Shelf-Discipline: How to Read More Before Your Next Book Spree

Getting myself into a book-buying hiatus was easy! I ran out of space on my 8 separate bookcases and refuse to box my books; thus, the library! Unfortunately, I can't always find what I want. Oh well, there's always a way: put them on hold and wait 6 weeks.

Cardinal wrote: "I limit my book buying sprees to thrift stores. If I find a book I must read, it isn't killing my wallet. Just pay 50 cents or a dollar or two and have a few new books.

It does not help with readi..."

Since I moved away from a city with several second-hand book stores, most of which would carry things in other languages, this one isn't useful for me any longer. The second-hand store we used to have here went out of business a year or so ago, and he wouldn't trade things in other languages......I suppose if you find things that easily, garage sales/tag sales would work, as well.

library is the best option, because it have due date, so you will surely finish the book rather than shelved it FOR ETERNITY!

Barnes and Noble this week is having 50% certain books and I have 3 I want to buy, so this is going to help!

I'm usually pretty good about my book buying bans. I don't have a license so I can't go to the store whenever I want, I don't buy books on Kindle unless I'm 100% positive I'll like it. I use my library a lot, but neglect my physical and ebooks sometimes.

Honestly, I really like the read 3 buy 1. I have a list of the my physical/Kindle/audiobooks, and while it's only about 80, I feel like I should up it to 5, considering how few in pages some of the books are.

It's the conferences that get me where I just HAVE to look and buy every book that peaks my interest from an author that is at the conference so I can get it signed. Ruins my buying SO MUCH!

I stop when I can’t figure out how to add another book to the stack on my nightstand without it being dangerous of crashing and causing serious bodily injury to myself or others.

I think I'll try tip #6. a friend advised me to stop buying books and start saving money. Since the library is far from where I live, I decided to go to a nearby bookstore and read what I like until closing time, unfortunately, I liked a book so much I ended up buying it. There goes my saving strategy :/

I use the library a lot, have 25 books this month from them, but still bought more just yesterday! I use the goodreads shelf Want To Read as the books I own and need to read, and made a TBR from Library shelf for the ones I find as I browse on here! I like tip 6, but I have over 500 books I own and need to read (horrid, I know) so I would modify it to books of a certain length are worth so much, more as page count goes up. This is helped by the fact that I also made shelves for books of less than 280 pages, 400-600, 600-1000 and 1000+ so doing it that way would encourage me to get those pesky large tomes read! It also helps me choose what to take to work (280 or less usually) vs what to read at home or on vacation. Some really good tips here!

I've tried book hiatuses, but my problem is that I overwhelmingly read series books and books kept coming out in the series I was reading. Falling behind on my various series was more stressful than looking at my TBR pile.

Move into a tiny home. Worked for me. cheers

Adrienne wrote: "Move into a tiny home. Worked for me. cheers"

That just made me switch from paper books to ebooks, which are now accumulating at an even more terrifying rate than my paper books were, because I don't have to leave the house to buy them and they arrive instantly.

I will try #6 but wont promise myself that I will do it strictly.
Too much books so little time

My library also has an audiobook app, which provides a range of audiobooks to listen to. I get access to them for about 15 days. Though after that I can basically just borrow them again and listen further. It's nice to use when doing chores or being in my car. Only downside is that I prefer to read/listen to books in english, while they are all in dutch at my library. And the speeds can't be set at x2, which I like to do more, since the audio is often kinda slow for me. On the other side, I've been thinking about audible. Though that means only 1 book for a month for a price way too high in my opinion. I rather use the library app then.

I have a TBR shelf/cube that maybe fits 20-30 books. If there's room on the shelf, I'll let myself buy however many can fit. If my shelf is full—full being no books are falling off without the use of duct tape (I can really shove them in if I'm going on a spree)—then I'll only buy a new book if that is the very next thing I'll read.

I don't really like the idea of restricting myself too much when it comes to books. I like having a healthy TBR shelf at hand because you just never know what you'll need to read next. I always make lists in my head of what I'll read next, but I NEVER end up following it and I love that. I think there's a time and a place for every story, so I try not to let the never-ending list stress me out!

