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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To buy this many books?

73 replies

Sonder · 22/10/2014 00:48

My son is 3 (4 in January) and loves being read to. Reading is our favourite activity to do together.

He already has a bookcase full of books (we've read all of them multiple times) but throughout the year we've come up with a wishlist of new books and I was planning to buy them all as Christmas presents.

So am I being unreasonable to buy 135 books for my son (and any future children)? It will cost about £150 in total and while money is a bit tight I'd rather buy the books than cheap toys that will end up broken and ignored within a month or so. Plus I know grandparents and other relatives will be buying him various toys so he won't be missing out.

OP posts:

SezaMcGregor · 22/10/2014 09:45

I love books and IMO you can never have too many (5 bookcases full at our house...)

If I were to invest in 135 books "for Christmas", I'd probably wrap a few favourites for DS's stocking and just put the others on the bookcase (and use it as an opportunity to evaluate where to put a 6th bookcase).

I'd not be able to buy that many for DS without buying a few dozen for myself though!

Innocentbystander01 · 22/10/2014 09:48

I gave my dd a Julia Donaldson set of 11 books on Sunday and she was a little overwhelmed so I think that many is a bit too much. Just but a couple of new ones each week.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 22/10/2014 09:51

I probably buy at least a book a week,ds has a new book a month so does Dh. Hmmmm we have a big book habit...

chaya5738 · 22/10/2014 10:55

I would ask yourself this:

If you bought DC, say, ten books, what could you use the remainder of that money for? A play/show? Taking him to a theme park? Paying the council tax?

If you buy 135 books now, would you really not buy any for the rest of the year? (I love buying books so personally I would find it very hard to go for a whole year without buying any more books)

One of the best pieces of advice I received on saving money was to never buy anything on sale. If something is on sale we tend to buy it even if we don't need it which results in us spending more money than we would otherwise.

I do think you DC might be a little overwhelmed by so many books too...(I never thought I would say this but we have far too many children's books in our house and so most of them end up buried and not read with the favourites being read most often).

PerpendicularKitten · 22/10/2014 11:10

So basically you are buying a library all in one go.

Where are the books from? What are the titles?

The DC's have a mix of books and authors. I have often bought 1 book from a set first to see if it is any good, some individual books have been been really quite rubbish and have gone to the charity shop and I have been really glad that I didn't buy the set.

I would buy as you go along tbh that way you can indulge your DC is what they are into at that moment, they also get to choose which is lovely for them. I bought some books for Dc1 when I was 6 months pg and they are still being read, the library has grown since then, mostly chosen by the DC's.

youareallbonkers · 22/10/2014 11:43

doesn't he get bored of opening presents for days on end?

IMO 135 books is just going to put him off reading

squoosh · 22/10/2014 11:47

Seems OTT to me. 135 presents is 135 presents whether it's a 'worthy' present like a book or an 'unworthy' present like a toy.

Get yourselves a library card.

LilAnnieAmphetamine · 22/10/2014 11:55

I'd have been in heaven. I used to barricade myself behind towers of books and read my way through them.

BonjourMinou · 22/10/2014 11:58

This thread reminded me of this:

I agree with others, I'm a voracious reader myself and DD loves being read to, but 135 is far too many in one go, don't forget you have to store them all, too!

I think a weekly jaunt to the library would be a fun trip out anyway and he could read all the books he wanted.

chaya5738 · 22/10/2014 12:26

Oh my gawd, that video is hilarious. I absolutely love books but I have to say that £135 worth if them would be overwhelming. Plus, I enjoy the process of browsing for them myself almost as much as actually getting them.

cornflakegirl · 22/10/2014 12:45

I don't think it's unreasonable to buy 135 books - lots of the Book People sets are fabulous, and really good value. And I disagree about children growing out of them quickly - my 9yo is an excellent reader, but he will still happily dip back into picture books (and the back of cereal packets...)

