Book Buying Addicts Anonymous discussion

Today I went into three bookstores, spending over an hour in the first. In all three cases I walked out without having acquired a single book.

I don't know whether to be proud of my self-control or to weep a little inside.

Lisa wrote: "Today I went into three bookstores, spending over an hour in the first. In all three cases I walked out without having acquired a single book.

I don't know whether to be proud of my self-control or to weep a little inside. ..."

I know the feeling. Whenever I've walked out of a bookstore without buying, I swear my stomach hurts. ;-)

There must be someone in a university somewhere studying this.

Lisa wrote: "There must be someone in a university somewhere studying this."

:-) :-)

Be proud while weeping a little inside. I was just thinking I am in need of a good book to buy.

How is that possible? Spread your wisdom!
I just received some extra cash and I'm already making a list of books to buy. The thing is...I have 9 books coming in the mail!

I came really close to buying two. Really close - as in I'd picked them up off the shelf at least three times. But motivators included that I'm really poor and have lots of unread books at home already....

It can be very difficult, I find myself picking up books and putting them back multiple times too, sometimes even returning to the shop a few times over several days or weeks to look at it again if it hasn't sold. Sometimes I've lost out on books that way but I find it helps determine how much I really want that book - if I can not buy it after returning a couple of times then I probably can live without owning it.

That said, sometimes I've looked at books in shops and they have stayed there for months, tempting me every time I go in. I had that experience with a gorgeous set of books in a local bookshop, Empires of Early Latin America, which didn't sell for month after month. It was only when they started selling off their stock at half price in preparation for closing the shop (horror!) that I crumbled and bought it, followed by a number of other books they had that I'd also been looking at for ages.

I find it easy to resist regular priced mass-market books, but cheap books, especially in shops that tend to have a high turnover of stock or where it is a book where I may not easily find another copy, I find very, very difficult to resist!

I think we all know when we pick up a book whether buying it or not is a good idea… it's just that we often ignore that voice in our head. :-)

I buy books on whatever is "on top of" my head, and that changes from day to day, and I have very little willpower and get mad at myself but keep doing it.

My willpower is under threat after seeing some photos yesterday of a new edition of Howard Carter's The Tomb of Tutankhamun - Folio Society Edition. I've bought so many books recently that it's hard to justify buying one that costs close to that much (£75 - a lot of money!) but it looks absolutely stunning. I have two Folio books on Egypt already that I've yet to read though,
Egypt Revealed: Artist Travellers in an Antique Land by T.G.H. James and The Egyptians by Alan H. Gardiner.

I nearly took the train into London this morning to go to their shop to look at a copy and maybe buy it but have decided not to. I may crumble and buy it but not this year, maybe if I find a cheap secondhand copy or they have it in a sale…

…I will be strong. I 'will' resist… maybe!