A year of no book buying. Anyone care to join me?

[Parisbanana]

I've had a dummy run, starting at the beginning of the school year in September, just so it didn't seem too daunting! But so far I'm embracing it. I buy a lot of books generally and just thought we'd got so many in the house. I do read the vast majority of what I buy, but I do have books I haven't read, and my husband and teenage kids have some great books I would love to read.
So over the past 3 months I have definitely decreased my bedside pile. I am currently reading A Christmas Carol which dh reads every December but I never have. It's quite a joy to browse our book cases and spot things I haven't read and think this is the year I'll get round to it! Or to reread old favourites.
And I've just been made redundant so tightening the book buying belt is even more important.

Anyone fancy giving it a go?

[PhoenixRisingSlowly]

But.... no! Surely not? Where would I get joy from if I stopped buying books?
Well, buying yarn, actually. All the same, don't think I could bear a year without buying books. I love having my own copies and toting them about with me as they get increasingly battered and well read.

[JemimaMuddledUp]

We have two independent bookshops, both sell mainly Welsh books. Welsh books have the advantage that they don't tend to be sold for less on Amazon or in supermarkets, so there is less competition. I included them in my new book ban though as I can easily spend too much money there and pretty much everything is available in the library. When I am given book tokens though (which don't count) I spend them in the independents.

[Izzy24]

@Phoenix:

Ha! My other great obsession! I have several unfinished projects and am determined not to buy any more yarn until they are finished- or at least no longer under my roof.....

Have decided to buy a new bookshelf (now that I won't be buying any new books for a year).

I shall put all the books I haven't read there and work my way through it.

[Cagliostro]

Wait... does this include piano music books?!

[bootygirl]

I have twitched and bought a kindle book for €1:50. Plus a jigsaw & mat €22! I must not start buying other things (argan oil €22!). Instead of books!

[CoteDAzur]

What exactly is the purpose of this "year of no book buying" if it's then OK to buy from independent bookshops?

Surely not saving money since Kindle books from Amazon are likely to be much cheaper. And clearly not finishing books already in the house, either.

[Matilda2013]

I won't be buying from anywhere if I manage to stick to it

[Cagliostro]

I won't be buying any at all either. I have lots to read, I won't even be getting from the library in fact as I can't get there easily. I really want to use up what I've got. Most will be given away after so it's decluttering too!

[CiderwithBuda]

I bought four books today. Am on holiday in Dubai and stupidly left my kindle on th plane. Have my iPad but can't read on it in the sun. Last books purchase until 2018. Honest guv!

I am two books away from finishing my 2016 50 books challenge. Going to up it to 60 for 2017.

[Murine]

Just bought 3 Kindle books on sale:
The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker (£1.49), Wool by Hugh Howey and It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (both 99p), partly because I got confused that today was NYE and therefore my last chance to buy books before my no buying resolution starts!

[Waawo]

I'm totally up for this. I have a few - maybe fifteen - physical books that I want to re-read before they're donated, and literally hundreds of titles in my Kindle account. Not to mention two libraries within walking distance. So no excuses!

(Cue big raft of excuses sometime around the end of January...)

[Littlepleasures]

I have 995 books on my kindle all unread as I shift them on to the cloud when I finish them. After a massive physical book cull eighteen months ago, I still have hundreds of unread books sitting on the shelves to get through. This would definitely be a sensible challenge for me. Can I do it? Never buy physical books now as we have an excellent online free book ordering system at our local library ten minute's walk away. The kindle daily deal would be so hard to resist but hey, if I don't look at it, I won't know what I'm missing. Yep. I'm up for it but not sure whether to include library books in the ban as getting through the unread books is the aim, not so much the cost as I get them free from the library and stick to the free books recommended on Book Bub.

[Cagliostro]

Wow I'm surprised I only have 125 items on my kindle account. I thought it'd be more

[Cagliostro]

I have a fair few on iBooks as well though, all free stuff so mostly classics

[Cagliostro]

I'll be banning myself from library books as well, at least for the time being. I am not a fast reader so the stuff I already have on kindle/in hard copy should be more than enough, particularly as many are non fiction which takes me a lot longer to read.

I figure that anything I keep putting off reading I may as well get rid of it rather than having it sit there taunting me

[Parisbanana]

I'm not doing any library borrowing and I don't have a kindle. For me, the purpose of this is to get through a lot of what we've got and maybe open my eyes to some stuff (dh's that he loved) that I wouldn't normally read.
I'm not a particularly fast reader either, but if I can do 25 this year I'll be really happy.
But will still definitely read the book reviews in the weekend papers and make notes ready for when I'm ready to enter the book buying/borrowing world again.

[mugglebumthesecond]

Ok I have 896 books on my kindle but have probably read over 100, I have 100s of unread physical books too. With certainty I won't read them all before I die , it is an addiction- books mean comfort and escapism and have since I was a child.

How are you all going to cope when the man Booker prize shortlist comes out? When your new favourite author releases a much longed for title? What about when an expensive item on your wish list drops suddenly to 99p?



I can't do it!

But I need to

[BarbaraofSeville]

Joins in. Until the confessions of Littlepleasures and mugglebum I think I may have had the biggest virtual pile of unread kindle books of around 350.

I think a combination of not seeing a physical pile of books and thinking 'it's only 99p' makes it far too easy to buy books that I'll never get round to reading.

At the rate I read it will take over 10 years to get through all those books so that's something else I need to address. I've set myself a goodreads 50 books a year challenge for the last 2 years and failed miserably both years (31 in 2015 and 25 in 2016, if I finish the one I'm currently reading today).

Even worse, those books include loads of really great books that I really want to read (I track prices in ereaderiq and for the last few months have only allowed myself to buy at 99p) so my resolution for 2017 is to read for at least an hour a day and aim for a book a week more or less - 50 books a year should be easily achieveable from that as I always get through at least 3 or 4 books on holiday, so I just need to get off here and start reading more.

[ScarletPower]

I'll join you. I'll still borrow books from the library though - it's free to reserve at the moment, but I don't know for how much longer.

I'm really embarrassed to admit this, but I bought a new paperwhite for Christmas and when my books synched there were 982!!! In my defence I have had a kindle for 6 years but even so I think that averages out at 14 per month. I have a self imposed ban on buying anything above £3 and most of my books are 99p but even so, it's still an awful lot of money spent on books over 6 years.

I don't know how many of my 982 are unread though - how do I find that out?

[Izzy24]

Thank goodness I don't have a kindle!!!!

[BarbaraofSeville]

Scarlet

I delete books off my kindle when I have read them so all those on there are the unread ones.

[slightlyglitterbrained]

I put them into a collection called Unread when I buy them and move them (to my 50 book thread collection) when I finish reading them. That way I can browse through unread when I want to read something new or browse e.g. Steampunk/Regency if I fancy a reread.

[burnoutbabe]

I have spent this year not letting myself re-read any book previously read so all books have been new to me - i had around 20 or so on my 2 read shelf (and got shot of some as had been there for years) and then just managed with kindle 99p reads/the library. Managed my usual 100 or so this year. I have missed not re-reading some books but its been fine (mostly when i fancy something quick/light to read in the bath and don't want to take library/kindle in there).

[southeastdweller]

I'm allowing myself the occasional library book but not until March, by which time I should have read about a quarter of my unread pile (total of 34, was 38 but I deleted and donated five this week).

[bootygirl]

I literally bought a book at 11:35pm on the 31st!cutting myself off now. Only library & any book tokens I receive for Xmas