'm not exactly miss rich >.< I spend much more money on books than on clothes... but I still think there are way way worse addictions at the end of the day ;)
ReplyDeleteTo Holly: I ordered books from several online stores last week and sometimes I also had to double-check to make sure that what I had in my cart today didn't already go in the cart somewhere else yesterday... after waking up I had sort of forgotten what I'd taken in the end and what I'd passed on for the time being :P
i would love to have book buying addiction. american books are not sold here .
ReplyDeleteI too have a bad book buying habit from amazon. Although most ebooks i buy are under $5 usually, i tend to go over bored when i am looking for free ebooks. I get a load of free ones but also end up buying a few others too. almost daily! unless i stay off the computer.
ReplyDeletePretty nice post. I just came across your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really liked reading your posts.
ReplyDelete