Daisy wrote: "I have two tricks.

1) I read on a theme each year. Whether that's "1/2 my reading list this year will be Man Booker Prize Winners" or "All my books will be by University of Iowa Writer's Workshop ..."

Wow, you have incrediable self control.

I'm a sloth. I buy books and I already own in excess to 6,000 physical books. I'm unable to curtail myself and have about given up on that. This is in view of the fact that I just moved house TWICE within 8 months, which means lugging a lot of heavy cartons in my case. I've moved into my new home 2 months ago and still haven't managed to unpack and range all the books...

My plan is on acquiring a house with a designated library and lots of shelf space.

Mayke (thecozyfort)☕️ wrote: "My library also has an audiobook app, which provides a range of audiobooks to listen to. I get access to them for about 15 days. Though after that I can basically just borrow them again and listen ..."

Heey, I prefer listening in english too. Maybe you could try Librivox.org. You can get free audiobooks there read by volunteers. The only downside is that you can't download modern books, but you can listen to austen, Bronte, George Eliot, etc.. Ze hebben ook nederlandstalige boeken zoals de leeuw van vlaanderen etc.

I don't really ban myself from reading books, as I know that wont work for me so instead I try and limit myself to 5 books a month. That way I still get to buy a book if I really want too, but I am not flooding my TBR pile. I also have a reward system. Every time I finish a book, I put £1 in a jar on my shelf. Then at the end of the year I take the money that is in there and go on a little spree with it :D I find that it is a really good intensive to keep reading

I'm lucky enough to live in an area where libraries have sharing (having a library card for one place works for several other library systems) over a very large area and that includes ebooks and I get Goodreads deals and Bookbub deals. My problem now has become that I have a huge collection of free or cheap ebooks that I'm trying to get through and never seem to get around to my more expensive book choices. My husband loves it though because my book habit was becoming, according to him, a "thing".

I haven't bought a single book in 2018, which is the longest I've managed to stick to a ban. I think it's because I specified it was for 2018, and I didn't specify that I needed to read my entire TBR (that would be impossible in a year). And I don't know if I will continue this in 2019 until all my unread books are read, but I think that if I do allow myself to buy books again next year, I'll be much more mindful of what ones I buy and how many I buy - maybe one a month would suffice, if I read it straight away! But either way, I've been loving not buying books because I feel like every book I read is a little achievement :)

Edit: Oh, and another note - I only put books I actually own on my to be read shelf on Goodreads - I now have a different list for wishlist where I put books I really want. It allows me the time to review them and see if I still want them further down the line when I'm buying books again! And if I have a book club book to read, I get it from the library.

I can’t go to the library without borrowing the full capacity on my account, even if I have bought books waiting for me...

I also try to stay away from eBay, or leave books in a list rather than buy them right away. I try to buy no more than two or three on payday that I’ve wanted for a while.

Because I am a student and I don't have much money (or much more space) to splurge on books I have to be very selective about the ones I choose. So I printed out my TBR List and checked how many of those I can borrow from my local library. Now I borrow them first and decide later on if the book was so incredible that I still want to own it and most of the times it was a fun time, but I don't necessarily need it permanently at home :)
The 5 star reads I send as a list to people who want to get me gifts for Xmas/my Bday, this way they can be sure I will love the gift!

Cassandra wrote: "Because I am a student and I don't have much money (or much more space) to splurge on books I have to be very selective about the ones I choose. So I printed out my TBR List and checked how many of..."

I follow that idea as well. I borrow books from my library. The ones that I absolutely love are ones I want to get a nice copy of in the future. That way I build a book collection that shows all the books that I love.

Bill wrote: "In the old day, if I seen an interesting book in a bookstore, I would have to buy it because I may never see it again otherwise.

Now we have the internet, so I can way until I am ready to read it,..."

I juggle books I have to review with my favourites, not sure which always wins out.

You can't stop reading and buying books nowadays for the simple reason that we are bought and sold every moment on the web ...

