Book Buying Addicts Anonymous discussion
When You Shop Books...How many do you end up buying?
date
newest »
newest »
It depends on how much money I have but sometimes about 6 to 10 books. Sometimes I've bought around 15 or 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At full-price bookstores, I normally stick to two or three, unless there's some kind of sale or I'm incredibly lucky and find all the cheap versions of books I want.At book sales, it's not unheard of for me to walk out with upwards of 20. This last library sale, I left with 17 books, and they were all generally contemporary books, which I don't normally buy much. I tend to stick to classics, which gets me in trouble.
I have to say too many...like Heather, I get greedy, too. It's like I go for one book in particular and then I see all these others that catch my eye and I just have to have them all, my average purchase at the bookstore or on-line each time I buy is between 5 - 10 titles. And I have to say I go to a bookstores at least 2 times a month and I shop on-line even more.
I do the same thing. It is very rare that I leave a bookstore without at least 5-10 books. And if that is not bad enough, I also buy quite a few online every month. *sigh* I guess there are worst addictions to have.
I love thrift stores, flea markets and yard sales. You always find someone who is purging a collection. I usually buy a whole series or at least 5-10 titles.
I guess I am the original cheapskate. I used to frequently buy 3-4 books at a clip in a bookstore and have bought as many as 8 or 9. However,I have become spoiled by Amazon new and used books at ridiculously low prices. If I go to a bookstore now I only buy books on sale and make lists of books to buy on line while I am in the store. Magazines are still a weakness. I buy several at a time and rack my brains attempting to justify my purchases.Library books sales are another story. I don't count the number of books I buy there, I count the number of bags of books I walk out with:)
I tend to buy nothing or between 5-10. There are days when I go into a bookstore and it all looks good and there are days when nothing appeals.
I dont shop online too often for books (unless they are out of print or the bookstores just arent carrying them)... so the only place i can go really is Borders. In order to control the damage i would do to my wallet, I walk out with no more than three books a visit. However, a visit could be once a week, depending on how much time i can devote to reading... sometimes it could last as long as three weeks (like when i was on my Jose Saramago kick -- his books are hard work for me, requiring many many breaks for sanity purposes).
I also get readers Anxiety if I have too many unread books sitting and calling my name. I never know which to start, and once i pick, I start to wonder if another book would have been better, but i dont read multiple books at a time, so i end up rushing through the current book to be able to sit and think about which next book i want to read, and the crazy little cycle repeats itself again.
Ive learned that three unread books at a time is a comfortable limit for me :)
Is anyone besides me laughing as we read these posts? Even though many of my friends love to read, I don't know anyone who is a compulsive (did I say that out loud?!) book buyer. I love them like children love sweets. And I love to talk about them. This site is so great. What a delight to be in touch with others who can safely say how much they love books and not feel foolish. Hee hee!
I leave with at least 4 or 5, anything less seems a waste of time.
Ha ha. Library book sales, yes, by the bagful! And speaking of bagfuls, the bi-annual Goodwill Booksale in Atlanta is the best. I have missed the last two years having moved to the mountains, It was held on the downstairs level of a mall.
Since I do not live near any new book stores, when I finally do get into one I end up with about 15 to 20 titles. When I go on trips with my sisters it is understood that bookstores are one of the places we will be shopping. I do buy online a lot and visit my local used book store at least once a month. Which the owner thinks is a chuckle because I work in the public library. But the summer visitors always bring in new books ... best time to go browsing. and I will buy a used book to try a different author.
Depends on where I buy, if it is from Amazom usually 4-8, if at B&N or Borders 2-3, if they are discounted books like at a yard sale, goodwill, library it usually is more than ten. Over Thanksgiving my family went to NM and at the library my uncle works at I picked up 15 books for 8 bucks, YES! I think the most I have bought at a used books sale is 35.
Just like everyone else: depends. If it's a major chain bookstore, and I go in for 1 book, then I usually come out with 2-3.
Amazon, I usually hit the super-saver shipping $25 limit, plus a book or two, spending maybe $50.
Used bookstore? None around where I live, so when I hit one, I stock up! I went to Portland, OR once, and took an empty suitcase. I kid you not. I think I bought >50 books at Powells.
Being a writer and thus spending lots of time in bookstores, talking to managers, doing signings, etc., has inoculated me against the lure of bookstores. If I bought 2-3 books every time I went into a store, my house would be nothing but stacks of books with little rabbit trails among them. My family would hold an intervention.
TK Kenyon
Author of RABID: A Novel (suitable as a Xmas gift for your most bitter and disillusioned friend.)
and CALLOUS: A Novel (Another bite of a bittersweet confection coming in May, 2008.)
"[Rabid] is a genre-bending story, part thriller, part literary slapdown with dialogue as the weapon of choice."--Booklist Starred Review
Quite simply put - more than I intend to. I might go to buy one specific book and of course never walk out with just one.
I always buy more than I intend to as well, but I have developed a system so I don't go too overboard. I pick up the books and then I walk around with them for a while. I look though them again and usually put one ot two back. May sound silly, but it keeps me from going home with 12 books.
Oh, man. Whenever I walk into a bookstore, I get magnetized to the rows on rows of books and start scamming through titles and covers, looking for interesting stuff. After spending hours of reading back covers and drooling at the interesting books' content, I somehow always manage to get out of the store with four, five books at a time.
If I'm going to a used bookstore I'd say my average purchase # is around 6 titles......yes..incredibly greedy~!