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

[KeiraKnightley2]

My boyfriend is moving into a new place soon (it's early days, so not living together yet). He loves books and so do I.

Anyway he said he's getting a big bookcase and has given himself a max budget of 1k to spend on books of his choice!

I said I thought this was a huge budget (great if he can do it) but he reacted with surprise, as though this is normal spending money. It isn't, is it?

Then again, you might spend thousands on a laptop, so maybe I'm wrong.

I’m an academic and the books I buy tend to average around £50. £1000 wouldn’t buy you much, and certainly wouldn’t fill a bookcase.

We got ours today too - and same!

We could definitely spend £1k on books given the chance. Definitely, we've spent hundreds in a single haul and there's been a few big purchases - Encyclopedia Britannica, and the Folio Society did a flipping beautiful release of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy set.

As pp have said, if he can afford it, why not? We spent £10k last year converting our biggest bedroom into a custom library, with ladders.

We do a book-buying spree 2 or 3 times a year! It's our vice and we make a day of it.

I love books and have 2 bookcases

Hardbacks are usually £20

Soft £7/10

So if hardbacks that's only 50 books

Not many

Unless goes to charity shops and buys for £1/2 each May take a while

Some hard back special books can cost a £100 each.... would he use charity shops and second hand book shops?
If he can afford it I'm with him..l adore books.. but collected them over the years.

Yes, it's like he sees books as decoration. You buy a book, read it (or not!) and then buy another one when you're ready for the next book or something interesting catches your eye.

If he has the spare cash, why not? Plenty of women spend 1k (and more) on a handbag. Which is probably just as mystifying to those who wouldn't!

I probably spend £50 to £100 a month on books......so over a year its about £1000. I dont begrudge it at all!!!
Good on your bf

I used to buy a new hardback every week. The average cost was £15 a book, £1k would only get you 66 books. Just over a years worth of books, that's really not a lot.

Back when I had money to burn I would allow myself to visit an independent bookshop down the road from work only once a month as I spent too much each time - I would always go home with 10-15 new books.

Looking at prices now I reckon his budget is probably equivalent to what mine was if you spread that cost out over a year.

Green flag for me haha! But ya, that’s insane. And also a fantastic use of money !

Academic books in niche areas have very small print runs and can easily cost several hundred pounds. A grand may not go very far.

He’s relishing idea of treating himself to
something he’s always wanted. £1000 is a lot (too many of us) on books, but it won’t actually buy that many.

No different to spending £20 a week on the cinema, or the pub, or any other activity that you consider to be acceptable. About the same as a mid-range gym membership or a Premiership season ticket over the course of a year.

In other words, fairly unremarkable one-off spending for a reasonably comfortable professional.

It will if he buys them from charity/secondhand shops! It’s my hobby and my joy browsing the bookshelves of charity shops. There are worse hobbies, it’s not going to get me into debt.

Not for an academic who refers frequently to them.

I think being an academic changes things - I’m not an academic but three post grad qualifications mean I have a bookcase of text books, they’re horrifically expensive. If I lost them tomorrow there wouldn’t be much change from £3k to replace them.

Some will spend that on a handbag so meh.

Strange to not buy books as you read them.

Good point. Many many people think nothing of spending £20 a week in the pub, or on a few bottles of wine to have at home. Is that not 'normal spending money'?

It's not the price, the price is fine, books can be so expensive. It's the buying them all at once and having a mountain of unread books waiting, that's giving me anxiety.

My dad used to spend about £300 a month on books, for years and years.

'A huge sum' is a completely subjective thing. If he a) has £1,000 to spend and b) loves books then it's perfectly reasonable to spend £1,000 on books.

Even a paperback is around the £8-10 mark these days, so for his £1,000 he'd get (at most) about 120 books. I would get through 120 novels alone in about 18 months, so it's not actually a huge number of books to buy. It just seems a lot because he's buying them all in one go. And of course if he's buying things like illustrated hardbacks, coffee table books or special editions, that will mean fewer books for the money, so it doesn't seem excessive.

As he's moving house, it sounds like he's just factored it into his budget for furnishing the place, which again, seems OK to me.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. If anything, it's a bit on the small side as a book budget IMO.

I have some surplus books that I could sell by the yard.
Send him and his £1,000 my way.

Are they academic books? Is he a fan of the hard back over paperback?
I'm struggling to justify it as I enjoy poking about in charity shops and getting 2nd hand ones on Amazon via bookshops, but it does seem rather a lot if not either of those. I also am getting the fear of spending it all at once. I think I'd end up down a rabbit hole of fixating on a topic and ending up with over 100 books on it then being bored after 3. I'd have to apportion that amount into months.