I have a budget for book-buying. It's usually 30 euros a month, allowing for however many books I can fit into that budget. If it's a financially tight month, I'll lower it to 20 euros, if I have some spare money I'm ok with going up to 60, but never more than that. I've mostly been able to stick to this budget for about 5 or 6 years now, it works pretty well for me.

I don't need a ban, if I see a book that looks interesting, I take a look at the prize tag and: taaadaa! Not interested in buying it any more. (Usually the next thing I do is checking on my phone if my library has it, and if not: still not interested in spending that much money on a single book that will last me a few days at most when I will never be able to read every good book my library offers me for the cost of three regular books per year

#8 clay my man i feel you bro it's a struggle for us broke readers

I try not to click to Goodreads suggestions but fail it usually. I, then, find myself reading similar plots so I end up with some books in my TBR shelf more than a year. Then, I change the road to a different plot - again, history repeats.

I used to buy books all of the time... and then they would just sit.
But about 2 years ago I got back into being involved (and eventually working in) my local libraries... and I think I've purchased 3? books since then.

This way I can read a book and, if I really LOVED it and know I want it to read again/for reference, then I can buy it. No more books that I'll never read again sitting on my shelves and taking up what little space I have in my room.

Libraries are <3

I love books! Why deprive myself? There are much more expensive bad habits than buying books! I even like reading about books! I buy many books, (only discounted, mostly used), and I borrow books from the library. I love them all, even the bad ones, lol!! Love books what can I say!

Move to another country where the books are not in your language also helps ;)

I have been on a book-buying ban for a couple of years now. Yet I still seem to find a lot of ways to get new books. Because, if they are free then technically you do not buy them, right?

Hahaha, this thread is hilarious!!!

Paul, I'm in awe of you.

Recently my 'to read list' became unmanageable; I wasn't going to read most of the 40 or so books on my list. I've self imposed a new rule. For every one I add to the list, I have to delete 2 or 3.

Rosa wrote: "I don't need a ban, if I see a book that looks interesting, I take a look at the prize tag and: taaadaa! Not interested in buying it any more. (Usually the next thing I do is checking on my phone i..."

Rosa wrote: "I don't need a ban, if I see a book that looks interesting, I take a look at the prize tag and: taaadaa! Not interested in buying it any more. (Usually the next thing I do is checking on my phone i..."

I remember when I could buy a paperback book (new) for $7. Now they're at least double that. And although I can afford to, I think about the space at home, and whether or not I really need to own it, or could I just borrow it?

I've always thought that buying books was the best kind of addiction. I used to tell my father other kids only asked for makeup, computer games, money for cigarettes (yup, I really went that way), to get him to buy me a new book. But ever since I started making my living and buying books with my money I went shopping almost every month. In five years I've gained 200 new books. This compulsive buying habit only stopped when I was unemployed. At that time, I thought maybe I needed to control that urge and start reading all the piles of tbr books I had. That's what I've been doing for about 4 months and so far it has been working.

I commented to my therapist one day that I was addicted to reading. She asked if I wanted to "work on that". Appalled, I screamed
'Oh, God, no!"

Genine wrote: "I commented to my therapist one day that I was addicted to reading. She asked if I wanted to "work on that". Appalled, I screamed
'Oh, God, no!""

It’s only an addiction if you need to quit/want to quit. And we book lovers DON’T!!🤣📚📚📚

My book-buying-ban only takes effect when I own more than 100 unread books. That happened only once so far...

I usually have 60-80 unread book purchases stacked around my reading corner. That doesn't stop me from buying 5 new books :D

I work in a library and I still buy books. It's my guilty pleasure and I can't help it. If I really want to read the series or I have already read it and love it, I'll buy the books even if my library has them or not. :( I can't help myself.

The other Sandy wrote: "I've tried book hiatuses, but my problem is that I overwhelmingly read series books and books kept coming out in the series I was reading. Falling behind on my various series was more stressful tha..."

Yup, that’s me!

If I bought all the books I want, I would be a penniless homeless person, pushing multiple grocery carts filled with literature. I used to keep a to-be-read list, but that way lies madness. It got to be thousands of titles long, and I realized that there are simply too many books, too little time.

