bookgazing | Ban the Buy!

You may remember that I went on a book buying ban as part of Chris’s Eco Reading Challenge. That ban finished at the beginning of September and I was so unbelievably excited to be able to buy books again, that perhaps a few of you will be surprised to hear I’m instituting another self-imposed ban almost straight away. Hear me out, before you start calling me crazy, or disowning me as a disloyal book lover.

Some really sensible people have been outlining their reasons for cutting back their own book buying recently and I’ve been listening. Their arguments make sense to me: I do already have plenty of books waiting to be read, I could use the extra cash to put in my house deposit fund (this month has been an especially bad month for saving, what with having to buy warm clothes for winter as well as breaking ending my book buying ban and having to pay out the stupid yearly membership fee to keep my marketing qualification valid) and I do want to try become more environmentally responsible by reducing the amount of virgin paper I use (this is related to a new project I’m thinking of participating in called ‘Living Your Five’ - more on this later).

So the ban is coming back, with a few exceptions to keep me on track. Like the other bloggers trying to keep down their book purchases I know I’m not going to be able to make it cold turkey, I need incentives to keep me going. So the exceptions:

I let myself have a final splurge last night before cutting myself off (more on this below).

I’m allowing myself to buy one new book after I finish fifteen books I currently own (on average it takes me three to four months to finish this many books).

I can buy books I decided to include in challenges I’ve already signed up for, if I don’t already have them. However I can only buy them if I’ve tried every other available source of books and come up empty.

I can get books from Bookmooch, but I cannot randomly browse for book there. I can only get books that I’m alerted about because they’re on my wishlist. What with themajority of listings coming from outside the UK and the time differences it’s quite rare I snag a book from my wishlist.

The one rule:

If I break down and buy something before I should I have to make some kind of charity donation related to reading (send on a copy of ‘Little Brother’ to a needy school, donate a Bookmooch point to charity etc). That almost makes me feel like I should break the ban though...

Now on to the splurge.

I was lazy last night and just used Amazon again, because it was late and I didn’t want to spend time on setting up a new account somewhere else, but my love for it has officially died now, partly because of the news about the way Amazon has changed its terms and the way this affect sites like Bookmooch, which use its data. I think I’ll try the Book Depository as my first new online source, because Waterstones keeps letting me order things and then tells me they are not in stock.

Anyway I picked up:

'Twenty Miles' – Care Hedley: women, team sports, friendship, hard hockey tackles and it all comes recommended by Chasing Ray

'The Folded Leaf' – William Maxwell: because Danielle is always helping to decrease my housing savings pot ;)

'Dance Night' – Dawn Powell: highly recommended by various Slaves of Golconda participants

'The Little Lady Agency and the Prince' – Hester Browne: to find out who wins Honey’s heart, the impossible Jonathan, the best friend or the new, mysterious prince

'Leviathan' – Philip Hoare: it cost £4 from my bookclub and I really admire an author who can sound so obsessed with one subject, without appearing creepy

'Throne of Jade' – Naomi Novick: Elena said she’d have kept this book in the basket when I mentioned kicking it out to save money on my last book buying spree, so I am going to use peer pressure as a very flimsy excuse for putting it in this time ;)

'Wolf Hall' – Hilary Mantel: I’m wary of the Booker, luckily there are bloggers weeding through the shortlist and after hearing happy excitement from Eve’s Alexandria about this one I decided to give it a go

'The Children’s Book' – A S Byatt: so far all I know of A S Byatt comes from the press. I’m not sure we’d get along, but I also think George Elliot would have despised me if we’d lived at the same time and that didn’t stop me from admiring chunks of ‘Daniel Deronda’. Eve’s Alexandria has a really great review of this book and the fact that it references the craft movement is enough to warm the heart of a girl from the historical home of UK glass production.

Is anyone else contemplating cutting down their book purchases, or are you all splurging? Share whichever way!