Book Buying Bans Don’t Work

Posted December 7, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 9 Comments

This year I decided to go a book buying ban, I was only allowed to buy books that I needed (for book clubs or study). The idea was to reduce my TBR (To Be Read) and focus on the books that are on my shelves that I haven’t read. I have so many unread books that I have a whole bookshelf in my bedroom full of books to read next. I kept to this book buying ban till very recently and what I learnt was; there is no way to reduce your TBR!

As a book blogger, you soon discover there are a lot of ways to get books you want to read without having to pay for them. Granted this is not always the case and for the books you are dying to read, it is probably better to just buy the book. I think all serious readers know the different ways to get free books. I’m not talking illegal; I’m talking about making use to your library, ebook services, galleys, egalleys and so on. You can do pretty well for yourself as a book blogger and never have to buy a book.

For me, I’m not the type of reader that focuses just on new releases so galleys (or ARCs) and egalleys (while great) was not my main source of books this year. Most of the books I read this year were actually from the library and there wasn’t much from my shelf. I spend so much time on the library website looking for books that I had on one of my Goodreads TBR’s selves (I have two on Goodreads one for books on my shelf and one for the books I don’t own) and reserving them.

So what I learnt from this experiment is I like owning books and I’m glad to be out of this book buying ban. But the main lesson was that I need to use the library more, they are a great service and I need to take full advantage of it. There is one other thing I learnt from this book buying ban and that is, some books interest you at a point in time but you often lose interest before actually reading it. There is a heap of books I wanted to read but never got around to it and I’m glad I didn’t impulse buy the books. Buzz books are interesting but sometimes you need to understand what you like to read more than what is so exciting at the time.

Have you tried a book buying ban? If so, I would love to know why you tried it and did it help you achieve what you wanted to achieve. I don’t think I’ll go on a book buying ban again but I think I will approach reading differently. My TBR is so big and I’m not sure how to reduce it, maybe I have to force myself. Let me know if you have any other thoughts on book buying bans, I would love to hear them.

Book Juggling

Posted October 19, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 0 Comments

I’m curious to know if you read one book at a time or juggle books and if you do read multiple books, then how do you do it? I know some people prefer to read one book at a time and I’m not sure how they manage that; sometimes I wish I could be that focused but I read in multiple locations so it is easier to have a few books on the go at a time.

Here is how I go about juggling books. I have one book on the go while at work (normally an ebook) and an audiobook in the car. At home it depends on what I’m reading but normally a physical book and sometimes a short story collection as well. I just can’t read a short story collection the same way I would read a normal book. This is the general formula but it doesn’t always work out that way.

Sometimes a book is so heavy or slow (theoretically a big book as well) that I have two books on the go at home, as I spend most of my time reading there. Then there are those times where I dip into a book as I want to see what it’s like and then put it aside for a while. This isn’t because I didn’t like the book but I just get distracted with other books.

I’ve been very conscious about the amount of books I have on the go at once. I don’t want to fall into a trap where I have ten or more books on the go at the same time. I have had this happen and when I finish one book I always seem to prefer to start a new book than focus on the ones on the go. So I have to be careful. I would love to know how others read and what traps they seem to fall into, whether it is reading multiple books or not.

Tag: ebook