As an ardent book lover, buyer and as a library regular, I am always surrounded by books; old, new, second hand, borrowed. I love buying new releases, I desperately hunt down favourite authors in charity shops and I navigate straight to the book aisle when I do the weekly shop. I love adding books to the 'Tower of TBR' - even if it wobbles, I merely see it as a challenge to build it higher.
I know this is not unusual; it may even remind you of yourself. I mean, we all have massive TBR piles don't we?
So why a book buying ban?
Just before New Year I had a vague count up of the books I had yet to read. Littered across shelves, the bedside table, the drawers, the dressing table.. and it was A LOT. Let's say it was roughly 50...ish (OK OK, more toward 65..ish).
It surprised me; I don't know why as I had bought them all but I was still shocked it was so many. Although I read steadily and always have at least on the go, the pile never seems to go down. So I came up with the (some would say) drastic plan to have a month where I bought NO books. Ridiculous right? No new books, no e-books, no charity shop books - none at all.
I don't really make New Year resolutions but thought this could be an interesting way to start the year- save some pennies and tackle that TBR Pile. Mind firmly made up, I even roped in fellow book reviewer, Kirsty from Kirstys Book Buying Addiction - (https://kirstysbookbuyingaddiction.home.blog/)
As 2019 hit, our self imposed ban took hold. Many of the book loving community we love being part of on Twitter were surprised, some laughed and didn't believe we could do it whilst others openly admitted they couldn't do it. Let me tell you, I wasn't fully convinced I could myself.
I saw review after review of amazing books, I got emails about new releases that I just knew I'd love, every shop and supermarket seemed to be teasing me with glorious looking shelves of books with gorgeous covers and what was with all the emails with special discount codes for all of my favourite book buying sites?!
I'd say the first week was easy, just reading books from my TBR pile and loving them. I was making a brilliant start to this years Goodreads reading challenge (I set my target at 60) and was really pleased with myself - HA a month was going to be a piece of cake!
Slowly, as we settled into January and I went back to the day job the more I began getting twitchy - seeing books sneaking up on me and teasing me with their wonderful covers and descriptive synopsis. Reading books in the TBR pile was one thing but it meant I was discovering authors I hadn't read before and upon loving what I read, I wanted more.
Middle of the month was the worst, deflated after the festive period and general winter blues - usually I would pick myself up with a little dabble on Amazon or a trip to The Works. So I started to tease myself - creating wish lists on Amazon of all the books I would be buying if I wasn't on this ban. I'm not sure why I was intent on making life harder for myself but I clearly was.
Although I nearly broke once or twice and even though I was desperate for certain titles - I suffered on and as we got to the 22nd, 23rd, 24th of January I realised the end was in sight. I was going to be able to do it.
I originally set the ban so I could tackle the TBR pile - the books I had selected to buy over however long it had taken me to amass such a collection but had never actually read. You know what, the ban worked - during January alone I read 20 books!
Now February is here and normal service has resumed. I would love to say I maintained a stoic view of not needing to buy more books, persevering with demolishing the wonderful TBR tower but that would be a lie.
I think putting myself on a ban may have been a bad idea, stored up the problem and now February has come along and unleashed all that book buying energy.
I have purchased a few books - I think it may be 25 ish books. OK, so I went a little bit crazy, splurged a little (a lot) but I'm determined it was just this month and I will be trying curb my booking buying for the rest of the year (month)...
But can we all agree: Pre-orders don't count do they?
I know this is not unusual; it may even remind you of yourself. I mean, we all have massive TBR piles don't we?
So why a book buying ban?
Just before New Year I had a vague count up of the books I had yet to read. Littered across shelves, the bedside table, the drawers, the dressing table.. and it was A LOT. Let's say it was roughly 50...ish (OK OK, more toward 65..ish).
It surprised me; I don't know why as I had bought them all but I was still shocked it was so many. Although I read steadily and always have at least on the go, the pile never seems to go down. So I came up with the (some would say) drastic plan to have a month where I bought NO books. Ridiculous right? No new books, no e-books, no charity shop books - none at all.
I don't really make New Year resolutions but thought this could be an interesting way to start the year- save some pennies and tackle that TBR Pile. Mind firmly made up, I even roped in fellow book reviewer, Kirsty from Kirstys Book Buying Addiction - (https://kirstysbookbuyingaddiction.home.blog/)
As 2019 hit, our self imposed ban took hold. Many of the book loving community we love being part of on Twitter were surprised, some laughed and didn't believe we could do it whilst others openly admitted they couldn't do it. Let me tell you, I wasn't fully convinced I could myself.
I saw review after review of amazing books, I got emails about new releases that I just knew I'd love, every shop and supermarket seemed to be teasing me with glorious looking shelves of books with gorgeous covers and what was with all the emails with special discount codes for all of my favourite book buying sites?!
I'd say the first week was easy, just reading books from my TBR pile and loving them. I was making a brilliant start to this years Goodreads reading challenge (I set my target at 60) and was really pleased with myself - HA a month was going to be a piece of cake!
Slowly, as we settled into January and I went back to the day job the more I began getting twitchy - seeing books sneaking up on me and teasing me with their wonderful covers and descriptive synopsis. Reading books in the TBR pile was one thing but it meant I was discovering authors I hadn't read before and upon loving what I read, I wanted more.
Middle of the month was the worst, deflated after the festive period and general winter blues - usually I would pick myself up with a little dabble on Amazon or a trip to The Works. So I started to tease myself - creating wish lists on Amazon of all the books I would be buying if I wasn't on this ban. I'm not sure why I was intent on making life harder for myself but I clearly was.
Although I nearly broke once or twice and even though I was desperate for certain titles - I suffered on and as we got to the 22nd, 23rd, 24th of January I realised the end was in sight. I was going to be able to do it.
I originally set the ban so I could tackle the TBR pile - the books I had selected to buy over however long it had taken me to amass such a collection but had never actually read. You know what, the ban worked - during January alone I read 20 books!
Now February is here and normal service has resumed. I would love to say I maintained a stoic view of not needing to buy more books, persevering with demolishing the wonderful TBR tower but that would be a lie.
I think putting myself on a ban may have been a bad idea, stored up the problem and now February has come along and unleashed all that book buying energy.
I have purchased a few books - I think it may be 25 ish books. OK, so I went a little bit crazy, splurged a little (a lot) but I'm determined it was just this month and I will be trying curb my booking buying for the rest of the year (month)...
But can we all agree: Pre-orders don't count do they?
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