My bookshelves have long since reached the point where a book has to be somewhere removed from the shelves before I can add any recent acquisition. And even then, it’s still a matter of shifting books around until a spot opens up in the appropriate section of my shelving. I’ve even tried the periodic book-purge in which I’ve found new homes for ten or twenty books at a time, but that method almost always immediately sends me out book-shopping again until all that wonderful free space is filled.
So, in practical terms, the rule around here is “one book in, one book out.” And that’s gotten harder for me to do because the individual choices are getting to be more and more difficult to make now. It's beginning to cut too close to the bone. Rather ridiculously, my answer - despite my aversion to buying e-books from Amazon - has been to buy e-books from those vendors that allow me to download backup copies to my computer, vendors like Kobo and a few publishers that sell directly to readers. (More on this later if anyone is interested.)
Shelf space problem solved. Whole new problem created.
Since the Year of the Plague (2020), I’ve bought more e-books every year than I can possibly ever read. As of this moment, there are 1,659 e-books on my Kobo reader, with a paltry 335 of those actually having been read. A handful of others have been abandoned after failed efforts on my part to find them readable, but that still leaves something over 1,300 unread books on the reader.
And I keep on buying them, and buying them, and buying them.
They are not all new books; in fact, well over half of them are back catalog choices that I’ve gotten at really good prices. (Is this starting to sound more like an addiction now and not just a harmless hobby?) I see that I purchased over 30 books in January, and already this month, another 10. The best that I can say about them, is that they are a fairly diverse bunch of books - and that I’ll never, ever, run out of things to read. 2026 purchases include:
- Eight books from Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks series
- The new Michael J. Fox memoir, Future Boy
- Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, historical fiction about the death of Shakespeare’s eleven-year-old son
- The Impossible Fortune, Richard Osman’s fifth book in his Thursday Murder Club series
- Michael Connelly’s eighth Lincoln Lawyer book, The Proving Ground
- Elizabeth George’s latest Inspector Lynley book, A Slowly Dying Cause
- The Land of Sweet Forever, a collection of Harper Lee short stories and magazine pieces
- Nobody’s Girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre memoir of being sexually exploited by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew, among others
- Clown Town, Mick Herron’s latest Slow Horses book, along with six earlier pre-Slow Horses books from his back catalog
- Eleven books from Martin Cruz Smith’s back catalog
I love the fact that there is always more out there than I can ever possible read. I will never run out of choices! I have a ton of e-books on my Kindle that I downloaded free from Project Gutenberg- older novels that are often very charming and interesting being from such a different timeframe. I never get around to them except when I'm traveling though, so am working through that TBR much slower than my physical on-paper books.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to explain, even to myself, but I think my instinct to hoard books comes from my childhood and early adulthood when books were so difficult for me to get my hands on. I remember always dreading to finish a book unless I had the next one already in hand - and that was seldom the case. Luckily, that is no longer the case, and now it’s a matter of having my own personal library on hand that drives me to keep buying books beyond my capacity to ever read them all.
DeleteThe funny thing is that even with an abundance of choices on hand (or maybe because of the abundance of choices), I find myself more and more selective about what I want to read. I don’t have the patience to read junk anymore - and much of what I see is definitely junk. Maybe it gets easier to spot for all of us who have spent a lifetime with books? I hope so.
Book buying is an addiction, but not a sin! My biggest book addiction is checking too many books out of my library every month. (Sometimes every week.) But that's only because I can't afford to buy all the books I wish I could own. And shelf space is at a premium. I dream of a room of bookshelves...my own private library space with comfy couches and maybe a fireplace. Having lots of books around makes me feel safe...I'd hate to be without any books to read. So I understand the impulse to keep too many of them on hand. :D
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a high comfort level for me when I am surrounded by books. I’m lucky to have a small room in which I’m surrounded by my own small library. It’s where I feel most at home, and it will certainly be the room I miss most if we are ever forced to move from this house one day. Unfortunately, shelf space is very limited and valuable these days. E-books are a solution of sorts, but a very pale imitation of a physical library, in my estimation. But we do what we have to do.
