I can’t stop buying books!

I am not on my high horse about your shopping or reading habits. They aren't ideal, but I'm sure there are worse things. What I dislike is you making a thread about it and then digging your heels in, and taking cheap shots at people who reasonably dislike your thread. "Oh, single handedly responsible for climate change am I?" when you know perfectly well nobody had suggested any such thing. "Oh on your high horse are you?" which is just a cheap dig, because you either don't have, or don't want to say, anything more intelligent.

Anyway, you seem to be completely resistant to hearing anything negative about your reading and shopping habits. So I assume this was a thread you wanted only positive responses to. Sorry I cannot provide that for you, but that is because I find the whole thread pretty disgusting.

You are not a bad person or single handedly responsible for climate change, but your thread is in really bad taste.

That is the unfortunate side to this website.

I can easily get through 4-5 in a week, but they’re mostly the 99p jobs on my Kindle. But I do also get a few from the library and charity shops. Now and then I donate a pile to our local National Trust site’s bookshop, or back to a charity shop.

Dh OTOH is always buying books - full price and usually heavy non fiction, but he’s a very slow reader (but takes it all in) so as I’ve often said, even if he lives to 105, I doubt he’ll ever get through his To Be Read pile.

I also adore reading but if ever find myself buying them in large numbers, especially when not secondhand, I have a word with myself. I wouldn't be thrilled with it and so proud that I felt the need to start a thread telling a bunch of strangers. I am absolutely astonished that you are.

Have you any idea what goes into producing those books and the state the planet is in already? Before you start again 🙄, no, you are not "single handedly" responsible for climate change and I never suggested you were, but your thread is disgusting tbh. And the people enabling overconsumption (eg Tiktok reels which say things like "I'm just a girl who loves books - oopsie, accidentally bought 25 books instead of one" are really no better than people doing the same thing with clothes. And the books you buy sound a little bit like the fast fashiom of the book world. They are churned out at breakneck speed to be "devoured" in your words at breakneck speed. Pointing that out is not intellectual snobbery or gatekeeping.

I don't think any of this makes you a bad person or the worst polluter ever, but I also dislike the premise of this thread.

You don't give a hoot though. You are so pleased with yourself it is unreal.

Supermarkets and other public places often have book swap or charity shelves, usually outside the tills, so another place to look for free/cheap second hand books as well as to donate ones you've read that you don’t want to keep. So a few options if you've the time and inclination to browse.

Also in old phone boxes and Little Free Libraries

Dangerous territory.. watch out lol. Joking aside, you can sometimes find an unexpected gem on those shelves.

Buying 18 books in one week and "not being able to help yourself", "buying a stack at Asda and then a stack at Amazon - I just can't help myself" sounds like a cry for help tbh.

You started a thread saying "I can't stop buying books" and I actually opened it thinking you may have a shopping addiction and wanted to stop buying so many, but that is so far from the case. You're absolutely thrilled with it!

Check your gp practice, mine has a giant bookshelf which is regularly restocked with donations, 50p per book!

speed reading through them rather than a steady pace ?

I had to get a Kindle as I have no more space, I must have at least 200 on my bookcase and another 50 on my kindle.
I keep an eye out for any authors I like having books go to 99p.
I also like the kindle as my eye sight is poor and I can make the print big.
I find it very difficult to get rid of books I have read as I get attached to them, I have recently though managed to put some on the donation shelf at tescos.

I have always loved reading too!
It is such wonderful escapism, transporting you to another world.
Many was the time I would read all night as a teenager as I coudn't put the book down!
I love reading on the bus too.

Overconsumption is just consuming something excessively. It has nothing to do with whether or not you read the books, although it is certainly better that you do.

If you are an overconsumer of alcohol for example, the issue is not that you forget to drink the alcohol.

This is a good point and the reason I always prefer libraries to secondhand because authors receive a payment each time their books are borrowed. But the OP doesn't have a good local library and prefers to browse, which is tricky with a digital library.

For me, my impact on the environment is more important than my impact on the publishing industry. So I prefer secondhand to new when I buy. And when I buy new, I try to buy from independent bookshops as keeping them going is more important to me than adding to the coffers of giant conglomerates.

Others may have different priorities as is absolutely their right. I wish the OP joy with whatever she chooses to read, however and wherever she chooses to get it from.

Like a PP, I thought this thread was about discussing book buying and different approaches to it. It seems I was wrong so I will go back to reading my book!

I think you are willfully missing the nuance here. You did the same thing earlier. I am sure that with your education, you are more than capable of understanding the difference between disliking a thread which celebrates overconsumption and accusing someone of single handedly causing climate change. Just as I am sure you can appreciate the difference between not liking a thread which appears to be celebrating overconsumption and someone bullying someone for their choice of reading materials.

If you do not wish to have a reasonable conversation about it, that's fine with me.

I mean...I hope I am not especially unlovely, I just think the whole premise of this thread is a bit...off. I haven't made any comments about you as a person, and I never would, as I am sure you really are a decent person. Or if you were not, I certainly wouldn't expect to know that based off your posts on Mumsnet 🤷‍♀️

Actually the Booker shortlist this year isn't particularly heavy duty, at least not the ones I've read -- there's a sci-fi novel about the earth having been invalded by aliens called the iGhetti, a plotty, violent gangland debut, a slim, black-comic novel about two friends in London, another undemanding Elizabeth Strout instalment.

If you can afford them and you manage to read them all it's not really a problem. My local library doesn't have a great range of books but I've ordered some newer books from them and they eventually get them for me.