Thursday, May 14, 2009

Booking Through Thursday - Gluttony


Mariel suggested this week’s question:

Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

See previous post Stockpiled! if you want pictorial proof of my book gluttony. I have been buying books at a careening clip ever since we paid off the house, but with my husband's contract expiring at the end of May--after receiving a one-month extension at the end of April--I am being confronted with the impossibility of continuing on as I have been. I'll need to read what I already own or can obtain from the library in the days to come.

Booking Through Thursday

8 comments:

  1. I can relate! I'm trying to get my book buying habit under control, but I keep rationalizing to myself that, as extravagances go, it's not such a bad one. Then again, I probably get as much pleasure from bringing home stacks of books from the library as from the bookstore, so that ought to help strengthen my economizing resolve.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I am quite certain that I will never be able to read all of the books I already own in my lifetime, and yet, I continue to buy. It's a sickness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will probably never make it through all the books I already own, and yet, new ones just keep making their way to my house!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am a wretched glutton who works in publishing, so there are galleys and review copies, plus a string of used booksellers on the street outside my office, where nothing is over $5 a pop. And I live with another glutton, although he's not quite as bad as I am. I suspect I have more books than I can read before I die, and I don't think I'm slowing down at all.

    But whatever. I don't buy a lot of shoes or anything.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous4:17 PM

    I believe every book has its moment with an individual reader, and that is why I have to keep buying them in case I have a whim for that particular book.

    Proud to be a glutton, but I try not to buy. I grab the ones that I'm most desperate to read and leave the rest on a list.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I suppose one has to think of priorities at some point of time. Last year when I moved house, I drastically gave away 2000+ books out of 4000+ to orphanages, old age homes, local libraries etc etc

    Even now I keep giving away. Yesterday I gave away 56 books to the tiny library in our apartment block.

    I know I still have too many books, read as well unread but now I am tryinng to be better organised.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When I share my books with friends or coworkers, I feel less guilty about the book-buying gluttony. The university library is my new target and it's less injurious to my budget.

    I wish I lived next door to the previous poster, lol!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, I'm Bibliophile and I'm another biblioholic. I have over 800 books I haven't read - not counting reference books and craft books. Lately, I have managed to slow down somewhat - I have mostly stopped buying books but I'm still getting about 5-6 books a month through BookMooch.

    ReplyDelete

A bang, not a whimper

  Two months into L.'s retirement, and I'm finished with the stockpiling of books. No more book purchases! Or at least, no purcha...