Now I go for quick gratification, via the library. When I am reading about books, I keep my library's website open as well. When I encounter a title I want, I place a request for it at the library, and pick it up a few days later. If I don't get around to reading it after renewing it a few times, that means it isn't the book for me. Move along to next book. If I absolutely loved it and want to reread, then and only then am I allowed to buy it.

Despite this method, I still have 9 bookcases filled with books that I have somehow acquired, so it has some glitches to be worked out.

Janet wrote: "If I bought all the books I want, I would be a penniless homeless person, pushing multiple grocery carts filled with literature. I used to keep a to-be-read list, but that way lies madness. It got ..."

Yep, me too! It’d be me, my three dogs, and so many 📚!

A spree needn't mean spending money. A spree can mean trolling local libraries and checking out any and every book that grabs me. I have library cards for 3 library systems in my city, so that means if I went all in, I could easily walk away with close to 100 materials without spending a dime. Wow, now that's a spree!📚❤📚❤📚❤

Yay, someone else that has multiple library cards!🤣📚

Genine wrote: "I commented to my therapist one day that I was addicted to reading. She asked if I wanted to "work on that". Appalled, I screamed
'Oh, God, no!""
I love this!

The problem is at thrift stores the books are a dollar and up... haha. It's very hard not to buy lots of interesting good books for cheap. Especially when they retailed for thirty plus dollars.

I like the idea of finishing some books and then buying the amount you finished.

I don't have the money to buy books on a regular basis. I depend on my local library and little open bookshelves which are bookshelves in the public from where everybody can take and bring to.

I have a few rules and strategies that help, and I recently created a budget for book buying as well.

Rules:
1. Never buy a new book unless it is a must-have technical book (because technology moves fast) or unless it is a must-have that is nearly impossible to buy used.
2. Never buy a book for more than $4 used, unless there are no other books like it and it is a must-have (there is an amazing selection of books that you can buy from thriftbooks.com - and some from amazon.com - for $4 or less).

Strategies:
1. Borrow books from the library for books that I don't want to keep around for reference or likely re-reads (these tend to be non-technical books that I read for pure entertainment).
2. Borrow audio books from the library that I am interested in, or have on my TBR, but that I am not motivated about enough to sit down and slog through via visual reading.
3. Keep a vast and extensive TBR list ON Goodreads.com and Amazon.com, BUT not on my shelves at home (yes, I still have plenty at home, but most are online): in this way, I can satisfy my curiosity, yet still be prudent when it comes to borrowing or buying what I really want to read.
4. Use Prime Reading (comes with Amazon Prime) to check out books that I might be interested in. I usually have a very high cull factor for new Amazon.com authors (I'm just being honest), so, I can tell within a few sentences or (at most) a few paragraphs whether or not I will want to continue the book, or toss it on the DNF heap with glee (yes, I take glee in culling books - it is kind of like getting revenge on my TBR back-log)!
5. Sell or trade old books or books that I bought that I have decided are either low-value to me or that I have decided that I will probably never (in reality) ever read (in other words, they are just sitting on my shelves looking pretty).

Budget:
Because these days I purchase most of my books from thriftbooks.com, and because I can get free shipping on 3 books or more there, I have limited myself to buying 3 books every three months - which works out to about $12 every three months as my book budget. This is similar to a buying ban, but it affords me some flexibility and it keeps the fire stoked sufficiently for my reading interest. This also helps motivate me to read through the books that I have on my shelves.

I work at a library so you would think I would buy less, but no. I'm always so excited to read what's new at the library that I keep putting off books I own. Mostly I try to always be reading one from the library and one from home at the same time.

I still buy a lot, but I'm much more picky about what I will buy if I know I can get it for free at work. I have to really want it or know it will be harder to find because it's an indy or more obscure author.

Alice wrote: "I just end up reading books that I haven't marked Want to Read. My number goes neither up nor down. XD Not the best method! At least these books are all from the library, right?"

Dude same. My library has all the new books and popular books right out front, and inevitably I end up browsing and picking one or two out that look interesting each time I'm there. I keep thinking "what are the odds I'd want to read one of these books anyway?" Bad idea.