DeleteMy sister said once if I haven't read a book I own within 6 months I must not really want to read it but that isn't true at all! I have a book by Susanna Kearsley that I have owned for about 7 years and I am saving it for a day when I really need cheering up. Last week I was at a funeral and at the end I looked up to what seemed like a choir loft and I saw there was a shelf of books that looked like donations. I could feel my pulse quicken! Then I saw there was a church staffer up there managing a projector and when he didn't leave, I was too embarrassed to go up and explore (take books)!
ReplyDeleteI love that story about the books at the funeral. I can see myself reacting exactly the same way - and grieving about the missed opportunity for days afterward.
ReplyDeleteI went on a major book-buying spree back in 1987, adding a few dozen brand new hardcovers, along with numerous paperbacks. The paperbacks are, for the most part, long gone, but a high percentage of the hardcovers are still with me. (As it turns out, that was a really good year for literary fiction in this country.) I have finally read almost all of them, but there are still several from 1987 that have never even been cracked open…but I’m positive that they will be some day.
There is only one downside to buying books - they never come with the time to read them. I love it when a book piques your interest in such a way that it leads to another book to read. We need a special word for when the occurs... as I especially love the hunt. But when we run across a book we might be interested in, it's best to buy it immediately. Who knows if we'll remember to circle back or if we'll even run across it again. And if it's on sale? Well, now we're just talking about being fiscally responsible, right? Right? Haha! So from one non-addict-but-book-superfan to another: it's certainly not a sin to own way more than we can read. And I've been reading your blog long enough that you are more of a gardener than a hoarder. Always thinking through the listings and stacks. Pruning where needed and appreciating every page. It's always a fun way to spend some time. Glad you're posting again.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I’ve walked away from too many books, only to come back a few days later to find them long gone. That was especially true when I was more avid about collecting first editions of favorite books, but it’s still true today. You got me to thinking, and I’ve just realized that I’ve been an avid reader for seven decades now. Books have been among the most important things in my life ever since I broke the reading code at age five or so and figured out how to tap into what's between the covers. I think all those years has given me a good sense of what is worth my time, and what’s not. I’m a lot less tolerant of bad writing than I used to be. Ha…with all these good books around me, that doesn’t surprise me. Thanks for checking in.
DeleteI have way too many books in both paper format or eBooks. I don't really enjoy reading on a Kindle but I still keep buying the books. Sometimes that is the only edition I can get. (I won't spend too much on them though.) I have books I have stored away in boxes I cannot get to. And I continue to buy books. I don't really regret buying the books but I know some of them are impulse buys. The only solution I have for now is that I don't buy physical books January to September, and only buy books during the last 4 months of the year. So I do think I end up buying less impulse books. It probably is not a sin but I agree with Lark, it is an addiction.
ReplyDeleteI admire your will power of not buying physical books from January to September each year. If I tried that, I can only imagine the magnitude of the book-buying binge I would go on for the rest of the year. There is a definite comfort though in being able to browse so many books without leaving my home. It seems that I discover something “new” on my own shelves almost as often as I do when book shopping or going to my public library.
DeleteI used to buy alot of books too and now I find thanks to libby and kindle unlimited I don't do it as much but nature abhors a vacuum and my new addiction is instacart which is much more expensive than going to the supermarket rather than delivery. I have to get that under control. But back to books. Its not a sin and I think about Larry McMurty. I would give alot to have seen his library which is probably a literal library.
ReplyDeleteMcMurtry was a fascinating man. One of my biggest literary thrills was being able to attend the big auction when the man was auctioning off the bulk of his collection. It was sad to see him saying goodbye to so many thousands of books that way. They were housed in several different Archer City, TX, buildings and the auction drew bidders from around the world to that little town.
DeleteI think it's Okay not to read them all. I think buying the books is a lot of the fun or the need in our brains. I also have many books on my e-reader unread (and books on my shelves) but I look for more ebook deals, on top of books from the library. I'm not sure exactly what it is but a compulsion to get more. We *want* to get to the book but whether we will is unknown. I haven't figured it out either -- but I'm trying to get a bit more control on it. It feels like an ice cream cone you want to get .... lol
ReplyDeleteIt’s a feeling that I’ve had all my life, something I thought I would outgrow at some point. But that never happened. I wonder if it has to do with my love of libraries. Having more books around than I can ever possibly read - and continuing to add to them - is a little like having my own library to explore at leisure. A nice feeling. At this point, I’ve given up on trying to control it. I know how unlikely that is to ever happen. lol
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