To think this a huge sum to spend on books?!

Well I've got c£350 books sitting in my Amazon basket at the moment just waiting for me to finish the current pile of new books!
I'd love £1k to spend on books. But I would need yet another bookcase. And as it is I'm already overflowing on existing ones. But the joy of placing a big order. And then handling them when they arrive. And finding them a home.... Better than sex and that's before you start to read them 😊

Books are becoming more and more expensive. I mean a hardback book for me in my genre is between £15-£30. Easily spend £1000 on books

I have a “to buy/to read” list of books and it’s currently running at about 100 books. I tend to buy about half my books in hard copy, and the other half on my kindle (used to be much more on my kindle but I’ve nearly gone full circle on that)

If I ever came into some money I would definitely have a bulk-buy session; I would love it. Some of the books I want are big non fiction or technical books so I think the total would be more than £1k. I am envious of your boyfriend OP!

It’s not a lot to spend on books (assuming he can afford it). It is a bit odd to set a budget like that- makes it sound as if he’s going to go to the bookshop and order £1000 of their finest books 😂

DH received a £500 bookshop gift card from some friends as a wedding present. It was absolutely amazing.

Also depends what books he's buying. If he's going for limited edition Folio Society stuff then he might not even be actually buying all that many physical books.

Do reading tastes change over time? I don’t think mine have. The thought of spending £1000 on books fills me with huge joy.

If that is his hobby, it isn’t much as a house-warming present to himself. I’ve seen people spend that much on fancy espresso machines as a house warming gifts to themselves and understand that a lot less than wanting to have a reading nook with a selection of books.

Depends on the type of book you are talking about... paperbacks and popular literature- yep it's a lot!
Academic books or special editions can be pricey so need a healthy budget. I think well within range.
Antique books can easily exeed the budget or at least, £1k is very modest.

Does he think books are just for decoration?
Is expecting you to get books of all different colours so you do a rainbow with them but never read them?

I did something very similar to this and it did make me extremely happy and I’ve had them for years.

As a student and when I first lived in share flats I have very little space and so all my books were charity shops or library. When I finally bought my first place I got 2 nice bookcases and did go on a bit of a splurge buying both books I’d already read, loved and wanted a copy of to re-read and about 20 new ones to read. I also had a couple of special editions of classics. It probably came to about £500-£600 but 10 years ago. This was a fraction of the space and I’ve continued to buy books at a slower rate since and they are now full! I don’t have designer handbags, a huge TV or other expensive hobbies but I do read between 2-4 books a month.

It’s unusual to go on a book-buying spree, but not unheard of. I normally buy books one or two at a time, but last Christmas asked for specific books as gifts for me, and ended up with more than 10 - that’s the most books I’ve ever had arrive into my possession at the same time, since I did something similar on my 10th birthday and was able to spend over £12.00 book tokens on one book-buying binge!

Hardback academic books are often £120 each.

This is literally my job. Well part of it. I spend £2-3K a month of other people's money on books every month. 😁The best bit is unboxing them when they arrive, all perfect, new, and unread! Tbf though, a good many of them I would never want to attempt to read!

It's not so much the value on books - certainly many readers' collections will have exceeded that cost.

It does feel odd to have a set budget to fill a bookcase and buy all at once.

Is he just going to waterstones and buying whatever he fancies...and its mostly for a reader "aesthetic", when he doesn't already own a lot of books. That I'd find slightly weirder than if he was already a voracious reader with a long list of books he wanted to read, but hadn't bought - and so its almost like a big stock up.

Likewise, is it a replacement of existing, loved books - buying all new matching hardcover versions, or first editions - that could add up quickly! Personally there are very few books that I'd love a "decorative" or first edition version of...but for some its just another aspect of reading they enjoy.

The more I think about this the odder it seems.

Surely you wait until you have books stacked in double rows on the shelves, and some piled on the floor, and then you buy another Billy bookcase to instantly fill?

Owning no books, buying a bookcase, and then buying more books than you can possibly read in a year to fill the shelves seems completely backwards.

Does he already own books? I have a lot of books but I’ve built a collection over time rather than just bulk buying.

If its just earmarked as leisure money, not money that should go on the bills...

Would you object to a holiday for £1k?
Or jewellery?
Hobbies like watersports, cycling, warhamner, lego...
Games consoles?
A fancier car?
Designer clothes?

Everyone likes different luxury items.

I think its unusual to bulk buy books (don't people tend to collect books one by one as they go through life?) But not a bad use of money if he can afford it.....my husband is an avid reader and I find it a very attractive quality.

That's like 100-150 books, give or take? Less if he is buying hardback. It's not that many if you are filling up a bookshelf.
I mean, it is a bit weird to buy that many books all at once. I would want to buy in batches otherwise I would be oppressed by the sheer number of books I had to read! Also you might change your mind.
However if you are starting a book collection from scratch, or have had to limit the number of books you own through lack of space and now have the chance to buy what you want, fine

I have walls of books in almost every room, and I have definitely spend a LOT more than £1000 collecting them, but I would feel very strange about spending that amount all at once just to have a full bookshelf.

If he means he's going to set aside the money to dip into when he sees a book he wants, that's totally understandable. If he's planning to spend it in one go, I'd think it was a bit odd, but fair enough if he can afford it.

I find buying £1,00 worth of books in one go unusual. I’d wonder if he just wanted to fill the bookshelf rather than actually read them. Tastes change, new books are released, someone lends you a couple of books and your TBR pile becomes massive, and a dust gatherer. Assuming 50 books per year (which is more than most) that’s two years worth of books, before any new books are acquired. But it’s his money and he can spend it on what he wants.

Unless he has always desired a full set of the Wizard of Oz books in fancy hardback with colour illustrations or something then it's a lot to spend in one go.
Bizarre way of buying books. The joy of a new bookcase is filling it over time.

It sounds like he's living the dream tbh, I'd love to have a grand to spend on books all at once.

Doesn't he already have any books to put on the shelves? It's nothing to do with you, though - he's free to spend his money as he wants. I would just look at how he spends, whether he wastes money generally, or whether he goes into debt. If he doesn't, then it's fine, isn't it?

As a big treat I could see that as not a completely unusual amount. Most people know someone who has likely spent that on a phone, TV or laptop.

Many people spend multiple times that every single year on a holiday.

A few nice meals out and that's £1K gone.

I guess it just feels odd in this context as books are often seen as low value or even disposable. But they'd last a lot longer than the holiday (and probably much longer than the tech too!).

One of my ex boyfriends said to me once "what's money for, if not to be enjoyed".

Really brought home how different our worlds were. He had had a private education, first car and driving lessons, a gap year of travelling, financial help whilst at university and while doing a masters degree, so didn't need to take out a student loan or have a part time job. He got his first job when he was 23. He also had help with a substantial house deposit so had manageable mortgage repayments.

So to him, money was for having fun with, not about surviving.

He would have easily spent a grand on something if he wanted it.