What is a reasonable book purchasing rule?
Is it when you have finished a book you can buy a new one? Or finished 2 or 3?
What about shelving space as a rule? If you have shelf space you can buy some? If you don’t have shelf space, you have to make it.
I used to have a rule that if I checked a book out more than 3 times from the library I could buy it because I was using it frequently for something.
I don’t buy fiction books, don’t read the mass-market entertainment writing really at all. The closest thing to that I have is contemporary political writing or what bookshops call Current Events. I also like buying books of essays, but the local library has me covered in that genre.
What about a rule based on how much you have to read? Let’s say you buy 5 books at a book sale, very good deals on all of them. Are you now bound to read all five before you buy another one?
Do digital books count here? What are the limits on non-paper books, or is that just not something to be concerned about?
I’m a Kindle user and I have a huge backlog of the 2.99 Kindle sale books that I might never make a dent in. I’m trying my best to do so in my spare time, but I find paper books to be a lot better for doing the work of writing.
Right now I'm in a book buying moratorium for a lot of reasons, mainly space. I'm trying to thin out my massive amount of books, only keeping those books that I use for reference or need for a project.
Often I will download a PDF of a book, from a library or a less than legal site sometimes and check it out before I will buy it. But many times this is the best way to test out a scholarly book. Inter-library loan is a fine thing that I think people should make more use of. I do recognize the convenience of the less than legal download sites.
Do I have too many books? This is the question to ask yourself. The begged question of "too many" is a rough one. This is going to be different for everyone.
The question that most people were asking during our national nightmare of "de-cluttering" was whether or not something brings you joy. I think I'd eliminate a lot of my books were that the rubric. They don't bring me joy because I am dependent on them in order to produce meaningful writing. This kind of dependency is never joyful, but what is joyful is the process:
1. I realize I need a cite from a particular book.
2. I stand up, and walk 3 to 5 steps to the relevant bookshelf.
3. I find the book, return to my desk, and leaf around in it for the cite.
There's nothing better than this - it requires no trip to the library whatsoever. A trip to the library is fun don't get me wrong but one wants to avoid distractions when you are writing away. A trip to the library can quickly become going out for lunch, stopping at the coffeehouse/bar, and other nonsense. When you are out, you are already out, so the barrier to these activities vanishes while the barrier to producing text never erodes.
For now, I will remain in no-buying mode and keep looking at my shelves in the hopes I can remove 3 to 5 books a week and take them to the reseller, the library donation bin, or something like that.