I just bought my 8 year old daughter 50 books for the summer holidays

[mamalife1990]

As its the summer holidays I decided that I would let my 8 year buy some books for over the summer. She absolutely loves to read and I realised that it might be nice for her to have some new books to read over the next 6 weeks.

So I ordered her some books. However most of the books I ordered were series. I got a few individual books. But most of the books were series. Meaning I didn't really calculate how many books I was actually buying. My plan was, wait until all the books arrive, put them all in one big box and give the box to my daughter.

The last box arrived today so I went into my room and got every book and series out of their boxes....and I realised...that's a lot of books. So I decided to count and there is 50 books. 50! When you're buying book series, it's easy to forget how many books you are actually buying.

I gave my daughter the box and she is extremely happy. So seeing her smile was worth the financial cost of all these books.

Let's just hope my husband doesn't want a divorce after seeing so many books. Was this financially responsible? Nope. Do I regret anything? Nope.

Now my 4 year old wants some new books too 😭 Thankfully the books he would read are a lot cheaper lol

Nice! I borrowed the set years ago to read to my DD but she has no memory of that now so thought it best to buy them. Such a good series!

I wouldn't mind re reading them myself

I never say no to books and if your husband objects, LTB. Like John Waters says, if you go home with someone and they don't have books, don't f* them.

I’m of the view that you can never have enough books! It’s great you did this for your daughter op.

Love this.

Actually wish I’d been presented with a summer reading box, when my leave started last week.

Get her a library card, then you won’t have unread books cluttering up your house.

My son is the same as your daughter he’s really in to the skandar series for when you are looking at other options

Very nice. A trip to the library would be just as beneficial.

As someone whose mum would complain about me finishing books too quickly as a kid, this is so lovely to read!

Not really. They're highly unlikely to have all the series easily available. Whilst I'm all for supporting local libraries, there is something special about owning your own favourites and being able to go back to them whenever you want. If no-one bought books basically none would be written so none would go into the library anyway,

Is it only Essex libraries you can go online and reserve books to be delivered to your local library?

I have to say that I do love a series of books, I would have been an extremely happy girl if mum had presented me with that box.

You can do this everywhere. But it's a huge PITA if your child wants to read a series in order, lining up all the reservations.

We live 5 mins walk from the library so I do it a fair amount for books the kids want to read but for series, it's a lot easier to just buy them.

I really don't understand why you and other posters seem so determined to view what the OP has done as a diss on the library system.

We use libraries, charity shops but yes also buy a few books new every year as a treat.

When I was a teen the local (very good) library did a summer reading scheme where you picked (according to your age) a slip with three authors on and chose a book by one of them that you hadn't read.

On more than one occasion I got a slip with three authors where my choice was:
Author 1: Had written about a dozen books, and I'd read all four that were in the library.
Author 2: Had written a series of six books. The library had one of book two which couldn't be found, 4 copies of book three and one of book 6 which was out on long term loan.
Author 3: the only one the library had of all 20 of their books was found under the shelves with the back chapters missing.

Our library’s summer reading programme had no restrictions at all?

?? Is that meant to be disbelieving or criticising an attempt to encourage children to expand the authors they chose to read over 30 years ago?

This was a one run by (I think) Lancashire libraries some point in the late 80s/early 90s.
You wrote a review of the book you wrote and if you completed the scheme then you got entered into a competition. I think I came second in my age category and won some book vouchers.

In the above case I chose to read one of the book three by author 2, and found it pretty incomprehensible as it referred back a lot to the other books. However some of the authors I discovered I loved and afterwards read more by them.

I’m not sure what you mean?
I’m not criticising anything, just surprised there were such restrictions on what books qualified for the reading challenge.

All 3 of mine love reading, lol we were out every day when they were younger and they didn’t have time to read much, only when they went to bed and they were so tired from spending days at the beach they used to read a couple of pages and then fall asleep!

That’s great! I also have an avid reader who’s now 12, and I also used to buy her large quantities of books and still do although nowadays it’s more on her Kindle. The library is also great to keep the cost down but yeah, I do splurge on second hands books from time to time…

Where was I " dissing" the library? I merely asked if it was just Essex libraries who did the reservation systems. Not sure that's " dissing"

You were clearly implying that the OP should have done reservations at the library instead of buying books. I.e. looking down on her approach of just buying a few books for her DD.

That is impractical for long series of books.

Olif you say so. I hadn't even replied to the OP. but a different poster

Btw I've just got the first 2 books of a series from the library and reserved the next 2. No issue or difficulties as the poster I replied to suggested

The shop I work in charges £1 for 3 children's books . Most look as if they're brand new .