I was going to say that it's too many to give at once - but actually, if they're in sets, then you could give one set a day, and read a couple of new books each day (or all of them if you're much more patient than me!), and it wouldn't be particularly overwhelming.

Of course the downside of buying them all in one go is the recurring disappointment of visiting a Book People stand / the website, and realising that you already own all the really good books on it

bibliomania · 22/10/2014 12:55

I'm a book-mad adult, and I wouldn't do that for myself, let alone a child.

At that age my dd loved repeating favourite books - too much novelty would have been unsettling. I think it will be hard to appreciate them individually.

We mostly used the library - it gave her the chance to do the picking as well.

squoosh · 22/10/2014 12:57

Going to the library was the highlight of my Saturday. I revisited my childhood library recently and the familiar scent whooshed me happily back in time.

cornflakegirl · 22/10/2014 13:02

We go to the library pretty much every week, but I still buy quite a lot of books. Mainly from the charity shop and Book People.

Plus the OP has said that her library isn't that good.

AlmaMartyr · 22/10/2014 13:26

I don't think it's too unreasonable but I would spread them out. We love our library but the selection isn't huge as it is quite small. Have you heard of that idea where you do a book advent calendar? You wrap up 24 books and have one a day to open and read together at bedtime over December.

Sorry if someone's already mentioned that and I've missed it!

shaska · 22/10/2014 14:32

My only issue is that it's all in one go - the BEST part of book shopping is choosing and I reckon you'll get this lot and then want to get more in a few months, and then you're buying really a lot of books...

It's not U to buy 135 books, but I think it might be a bit silly to buy them all at once. Maybe get a couple of sets for birthday/christmas and then put aside a tenner or so a month to go to a bookshop and let him choose one for himself (support local business etc etc etc)?

Thumbwitch · 22/10/2014 14:59

Bonjour - I have to say, that reminded me of DS1 when he got books for his 3rd or 4th birthday, can't remember which, and was less than impressed! He's better now but still prefers toys (although he always asks me for books when we see them, while out shopping)

I thought the 50 book set of Thomas the Tank Engine books weren't quite right - I have a (very, sadly) few of the originals, and these newer ones just aren't so well done. Hope the box set of Just William, that I have stored somewhere, haven't been similarly abused!

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 22/10/2014 15:03

Thinking about it,his reading taste will change hugely over the next year as he gets older so don't buy all the books for 4 year olds. I'm sure this has already been mentioned.

ShadowKat · 22/10/2014 19:10

I think 135 books at once (or even over 10 days or so) would be overwhelming, even if there are a few box sets in there.

And as with others, 3.2 yr old DS1 likes rereading favourites over and over again, so less favoured books barely get touched.

Incidentally, regarding Thomas the Tank Engine box sets - there were 26 books written by the original author. I got an anniversary edition box set of them for one of DS1's Christmas presents last year at a knock down price from TKMax.

QueenTilly · 22/10/2014 20:12

I'm not against buying books, just so you know. I've bought 15 this week (and maxed out my library card limit ), but I rather wonder what these 135 books are, and whether your child will be at all interested in these particular titles in a year's time. And then where will you put the ones he does want?

I personally find many books for very young children are definitely worth borrowing, but it's often not worth buying your own copy.

ShadowKat · 22/10/2014 21:18

Seconding the borrowing from the library first idea too. It's a great way to see whether children like the books as much as you think they will. Our local library only has a small children's section, but we can order in books from other branches in the county.

bibliomania · 23/10/2014 11:20

Alma, I love the book advent calendar idea!

43percentburnt · 23/10/2014 14:29

I love books. As I child I would take out my full entitlement and my grans full entitlement each week in the school holidays and yes I read them all! I loved books from a very young age and still do. So I would buy them give a few over Xmas and make a book gift token saying the book fairy is to hide 10 books on the first of each month in 2015, like a magazine subscription but different.

Being a bit sad I might group them into themes... Like animal books or vehicles etc and maybe design a craft activity to do too. Oh getting carried away now!

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